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I'm embarking on a railway adventure that will take me | 0:00:03 | 0:00:06 | |
beyond the edge of Continental Europe. | 0:00:06 | 0:00:09 | |
I'll be using this, my Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide, | 0:00:11 | 0:00:15 | |
dated 1913, which opened up an exotic world | 0:00:15 | 0:00:19 | |
of foreign travel for the British tourist. | 0:00:19 | 0:00:22 | |
It told travellers where to go, what to see, and how to | 0:00:22 | 0:00:26 | |
navigate the thousands of miles of tracks crisscrossing the Continent. | 0:00:26 | 0:00:30 | |
Now, a century later, | 0:00:30 | 0:00:32 | |
I am using my copy to reveal an era of great optimism and energy, | 0:00:32 | 0:00:36 | |
where technology, industry, science and the arts were flourishing. | 0:00:36 | 0:00:41 | |
I want to rediscover that lost Europe, that in 1913 couldn't know | 0:00:42 | 0:00:48 | |
that its way of life would shortly be swept aside by the advent of war. | 0:00:48 | 0:00:52 | |
I'm continuing my journey along the eastern edge of Continental Europe. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:11 | |
I began in Sofia, capital of Bulgaria. | 0:01:11 | 0:01:14 | |
My journey then took me to the ancient city of Plovdiv. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:19 | |
Today, I'll follow the historic route of the Orient Express, | 0:01:19 | 0:01:23 | |
crossing into Turkey from Svilengrad, | 0:01:23 | 0:01:26 | |
and visiting Edirne, the former Ottoman capital, | 0:01:26 | 0:01:29 | |
before arriving at my final stop - Istanbul. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:33 | |
'On this leg, I'll get to grips with a slippery Turkish tradition.' | 0:01:35 | 0:01:40 | |
I've noticed that one of the techniques is to | 0:01:40 | 0:01:42 | |
thrust a hand down the breeches of the other wrestler, | 0:01:42 | 0:01:46 | |
so, clearly, it's no holds barred. | 0:01:46 | 0:01:49 | |
'I'll discover what Istanbul would have been like in 1913...' | 0:01:49 | 0:01:53 | |
There were refugees everywhere. | 0:01:53 | 0:01:55 | |
Muslim refugees from the Balkans crowded every available space. | 0:01:55 | 0:01:58 | |
'..delight in a Turkish treat...' | 0:01:58 | 0:02:01 | |
You should feel the resistance, | 0:02:01 | 0:02:03 | |
but your teeth should be able to bite cleanly through the product. | 0:02:03 | 0:02:07 | |
I think I had that experience, but... | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
I think I might need another to be sure. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:11 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:02:11 | 0:02:14 | |
'..and fulfil a boyish fantasy.' | 0:02:14 | 0:02:16 | |
This is the route of the Orient Express, and I am driving the train. | 0:02:16 | 0:02:21 | |
I'm continuing my journey towards Istanbul, Constantinople. | 0:02:26 | 0:02:31 | |
Unfortunately, today, there are no through train services | 0:02:31 | 0:02:34 | |
and it seems that things weren't very different | 0:02:34 | 0:02:36 | |
at the time of my guidebook. | 0:02:36 | 0:02:38 | |
"Since the outbreak of hostilities..." | 0:02:38 | 0:02:40 | |
That would be a reference to the Second Balkan War. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:43 | |
"..the train service has been suspended." | 0:02:43 | 0:02:46 | |
Today, it's for a happier reason. | 0:02:46 | 0:02:47 | |
The European Union has designated a railway network | 0:02:47 | 0:02:50 | |
running from Dresden and Strasbourg in the west to Istanbul in the east. | 0:02:50 | 0:02:55 | |
And the section that I'm about to come to | 0:02:55 | 0:02:58 | |
is being massively rebuilt | 0:02:58 | 0:03:00 | |
so that the spirit of the Orient Express can rise again. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:04 | |
As there are no public services through to my next destination, | 0:03:08 | 0:03:11 | |
I'm leaving this train at Parvomay to meet Richard Kerry, | 0:03:11 | 0:03:15 | |
the British civil engineer | 0:03:15 | 0:03:17 | |
who's supervising the rebuilding of this historic railway. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:20 | |
-Hello, Richard. -Hello, Michael. Nice to meet you. -Very good to see you. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:25 | |
I'm sorry to lower your visibility, but...! | 0:03:25 | 0:03:28 | |
-Not as bright as mine. -Not quite. -Right. -Please, welcome aboard. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:31 | |
Thank you very much. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:33 | |
Richard, I think this is the smartest wagon I've seen on rails for a long time. | 0:03:42 | 0:03:46 | |
-What is it? -Well, it's a works train. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:48 | |
It's a specialist train that they use to monitor and oversee | 0:03:48 | 0:03:53 | |
the electrical feeding system above the railway. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:57 | |
'The line will also be straightened, | 0:03:57 | 0:03:59 | |
'allowing trains to run at up to 100mph.' | 0:03:59 | 0:04:03 | |
