Deluxe Sleeper Train from Istanbul to Sofia (SUPER DELAYED!)

Book Great Deals on Train, Plane, Bus & Ferry Travel through my Omio Affiliate Link here: omio.sjv.io/QO0XMx
Hello and welcome back to Turkey, where tonight we'll be taking a special sleeper train to Sofia, Bulgaria!
This is one of the very few trains to cross an EU external border, and in my opinion, one of the best sleeper coaches out there! Come along and join me on a trip that didn't exactly go to plan, but was still great fun!
Date of Filming: 4 to 5/9/23
Camera: GoPro Hero 10 Black
Operator: Turkish Railways
Departure: Istanbul Halkali, Turkey
Arrival: Sofia, Bulgaria
Cost: Solo occupancy of a 2-bed compartment:
1,985 Turkish Lira (£54.72, €63.00, $68.75)
2-bed sleeper costs: 1,055 Turkish Lira (£29.09, €33.50, $36.56)
4-bed couchette costs: 900 Turkish Lira (£24.75, €28.50, $31.10)
Check out my review of the Turkish high-speed train from Istanbul to Ankara here: • Private VIP COMPARTMEN...
Become a valued KZbin channel member to get access to perks:
/ @nonstopeurotrip
Kindly send me a tip! Any donations will be reinvested to make bigger and better videos:
www.paypal.com/paypalme/nonst...
All music in this video is provided by Epidemic Sound, sign up for a FREE 30-day trial using my affiliate link here: share.epidemicsound.com/pspegs
Easily book GREAT VALUE Asian Flights, Trains, Buses & Ferries with my Baolau link:
www.baolau.com/?source=nonsto...
Follow me on Social Media:
/ nonstopeurotrip
/ nonstopeurotrip
A HUGE thanks to my Valued Channel Members:
Pedro Rubio Tejero Mark Jaynes
amillionbooks George Dover
Holdymar V. Arndt Jr Fabricio Renovato
Linda Vainomae Will Getz
Westy331 Ingrid lengkeek
Oliver W eng91755
Sam Jennings Lebjohnson
Rahill Rick Sipes
Tim Crawford Daniel Young
Peter Harrison Peter Tuck
Chris Winchell Debbie Winchell
Leaving Behind Thomas Roell
Severity One Janet Rusky
Roy Parker Peter Russ
John Michael Dornoff Robert S
Luke211286 Ana Lämä
Dirk Schultz Tom Kennedy
Roy Meister Malcore Gaming
Piotr Kilczuk Colin Davies
Alz Brian Rosson
William Boon Cheng Tan
Shay Muhammad Nur Ihsan
Jak Marzhall False Prophet
Rafi Muhammad Agung Heryadi
Kiel Regmount
Luigi Bharath Ghanta
Avirup Some Co Akker
治那涧初 Dean Shaw

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Book Great Deals on Train, Plane, Bus & Ferry Travel through my Omio Affiliate Link here: omio.sjv.io/QO0XMx

[@northeastern_steamie]

A trip to Türkiye without patting a cat is just incomplete😊❤ Btw, your voice doesn't seems right, did you got cold while filming?

[@NonstopEurotrip]

@@northeastern_steamie Yes, I've had a cold for the last 10 days and only managed to record this voiceover on Wednesday

[@user-tm1hb6oy3f]

​​@@NonstopEurotripoh dear, have some Assam Masala Chai and relax~ Well, I'd like to recommend you something: kzbin.infojI3oqMqxz7Y?si=1gHoGOyXkYj4oMsC

[@Fan652w]

Regarding heavily delayed trains, it seems to be the case that overnight trains are particularly prone to long delays, often of several hours. A few years ago German Railways(DB) gave up on night trains. French Railways (SNCF) came close to doing the same. Austrian Railways (OBB) with their 'Nightjets' kept faith in 'sleepers', buying some of the surplus German sleeping cars. OBB is bringing new sleeping cars into service on December 10th. There are also now some 'open access' sleeper trains. The end result has been a revival of overnight trains. And it seems that these trains are popular, despite the punctuality problem.

