Going East by train (1/2)

a train journey from Ankara to Kars on the Armenian border

Sign of the times, train journeys have become fashionable in Türkiye too. Following the success of its first upmarket train service to the East, the Turkish train company, TCDD, is multiplying offers anywhere there is a track to be exploited. These train tickets are notoriously difficult to get. Where two years ago they could still be purchased on the company’s website, they have now been monopolised by travel agents who purchase the lot ahead and resell them to tourists at an inflated price of a minimum of 500 euros a ticket. And for that, I hear that the service is not exceptional. Travellers get their own double cabin, but since there is no other common space apart from the regular bar found in other trains, they have to spend the duration of the trip enclosed in the cabin, I’m told. The main benefit of taking that train is that it stops for a few hours in places of cultural interest, so it is a journey in itself. In winter, the landscape is all the more special for being covered in snow all the way. And that’s not it: the train follows the course of the legendary Euphrates river, which takes its source in the Armenian highlands and flows south-west into Syria. Quite a promise, especially for people like myself who suffer from FOMO.

A secondary train stop between Sivas and Erzurum ©Photo: Dominique Magada

Travelling with my husband and son, I figured out a way to take the journey without the stress and the high expense of trying to buy tickets on the touristic train. It was simple: I bought tickets for the regular Eastern train service, the Dogu Ekspress, which cost 500 Turkish Lira each (10 euros) as opposed to 500 Euros. But that train journey is long (over 30 hours), and I didn’t want to impose it in one go on my teenage son. The solution was to break the journey with an overnight stay in Sivas and one in Erzurum before reaching the city of Kars, our final destination on the Armenian border. The former were both important stops on the old Silk Road and worth a visit. That worked well. We took the new fast train, YHT, from Ankara to Sivas (2h40), and stopped there for an afternoon and a night. We had more than enough time to visit the city’s famous medresse, walk around the bazar and the old centre, and we even found a café open all day during Ramadan.

Ramadan food: dates and bread to break the fast ©Photo: Dominique Magada

Sivas is known as a “cursed city” as one of my Turkish friends in Ankara told me. Since the times of the Silk road, it had been an active trading centre, attracting Armenian merchants and craftsmen who contributed to the city’s prosperity. During the Ottoman empire, at least a third of its population was Armenian and Christian. That until the 1915 genocide when they were decimated and Sivas lost its shine. Towards the end of the same century, Sivas was the seat of another tragedy. On 2 July 1993, 37 participants to an Alevi cultural and literary festival held in the Madimak hotel, were killed. The hotel had been set on fire by demonstrators who, knowing he was there, hunted the writer Aziz Nesin for having translated Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses. The writer escaped but many other people died. It is now known as the Sivas massacre.

Today, Sivas comes across as a soulless not to say sad city for the first time visitor. Apart from the remaining two medresse, of which the well-preserved Gök medresse is the most impressive, there isn’t much to see. One gets bored quickly circling around the food market, the high street and the main square where the Buruciye medresse, the other site of interest, is located. The beauty of that medresse is a little overcast by the souvenirs shops and cafés that have sprawled into its courtyard. Attempts are being made to attract more tourists but that remains a challenge considering the wealth of places to visit in Turkiye. If I had to prioritise, I would not put Sivas on top of my list, or I would consider it as a stopover to visit the Great Mosque and hospital in nearby Divrigi (two hours away), a Unesco world heritage site. The new fast train that connects Sivas to the capital, Ankara, in less than 3 hours, may improve the flow of visitors, however, it is primarily geared at business development. With Istanbul at risk of a serious earthquake, many businesses are being relocated to heads of provinces around the country, such as Sivas, Konya, Eskisehir and others.

The 13th century Gök Medresse in Sivas, ©Photo: Dominique Magada

The next morning, we caught the 05:05 Dogu Ekspress to Erzurum, the longest but most spectacular leg of the journey, lasting all day. The train slides through snow-covered fields, rocky valleys and ravines until it crosses the Euphrates and follows its course. A feast for the eyes and the very definition of slow travel. The train didn’t go faster than 50km/h, it was the most conducive to day-dreaming, looking through the window at the white immensity that surrounded us. Our carriage, an open one with rows of seats (as opposed to night cabins) was practically empty, making our journey particularly comfortable. People travel less during Ramadan or prefer to use faster coaches.

We arrived at Erzurum at around 6pm, two hours later than scheduled. The train stopped often and got stuck for a while a few kilometres outside the city. It wouldn’t have been an issue outside Ramadan times. But we arrived just before Iftar, the breaking of the fast, and the city had emptied itself as people rushed to take their dinner. Erzurum, another historic stop on the old Silk Road and now a city of nearly half a million people, is known to be a conservative city where Ramadan is practised without infringement. Being at the crossroad of many empires, it has a long history of being fought over. It belonged in turn to the Roman Empire, Great Armenia, the Arabic Caliphates, the Seljuk rulers, the Ottoman empire and briefly to Georgia. Like Sivas, it had a thriving Armenian population of about 40,000 people before the genocide. At the end of WW1, it was reduced to only 200 people and all the Armenian churches and cultural institutions were destroyed.

We could not find a taxi to take us to our hotel. We could not walk there either. It was a few kilometres outside of town, closer to the city’s ski resort, as we later found out. To add to it the city was covered in snow, and transport had come to a standstill. So there we were, the three of us, our bags next to us, our feet deep in snow, waiting in front of an empty taxi rank in the slim hope of finding one at this late hour. By chance, a young man seeing us helpless and at a loss, stopped to help us. He spoke good English and phoned a taxi for us. “You’ll have to wait half an hour, they’re having dinner”, he told us. Eventually, the taxi he ordered arrived earlier than expected and half an hour later, we were already in the hotel.

Braving the snow to visit the Three Kümbet (tombs) in Erzurum ©Photos: Dominique Magada

The setting of Erzurum was a surprise. The city, located at an altitude of about 1,800 metres, is covered in pine trees and surrounded by mountains. I hadn’t seen so many trees in a city centre in a long time. I was charmed. It is also a known place for skiing with an extensive resort only 10 minutes away by car. On the way to our hotel, we drove past a ski jump, its steepness was impressive. We later tried to go back to the city centre for dinner, but all the restaurants were already closed. They only opened for an hour in the evening for Iftar, and we had to content ourselves with the bland hotel buffet.

We had until 2pm the next day to visit the city’s cultural landmarks, mainly from Seljuk times, and that gave us enough time as they are all concentrated in one area. We visited the Yakutiye Medresse, the only remaining example of a medresse with a fully covered courtyard, the Çifte Minareli Medresse (double Minaret), known for its twin towers and intricately carved gate, and the famous Uç Kümbetler, the three tombs, a breathtaking sight with the combination of snow and sunshine. According to historic maps of his journeys, Marco Polo had stopped in these cities on his way to Asia.

MAP: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/10041/map-of-marco-polos-travels-1271---1295/

Wanting to avoid another endless train journey, we took a minibus to Kars in the afternoon which took only three hours (half the time of the train). It was another insight into the country and region. People asked to stop where it was convenient for them as opposed to a set bus stop, and were constantly uploading and downloading bags and boxes.

to be continued…….

For a video account of the trip, check my Instagram account: @mama_a_roma