A more detailed version of the article published in Hürriyet Seyahat
There is no one left who has not been caught in the Kars adventure marathon with the eastern express this year.. What is possible to find a place. Last winter, when I was going to Kars with the Eastern Express, my plan was to go to Van and then return with the Van Lake Express, but I couldn’t do it.. Actually, I wanted to go to Van with the Van Lake Express.. When all my attempts to go to Van were unsuccessful, I bought the plane ticket directly.
- Click here if you want to read about my Van adventure.
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Getting Van Lake Express Tickets
In Van I’m having a great time. I need to be back a little early. Why? Because there is no train every day.
Ankara: 11:00 Tatvan: 12:09 From Ankara: Tuesday, Sunday. Tatvan: 07:00 Ankara: 07:20 From Tatvan: Tuesday, Thursday
So I have to choose either Tuesday or Thursday. If you download TCDD’s application to buy train tickets, you can do the transactions very easily.. I’m buying a ticket for tuesday from bunks. In practice, a couchette wagon ticket is 64.5 liras. When I buy a ticket on the hills of Akdamar Island, a warning bubble appears that the money has been withdrawn, but then no message comes.
When I look at the application, the seat I bought appears to be full.. I don’t know if I got the ticket or not.. It is quite easy to find a seat on the Van Lake Express.. You can travel alone in the compartment until Sivas.. The train is full there.
Where does the Van Lake Express leave from?
The train departs from Tatvan at 7 am. If I stay in Van, I won’t be able to catch the morning train.. I have to go to Tatvan the day before and stay there that night so that I can catch the morning train.. After finding a place to stay for myself, I go to Van bus station for Tatvan at noon.. I buy a ticket from Van Lake Tourism for 20 liras.. There are gendarmerie control zones at two different points at the Van exit and Tatvan entrance.. GBT is done twice in the whole vehicle, with an interval of one hour.
Tatvan Couch’u Hasan
I stay with the people living there during my travels.. Internationally known as couchsurfing application, in Turkey, I stay with my hosts from the couchrail face group with good references.. This time my coach is Tatvan Family Health Center Doctor No. 3, Hasan.
People who come back from Tatvan by train usually stay in Hasan.. Tatvan’s only couch. We are in constant contact with him along the way.. It takes 2.5 hours from Van to Tatvan.. It tells me where to land. He says I can leave my bag and visit Tatvan if I want.. There is no five meters between his house and the health center.. It also hosted foreign travelers from Couchsurfing.. I have a very experienced host in this field.. He travels like me by hitchhiking during his holidays.
I find the health center easily.. Hasan, whose shift is already over, is showing me the Tatvan beach.. We’re having dinner with fellow doctor friends at a place called Nirvana Home Cooking. the portions are huge. Tatvan women officially spilled. I can’t have an idea about the price because they didn’t make me pay. However, since he hosted me, I wanted to order it.. They say, “You haven’t learned the east yet, sir.”
When Tatvan asks about mixed swimming in the lake in Tatvan, voices are raised saying “oooo teacher”. They say, “Things can never happen, but there are separate beaches for men and women.”. Hasan lives in a house with a view of Lake Van.. I also fall asleep watching that view and wake up in the morning watching that sunrise.
Despite all his tiredness, Hasan drives me to the station at 6 am. Now I have many doctor friends in Tatvan Family Health Center No. 3. I love traveling this way.
Tatvan Train Station Ticket Chaos
A surprise awaits me at the train station. I didn’t get the ticket. Money taken from my card but no ticket. There is no pos device at Tatvan train station. I’m not the only one left in the middle like this. A group of young children is in a worse situation. They bought tickets in bulk.. A loaded amount has been withdrawn from a single credit card.
Since there is no pos device, they are trying to balance money between them. Luckily there are tickets. The cashier tells me that even if the money is withdrawn, it is paid back, I have to deal with the rest with the bank, but he says “you still ask at Ankara station”.. A few weeks after my return, when I still can’t see the ticket money withdrawn in my account, I call there and finally I reach a phone number in Ankara. gives answers to all my questions. If the internet is weak during the process, such errors can occur.. When all transactions are made and the ticket purchase part is reached, the transaction is left unfinished in case of a break that may occur.. If the transaction could not be completed, normally the system would send the money back within 2 hours.
The system must have broken while I was trying to buy a ticket on the hills of Akdamar island with the weak internet.. The seat seemed full because the system kept the ticket for you for 20 minutes during the transaction.. When I checked, the seat I was trying to get seemed full.. I thought I must have bought it.
