I woke up somewhere beyond Cappadocia, as bleary-eyed passengers poured the first cay (Turkish tea) of the day and snow melted on the Euphrates. Approximately 15 hours into my journey on the Eastern Express (Dogu Ekspresi), my aching back regretted my budget-conscious decision to forgo a sleeper cabin in favour of a humble reclining chair.
Stretching some 807 miles from Ankara, the brutalist Turkish capital, eastward to the little-visited frontier city of Kars, the Eastern Express cuts through the Anatolian plains like a blunt knife. Careering through gorges and rambling purposefully on in the shadow of snow-capped mountains, the journey takes 28 hours in one stretch (if it’s on time). But with a ticket costing as little as £10, this budget take on the Orient Express is an absolute steal.
My journey began not in Ankara, but in Istanbul, where I’d hopped on a high-speed train after flying in on a Wizz Air flight from London. I’d scored a business-class seat on that train for…
