If you ask how and where this journey came about, we can actually say this friend’s video was the source of inspiration. Then, after about 5 hours of research on what it’s like and how to do it, we formed a team and set off. And this journey was going to be another adventure for us. Initially, saying what should we do, how should we go, let the finals end, let the make-up exams end, let it be before the internships, I headed towards Emres in Eskişehir on the 24th. From there, we moved to Ankara on the 25th, and then on the evening of the 25th at 6 PM, we found ourselves boarding the Ankara-Kars “Eastern Express” (Doğu Ekspresi). But before this, we had our first iftar (fast-breaking meal) at Emres in Eskişehir, and after spending the night there, we went from Eskişehir to Ankara by high-speed train at 11 AM.
After spending about 5 hours in Ankara, it was time for the Eastern Express journey. When we first boarded, the thing we were most curious about was whether there was air conditioning in the room in this heat. To be honest, I was expecting older rooms and an older structure. But the inside turned out to be pretty good. There was AC. The beds were comfortable, and in the couchette/sleeper section, everyone was given personal sheets, etc. By the way, I forgot to mention: we had done a good grocery shopping before boarding the train. Since the time we went coincided with Ramadan, we had to take care of the iftar and sahur (pre-dawn meal) meals too. We bought a lot of things, but almost all of it was finished. If you ask what we bought: Salami, cream cheese, olives, bread, biscuits, personal water for everyone, and a 5-liter water jug. Besides that, 2.5 liters of iced tea for everyone. Returning to the train… The train was really full on the way there. And there were people traveling in regular seats. May God help them; 25 hours is unbearable in that section. Also, there was a more comfortable section than ours: 2-person only sleeper cabins. Along with being for 2 people, their beds are bigger than ours, they have their own private sinks, tables, and mini-fridges. That fridge thing is actually a very attractive feature. But since the ACs were working non-stop and the food shelf was in the same place as the AC, it kept the drinks and food protected.
Then, let the journey begin. We immediately switched to pajamas. We had boarded at 6 PM, and iftar was going to be about 2.5 hours later. Until then, we sat a bit, talked, discussed what we would do, what we liked, researched the train, and before we knew it, it was iftar time, and we ate our meals nicely. After that, saying let’s shoot a video and stuff, we were walking from here to there. Kırıkkale, Kayseri, Sivas, Erzurum… we would soon find ourselves in Kars, but it stopped at many stations, not just the main stations of these provinces. The sleep we got at night was probably 3-4 hours at most. Then there was the sunrise. How could we miss it, right? I mean, there are no landscapes like this. The beautiful part of going on a journey is actually seeing such landscapes. And all the people you meet are a bonus, of course.
I had brought a book with me for the journey in case I had free time, but we had no free time left. Let’s do this, let’s do that, let’s sit and play rock-paper-scissors, eat, chat, shoot videos… before we knew it, 25 hours had really flown by. And we were in Kars. By the way, right before getting off the train, our compartment had somewhat emptied out before reaching Kars. We also had the chance to chat a bit with the attendant brother of our compartment. He gave us some tips, like how to get to the teacher’s guesthouse (öğretmenevi), which vehicle to take to the Ani Ruins. Those tips turned out to be really good, honestly.
Afterwards, we turned on our GPS and went to the teacher’s guesthouse. After registering with our student ID cards, we immediately went out to find a place for iftar. Normally, we were looking for a place called Kaz Evi (Goose House), but when we went, they had hung up a sign saying ‘we moved.’ Then, while walking on the road, we saw a place called Hanımeli Ev Yemekleri (Hanımeli Home Cooking)—not exactly a restaurant vibe, but more like a warm home atmosphere. The auntie who owned the place and her daughter treated us very well anyway. The daughter of the auntie who brought our food—we couldn’t ask for her name, but she was a lady around our older sister’s age. Our sister listed what we were going to eat and what we should eat, we said okay to all of them, she brought a plate of every dish, and this way we got to taste all of them. Saying eat from this, eat from that, we ate quite a lot, though. By the way, the name of one soup stuck in my mind, and the name of something resembling mantı (dumpling) called hengel. Man, there is no such mantı; that thinness, the sauce on it… I mean, I don’t know, it might be the most delicious mantı I’ve ever eaten in my life. It was like our triangular mantıs in Sivas, but whatever they did, it was much better. The soup was Ayran Aşı. As for the other dishes, they cooked lamb meat in a stone bowl for one of them, I don’t remember its name, and there was something like a ball with meat coming out of it. I don’t remember its name either. But everything was very beautiful. If you want to go, it was opposite the General Directorate of Security, I think, I’m not exactly sure but it was something like that. Also, the meals were over. We moved to the table outside, and our desserts and stuff arrived. Our teas arrived. Man, what great times those were 😀
