After a very long train journey (more of this here), we arrived into Erzurum in 04:30 and we were ready to walk to the hotel. It wasn’t as cold as we had expected and we did consider getting a taxi, but there weren’t any.
We decided that Jonathan would lead the taxi search and if that failed, which it did, then I’d navigate us to the hotel.
Apologies that it’s blurry, but I was a little distracted with navigation and wondering if I should contact someone about not having had access to the Internet for 36 hours.
I have an inability to walk on ice, so I lingered behind faffing about whilst calling out the directions to Jonathan, the intrepid explorer.
We approached the hotel and it looked dark inside, which wasn’t surprising given that it was 04:45. Jonathan and I were very pleased to discover that the main door was open and after just thirty seconds, a chirpy and helpful staff member came down to check us in. We did have a back-up hotel option, but it was a considerable relief that we could check into our rooms and try and get some sleep. And I quickly spent an hour on the Internet to calm my nerves.
After a significant delay, we were off again….. This is the railway station at Bostankaya, which is only a small village but has a nice transportation arrangement. Regardless of whether it was on the timetable, we tended to stop at every station en route before a staff member gave us the go ahead to continue.
The views were beautiful along this stretch of the route, although I was working out that an arrival time of midnight was now too optimistic, it was looking more like 01:30 and that felt sub-optimal. Especially as the initial arrival time was 16:00.
It was something of a surprise that there was actually any rail service in operation, the snow was over two feet deep here.
At 17:10, we rolled into New Kangal railway station which opened in 2012.
And at 17:35, the train arrived into Çetinkaya railway station, the last one of the journey that we would see in daylight.
As it was getting dark and there was nothing to look at out of the window, Jonathan and I went to the buffet car.
This is Bağıştaş railway station and at some time in the future, it would be nice to visit these locations to explore them. It was now 21:00 and it was evident that we wouldn’t be in before 02:00, but Jonathan and I thought that was reasonable and just hoped for no more delay. In retrospect, that was aspirational.
Another delay.
Excuse the poor quality photo, but at 22:07 we arrive at Kemah, the site of atrocities where thousands of Armenians were murdered during the First World War.
Arriving into Tanyari railway station at midnight, so we had now been on the train for 30 hours. Without Internet.
A cross between a dog and a polar bear.
Into Aşkale railway station for 02:30 and the train decided it would stop here for thirty minutes. This didn’t surprise and delight me.
Ilica railway station at 03:55, but we were getting there….
At 04:25, we arrived, over 12 hours later. We were safely in Erzurum and now just had to hope that we could get into our hotel.
It was a delight to be in Erzurum, as my loyal readers won’t be surprised to hear after these three blog posts….. I did enjoy the railway journey, but would have enjoyed it a lot more if I had worked out data on my phone in advance or got an e-sim. Either way, it had been a proper adventure. Videos and the like will follow…
So, here we are at 07:00 in the morning arriving safely into Sivas and all was on track (I use that pun too many times) with our journey. There was a lot of snow and we were just a little behind schedule, but we still expected to arrive at not much later than 16:00 on a journey that was scheduled to take just over 22 hours.
08:11 and I wondered what was happening….. We had remained in some stations for a while, so this didn’t feel entirely abnormal.
10:19 and I thought I’d get off the train and not much seemed to be happening.
If Jonathan and I had known that we’d be here for hours, we’d have likely gone and explored the town a little. To be fair, I’m not sure that anyone knew what was happening and we just had to assume that the track was snowed up ahead. There weren’t any announcements on board and no track display information boards, so we couldn’t really work out what was happening.
We’d now been here for three hours and I was starting to wonder what time we’d be arriving into Erzurum.
At 11:02 they provided us with a free snack and drink. I’m easily bribed by food and so this made me feel more positive towards the rail network.
Then, there was lots and lots of nothing. I hardly complained about the lack of Internet and I just sat there wondering how much therapy I’d need after this 36 hours without online access. At 14:26 there was some excitement, the train horn sounded and the train went back about two metres. Then, that was that.
Then at 14:53 the train horn was sounded again and staff started blowing whistles, it looked like we were ready to go. And, six minutes later, the train started moving after eight hours sitting on the train at the platform.
Shortly after, the crew arrived with free kebabs and drinks that they had secured at the station. This pleased me.
The snowy weather that the train encountered for most of the journey, but particularly the second half.
Free food and drink secured.
The doner kebab was delicious.
Anyway, we were now set and I worked out that we’d be arriving at around midnight into Erzerum and our hotel. Whether or not they had a 24 hour reception we weren’t entirely sure, but I thought that midnight would be OK. Obviously though the arrangement wasn’t that easy, but more in the next post….
