The Orient Express – Train Ride Sleep Story

Allow me to take you on an epic journey on the Orient Express. It’s early evening in Paris. You are here, in one of the world’s great cities, and you are preparing for a wonderful journey, racing across Europe. You are standing on the platform in Gare de l’Est, the train station where the Orient Express leaves Paris. Perhaps you feel a little excited at this once-in-a-lifetime journey that is about to unfold in front of you. You look at the train, marvelous in its splendor. This train has lived in the imaginations of millions for a very long time. All sorts of stories surround the Orient Express.

During the last war, it was known that many spies would travel back and forth across Europe and use the Orient Express as a means of travel. As you look at it now from the outside, it isn’t difficult to imagine the world of those spies. You hear the sound of the train getting ready. You see the people on the platform. You look at the faces of the people on the platform.

You try and place them in different clothes, maybe imagining that we are in the 1940s and the world is a very different place. But the Orient Express stays the same. The day has been horse in Paris, and so you are ready to be refreshed as you board this splendid locomotive. From the second you got on the train, you are transported to another world, to a time when care was taken over the smallest detail.

The craftsmanship on this train is immediately apparent. The textures of the different types of wood, the finery, even the smell brings you somewhere. Somewhere you’ve never been before. Perhaps, as you board this historical train, you feel comforted by the care and attention to detail that is given to everything for this journey.

You walk along the carriages, tickets in hand, being led to your compartment by a friendly train Butler, Pierre. He shows you to your room, and when I say “room,” I really mean “suite,” for you will be spending your time on this train in one of the finest suites the Orient Express has to offer. Pierre leaves you, and you breathe in your new surroundings. You sit down on the sumptuous bed and look around and simply breathe in and out, in and out. You decide to take off your shoes and socks, and the feeling of the luxurious carpet beneath your feet makes you feel very special indeed. This is a rare treat, only experienced by few.

This train that you now sit on was the brainchild of a man called George Nagelmackers. In 1865, he had this idea of a train that would span the entire continent, running on a continuous ribbon of metal for more than 1500 miles. It was after a trip to America that George became inspired by the luxurious sleeper cars and trains, and realized that he could do the exact same thing in Europe. It was on the 4th of October 1883 that the Orient Express made its first journey from Paris to Istanbul. It was actually known as the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (Wagon-Lit is the French for sleep), but the newspapers gave the train the name we know today, the Orient Express. Why? Well, because the train travels east towards the Orient, towards the great city of Istanbul, the only city in Europe that covers two continents.

Now the train starts to leave the station. Perhaps you feel a great sense of joy at this magical moment occurring in your life. The train slowly moves through the great city of Paris, and you look out the window, saying goodbye to the City of Lights. You see the Eiffel Tower in the distance, splendid in its elegance, and soon Paris is far behind you. The train rose through the sleepy French countryside. The sun is setting now, and as you look onto the horizon, you can see that there are clouds moving in. First, it will rain tonight. As you settle in to your Orient Express adventure, you decide to take a walk, and you walk along the carriages on the train, rhythmically moving beneath your feet.

And it strikes you how interesting it is to walk along this train as it moves at speed through the French countryside. In a way, you feel like you’re walking back in time. You pass by some of the train porters as you walk, and it strikes you that they could be from any period in time from the last hundred years. And you allow yourself to imagine that you are on the first-ever journey of the Orient Express. You pass by other passengers; they smile at you and greet you. You give each other a knowing look, a look that says, “We are very lucky people to be experiencing this wonderful journey.” It is getting darker and darker outside now. You can see out through the windows as you walk through the train. You decide to stop for a moment at a door that has a long window, and you just stand there, feeling grounded despite the moving train beneath your feet.

You feel so safe and secure, and you look out at the darkening land beyond the train, the silhouette of the hills around you. And you look up, and the first star is beginning to show her face. You are reminded that you are here on a great planet floating through space and time, and that this train that you are on is moving along the surface of this planet. And whoever big and powerful this train may feel, it is but a tiny, tiny part of the life of this amazing planet that we are lucky enough to call our home. You know being a human is a great privilege, and having life is an exception, and so while we are on planet Earth and we have life, it is a wonderful thing to allow ourselves to experience as much as possible. In this experience that you are having tonight, traveling on this great iconic train is another great experience to add into the rich tapestry of your life, and you continue to walk along the train, perhaps rejoicing in the fact that no one knows where you are.