[@qjtvaddict]

Cause reliability is NOT the goal it’s purpose is to be a moving Hotel on rails.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Sometimes 😎

[@howardcobb4656]

Love the videos. Years ago when traveling for business I called these delays a nuisance now being retired I call them ‘charming’. And yes I have had major delays. Here in the states I was on a 12 hour trip and had a 22 hour delay. Messed up every plan I had and nearly provided too much charm.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Oh dear 😮

[@Mergatroid]

Being from the US, I have plenty of experience with delays. The most delayed train I was ever supposed to be on was an Amtrak Empire Builder running 21 hours late. It was initially delayed due to a disabled freight train on its westbound trip to Seattle/Portland, then it was delayed going back east by more freight train interference, then the crew timed out and they had to drive a new crew out hundreds of miles from the nearest crew change point, then there was more freight train interference, etc. In the end, I wound up being put on a bus since I was only doing an 8 hour daytime trip between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Chicago (a trip I do frequently) and the replacement bus wound up being faster than the train was scheduled to be, despite breaking down halfway and having to wait almost 2 hours for a replacement bus. Most of the time when I take the Empire Builder between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Chicago, it's 1 to 3 hours late, but occasionally it's on time and occasionally it's VERY delayed like the 21 hour delay. Thankfully, there's enough demand that Amtrak will charter a bus for passengers just going between these city pairs, and there is a second daily train getting added next year (it was supposed to start this year but it got pushed back due to staff and equipment shortages and funding delays).

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Wow they're quite some days lol

[@SeverityOne]

So you had a rail replacement bus replacement bus.

[@aakozanoglu]

The whole system is against trains in the U.S. It is not meant to be a successful means of transportation.

[@qjtvaddict]

Lol you should not even give em your business lol

[@qjtvaddict]

I will say it again Amtrak’s LD routes are utterly useless

[@spark_6710]

I just chatted with a very nice ,beautiful Turkish lady ( she lives here ,my neighbour ) & her gorgeous niece ( about 4 years old ? ) a few days ago ! I really want to visit Turkey 🇹🇷 someday soon !!! They drink lots of tea like me !! Lol. Turkey is No.1Tea consumption country !! Lots of nice cafes in Istanbul !! The beginning scenery was beautiful 😍 💕

[@spark_6710]

@@MutluSonmez Sorry ,there's no English translation for your comment .I wish if I could understand !! 😪 🙏💜🥁🐉🎤🎶Turkey 💕💞

[@kostashikolarev3940]

Maybe you don`t have the information, but the tracks between Elin Pelin and Kostenets in Bulgaria, are in a reconstruction and renovation, also like Sofia and Plovdiv main stations and railway passes through the cities. Most of the new line between Sofia and Plovdiv will be on a completly new track, with 14 tunnels and more than 30 bridges, with significantly lower gradient, allowing speeds up to160 km/h and more. Delays are big right now, because of the construction. But, when it`s finished, the travel time between Istanbul and and Sofia will be decreased with a big amount of time.

[@marcd6897]

When is it planned to be finished? This sounds like a huge project.

[@kostashikolarev3940]

@@marcd6897, 2025, if there's no delays in the construction..

[@aakozanoglu]

And no sign of actual work to be seen?

[@teomanefeaycan4854]

There in an entirely new 200km/h double track line between Kapıkule and Halkalı under construction on the Turkish side as well which will lower the travel time on the Turkish side from 4 hours to 1.5 hours. It will have 6 new stations and will include 3 viaducts, 16 bridges, 2 tunnels, 53 underpasses, 59 overpasses. When combined with the improvements on the Bulgarian side, I would not be surprised if the Halkalı-Sofia service becomes a day train or if the sleeper service becomes Ankara-Sofia high speed sleeper when the high speed line that will connect Halkalı to the rest of Turkey bypassing İstanbul's core through the third Boshporus bridge is finally constructed.

[@kostashikolarev3940]

@@aakozanoglu, in most of the track you can`t seen it, because it`s a completly new track between Elin Pelin and Kostenets(about 47 km on rough terrain), and goes on a very different way to the existing track. But it works on it, I see regular videos on the process. It was stalled during the pandemic, but now the work is going on full scale from last year. End of 2025 is now the schedule for the finishing by the plans, if there`s no other delays. But it`s hard to predict what`s in the future...

