80 hrs from London to Istanbul by Sleeper Train

today i'm traveling by train for 80 hours from my home of london two and a half thousand miles across europe to istanbul following in the tracks of the original orient express join me as i cross nine countries over four days on my most ambitious trip to date involving sleeper trains for each of the three nights to some of the fastest trains on the planet and some not so fast ones of course over such a distance it's never going to be playing sailing or well railing come along on this adventure starting at london's historic saint pancras station on monday morning at 8am well hello there and welcome back to the channel where i'm going to be taking one of these trains behind me under the sea over to mainland europe so without any more to say let's head downstairs go check in and begin our journey all the way over to istanbul it might all look quite quiet and serene up here down there where i'm gonna go check in is a completely other story but thankfully i'm booked onto business class for this trip or well business premiere in contrast this is a lot less crowded with a separate security channel unfortunately this efficiency bottlenecks at passport control i'm technically entering france here whilst still in england this is so when i get to the other side there are no checks and i simply get straight off the train let's briefly check out the sanctuary of the business lounge for that obligatory caffeine hit and my first taste of the continent in form of a morning pastry just as i begin to wake up i'm told it's time to board so let's hot-foot it with the crowds up to the platform and get on this train that goes under the sea [Music] well finally almost made it to the very front of the train which is car 16 so without any more to say let's go and get on board [Music] as i stow my luggage in the overhead let's check out the seat mat of eurostar business premiere i've opted for the solo seat 11 right at the front what's not private it's more than adequate for this two-hour hop to paris [Music] as we go along on this journey i'll explain how much each segment costs this business class ticket set me back a cool 274 pounds now that's a lot of cash for the convenience to offset some of this pain i'm promptly served refreshing glass of champagne and some nuts as we glide through the english countryside i'm trying to comprehend that it will be four days before i can sleep in a proper bed again yep that's right i'm going to be constantly on the move until thursday and just like that we begin to head into the 50 kilometer long channel tunnel this link has been in place since its completion in 1994 and is arguably the quickest way commercially from england to france so quick in fact i dozed off and woke up in calais now on french soil lunch is served consisting of a coronation salad a chicken and quinoa something and some chocolate cake and just like that we roll into garden noor and i'm faced with my first major setback as i'm excitedly explaining how we're heading to munich for the euro sleeper service i get a notification through on my phone long story short my booked high speed tgv will arrive into munich too late to catch my night train to budapest oh with the whole trip in jeopardy i frantically look for another option after trawling forums and booking sites i managed to get one of the last tickets on an imminent departure to zurich i'll still need to work out how to get to budapest but at least this keeps me moving for now the tgv lira i've booked for zurich to parts from the other side of paris at guard de leon so let's grab the metro of course still within the rules of being by rail and head over there now [Music] well i have got here the train is now slightly delayed not the plan not the original plan at all but as i've explained things have changed and i've had to kind of well work out what to do so we're going on the tgv lira which is a high-speed rail service between france and switzerland and it needs to be we're behind schedule i've never been on a tgv before so this will take us all the way over to switzerland first class let's go to this light seating is over two levels with better views sought on the upper floor and arranged in a 1-2 config unfortunately due to booking one of the last tickets i'm in the aisle but hey at least i'm on the way somewhere [Music] i noticed there's high speed wi-fi on board and given i'm also rather peckish let's head to the dining car for a bike to eat and work out how to get to budapest tonight the dining cart offers a half decent selection of grab and go food sadly first class does not get anything inclusive here which is a shame given my last minute ticket set me back wait for it 180 euros yuck as i tuck into my early dinner let's have a think about our options here i've ascertained my original route from munich meets the zurich train departing this evening at salzburg if i can get on this train even if it's just to vienna we're in luck after trying multiple times i keep getting this error i wonder whether it's because it's so soon before we depart so i think my only option is to head to the ticket office when we get to zurich and try and work out a solution [Music] well hello from switzerland arrived in third country today now i've got to work out where i've got to go next i've got an appointment with the ticket office you have to register an appointment apparently because there's so much demand i'm hoping to get on one of these night trains tonight find out what happens next along with the other adventures on my way to istanbul after a quick word from today's video sponsor babble babble is my number one language app it uses award-winning tech with lessons designed by real language teachers scientifically proven to get you speaking in just three weeks gracias given that travel is very much back on the agenda babel should definitely be on your list in order to prepare you for your long-awaited summer adventure i use babel's short 10-minute interactive lessons daily to keep my language skills growing and what i love is that it's designed to prepare you for situations that you'll actually encounter in the real world learning practical conversations in your chosen language to use on your travels for example when i have some down time during my trips i'm able to