So, this section really tells the whole story. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:05 | |
Here we are moving on an old track, which is very, very bumpy, | 0:04:05 | 0:04:09 | |
overgrown in places, foliage on either side. | 0:04:09 | 0:04:12 | |
And yet we can also see, to the sides, the new construction site, | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
the dust, the lorries, the trucks, the earth-moving equipment. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:19 | |
It's all happening. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:20 | |
Yes, obviously, 100 years ago, the engineers were not able | 0:04:20 | 0:04:24 | |
to form their way through the hillsides | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
in the way that they do now. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:28 | |
So, now, we've come off the old line. The bumping has stopped - | 0:04:30 | 0:04:34 | |
this is obviously new track - | 0:04:34 | 0:04:36 | |
we're passing a station that's under construction. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:39 | |
Absolutely. I'm glad you noticed the difference. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:42 | |
Now we're on the new line, | 0:04:42 | 0:04:44 | |
we can speed up to 160km per hour | 0:04:44 | 0:04:47 | |
and take ourselves off down to the borders of the European Union. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
Bulgaria became a member of the EU in 2007, | 0:04:52 | 0:04:56 | |
and this railway line is part of the new European high-speed rail network. | 0:04:56 | 0:05:00 | |
This 150km stretch between Parvomay and Svilengrad | 0:05:02 | 0:05:06 | |
is costing £300 million to build. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:09 | |
As I near the end of my exclusive preview | 0:05:13 | 0:05:15 | |
of this exciting new project, | 0:05:15 | 0:05:17 | |
I get to live the dream. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
This is the route of the Orient Express, | 0:05:20 | 0:05:23 | |
and I am driving the train. | 0:05:23 | 0:05:25 | |
And nobody's told me, but I think this is the accelerator. | 0:05:28 | 0:05:31 | |
Anyone know where the brake is? | 0:05:31 | 0:05:33 | |
Here in the driving seat, you get a complete appreciation | 0:05:34 | 0:05:38 | |
of the difference that the new track makes. | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
It's wonderfully smooth | 0:05:41 | 0:05:42 | |
and I can see now all the posts have gone in along the side of the line. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:46 | |
This is where the wires will hang. | 0:05:46 | 0:05:48 | |
And shortly, the route of the Orient Express | 0:05:48 | 0:05:52 | |
will be fast and electrified. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:54 | |
My engineering train has taken me as far as Svilengrad, | 0:05:58 | 0:06:02 | |
just short of the Turkish border. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:04 | |
From here, I have no choice but to hit the road. | 0:06:11 | 0:06:14 | |
I'm now approaching the Turkish border, to my chagrin, | 0:06:22 | 0:06:24 | |
in a car, not a train. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:27 | |
Bradshaw's is not encouraging. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:30 | |
"Customs examinations are extremely vexatious and unreasonable, | 0:06:30 | 0:06:34 | |
"books being liable to seizure and to being destroyed. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:38 | |
"Passport and luggage are examined. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:40 | |
"It's advisable to put guidebooks and maps in one's pocket | 0:06:40 | 0:06:44 | |
"to avoid confiscation." | 0:06:44 | 0:06:47 | |
But what pocket is big enough for a Bradshaw's? | 0:06:47 | 0:06:49 | |
The border had only just been settled here in July 1913, | 0:06:52 | 0:06:56 | |
following fierce fighting during the two Balkan Wars. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:00 | |
So, travelling into Turkey a century ago, | 0:07:04 | 0:07:06 | |
I might have been crossing a warzone. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:09 | |
Today, my passage into Turkey's toehold in Europe | 0:07:11 | 0:07:15 | |
goes without a hitch. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:17 | |
When I left Bulgaria, I not only quit the European Union, | 0:07:23 | 0:07:27 | |
but also Christendom. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:29 | |
The boundary between Christian and Muslim domains | 0:07:29 | 0:07:32 | |
has been hotly disputed over many centuries. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
At one time, it stood close to the French town of Tours. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:39 | |
At another time, it was just outside Vienna. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:43 | |
And for the last century, it's run just close by here, | 0:07:43 | 0:07:46 | |
just outside Edirne. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:48 | |
This city was the empire's capital | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