[@davidbirch9108]

There's an international ticket office at Sirkeci Station which is handy if you're staying in central Istanbul and you want to buy tickets in advance without having to go out to Halkalı just to do that.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

When it is actually open 👀

[@herreach6955]

The Turkish car quality is way outclassed the Bulgarian, and it seems like along the way they come into the part of Bulgarian rail that's not welded yet

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Absolutely!

[@vinitshrivastava2489]

Thank you for all the hardwork you put in to make such high quality videos. It's really addictive. Well done 👍

[@NonstopEurotrip]

So nice of you 💖

[@whitesinjonlovealso7138]

Awesome 👌

[@wouterpaap9343]

Overnight trains run longer distances than the average IC trains. Last september I traveled from Amsterdam to Bologna. To avoid connections in Germany ( you never get those because of delays) I took the Nightjet from Amsterdam to Innsbruck. On the way back there was a delay of 3 hours 45 minutes, due to track works in, you guessed it...., Germany.

[@qjtvaddict]

Now that I think about it almost all of Amtrak is comprised of night trains.😂😂😂😂 except say NEC and it’s branches& California service and the 110 mph Midwest barely available service

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Of course, yes Germany 😂

[@louiscy]

Back in 2012, I was on the Paris/Venice sleeper train. It was delayed for more than 9 hours for no reason.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Oh no!!!

[@theobrattinga500]

Great video !!

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Thanks!

[@RAILEXCELLENCE2011]

Nice 😊Yikes 4 HOURS AND 20 MINUTES DELAY.We were delayed for 50 minutes on the ICE between Aachen HBF🇩🇪 to Liège.🇧🇪😊 There was a Thalys to Essen HBF that was delayed for 5 HOURS😊

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Germany delAys can be quite something too!

[@spark_6710]

I love that kitty !! Looking sleepy & adorable !! 😍 I'd love to visit Turkey !!👍👍💜🥁🐉🎤🎶✈️🇹🇷🚈💕💞

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Thank you! 😃

[@trainsandmodelshungary]

Excellent video! 1. My biggest delay was over 8 hours by RegioJet between Vienna and Budapest due to severe weather conditions and damaged tracks. 2. I think these Turkish sleepers might have been manufactured and / or designed in Hungary cos quite a few features are very familiar and we do produce similar looking carriages for Egypt. But this is just guessing around. Thank you for the great vid!

[@aakozanoglu]

These cars are produced locally in Turkey.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Wow that's quite impressive 🤯

[@MutluSonmez]

Hareketli, heyecanlı ve gecikmeli ama her şeye rağmen keyifli ve güzel bir yolculuk olmuş. Güzergah güzel manzaralarla dolu, tren de gayet iyi ve rahat. Tek eksik ne yazık ki yemekli vagon. Umarım Türkiye'nin bütün trenlerinde yakın zamanda yemekli vagonlar hizmete girer. İyi seyahatler..

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Thanks for sharing 🙏🏻

[@spark_6710]

Wow ! Yes, a spacious room !! 👍

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Yes it is!

[@PostcardAndAPint]

This was so useful. We’ve never travelled around Istanbul via train or travelled to and from it, but this will be so useful when we do. We love Istanbul, never been to Sofia. It did looks super comfy day and night. Shame about your delays, but it’s all part of travel. Cheers for sharing 🍻

[@NonstopEurotrip]

My pleasure 😊

[@user-fu9bv4ss2p]

Thanks for the Immigration Cat. Means so much to me. Cats have befriended me since my sad childhood.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Me too 😁 🐈

[@samarit123]

For some reason this videos title and description are in tagalog (according to google translate) even though I am from Finland. If same is happening to other users as well, that might affect the viewership numbers quite a lot as people have no idea what the title of the video is. Just wanted to let you know😁

[@NonstopEurotrip]

I'll check it out, thank you!!

[@AndrewG1989]

Very nice sleeper train I have to say. Very nice carriages and also very cute cat onboard as well.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Thank you very much!

