The overnight train from the Bulgarian capital to the Turkish city that straddles the Bosphorus is a fitting final leg on a trans-European rail trip.
“No dining car,” says Vasil, vaping through a cloud that smells of strawberries. A paralegal from Plovdiv, he’s been eavesdropping on my chat with the barman at One More Bar, in Sofia, about the sleeper service to Istanbul, the last leg of a journey that had begun several days earlier at London’s St Pancras station. My shoulders drop: the dining car is the beating heart of a night train. It’s where strangers become friends, food tells a story and the air is thick with soupy aromas and laughter.
Half an hour before the 6:40pm departure, we lurk on the platform among passengers carrying bottled water, breadsticks and children. The Sofia-Istanbul Express groans into the station, on each window a crescent and star . Hands are clasped to loved ones’ faces, tears quietly wiped with sleeves and bags heaved up the steps. Passengers glance into one another’s compartments to gauge which ones look best.
On a final toilet trip before bed, I chat to Grace and Alex from Munich, who have made a no-fly pact for a year, and Murat, a construction site manager from Istanbul. Having found work in Romania two years previously, he’s on his biannual journey home. “Normally I fly home but this time I thought it will be good to try the journey by train,” he says.
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