It was a nice and comfortable train. As far as i can remember, there were just two compartments, which were going to turkey. The rest of the compartments were supposed to go till the Iran/Turkey border. Most of them were supposed to go upto Tabrez only. Within these two particular compartments, most of the passengers were tourists. Those were the days of the Hippies. and a big number of the fellow passengers were Hippies. They were too dirty.
One of them was David. He was English. He was not a Hippie. He was a nice fellow who was on a world trip. He did have a sleeping bag, and used to sleep on floor in train in that. I had seen a sleeping bag for the first time, and i liked it, but ofcourse there was no way to ask him to lend me his. He was just having a rucksag with him. I was too amazed seeing him travelling like that. I was thrilled.
The train reached Tabrez at night. It was the last major city in the western part of Iran. Most of the compartments were cut off at that station. Perhaps a couple of tourists boarded in our compartment from Tabrez.
The Turkish/Iran border was crossed at early in the morning, the next day. When i woke up, the train had already stopped, just inside the Turkish territory. Outside i could see thumps of snow, here and there. It was terribly cold, but sunny. For the first time in my life i had seen snow .The Turkish officials were checking baggages. Almost all of our bags were opened and thoroughly checked. Our passports were stamped. We were officially in Turkey now.
http://www.uncorneredmarket.com/photos/picture/6895067235/
I was thrilled because the last phase of the adventure was nearing.
I remember there was a sweeper in the train. In fact, i was too shocked to see a sweeper cleaning the whole compartment, twice a day. He was an employee of the Turkish Railways. My father tried to open dialogue with him. Our knowledge of turkish language was very limited. Even then , not through sentences, but through words he explained to the sweeper that we were going to Istanbul, and wanted to live there. But we were never in a position to understand what he used to say as his reply. He had written that on a piece of paper for us, but we could not decode that with the help of the books that we had then. Later on when we reached Istanbul and started understanding turkish a bit better, we understood what he used to ask us. What the sweeper had asked us was NE OLDU? (in turkish). It is a simple sentence which means WHAT HAPPENED? Thus he was asking us as to WHAT HAD HAPPENED THAT WE WERE GOING TO LIVE IN ISTANBUL. Unfortunately, we could not understand the question, for all the time that he remained in the train.
It was evening the same day, when we reached VAN. It is a beautiful city in eastern Turkey. There was a big lake by this city. The train was going to cross the lake. in a ferry boat. It was an unforgetable experience. The rails were till the side of the lake. The ferry boat was standing bound just in line with the rails. The rails on the land were just arraying with the rails inside the ferry boat. Slowly slowly the two compartments were pushed inside the ferry boat. We all passengers kept on sitting inside. The compartments were ultimately tied with iron chains. Once it was safe, we all came out of the compartments, and looked at the lake . It was a nice scene. The sun had already set, and it was dark.
I think it was a journey for about three or more hours. We reached the other end of the lake at around 9 pm. The compartments were once again pushed out of the ferry boat . the name of this end of the lake is TATVAN. The train continued its journey.
This is a present day video about how the train compartments have been loaded over the ferry boat while crossing the Van Lake.
We passed through Ankara early in the morning. It was all white. The snow fall had just started. It was soft. I loved to catch snow by taking my hand out of the window. My parents did not allow us to come out of the train at Ankara, because it was too slippery. But my father managed to go out and bring some eatables.
We were following the railway stations on our map. Not much distance was left to reach the ultimate destination.
We reached the station of IZMIT. at evening. It was the last major railway station before Istanbul. Before that we had been through some very beautiful scenery, that i never forgot. Years later, i happened past through the same track (in 2004), and the whole scene of how we did pass through those mountains , 32 years, passed through my mind, as if i was watching the same movie once again.
It was getting dark. Istanbul was just at a distance of a few hour run from Izmit. Our parents started repacking our bags and luggages, which had become too untidy during this long train journey of around 3 days. Now i can feel the real sentiments of my father at that particular time. He must be very very thrilled. He was about to reach his destination. A goal , for which he had worked hard for around a year, and for which he had sold everything, is about to be achieved. I remember i was too thrilled.
İZMİT RAIWAY STATION
The train continued heading towards Istanbul. It was almost plain . On one side was sea. But it was dark, cold and raining. Mentally we had started preparing ourselves for the life outside the train. It was going to be an another thrilling climax of the adventure.