[@TL98]

this mega-delay makes trenitalia look extremely on-time

[@trainsandmodelshungary]

😂😂😂

[@gab_v250]

lol, we Italians love whining about how we can't be more like Swiss or Japanese railways, but in reality we are slightly better than other european countries for punctuality.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Tell me about it 😂

[@TL98]

@@NonstopEurotrip trenitalia and being late is a bit of a meme in italy combined with the tts voice saying "attenzione, allontanarsi dalla linea gialla"

[@dimitarbg5774]

A great movie! I hope you like it in Bulgaria! The delay is mainly due to the modernization of the route from Sofia to Plovdiv!

[@NonstopEurotrip]

And the train break down lol

[@dimitarbg5774]

@@NonstopEurotrip Such things happen!😃

[@marcinklimas2670]

Direct car... Istanbul Sikerci- Beograd. Stranded all day in Sofia. We was arrived at Bg next noon, correctly at evening previous day.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

There's worse places to be stranded lol

[@rochesterjohnny7555]

Nice train, price seems good also a trip like that on the Amtrak in the US is costing 4 times as much

[@AnnabelSmyth]

We were on a sleeper train from Hamburg to Stockholm in June this year which should have arrived in the latter city at 09:10. We finally arrived at 16:40, so 7 1/2 hours late! There was almost no food, although they did give us breakfast of a sort, and then later, when my husband went to enquire, gave us a much better breakfast which we suspected was what the customers in the couchette and seated cars normally had to pay for. We were very unimpressed, especially as our 30 hours or so in Stockholm were reduced to about 24.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Oh no that's quite impressive!!!

[@neurofrank9967]

This looks like a nice journey on a comfortable sleeper. Concerning delays, my maximum was about five hours being trapped in a TGV held up at St Raphael due to wildfires along the tracks. The aircon wasn't working, which amounted to sheer hell with two young children. Departure time being uncertain, there wasn't even the option of retreating to a nearby café. We missed our onward connection at Paris. At least, SNCF gave us some vouchers to partially cover the cost of a hotel room.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Ok that's quite a bad one!

[@fakerating]

An overnight Amtrak train, single occupancy sleeper, inside the U.S. approaches $1,000. Yes, it includes a dinner and light breakfast, but it makes this trip seem like a real bargain. Nice video!

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Well said! 🙌🏻

[@jappedut9009]

Sounds like you didn't have much sleep time 😮

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Indeed 😴

[@barvdw]

Two experiences of running (very) late spring to mind. The oldest was on the Intercité from Clermont-Ferrand to Béziers (although called an Intercité, the rolling stock were 2 X73500 'Baleines') who, after increasing delays stranded in Millau, where we had to wait for a replacement bus, which finally came some 2 hours later. We arrived in Béziers some 3 hours late, and my connection to Montpellier was of course long gone, so they had to put me in a taxi, for which I also had to wait an hour. I finally arrived in Montpellier around 1 am in stead of 9 pm. Should have taken them up on their offer to put me in a hotel in Béziers in stead... The second story is on the (fantastic) IC Notte from Milan to Palermo. Probably the longest train ride in Western Europe, planned arrival 16:55(!), we were already 2 hours late cruising through Campania and Calabria, then having to wait an eternity in Villa San Giovanni to cross to Sicily, and again waiting a whole while in Messina for our train to be reconstituted and waiting for a new locomotive. We finally pulled into Palermo at 19:45, almost 4 hours late, missing the entire stretch of line along the Tyrrhenian Sea as it was already dark by then (it was November). Nothing as bad as some, here, with delays of 9 hours and such...

[@user-fu9bv4ss2p]

I was just saying that the livery is knock me down stupendous. Then you asked what we think of it. Hehehe Sproing! As Baggins Supercat often says on Twitter. She's in England.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Completely agree!!

[@dalektorgo2973]

Even old New York was once New Amsterdam.

