Broken Hearts and Journeys

The longest Journey I ever made was four days and nights on a train. It was the route of the Midnight Express. However, it was quite an ordeal from London to Istanbul. Not as glamorous as the movies like Orient Express, and no murders.
We went through England across the sea, France, Switzerland ( which was beautiful), Italy, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Greece.
Not quite as glamorous as it may sound, the further east we went, the dirtier the train and toilets became. The more difficult it became buying food.
I stocked up on food and drinks but soon ran out. Everyone shared.
Two fat jolly ladies boarded the train in Yugoslavia with a huge picnic basket. They were really generous as they shared their delicious food with a carriage of six people.
Bulgaria was green with rivers and beautiful landscapes. The customs Officers were intimidating. We had to get off the train and stand in a line on the platform. They called my travelling companion and me out of the crowd, probably because we had long hair and wore denim. They opened her passport, snapped it shut abruptly, looking shocked, and gave me a miss. I asked her about her passport, it was diplomatic one as her father was the Ambassador there for Sweden. Then they picked on a Slavic lady and made an example of her.
We had to buy food in stations and wait for the train to roll away to be sort of cleaned before returning. In Greece, the train was packed with new people, and I didn't have a seat, so two Turkish men gave me their seats and stood all night. Finally, we arrived at the central Iconic station of Istanbul. My friends rushed to hug me, tired as they had waited a day and a half as the train was late. I have to say I never ever stood on a bus or train in Turkey and was always offered a seat.
We later traveled south by ship and stayed there three months, seeing Effes, Troy, Izmir,and stayed at beautiful beaches.

I only ever had one romance in Istanbul, of course, a good-looking heartbreaker.
A whole other story!

Another occasion I was there under military rule, we were only allowed to stay where allocated. There were soldiers on every corner. That quarter of Istanbul was unknown to me and I got lost. I asked two soldiers where I was, and for directions.
‘Stand there!’,was the directive, and they had a short conversation I couldnt hear. One walked off…I became a bit worried. He came back twenty minutes later with a huge bunch of red roses for me. We chatted a bit, they stopped a car and said to the driver take the lady to her address…Thats a military order! How sweet they were.

Some journeys are exciting, some full of mishaps…or long, etc. Smaller boats are more interesting than larger ships. Flying has become traumatic these days with busy airports and officials.
The flights that I took to Australia and Japan were really long, usually 24 hours or more.
What interesting journeys have you experienced?

Play music, post memes and photos, chat with friends, and relate memories and experiences.
Enjoy,

Lian  and Kieran