I think it was perhaps 9 or 10 at night, when our train reached HAYDARPASHA RAILWAY STATION. It was the end of the Asian side of Istanbul, in fact of Turkey. It was the last railway station. The train stopped and we came out of the . It was a huge building. We did not know where to go from there. I remember that we had put all our bag and baggage on flour, in a huge waiting room sort of place. The roof was too high. The pillars were huge. I felt myself somewhat coming under the grandeur of the building.
http://www.whereist.com/haydarpasa-train-station/
HAYDARPAŞA RAILWAY STATION
THE WAITING LOUNGE OF HAYDARPAŞA RAILWAY STATION ....THIS IS WHERE WE ALL SAT AFTER GETTING OFF THE TRAIN
Just out of the building, in front of us was sea. It was raining outside. There was a road passing across between the building and the sea. We did not know what to do next. I remember , we were all sitting on our baggage and it was too cold. My father was standing there. Almost all of the passengers of the train had gone away. We were alone in the room. My mother asked my father, "Where would we go now". Cool. as my father had always been. replied in a very relaxed tone of voice,"I DO NOT KNOW".
It was a scene and the dialogues that i never forgot. Interestingly, years later. in the year 1998. when i came to Northern Cyprus for the first time, with my wife and a year old son, my wife had also asked me the same question, after we had arrived at the Lefkosha city main entrance gate. Our baggage was just taken out of the bus. That was the last phase of our journey from Karachi to Lefkosha (North Cyprus). My wife had asked me the same question that my mother had asked my father 26 years ago. "Where will we go now", she had asked. I, as cool as my father was on that chilling November night at Haydarpasha Railway Station, 26 years ago. "I DO NOT KNOW", was my answer, because in fact just like my father who had never thought of what to do after reaching Istanbul. I had also never thought of thinking about my future in northern cyprus. Just like my father, i too had planned for reaching Northern Cyprus. What would be the next step, after reaching Istanbu /Northern Cyprus. My father had never cared about that, i too had not cared about that.
So he did not know what to do next, and 26 years later i too did not know what to do next.
Well, that night at the Haydarpasha Railway Station. my father took my elder brother along, and they went out of the building, and hired a taxi. The taxi driver took them to a nearby hotel. They returned back, and we all boarded the taxi, and reached the hotel, not very far from there. It was terribly cold.
Once in hotel, my father told me that next morning, i would be accompanying him to go out on the european side of Istanbul to find out the house of ERDAL SOYULU, the turkish guy who had given him his address months back in Karachi. His address was of Eyup quarter of Istanbul. It happened to be on the European side of Istanbul. We did know that for that we would have to cross the Bosphorus by a ferry boat. I was too excited, perhaps so was my father. My mother quickly arranged to eat whatever we did have with us. It was raining out, and none of us was in a position to go out to buy something to eat. It did not take much time for us to sleep, we were dead tired. Almost 15 days of hard adventurous travel had finally came to end. We slept.
CONTINUED ...... 1972 - FROM KARACHI TO ISTANBUL (4)
One of them was David. He was English. He was not a Hippie. He was a nice fellow who was on a world trip. He did have a sleeping bag, and used to sleep on floor in train in that. I had seen a sleeping bag for the first time, and i liked it, but ofcourse there was no way to ask him to lend me his. He was just having a rucksag with him. I was too amazed seeing him travelling like that. I was thrilled.
The train reached Tabrez at night. It was the last major city in the western part of Iran. Most of the compartments were cut off at that station. Perhaps a couple of tourists boarded in our compartment from Tabrez.
The Turkish/Iran border was crossed at early in the morning, the next day. When i woke up, the train had already stopped, just inside the Turkish territory. Outside i could see thumps of snow, here and there. It was terribly cold, but sunny. For the first time in my life i had seen snow .The Turkish officials were checking baggages. Almost all of our bags were opened and thoroughly checked. Our passports were stamped. We were officially in Turkey now.
http://www.uncorneredmarket.com/photos/picture/6895067235/
I was thrilled because the last phase of the adventure was nearing.
I remember there was a sweeper in the train. In fact, i was too shocked to see a sweeper cleaning the whole compartment, twice a day. He was an employee of the Turkish Railways. My father tried to open dialogue with him. Our knowledge of turkish language was very limited. Even then , not through sentences, but through words he explained to the sweeper that we were going to Istanbul, and wanted to live there. But we were never in a position to understand what he used to say as his reply. He had written that on a piece of paper for us, but we could not decode that with the help of the books that we had then. Later on when we reached Istanbul and started understanding turkish a bit better, we understood what he used to ask us. What the sweeper had asked us was NE OLDU? (in turkish). It is a simple sentence which means WHAT HAPPENED? Thus he was asking us as to WHAT HAD HAPPENED THAT WE WERE GOING TO LIVE IN ISTANBUL. Unfortunately, we could not understand the question, for all the time that he remained in the train.
It was evening the same day, when we reached VAN. It is a beautiful city in eastern Turkey. There was a big lake by this city. The train was going to cross the lake. in a ferry boat. It was an unforgetable experience. The rails were till the side of the lake. The ferry boat was standing bound just in line with the rails. The rails on the land were just arraying with the rails inside the ferry boat. Slowly slowly the two compartments were pushed inside the ferry boat. We all passengers kept on sitting inside. The compartments were ultimately tied with iron chains. Once it was safe, we all came out of the compartments, and looked at the lake . It was a nice scene. The sun had already set, and it was dark.