[@stanislavkostarnov2157]

the longest delay in my experience I think was around 70 something hours, but that was on a very long journey... (Tbilisi to Samarqand via a cross-Caspian ferry), so this was not so much percentage wise, as a percentage, probably a little over 850% of the journey time was the longest delay I faced.... that being in the very very far north. (was on technically a local train)

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Wow long delay 😄

[@peter_kelly]

South West Trains just short of Clapham for more than an hour 🙄

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Lol 🤣🤣🤣

[@rezaalan3991]

Great trip, wait no compensation for this big delays? I think the scanner use for detecting suspicious thing hiding on the train.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

No compensation!

[@val91201]

The stepfree coaches look pretty stepfull

[@paulthiel5145]

He said step free platforms. Never mentioned anything about step free coaches 😉

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Exactly 🤣

[@johnhood3172]

80mph ! Was it powered by Fred Flintstone and family 🤣

[@NonstopEurotrip]

And the Jetsons

[@EuropeanRailJourneys]

So my longest delay was in an EC Zapadni Express from Prague to Munich it was the last one of the day and my train had about 250minutes delay due to late arrival from the other train from Germany because they change the loco in Plzen and we needed to wait for our loco. The horrible thing was the modern couches was replaced to old coaches.

[@CZpersi]

Yeah, Czech railways have a shortage of modern railcars and the trains to and from Munich get delayed all the time. Typical reason for the delay on the way to Munich is German border police holding the train for too long, due to which it misses the coupling with another train in Schwandorf that is supposed to take it to Munich. Reasons for the delay on the way back are much more diverse. The line accross Šumava highlands is also very old and run down (legacy of the Iron Curtain).

[@kessas.489]

11:45 Hello kitty! 😻

[@NonstopEurotrip]

😍😍😍

[@ombagi1386]

One thing that I didn't like about Turkish sleeper trains is that there was a lot of noise coming up the sink. Seemed like they had failed to install a u-bend (or trap) in the sink. Did you experience the same? I once took that train when the line between Halkalı and Kapıkule was under construction. Our through-car missed the connecting train in Dimitrovgrad. Hence we made it to Plovdiv even later than you did, and I had to take a bus to reach Sofia to get my connecting train. But I experienced even worse delays elsewhere - one instance of cable theft and one instance of train derailment...

[@NonstopEurotrip]

I've never noticed that, no?

[@brijekavervix7340]

Significant delays? Twice on the VLine Melbourne - Albury service (Australia). Train leaves Melbourne at 6:00 PM and should get to my stop about 8:20 PM. A locomotive fault the first time and a tresspasser on the tracks the second time caused me to get home after midnight. And I had work in the morning too! 😪

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Wow that's a long one!

[@JBS319]

Worst delay I've ever had was back in the early 1990s on the Southwest Chief. My mom my brother and I were taking the train from Albuquerque to Los Angeles after visiting friends in Santa Fe. The train was supposed to leave Albuquerque at about 5pm but had struck a vehicle in Kansas damaging the lead locomotive (a brand new GE P40 or Dash 8) to the point where it couldn't continue. We got a room at a nearby hotel and eventually, at 1am the train pulled into Albuquerque behind a Santa Fe SD40-2 freight locomotive and one or two Amtrak Dash 8 "Pepsi Can" locomotives. What was normally a morning arrival into Los Angeles turned into an early afternoon arrival, and we had to run to catch the connecting San Diegan to Anaheim and Disneyland. The other potential candidate for worst delay would've been when my California Zephyr, which had been running about an hour early to that point, was canceled in Omaha due to derailments blocking the train's route and potential diversion route. We ended up on coaches to Chicago. I've had numerous delays in the 1-2 hour timeframe, but I've tended to be relatively lucky with Amtrak.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Oh wow 😲

[@hazelnut2099]

Are trains traveling from sofia to turkey pls?in February?

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Yes, all year round

[@500100dan]

My the biggest delay was 6 hours also on Bulgarian railways 😂

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Of course 😂

[@markvogel5872]

Can you take cats with you on the train? I'd want to take one home with me they are all so cute!

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Yes, in a basket I believe!