grab my daily lessons and in this instance with a cup of turkish coffee for example esta estacion de trin of course practice does make perfect which is why i'll be continuing my daily lessons in preparation for my trip to south america babel can be used to learn a new language for work for travel or simply as a new hobby so do give babble a try and receive 65 off your subscription use my link down below to take you right to that discount thanks again babel for sponsoring today's video well i'm excited to say i did it i've managed to get onto the night jet sleeper train as far as vienna i've got the very last compartment but i've got it we're still not out the woods yet but it gets me much closer to my onward train from budapest tomorrow right let's grab some supplies and go get on board so there's me thinking i'd secure the bed and whilst this somewhat resembles one it's with a significant twist let me explain well welcome to my little sleeper room so this is what i think you could describe as a third class sleeper usually six people would fill this room but for me and thanks to the lovely lady at the zurich ticket office i've got the entire compartment to myself these apparently do fold flat so i will get some form of bed um this isn't what i imagined this evening but we'll roll with it this is part of the adventure my smile did get reduced somewhat when i found out upon departure that you don't actually get any bed linen in so how much do i pay for this room well 179 euros that's the price unfortunately i have to pay for one delayed train i'm missing my comfy ensuite bedroom i would have had from munich let's get ready for bed then there's a bathroom at each end of the carriage which is passable though not the cleanest there are no showers either at least i have my own pjs though freshly changed let's get my teeth brushed and then head over and get into bed we certainly do need it after today's ordeal thankfully the door does lock and the curtain goes kind of across the cabin not quite to convert the bed each seat is pushed down into a semi lay flat position and creates a kind of mattress with that i'm going to try and get some sleep i'll catch you all in the morning so it's like half one in the morning um i've had someone come and check my tickets which is just wild at this time of night someone trying to break into the room about someone's alarm going off the next day well good morning i can't say that was the best sleep of my life you'll have to excuse my bad mood in honesty i'm incredibly lucky to have somewhere to sleep as so many in the world don't even have that we're actually not far from vienna and i've just booked my onward connection to budapest things are looking up welcome to vienna austria uh we are straight on to hungary budapest kaletti platform 10 let's head there now well welcome on board funnily enough this hungarian first class day train appears to be equivalent to what i've just slept in you have to laugh at that anyway what's the damage for this three-hour ride to budapest it comes in at 80 euros which i feel is pretty expensive but again probably because i booked this just 30 minutes ago the train is pretty much deserted which suits me perfectly i can catch up on some of those lost z's and thanks to the eu you don't even notice the border between the two countries and there are no passport checks welcome to hungary specifically budapest it's me this trip is really well i say probably only about halfway still an awful lot more to cover i have around an hour before my next train here in budapest so let's head to the business lounge and grab a coffee it's a nice enough space to hang between trains and comfortably puts uk train lounges to shame right it's time to go and catch our train to romania and for quite the step back in time certainly feels like going back in time well hello welcome to yeah a pretty unique train this is certainly a little bit different to what we've been on so far after looking down at my ticket i realized there's an air-conditioned section without needing a second glance let's hot-foot it to the ac car this is much better yes it's dated but at least it's cool so this train is the cheapest of my travels at only 10 euros [Music] it should take us around four hours to reach arad in romania which incidentally is also in transylvania the home of dracula but i'm not here to see dracula in fact i'm catching a private sleeper train which i'm told has an ensuite shower my word i cannot wait for that in contrast i thought i'd check out the facilities on board this train it was absolutely filthy and thank goodness smell-o-vision isn't invented yet we continue to hurtle through the hungarian countryside and for the first time i can relax a bit i'm back on track there's no quick changes to make and i can actually enjoy myself in about three hours we'd reach the border town of loko shaza sorry that's horribly pronounced whilst both hungary and romania are in the eu romania are not a schengen country which means they still have a hard border the hungarian side is quick and we're trundling through no man's land in between the two countries in no time at all the same cannot be said about the romanian side to be fair it's partly due to changing the locomotive but this also meant the air con switch is off therefore i've decided to head out for some fresh air when notified there's a 15 minute delay but thankfully i have a good two hour buffer before my next train finally the romanian loco arrives so i get back on board and to my delight the air conditioning has returned and so has my passport next stop arid transylvania [Music] well that caught me by uh by surprise because i was minding my own business just watching uh some tick tock and then realized oh crap we're at arid so anyway welcome to arid station here in romania now it is time to basically get like get some food gotta sort of get some supplies on because we're on our next train in well about two hours time well i had a great time exploring arid albeit only a small fraction of the city i saw the holy trinity cathedral an antique steam train even saw some soviet mosaics bald and bankrupt would be having a field day here though i was most happy to find a pizzeria for some warm comfort food after having very little in the last 36 hours with that let's