I think it was a journey for about three or more hours. We reached the other end of the lake at around 9 pm. The compartments were once again pushed out of the ferry boat . the name of this end of the lake is TATVAN. The train continued its journey.
This is a present day video about how the train compartments have been loaded over the ferry boat while crossing the Van Lake.
We passed through Ankara early in the morning. It was all white. The snow fall had just started. It was soft. I loved to catch snow by taking my hand out of the window. My parents did not allow us to come out of the train at Ankara, because it was too slippery. But my father managed to go out and bring some eatables.
We were following the railway stations on our map. Not much distance was left to reach the ultimate destination.
We reached the station of IZMIT. at evening. It was the last major railway station before Istanbul. Before that we had been through some very beautiful scenery, that i never forgot. Years later, i happened past through the same track (in 2004), and the whole scene of how we did pass through those mountains , 32 years, passed through my mind, as if i was watching the same movie once again.
It was getting dark. Istanbul was just at a distance of a few hour run from Izmit. Our parents started repacking our bags and luggages, which had become too untidy during this long train journey of around 3 days. Now i can feel the real sentiments of my father at that particular time. He must be very very thrilled. He was about to reach his destination. A goal , for which he had worked hard for around a year, and for which he had sold everything, is about to be achieved. I remember i was too thrilled.
İZMİT RAIWAY STATION
The train continued heading towards Istanbul. It was almost plain . On one side was sea. But it was dark, cold and raining. Mentally we had started preparing ourselves for the life outside the train. It was going to be an another thrilling climax of the adventure.
I think it was perhaps 9 or 10 at night, when our train reached HAYDARPASHA RAILWAY STATION. It was the end of the Asian side of Istanbul, in fact of Turkey. It was the last railway station. The train stopped and we came out of the . It was a huge building. We did not know where to go from there. I remember that we had put all our bag and baggage on flour, in a huge waiting room sort of place. The roof was too high. The pillars were huge. I felt myself somewhat coming under the grandeur of the building.
http://www.whereist.com/haydarpasa-train-station/
HAYDARPAŞA RAILWAY STATION
THE WAITING LOUNGE OF HAYDARPAŞA RAILWAY STATION ....THIS IS WHERE WE ALL SAT AFTER GETTING OFF THE TRAIN
Just out of the building, in front of us was sea. It was raining outside. There was a road passing across between the building and the sea. We did not know what to do next. I remember , we were all sitting on our baggage and it was too cold. My father was standing there. Almost all of the passengers of the train had gone away. We were alone in the room. My mother asked my father, "Where would we go now". Cool. as my father had always been. replied in a very relaxed tone of voice,"I DO NOT KNOW".
It was a scene and the dialogues that i never forgot. Interestingly, years later. in the year 1998. when i came to Northern Cyprus for the first time, with my wife and a year old son, my wife had also asked me the same question, after we had arrived at the Lefkosha city main entrance gate. Our baggage was just taken out of the bus. That was the last phase of our journey from Karachi to Lefkosha (North Cyprus). My wife had asked me the same question that my mother had asked my father 26 years ago. "Where will we go now", she had asked. I, as cool as my father was on that chilling November night at Haydarpasha Railway Station, 26 years ago. "I DO NOT KNOW", was my answer, because in fact just like my father who had never thought of what to do after reaching Istanbul. I had also never thought of thinking about my future in northern cyprus. Just like my father, i too had planned for reaching Northern Cyprus. What would be the next step, after reaching Istanbu /Northern Cyprus. My father had never cared about that, i too had not cared about that.
So he did not know what to do next, and 26 years later i too did not know what to do next.
Well, that night at the Haydarpasha Railway Station. my father took my elder brother along, and they went out of the building, and hired a taxi. The taxi driver took them to a nearby hotel. They returned back, and we all boarded the taxi, and reached the hotel, not very far from there. It was terribly cold.
Once in hotel, my father told me that next morning, i would be accompanying him to go out on the european side of Istanbul to find out the house of ERDAL SOYULU, the turkish guy who had given him his address months back in Karachi. His address was of Eyup quarter of Istanbul. It happened to be on the European side of Istanbul. We did know that for that we would have to cross the Bosphorus by a ferry boat. I was too excited, perhaps so was my father. My mother quickly arranged to eat whatever we did have with us. It was raining out, and none of us was in a position to go out to buy something to eat. It did not take much time for us to sleep, we were dead tired. Almost 15 days of hard adventurous travel had finally came to end. We slept.
CONTINUED ...... 1972 - FROM KARACHI TO ISTANBUL (4)
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