before the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:02 | |
Thereafter, it remained an important Ottoman centre. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:07 | |
So much so that Sultan Selim II commissioned his finest architect | 0:08:07 | 0:08:12 | |
to build the monumental Selimiye Mosque at its highest point. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:17 | |
Sultan Selim's fine mosque, according to Bradshaw's, has a lofty dome, | 0:08:22 | 0:08:28 | |
four minarets, many marble courts, colonnades | 0:08:28 | 0:08:32 | |
and 999 windows. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:35 | |
It is the work of Mimar Sinan, and "Mimar" means "architect", | 0:08:35 | 0:08:39 | |
and he was simply the greatest of the Ottoman period. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:43 | |
This predates St Peter's Cathedral in Rome, and the Taj Mahal, | 0:08:43 | 0:08:48 | |
but in common with those two great buildings, | 0:08:48 | 0:08:50 | |
it seems to me that it wears its bulk very lightly. | 0:08:50 | 0:08:54 | |
It's as though the four minarets are somehow carrying it towards heaven. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:58 | |
I really do feel as though | 0:09:06 | 0:09:08 | |
I've stepped over a threshold into the Orient, | 0:09:08 | 0:09:10 | |
not only because of the architecture, but also because of the traditions. | 0:09:10 | 0:09:15 | |
This part of Turkey | 0:09:15 | 0:09:16 | |
maintains a practice dating back over 3,000 years | 0:09:16 | 0:09:20 | |
and I've been invited to this stadium to witness it. | 0:09:20 | 0:09:23 | |
An oil wrestling tournament has been held annually in this area | 0:09:28 | 0:09:32 | |
since 1346, | 0:09:32 | 0:09:34 | |
making it the longest-running sports competition in the world. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:38 | |
The wrestlers are covered in this stuff, which is olive oil, | 0:09:39 | 0:09:43 | |
and that makes it very difficult | 0:09:43 | 0:09:45 | |
for either one to get a grip on the other. | 0:09:45 | 0:09:48 | |
Now, they're wearing leather pants, and I can see that | 0:09:48 | 0:09:52 | |
they're trying to put their hands inside the other's trousers. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:56 | |
So, I think anything goes. Any hold at all is allowed. | 0:09:56 | 0:09:59 | |
But, apparently, at the end of it all, | 0:09:59 | 0:10:02 | |
there are marks given for gentlemanly conduct. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
Ouch. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:11 | |
I wonder what straight-laced Edwardian tourists | 0:10:13 | 0:10:16 | |
would have made of this. | 0:10:16 | 0:10:17 | |
-Ah! -Oh! | 0:10:19 | 0:10:20 | |
-Hello. -Do you speak English? -Yes. A little. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:23 | |
Well, thank you. I've rarely seen such an extraordinary spectacle. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:27 | |
-Thank you very much. -Congratulations. | 0:10:27 | 0:10:29 | |
Were you a kid when you started this? | 0:10:29 | 0:10:31 | |
-Ten years. -Yeah? -Ten years. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:34 | |
-Are you very exhausted? -Yes. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:38 | |
Thank you very much. Bye. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:40 | |
It's clear that I've tumbled into another world. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:45 | |
And after watching such exertions, | 0:10:45 | 0:10:47 | |
I'm ready to slide into my bed for my first night's sleep in Turkey. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:52 | |
This morning, I've come two miles out of town | 0:10:57 | 0:11:00 | |
in search of the historic route of the Orient Express. | 0:11:00 | 0:11:04 | |
I've found this beautiful old station | 0:11:04 | 0:11:06 | |
where I'm meeting historian Soner Tursun. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:09 | |
-Hello, Soner. -Hello. -Very good to see you. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:12 | |
My guidebook tells me that the station is some distance | 0:11:12 | 0:11:14 | |
from the town, and so it is. | 0:11:14 | 0:11:16 | |
Why was it built here? | 0:11:16 | 0:11:18 | |
Well, actually, the company had no interest | 0:11:18 | 0:11:22 | |
in building the station closer to the city, | 0:11:22 | 0:11:25 | |
because it had to cross the Maritsa River | 0:11:25 | 0:11:28 | |
and, of course, the company was paid by the kilometre they build, | 0:11:28 | 0:11:33 | |
so it was not good for them to take the shortest route. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:38 | |
That's extraordinary. Now, who was it who built the line we know | 0:11:38 | 0:11:42 | |
as the Orient Express? | 0:11:42 | 0:11:44 | |
Well, actually, it was such a big project | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
that no single person was totally responsible for it. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:51 | |
The Ottoman Empire had no money, so it granted concessions. | 0:11:51 | 0:11:56 | |