So you do not buy the ticket without receiving a message from TCDD with the PNR number, following the message that the money has been withdrawn when buying a ticket in the system.. The system sends the money back in 20 minutes for the tickets that are not bought, but it can take up to 3 working days for it to be transferred to our account from the bank.. It’s been a few weeks, but I still can’t figure out where it came from.
She said that this problem is more common in Yapikredi and salary cards.. It was Yapıkredi on my card.. This is what the box office clerk at Ankara Station said, “it’s now between you and the bank”.
Van Lake Express
Van Lake Express is a short distance away. It’s like I’ve reunited with an ex. What a longing look. Have we met, darling? Did you wait long? I’ve always missed you since I lost myself on the roads. We are together for 27 hours. The next is the deluge.
I will be on this train for 27 hours. My last ride had snowscapes too. Now spring will be sight. I’m getting settled in my bunk car. There is no one but me. This time I did my shopping. I’m preparing my breakfast. I take a tea from the restaurant section and start my breakfast with the music on the tinkling train.
When I couldn’t find toast bread in Tatvan, I bought a round bread that they call a muffin.. It’s the same thing as the kete I ate in Kars.. I think it’s delicious. Definitely try it if you go.. I bought it from the grocery store. Breakfast on the train also goes very well. Young people also invite me to breakfast, but I am very happy with my loneliness.. Cem Karaca sings accompanied by magnificent landscapes, I listen. But we’re contracting for lunch.
Compartment attendants on trains are my hosts there.. Since they travel on that train for very long hours, they welcome us as if we were guests in their home.. He comes to my compartment and chats, my brother. Shows photos of grandchildren, children. He talks about how he has been doing this for years.. Can you imagine that it has been on this train for 30 years?
In the past, the Van Lake Express went all the way to Istanbul.. Its name was Orient Express.. He used to work between Istanbul and Iran. He tells such things that it’s like I’m listening to tales with my mouth open like a little girl.. I want to teleport back to ancient times and be on a train to Iran. Dreams are Paris, but we are in Bitlis.
My journey that started in the early hours of the morning with the Van Lake Express continues with a light nap from the tiredness of the days as I enter the landscape from the landscape. albeit for a while. My compartment attendant drew my curtain, shut my door. He walks on his toes as if he were a guest coming to his house, so that I wouldn’t wake up.
Van Lake Express is the same as the Eastern Express.. The location of the sockets, the toilets, all the conditions are the same. The internet is taking place in places like the Eastern Express.
- Click if you want to read my Eastern Express adventure.
Ambience on the Van Lake Express
It’s time to take a walk on the train and meet people. Van Lake Express couldn’t be wished more. There is not as many travelers as on the Eastern Express yet.. It is mostly used for transportation, but a group of people got on the train with me.. We were always joking as we passed by.
I learned that they were from the youth branches of the university, that a boy and a girl were chosen from each university, and that they were visiting as guests of the municipalities.. They came from all over Turkey.. Chirpy youthful joy is very good for me.
When we get hungry, we sing Adana Kebab from outside around Sivas and we all get on the train together.. Those who are accustomed to the cag kebab ritual from the Eastern Express should not try it much.. To tell the truth, no one found it very tasty, but did we have enough?. Although the restaurant we mentioned could not do well.. There is not as much food variety in the train as in the Eastern express.. Portions are 15 liras.
Sudden wagon fills up in Sivas.. It’s like the aunt who rides didn’t like me very much either.. In the usual train, the rule of separate men and women applies here as well.. Since married couples can buy two tickets with the same surname, the system that does not allow men and women to buy tickets fails in class and confusion begins.. Since that woman cannot sleep in the same bunk car with 3 men, they direct her to the first empty bed.
Of course, that empty place is the one above me.. Half an hour after getting on the train, they all go to sleep.. I’m going to have fun with the young people too. When you are on the train for such long hours, one eats all the time.. Can’t hold back. We are like a swarm of locusts. We talk, we laugh, or we eat.. As such, we are fired by those who want to sleep.
After saying goodbye to a few friends in Kayseri, we go to sleep too.. I put on my headphones and fall asleep with music. 1 hour before the river station, the compartment attendant wakes everyone up.. We collect and deliver the sheets, pillows and piques given to us.. I arrive at Irmak, where I set out for Kars one and a half years ago, in the early morning.. I’m a little tired and sleepy now. Shuttles take us to Ankara station.
I went to Kars by train.. I went to Van by plane, conversion by train. If a choice has to be made, I can say that it is more exciting to use the train while going.. Another fairy tale ends. Goodbye until I miss the east and trains again.