[@senorsoupe]

Of course I have been on a heavily delayed train, I've ridden VIA rail

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Of course 🤣

[@swisstrash]

How do you use to Film videos

[@NonstopEurotrip]

GoPro

[@Brauiz90]

The worst delay I had was in a german ICE from Mainz to Leipzig via Frankfurt. The train had 2 ICEs coupled together and the part I'd been in had electricity problems (a short circuit in the emergency braking system). and we left Frankfurt with a delay of 45-50 minutes. At the next bigger station we had to stop again and then they tried to fix the problem again. After another 45 minutes they decided to separate the trains and go on with only 1 part... all passengers had to go in only one ICE (the shorter version of the ICE3 with 5 carriages, the de-coupled train was a 7 carriage ICE3... it was obviously too much and the train that had been de-coupled was pulled back to Frankfurt for repairs. I arrived at Leipzig in an overcrowded train with a delay of 1 hour and 50 minutes...

[@NonstopEurotrip]

That's very DB 😂

[@IndianKnowledgeWorld]

Please try the vande bharat train of India ❤. The train is the indias first semi high speed train and is domestically manufactured in india🇮🇳 . Ppease try the *Saffron vamde bharat train* of India . Hope it will be worthful for you 😊

[@damcoentertainment3956]

Pretty sure he already did.

[@IndianKnowledgeWorld]

@@damcoentertainment3956 I am talking about the saffron vande bharat

[@NonstopEurotrip]

I did

[@SHERRI455]

Hi There, i am.from Germany. Is it possible to accompany you on your future trips? I am big fan of your work

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Sorry, I don't do that!

[@bhagasasi425]

In Indonesia train delay is a rare thing 😅

[@NonstopEurotrip]

I know, I was impressed!

[@ivanarnaudov294]

✌️🇧🇬👌

[@rafiqjennings5262]

How come I’m not surprised by this? I guess this from the delays I’ve experienced on Turkish Airlines? 🤷🏽

[@NonstopEurotrip]

The delays were all in Bulgaria!

[@rafiqjennings5262]

@@NonstopEurotrip😮

[@cj1_059]

First trip in Bulgaria!

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Yes!!!!

[@Fan652w]

Thanks for a very interesting video. However, I would N£VER travel on a train where there is a frontier check in the middle of the night. And I was astounded that you had to GET OFF the train at the Turkish frontier station.

[@aakozanoglu]

In Turkey, civil servants have an elevated status as if they are not there to serve the public. The mentality is different still, unfortunately.

[@canchero724]

The entire selling point of an overnight train is that you can enjoy a nice night's sleep onboard, so having to be awake until 5 AM for dumb EU bureaucracy would push me over the edge. This should be a day only route as it's such a terrible product for a night trip.

[@Fan652w]

@@canchero724 I entirely agree that your night's sleep should not be interrupted by boarder controls. But note that Bulgaria (in the EU) did not require you to get off the train for the checks. TURKEY,, NOT IN THE EU, DOES REQUIRE YOU TO GET OFF THE TRAIN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT.

[@aakozanoglu]

​@@Fan652wis right. Unfortunately it is Turkish bureaucracy that is requiring people to stand in line for passport control, not Bulgarian bureaucracy.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Needs must

[@eckartspindler4353]

It's a shame that the direct daytime train from Beograd to Sofia had been cancelled by Serbian Railways. Thus, you'll need to take the night train from Beograd to Sofia and spend a half day in Sofia to continue with the Bosfor Express to Istanbul. Another bad thing is that this train now terminates in Halkali at the outskirts of Istanbul. The beautiful ancient Sirceci station in downtown Istanbul had been closed. Now, you need to take a suburban train to go from Halkali to Istanbul. Untill the Yugoslavian civil war, there even was a direct train from Munich to Istanbul with sleeping cars and motorail cars during summer period. I did the trip from Munich to Istanbul in winter 2009 via Salzburg - Zagreb - Beograd - Sofia. The railway line from Beograd to the Serbian - Bulgarian border is in a very poor condition and the situation has been becoming worse during the last years. Between Beograd and Nis, there are long sections with speed restrictions of 30 km per hr. On the Bulgarian section between Plovdiv and Kapikule (border Bulgaria - Turkey), BDZ has electrified and upgraded the railway line for speeds up to 160 km per hr. When I did the trip, there was only one old East German sleeping car running through from Sofia to Istanbul. The worst thing on the trip was the border crossing at Kapikule. There you need to get off the train at about 1 p.m. and spend more than one hour at the platform waiting for the Turkish customs check. Turkish Railways (TCDD) plans to upgrade the railway line between Kapikule and Halkali for speeds up to 200 km per hr.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Interesting 😎

