The sun was setting over Ankara. It was a chilly evening in mid February, and passengers were taking selfies next to the blue, red and white wagons of the Dogu Ekspresi,or the Eastern Express. A conductor checked names off a clipboard as we prepared for our 800-mile journey eastwards to the city of Kars.
At 26 hours, this is Turkey’s longest train ride. Departing Ankara at 6pm in the evening, we were scheduled to arrive in Eastern Anatolia at 8pm the following day, if it was on time – which the ponderously slow Dogu Ekspresi rarely is. I clambered aboard, threw my duffel bag in the overhead rack and settled in for the long haul. Further down the carriage, a Turkish tour group had entered holiday mode, unpacking a picnic, stringing fairy lights across windows (a tradition on long-distance Turkish trains) and cracking open a bottle of wine before we’d even set off.