Afterwards, it was time to travel again, and we returned to the teacher’s guesthouse. We took nice showers. The rooms in the guesthouse are for 3 people, and honestly, there is no difference from a hotel. You have a television, bath towels, personal shampoo, and soap. A wardrobe, everything was complete. I can honestly say it was the nicest place we could stay for that money. The next day, the Ani Ruins were next, also known as Ani of the Forty Gates. Going by the saying ‘the early bird gets the worm,’ we were on our feet at 7:30 AM. By the way, when we woke up for sahur at night, the teacher’s guesthouse provided our meal. They also called to wake us up for sahur, which was pretty great. Before we checked in, they had asked whether we wanted sahur or breakfast. Back to the Ani Ruins. Normally, we said let’s rent a car, but they asked for 150 TL. And there was also the part of filling it with gas. Then we went to the taxi stand and started chatting with our taxi driver uncle. We said we are going to the Ani Ruins and will stay there for about 3 hours, how much would you charge, uncle? Our uncle said 150. Of course, bargaining is a sunnah (tradition). When we asked the uncle to give us a discount, he said, ‘Let me take 15 TL less from you.’ If I remember correctly, our uncle was 81 years old, but he was going strong (maşallah). His father was from Azerbaijan and his mother from Kars. He normally worked at the Highways Department and retired from there. After retirement, he started working at the taxi stand from the morning prayer until noon. We chatted a lot on the way. When we arrived at the Ani Ruins, we paid 8 TL as an entrance fee and started our tour. Let me state from the beginning, if you are going to walk around shooting videos and stuff like us, time is not enough. The area is quite large. You walk and walk, and it never ends. At the end of three hours, we turned into sunburnt people on the beach. I had become completely red. Honestly, I hadn’t calculated this at all. But very beautiful videos came out, and we had a lot of fun 😀 By the way, let me drop a short note. The Russian Outpost was guarding the Armenian border. We heard this while the Turkish soldiers there were talking. It seemed interesting. Then, when we were done with the Ani Ruins, we ran back to our taxi; we were 15-20 minutes late, but thankfully our uncle didn’t mind at all and said, ‘It’s not important children, it’s okay, nothing happens.’ Our uncle was very nice, as you can see. Find that uncle; it never occurred to us to ask his name, but somehow find him. He was a very well-intentioned, sweet old uncle 😀 He chats nicely too.
When we returned to the teacher’s guesthouse, we directly took our showers again and rolled into our beds. After shooting so much under that heat and traveling that much distance, plus fasting, my throat was completely dry, as you can imagine, but this was a different experience too. By the way, the distance between Kars and the Ani Ruins is 40-45 km. Keep in mind, the road takes 30-40 minutes. About 1 hour round trip. Afterwards, we woke up and saw it was getting to 8 o’clock; of course, it didn’t cross our minds that iftar opens 1 hour earlier in Kars. We looked at the iftar time, and there were 15-20 minutes left. We had neither food nor drinks. We went out, had 6 doners made, and came back. After eating our meal, we sat and reviewed the videos a bit. I actually started this very article I’m writing now over there. Then, our return journey the next day came to our minds; we had our train at 8 AM, and saying neither a supermarket nor a grocery store would be open at that hour, we went to the markets there around 11 PM and prepared our provisions for the way back. Because we had one iftar and one sahur ahead of us on the road. We slept more on the way back compared to our arrival. A lot of fatigue had built up in us. Afterwards, we finally arrived in Ankara. After spending some more time in Ankara, our Eskişehir and Istanbul High-Speed Train times had arrived. Emre and İsmail got off when they reached Eskişehir. I continued all the way to Istanbul. But let me tell you, I slept so hard on the way. After that, well, I normally live on the European side. The high-speed train ends in Pendik. So I start walking to the Kartal Metro. Actually, a bus line named KM20 goes from that area to the Kartal Metro, but after waiting quite a bit and the bus not coming, I started walking; after a 40-minute walk, from the Kartal Metro to Ayrılık Çeşmesi, and from there by Marmaray, I reached the European side.
When I got home, it had been 10-15 minutes since the evening adhan (call to prayer) was recited. And thus, we came to the end of another journey. Let me say a few more things. Since there were three of us, we had bought the 4th bed just in case. That’s why our trip there was comfortable. Same for our return. The sister at the place we ate had also offered us goose meat so we could taste it. On the house. We learned that shooting video in the Ankara Metro is forbidden, and similarly, I don’t remember the name of the mall, but shooting video was forbidden there too. We learned a lot of things. Ankara is very hot. The Eastern Express can be done in the summer, don’t stress too much, it’s nice. If we had this much fun while fasting, if you stock up on your food, it will be super. There is a dining section on the train, but keep in mind that it’s expensive. While a 3-pack of Çizi crackers we bought was 2.75, a single one was 2.75 there. I liked the lamb meat a lot. 700 thousand people used to live in the Ani Ruins in the past. That seemed very interesting too. On the way back, we met a foreign friend. He came to Turkey from Canada. He was touring Turkey with his friends. He came all the way from Canada to Kars. While we don’t even go to the cities right next to us, the guy covered a lot of ground. It was legendary, and they were continuing to travel.
A question for you: “Who knows better? The one who travels a lot, or the one who reads a lot?”. Alright, stay well, may God bless you 🙂