[@dostavki]

You don't always get complimentary snacks or running water, but it's OK overall. Like I properly say: Nice job, but Turkish 😂

[@NonstopEurotrip]

You always do in first class

[@Abnerbandanovotempoinscrito1mi]

BOM DIA BOM VIAGEM TREM CAMA SHOW

[@Siuuuzalll]

Are you travelling superlab

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Sometimes. Sometimes not.

[@subrataroy9226]

Please cover some more Indian trains.🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳

[@NonstopEurotrip]

I'll have to come back first lol

[@subrataroy9226]

Please do visit again There are a lot more places to visit in India.

[@Kaloyan-trains]

Finally Bulgaria. Lets gooo. Also yeah in Bulgaria they are on time more. We have some trouble coordinating with the Turks about the trains

[@aakozanoglu]

Did you watch the video? All the delay was in Bulgarian territory, not in Turkey.

[@Kaloyan-trains]

@@aakozanoglu I know, but I have traveled there a lot and most of the times the delay is in turkey

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Helps if your loco doesn't break down lol

[@Kaloyan-trains]

@@NonstopEurotrip the same thing happend to superabs travels in Serbia. It has also happened to me and it is not great. Also the Skoda locos are quite old now and "we don't have money" to repair them and keep them in working order

[@NoBSTravelChannel]

I documented this recently, there's not a huge amount on here! We spotted the kitty too, as well as having issues with the magic A/C AND shower room being used as a cupboard 😂 We went in July, had our passports checked 3 times on that journey. It was a bit unsettling not knowing when we could actually sleep....eventually we did. I remember the bordor police knocking so frequently and frantically! Overall a fun and interesting journey and well recommended despite some flaws.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

I totally agree 🙂💯

[@thegardensentinel]

Alot of the views were interesting and the cat looked relaxed,,,paws tucked in. Was it only a sleeper train???? The tyre nest looked "wanted". A nasty, black, smoky blaze nobody wants,,,waiting to go up.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Yes sleeper only 😍

[@bernardbouzon5499]

You cannot book a sleeping car with an interrail pass

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Yes, you can, because I have done it.

[@guidodj8456]

nice trip, but camera quality is kinda poor...

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Thanks for watching

[@Astonyshing]

When I still lived in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s and had frequently to connect from a local service on a Sunday at Doncaster on to an Intercity going to London or Edinburgh (depending where my job needed me to be at the time), the ICs were invariably late - often by 2 hours or so. Usually you had to reserve a seat in advance as the trains were crowded. More often than not you ended being put on an earlier train which was running late and had no spare seating capacity. 😗 The alternative being a hefty delay waiting for the train on which you had a seat reservation. I also one weekend remember when, due to building works on the main line, and rerouting via Cambridge, taking 7 hours to do a journey scheduled to take less than half that!

[@NonstopEurotrip]

That's quite impressive 😀

[@Bivolari]

Amtrak, 6 hour delays.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Eeek

[@richardprovenzano894]

This train looks so dirty !

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Not at all

[@ghosh1999]

Please travel in Bhopal-New Delhi Vande Bharat Express

[@Jyotish_Chatterjee]

Bro can you make a video on face reveal

[@liamtahaney713]

Funny, I didn't think DB still opporated any sleeper services

[@barvdw]

They don't themselves, but ÖBB, the Austrian railways, have taken over most of the German sleeper train routes, albeit with some variations.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Exactly this

[@fivetwenty162]

Why do British railway company employees demonstrate so often? This often makes it difficult for customers when they go to work and come home from work. I'm Indonesian but my younger brother works around Birmingham. He takes the Commuter Train every day.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

?

[@user-wu1vp1tj3j]

10 to 20 minutes delay

[@NonstopEurotrip]

?