head back into the station and check out this private train taking us over to the capital bucharest let's go and find platform one which i think is just through here this is the self-proclaimed best train in romania and you can see why the astra trans patek featuring a mix of sleeper cars seating and luxury carriages i'm happy to say we're in the best room on board tonight this train actually goes all the way to constanta on the black sea perhaps i need to try this another day [Music] oh wow welcome this is certainly nicer than i had to deal with last night um let me get myself settled in and i'll show you all around i'm just so excited to have a proper bed with sheets tonight you've no idea how much is this indulgence you rightly asked at 200 remaining lou it's for sure the best bargain of this entire trip as we glide out of arid let me fill you in on our route this evening at roughly 400 miles it should take us 11 or so hours over to bucharest as this is such a unique train i'll briefly show you the other classes of travel first up in the adjacent carriage is the second class sleeper these are not too dissimilar to mine but are not ensuite next up the couchette which would be ideal for a family on a budget lastly coach class not that i'd be one for sitting overnight but at one us dollar a night i'm sure there'd be some savvy takers with the sun setting let's take a look around my luxury sleeper room naturally it's air-conditioned and fully adjustable there are also two quite oddly placed power outlets by the window you can transform this single sleeper room into two berths by popping this bed down they were both made up when i got in but i've pushed this back up to enjoy the additional space granted i have to say this is a lot more comfortable than what i was doing last night in that room it just wasn't quite i should hopefully be able to actually get some sleep tonight the first port of call is to go and get a shower because i'm out of shower and been rushing around all the way from the uk it is time to do so no need to say that twice let's boot the tim's off and head straight into my ensuite for a warm shower crikey i'm excited the ensuite boasts a toilet and a red sink setup but the shower is all i care about now unfortunately the pressure is among the worst i've had on board a train being in there for long enough it worked absolutely fine soap is also provided thankfully wow i can honestly say i feel a million bucks i might not look it but i feel so much better you can't be having a shower when you've been traveling like i have with that i think it's time to get into bed so let's get those teeth brushed and straight to sleep there's a proper duvet and fluffy pillow provided yeah it's not five-star luxury but it's certainly very comfortable i'm understandably out like a light night all the next day well good morning i feel like a totally new man right anyway let's see what the day has in store for us and what's out of the window [Music] now unfortunately no breakfast is provided but i still do have one thing on my mind another shower with the final 17 hour train journey coming up in a few hours with no shower facilities i'm certainly going to take advantage of having another one this morning that is much better freshness t-shirt on get some fresh socks on as well new man sadly i have yet another concern pop up i realize we're running close to two hours behind schedule but i only have a three hour buffer for my next train the issue is that my reserve tickets still need to be collected and the queues at the moment at stations are often in excess of one hour the race is on welcome to bucharest we have finally made it now i'm going to go and sort out tickets because the next stop is turkey [Music] it's looking an awful lot quieter than i anticipated after days of seeing queues out the door of ticketing offices around europe i'm so relieved to find literally not a soul waiting in the queue for the international ticket office crises averted now i can take it easy i have a full hour before the train departs there's time for allegedly starbucks for that necessary caffeine hit and to stock up on supplies as this 17-hour train has no catering facilities at all finally it's time to head to platform 2. confusingly this state's sophia and there's good reason for this the turkish segment of this train is only one carriage we'll be split from this train when we reach bulgaria and connect to another train on the way to the turkish border to my surprise the train arrives promptly and sure enough a soul turkish sleeper carriage glides into the platform i have to say this is perhaps the part of the journey i'm most looking forward to it's also the longest section of the trip with two hard border crossings to contend with well here we go as i said just this uh couchette carriage here is the only part that is going to istanbul let's go get on forward [Music] well welcome welcome to my uh little couchette or at least it's for a full bath couchette but i've booked the whole thing so um let me get settled in and i'll show you all around we're in here for 17 hours i'm hoping that there is some air conditioning because currently there isn't but i'm assuming that's because the loco is off so fingers crossed that is the case oh how wrong i was it's not working more on that in a minute as we trundle out of bucharest station let's talk costs what did this ticket cost me well i bought out the whole cabin as i value my privacy on trips like these [Music] just been informed of the unfortunate situation that the air conditioning is not working apparently it will work when we're in bulgaria i really hope so because it is it is warm [Music] so let's take a look around my couchette ordinarily it's for four people but i feel that would be pretty uncomfortable with three strangers you'd certainly get to know them after 17 hours in here there's some storage space at the top of the cabin which was more than enough for me though probably a little tight if you've got four of you there's also a powerpoint which well isn't working at the moment due to the unfortunate lack of any electricity now with no power we have to use the bulgarian carriage toilet it's um perhaps the worst toilet i've ever been into ever period the less i have to think about that the better let's crack