The End of History

CITY BRIEF 03 www.hurriyetdailynews.com Five reasons to love Istanbul this week Visit the Pantokrator Snow! Even the 4 Monastry, which is 5 remotest The small but cozy With Christmas known today as the possibility of flying 1 bar Parantez, in 2 and New Year's Zeyrek Mosque. The flurries encircling Asmal›mescit, fast approaching monument still stands Istanbul heightens offers homemade it is time to get from the Roman era. the holiday cherry liquor for 8 pampered. Step After Hagia Sophia, it is atmosphere, and Turkish Liras. In this into a French the second biggest last week’s freezing freezing winter movie upon Go and see the biggest aquarium in town at church that was not temperatures weather it would be entering the J’adore Chocolatier Café, 3 Forum Istanbul, a newly opened destroyed. The location offers hope that a a good idea to stop which opened on Beyo¤lu’s Emir Nevruz shopping mall and entertainment complex. has a perfect view of blanket of white by this location and Street. The smell of the chocolates and The aquarium displays underwater creatures Balat and is well worth might cover the warm up. cakes attracts customers from all over. from around the world and is called Turkuazoo. visiting. city. ONE-WAY TICKET Orient Express: The end of history RICH CARRIERO mysterious rode comfortably serving oysters, turbot with green home to most embassies and expa- snow bank for some days – provid- ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News through dark and treacherous sauce and chocolate pudding, triate communities. ing her with the setting and cir- Balkan passes in plush, smoke- made the overnight trip on sched- With the arrival of the luxury cumstance for a bizarre murder n Dec. 14, in a heavy rain, the filled cars. The line also deserves an ule and was a rousing success. train, however, Istanbul was sud- mystery. Writing in her suite at the O Orient Express pulled into its obituary and a moment of recogni- The next year the Express d’Ori- denly open to more than just the Pera Palace, which is preserved as a eastern terminus for the last time. tion from a city that it impacted ent began service for the general adventurous and the diplomatic museum in her honor, she crafted Although more of a central Eu- profoundly. public. In subsequent years the corps. In an affluent industrial one of the finest detective novels ropean regional train, as the route In 1882 Georges Nagelmackers route expanded east, reaching world, global tourism was newly ever written. was shortened to just a run con- of the Companie Internationale des Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and fi- beginning and Istanbul became an Today, although there will no necting Strasbourg and Vienna, the Wagons-Lits invited guests on a nally the Ottoman Empire. The exceedingly popular destination. longer be an official Orient Express, famed line enjoyed continuous test run of a direct service between early trains required ferry and car- To the general public the Orient there are still ways to recapture service for over 125 years. Paris and Vienna. The train, which riage services to connect certain Express was something like the something of its mystique. Sirkeci In its day the Orient Express included four sleeping coaches, two railheads but on June 1, 1889 the Concorde jets of the 1980s – a fast Station maintains a railroad mu- was a symbol of luxury and cutting- baggage cars and a restaurant car Orient Express ran non-stop from yet luxurious mode of transport for seum that displays signs, bells, edge technology and easily the most famous train line in the world. On Dec. 14, Orient Express line became a part of history. Those, who would like to At its maximum extent it connected meet the legend, can visit the rail museum at Sirkeci train station in Eminönü the continent from Paris to Istanbul and was responsible for the advent Paris to Istanbul for the first time. the fabulously rich that com- switches and uniforms from the of large-scale tourism in the latter. Istanbul finally had a prestigious manded envy and captured the original Orient Express. Unfortunately, the availability of luxury train line to complete its con- imagination. The private Simplon Orient Ex- discount airfares and rapid rail nection with Europe and the effect Writers recognized the train as press runs a few trains per year, of- technology has forced Euro Night was immediate. In 1890 the Ot- an ideal setting for suspense. In fering deluxe service and a rail services to retire the line. tomans completed a magnificent Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Van Hels- complete period experience – but With the end of the Orient Ex- station with stained glass windows ing rides the Express in his attempt only to the wealthiest of travelers: press, the world is losing another and handsome waiting rooms at to beat the Count to Transylvania. Two tickets on the Istanbul-Venice potent symbol of a by-gone age. Sirkeci. Ian Fleming also worked the train line currently cost 11,240 euros. Like the telegraph and transat- Most of the great hotels in Pera into one of his James Bond novels. For the more modest traveler, lantic shipping, it has been ren- also date to this period; both the Of course, the story for which the entire length can be traveled in dered obsolete by more Büyük Londres and Pera Palace the luxury line is most famous is sections. Perhaps the easiest and The historical convenient technology. ‘Orient Express’ train was a hotels were built in 1892. Before the Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the cheapest way to experience the Unable to compete, it dies a synonym of luxury Orient Express, there had already Orient Express.” The idea came to Orient Express, however, is rightful death but as a symbol of a and class. been something of a foreign com- Christie after an incident in 1929 through the words of the great au- time when the rich, famous and munity in Beyo¤lu, which was when the train was trapped in a thors who wrote about it..

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