Orient Express – The famous terminal station in Istanbul

A long-distance passenger train service created in 1883 by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. The Orient Express was a showcase of luxury and comfort at a time when travelling was still rough.

Sirkeci Terminal was completed in 1873. Rebuilt in 1890 by the Oriental Railway as the eastern terminus of the world-famous Orient Express, Sirkeci Terminal has become a symbol of the city / Image: unknown, via reddit.com

The route and rolling stock of the Orient Express changed many times. The original Orient Express was simply a normal international railway service, the name became synonymous with intrigue and luxury travel. The two city names most prominently associated with the Orient Express are Paris and Constantinople (Istanbul).

**The first Orient Express in 1883 / Image: via wikipedia.org**

The original route, which first ran on October 4, 1883, departed from Gare de l’Est in Paris, France, with farewell music from Mozart’s Turkish March. The train was a project of Belgian businessman Georges Nagelmackers. The route passed through Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Ulm, and Munich in Germany, Vienna in Austria, Budapest in Hungary, Bucharest in Romania, Rousse and Varna in Bulgaria, ending in Sirkeci. The travel took 80 hours for the 3,094 kilometers. In 1977, the Orient Express stopped serving Istanbul.