open my supplies then first up some sandpay to attempt to rehydrate through this heat thankfully with the window ajar the breeze made it quite pleasant whilst we're moving so i opted to take a nap right i make it lunch time what have i bought well options are quite limited and as i can't read romanian as anyone's guess what i've ended up with i believe this is kind of a chicken gyros it was spicy it had fries inside but was dry and just made me feel incredibly thirsty oh well at least it was filling it's not long until we reach the romanian bulgarian border and have a hard one as both are non-schengen it's unfortunately become a sauna in here with no through breeze coming in hopefully ac is just another baller crossing away so i thought i would uh pop outside and try and get a little bit of fresh air because it's so warm inside i've been told that once we cross over the border into bulgaria that the uh the new loco pulling the train apparently will sort the electricity problem that we've got at the minute i even made a new friend our turkish conductor on board we spoke a little through google translate and both agreed it was too hot with that and stamped out of one country we can proceed across the danube to bulgaria now this gets pretty interesting as we're crossing the danube bridge which is europe's longest steel bridge at 7 000 metres long a few minutes later we arrive at the bulgarian border and i wait in anticipation to hear whether the ac issue will be sorted another 14 hours of this would be absolute hell [Music] well i have great news one is i've got my passport back so officially i've entered bulgaria but more pertinent probably not because it's actually quite important is the fact that the air conditioning is now working which i'm super relieved about right we're back on the move again though only briefly as we come to another prolonged stop at gorner orivosta it seems the train is being reshuffled but also means the ac is switched off once more so i'm left with one option so it turns out we've got quite a bit of time here at the station so i thought i'd go and investigate what it's like in this random bulgarian town putting an awful lot of trust in google translate i just spoke with our turkish conductor explaining hey can i go for five minutes so apparently we've got like 45 minutes here but yeah i still have my doubts we'll make this a brief excursion now to go on the hunt for some refreshments i can't say downtown gorner or evoster looks like there's much going on well i've got to be honest i struck gold cold beer as you can see the new loco has now been attached and this means we should have ac again or at least when we get on the move in just a second that will go perfectly with my picnic dinner which i'll be rustling up in just a moment i think i can feel the air conditioning is about to come back on so i get that window closed i mean as far as beers go a sticker tastes right right then as alluded to dinner time stuff some fresh bread some cheese salami and some salad let's see what we can make well given that it's been hot in this cabin all day i'm actually rather concerned that the heat may have turned this cheese and meat thankfully as i edit this i can confirm it was okay as we meander through the bulgarian countryside i think it's time to check out the loo now the electricity makes it operational at the rear there's a standard toilet which is kept clean enough though as i read online beforehand thankfully it's often toilet paperless so make sure you bring your own back in my cabin i'm going to try and get some rest we have two lengthy border crossings coming up at around midnight so i'd like to get some rest beforehand i've decided to sleep on the upper bunk for once i'll need this ladder for access [Music] the bunk retracts at the pull of a lever it looks pretty inviting now that the couchette is cool from the ac and this fresh linen on the bed do let me know though would you sleep up here [Music] right let's get those tims off and head up into my bunk getting up here is precarious to say the least but once you're up here it's stable and surprisingly really comfy there's no curtain or blind provided so being up here is marginally darker which will be useful for the early 5am sunrise i'm woken all of a sudden by shouting border force officials possibly not the most reassuring thing to be woken up by this is certainly quite an intimidating border for some reason our tickets are checked yet again by the conductor i find this most strange but hey we then glide across no man's land past the eu and bulgarian flags and to a hard stop at the turkish border everyone has to get off here with all of your luggage well this is far too early in the morning to be up sorting these formalities out it's organized chaos with cues going in for passport checks merging with the cues to x-ray your bags somehow it's all done within around 45 minutes and we're allowed back on the train [Music] back on board time to get myself settled back in it's around i think at my best estimate six or seven hours over to um over to istanbul i'm gonna try and get some proper rest now i read online apparently they come by and check your ticket again so uh i'm just gonna be conscious of that and then finally i'll be able to get some sleep but this is not a relaxing end to the trip the next day well good morning that was all of a sudden um literally dude came to get my bedding i had no choice wow um certainly a strange way to wake up having a turkish gentleman demand your bedding bag anyway we're around an hour or so out of istanbul so all that remains is for me to crack into my breakfast which i bought back in romania the european staple a seven day croissant it hits the spot but it's certainly nothing special [Music] [Music] well it's with great pleasure that i welcome you to istanbul what an incredible journey this has been across the entirety of europe anyway do let me know what you think down in the comments below and i'll catch you all again next week [Music]

Channel: Trek Trendy

Views: 1,590,143

Keywords: sleeper train, train from london to istanbul, 80 hours on a train, sleeper train across europe, europe sleeper train, long distance train

Id: Bam_hdkfmSQ

Length: 29min 12sec (1752 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 10 2022