Orient Express - A cikin 1887, jirgin farko na Orient Express zuwa Istanbul ya bar Vienna. A haƙiƙa, tafiyarsa ta farko a cikin jirgin ƙasa na almara ita ce ranar 4 ga Oktoba, 1883. Jirgin gwaji da ake kira "Tsarin Walƙiya na Luxury" ya yi tafiya mai nisa daga Paris - Vienna - Paris a farkon Oktoba 1882. Menu na farko a cikin jirgin ya haɗa da kawa, miya. tare da taliya Italiya, turbot tare da koren miya, kajin mafarauci, naman sa da dankali, koren salatin, cakulan pudding da sauran kayan zaki.
Motocin dai an yi musu fentin launin shudi da zinare, jirgin na tafiya sau biyu a mako tsakanin Paris da Istanbul, inda ya ratsa ta Strasbourg, Munich, Vienna, Budapest da Bucharest. Jirgin ba kai tsaye ba ne. Ya tsaya a Giurgievo (a cikin Romania), ya haye kogin Danube ta hanyar jirgin ruwa na Ruse, sannan wani jirgin kasa ya yi tazara tsakanin Ruse da Varna, tashar jiragen ruwa a kan Bahar Black Sea. Daga nan ne wani jirgin ruwa dan kasar Austria ya dauki fasinjoji zuwa Istanbul. A cikin 1885, sabis ɗin ya zama kullun daga Paris zuwa Vienna da baya.
A lokacin bazara na 1889, an kammala layin dogo zuwa babban birnin Turkiyya kuma jirgin ya ci gaba kai tsaye daga Bucharest zuwa Istanbul. Abu ne mai ban sha'awa cewa a cikin 1894 kamfanin da ya kirkiro jirgin ya bude wasu otal-otal na alfarma ga fasinjojinsa a Istanbul. Ɗaya daga cikin waɗannan otal ɗin shine otal ɗin Pera Palace da ke gundumar Beyoglu. Otal din ya yi maraba da shahararrun baƙi, ciki har da manyan jahohi da masu fasaha tun 1892. Agatha Christie, Ernest Hemingway, Greta Garbo, Kemal Atatürk, Alfred Hitchcock, Honore de Balzac, Mata Hari, Nikita Khrushchev, Sarauniya Elizabeth II, suna cikin shahararrun baƙi na otal din.
Bayan canje-canjen hanyoyi da dama, yaƙe-yaƙe biyu, da raguwar darajarsa a lokacin yaƙin cacar baka, an dakatar da aikin jirgin na yau da kullun zuwa Istanbul da Athens a cikin 1977. Jirgin ya daina yin hidima na yau da kullun, amma har yanzu yana rayuwa a matsayin wurin shakatawa na lokaci-lokaci. .
Hoton Julia Abramova
