Travelling by train allows one to see the change of the land unravel itself, to traverse parts of a country that would normally remain unvisited, and to meet people for whom the option of air-travel is hors de prix.
During the summer of 2008 I left Paris with a train ticket to Venice, Italy. From there I travelled on to Belgrade, and to Istanbul. After securing an Iranian visa in Istanbul, I boarded the once-a-week, three-day Trans-Asia Express, which links Europe to the Middle East: Istanbul to Tehran.
During the summer of 2008 I left Paris with a train ticket to Venice, Italy. From there I travelled on to Belgrade, and to Istanbul. After securing an Iranian visa in Istanbul, I boarded the once-a-week, three-day Trans-Asia Express, which links Europe to the Middle East: Istanbul to Tehran.
The first half of the trip is a Turkish train from Istanbul to Tatvan, where the Turkish emblem marks its territory as one passes through fields of watermelon and mountainous valleys.
Turkish desert.
Somewhere in Eastern Turkey, the train stopped for two or three hours in a little village, more of a military outpost, so that we could take on armed guards to cross the Kurdish region of Turkey.Descending from the train to take tea & amuse the locals with our poor skills at their equivalent of dominoes.
A Whistler-like painting stretches out the other side fo the window.
Three & a half days in a train gives one the opportunity for a lot of time for reflection, as well as meeting new folk. This is Alexandre, a Franco-Iranian I met in the restaurant car.
Farsi graffiti (or possibly just advertising) as we pass remote settlements in North-Western Iran.
The winding railways of Iran