You are anonymous here. How exciting and how marvelous. Eventually, you will arrive at the restaurant and bar. You use it as a little table, and you order a nice refreshing drink and some food. Once again, you look around you. The attention to detail is mesmerizing. The smell is all over. The carriages are so comforting. The romance of food being cooked to perfection by the Michelin-starred chef and the drinks being mixed in the bar with the finest of ingredients, and the different scents from the other passengers really allow you to let your mind wander, and maybe the scents bring back lots of memories, memories of good times. And as you wait for your food, drops appear on the window, and then another and another, and soon you can see it is raining heavily in the distance. You see the sky light up, and you realize that there is a storm happening outside the train. But staying here, you feel so safe, so cozy, so secure. Eventually, your food arrives, and it is one of your favorite meals.

It is cooked better than you have ever tasted in. As the waiter places the plate in front of you and the food sitting on the finest China, he says “bon appetit” and leaves you to enjoy the comforting food that nourishes your body. As you enjoy every mouthful of food, it strikes you, perhaps, that this is the moment to savor. It isn’t every night that you get to sit in one of the most famous trains that ever existed and eat food cooked by a Michelin-starred chef. Do you feel satisfied now, and maybe very peaceful? It’s time now to walk back to your cabin. You are starting to feel very sleepy as you enter your room. Perhaps a warm feeling of comfort overtakes you. And this is where you will sleep for the next number of nights, all the way to Istanbul. This is your safe space, and what is a safe space? It is so luxurious, so fine, only the finest and meat products around you, right down to the beautiful Egyptian cotton sheets that you are about to get under. You do whatever you have to do to end your day, and then the moment arrives. The bed is just perfect. It’s as if the bed has been made especially for you. On the pillow, it feels like it has been carved to fit exactly the shape of your head and neck. You feel supported, safe, and calm. Before you go to sleep, you take out your favorite book and start to read in the dimly lit room. And the sound of the train continues rhythmically clicking and clicking through the countryside that is beyond the darkened windows. A thought strikes you that you are not seeing what is outside, but perhaps you are excited to enjoy whatever views will come tomorrow. But for now, as you read your book and the rain falls outside and the sound of thunder rumbles in the distance, and your mind is filled with all of the images that your book provides, everything feels just right. And your eyes become heavy, and you fall into the most deep and restful sleep you have ever had. And as you sleep, you sleep safe in the knowledge that the attentive staff aboard this train are looking after all of your needs and all of the other passengers. Everyone is safe.

The expensive room on the trip has been so worth it. Breakfast in bed just feels right. Your porter comes in and presents you with your favorite breakfast, and then they open the curtain and allow you to look out on the magnificent view beyond. You are then left alone to enjoy the nourishing food. The train is on a constant, deserver rhythmically trundling through the landscape, and as you watch the landscape you find yourself in now, you are in the Austrian Alps. You can’t help but get out of bed to go and look closer. What you see is startling. The splendid mountains rise high above the trees. You see snow at the top, and above the snow, a blue sky you’re not sure you’ve ever seen before. This is a special place. The morning moon still sits in the sky, amber and unassuming, constant as the train bears off into the mountains. So strong, so ancient. How wonderful the natural world is. The green of the grass, the weight of the snow, the blue of the sky, the heat of the sun. All combined to fill you perhaps with a warm glow of peace and tranquility. Serenity and calm.

Your time aboard the Orient Express is phenomenal! You see the great city of Vienna, home to Beethoven and Mozart, one of the finest cities in all of Europe. You visit Budapest, the great Hungarian city that was once two cities, Buda and Pest. And the further east you travel, the more you notice the subtle changes in the people you see, in the landscape. And perhaps you are struck by the thought that no matter where we are from or who we are, background we are, we are all humans living on this great planet, doing our best with what we are presented with.

You travel to Bucharest, the capital of Romania, a very interesting place where you witnessed some great splendour of the old buildings of the city, a place that was once known as the ‘Paris of the East’. You feel immense gratitude to all who got you here safely. You feel immense gratitude for the experiences that you had and the many opulent sleeps that you enjoyed. You leave the train and begin walking through the streets of Istanbul. You hear the sound of the Muslim call to prayer, and you know that you are in a very different place to where you started. The smell is very different, the faces of the people different, the energy different.

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