[@iggo45]

The masochist's rail line. How didn't they had a dark compartment for passenger flogging?

[@NonstopEurotrip]

?

[@iggo45]

@NonstopEurotrip "?" = the worst train experience. Prisoners in North Korean jails, are better treated.

[@Fox-One1937]

In an other rail channel, there are a train from istambul to villach in austria

[@NonstopEurotrip]

There is

[@chr04]

Turkey constructs a high speed line from Istanbul to Edirne

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Not yet

[@martinc.720]

That livery reminds me of the North Korean flag. Not good.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

More so the french flag

[@martinc.720]

@@NonstopEurotrip I said "It reminds me of". The question wasn't "Identify the national flag that resembles the livery the most".

[@Delta-pantages]

The livery is too white. Solid blue in the lower part beneath the existing blue line would improve things considerably.

[@NonstopEurotrip]

More paint costs though 😂

[@samtrak1204]

Istansubl, Constantinople Baby!

[@NonstopEurotrip]

😎😎

[@Murray_SPb]

Thank you for the video! Looking at the landscapes of Bulgaria I think about the paradoxes of history and ingratitude. When I first visited Plovdiv, it was a shock for me to see a memorial to Russian soldiers who came to liberate Bulgaria from the Turkish yoke. Hundreds of graves on the memorial mountain - officers, soldiers. In the temple, the entire basement is covered in the skulls of Russian soldiers. And now, Bulgaria is opposing Russia. Monstrous ingratitude! It seems to me that Russia under the Tsar should not have liberated Bulgaria from Turkish oppression. Why such sacrifices of the Russian people for the sake of an ungrateful nation. Have you seen this memorial, graves and church on the mountain in Plovdiv?

[@boikoborisov3399]

Yes our government currently opposes Russia because they are blinded by the west but to say the whole country is opposing Russia and is ungrateful is a bit shocking mate. We love Russia and are forever grateful for what they have done

[@Murray_SPb]

​@@boikoborisov3399Thanks for the answer! What then is the strength of democracy of the Bulgarian people? In Bulgaria, it is not Putin who rules with an iron fist. Vote for politicians who have a grateful historical memory and will not have a policy of hostility towards Russia. There is an example of Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia!

[@md-dp5bo]

so it is ‘tUrKiSh oPpReSsIoN’ to be a part of ottoman empire you say, yet its not ‘opression’ when almost 200 ethnic groups TO THIS DAY are under russian ‘yoke’ right? or should i mention how russia invaded half of the asian continent and caused native tribes to go basically go extinct? how do you have the nerve to say that while tatars, bashkirs, chechens and plenty of other people are under the yoke of russians as we speak? why dont you liberate people from your opression first instead of crying about turks? you are a white colonizer talking about ‘liberating’ people. why do slavic people have such a fixation with turks to this day? how about you liberate turkey from millions of your fellow russians who are invading our southern cities?

[@aakozanoglu]

😂

[@sickpilot]

Please, don`t comment on subjects you know nothing about. Modern Bulgaria and Bulgarians owe nothing to modern Russia and Russians. We cannot be grateful to infinity. Stop waging wars against the others and subdue your imperial aspirations, and people might actually start liking you more.

[@Invincible_joe]

Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryolları

[@Darude453]

Where is the sense of a night train when you have to do immigration in the middle of the night? So basically you cannot sleep in this sleeping train because you have to wait for immigration officers. 🫣

[@NonstopEurotrip]

😬😬😬

[@dieterkrogh5267]

A couple of years ago I went from Munich to Hamburg (both in Germany) by train late evening. All was fine until - in Gottingen there was an alarming light in the driver's cabin. Nobody knew why, but we all had to get out and take the follow-up train one hour later. With tis train we made it till Hannover, where the train was about to be separated. One part to Bremen and one part to Hamburg. But they couldn't be separated. So - next follow-up train one hour later, which really made it to Hamburg. I started the trip at 6 pm and arrived at 4 am. Normally the trip takes 6 hrs and 30 minutes...

[@NonstopEurotrip]

Sounds like a very German thing to happen lol