The first person was Baron von Hirsch. | 0:11:56 | 0:12:01 | |
Von Hirsch set up a consortium and construction began in 1870. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:07 | |
When did an Orient Express first pass through this lovely Edirne station? | 0:12:07 | 0:12:12 | |
What we call the Orient Express, starting from Paris, | 0:12:12 | 0:12:16 | |
ending in Istanbul, crossed the line in 1883. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:20 | |
The Orient Express had a reputation for luxury. | 0:12:22 | 0:12:26 | |
Until it gained a reputation for murder. | 0:12:26 | 0:12:29 | |
One of the people who made the Orient Express so famous | 0:12:29 | 0:12:33 | |
was, of course, Agatha Christie, | 0:12:33 | 0:12:34 | |
with her novel Murder On The Orient Express. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:37 | |
What was her experience of the line, then? | 0:12:37 | 0:12:39 | |
It was an unlucky travel, | 0:12:39 | 0:12:42 | |
because the train got stuck because of a snow slide. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:46 | |
The train had to wait for a long time | 0:12:46 | 0:12:49 | |
and probably she was inspired because of this event. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:54 | |
Because in this story, | 0:12:54 | 0:12:55 | |
the Orient Express gets stuck because of a snow slide | 0:12:55 | 0:13:00 | |
and in the morning, they see one of the passengers was killed | 0:13:00 | 0:13:04 | |
and everyone becomes the suspect. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:06 | |
If only I could make such a fortune out of every train delay. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:10 | |
This beautiful old station is now out of commission | 0:13:11 | 0:13:14 | |
and houses the Fine Arts faculty of the University of Trakya. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:19 | |
In its heyday, the railway carried countesses and millionaires, | 0:13:23 | 0:13:28 | |
presidents and crooks, | 0:13:28 | 0:13:31 | |
all speeding their way to my final destination. | 0:13:31 | 0:13:34 | |
For the last leg of my journey, | 0:13:36 | 0:13:38 | |
I'm picking up the train to the centre of a city | 0:13:38 | 0:13:41 | |
known in my Bradshaw's as Constantinople, | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
and renamed Istanbul in 1930. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:48 | |
A short stroll from my stop, I find the old Sirkeci station, | 0:13:50 | 0:13:55 | |
the grand terminus of the Orient Express, | 0:13:55 | 0:13:58 | |
which ran from Paris for almost a century, until 1977. | 0:13:58 | 0:14:03 | |
"The principal railway station, | 0:14:04 | 0:14:06 | |
"the terminus of the Oriental Railway Company," | 0:14:06 | 0:14:10 | |
says Bradshaw's, "is the arrival and departure station | 0:14:10 | 0:14:13 | |
"for all trains connecting with the rest of Europe." | 0:14:13 | 0:14:17 | |
I know it's semi-deserted today. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:19 | |
I imagine the excitement of travellers | 0:14:19 | 0:14:21 | |
arriving from points all over the continent, | 0:14:21 | 0:14:24 | |
the commotion as they descended from the train with their trunks | 0:14:24 | 0:14:28 | |
and their hatboxes and their servants. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:31 | |
The noise of the impact of West upon East. | 0:14:31 | 0:14:35 | |
Istanbul is built, like Rome, on seven hills. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:48 | |
This is a city as treasured and fought over as Jerusalem, | 0:14:50 | 0:14:55 | |
as important a city of empire as Rome. | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
It's one of the greats in the long history of the Old World. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:02 | |
I've come to admire the most famous building in this historic city, | 0:15:06 | 0:15:10 | |
which began life as a Christian cathedral. | 0:15:10 | 0:15:13 | |
When I first saw the Hagia Sophia, | 0:15:13 | 0:15:16 | |
it took me a while to work out what this building was | 0:15:16 | 0:15:19 | |
because, of course, it looks like a mosque, but it was built by a Roman. | 0:15:19 | 0:15:23 | |
It was built by the Emperor Justinian. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:25 | |
And, to me, it's just extraordinary that such an immense building | 0:15:25 | 0:15:29 | |
could have been created 1,500 years ago. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:32 | |
-Hello. Do you speak English? -Yeah. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:38 | |
-Are you enjoying your visit to Istanbul? -Yeah, definitely. | 0:15:38 | 0:15:42 | |
-What have you enjoyed so far most? -The Hagia Sophia. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:46 | |
I think it's really beautiful to see how the Islamic and the Christian... | 0:15:46 | 0:15:51 | |
..art converges together. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:55 | |
Especially in times of war and stuff like that. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:59 | |
Do you feel while you're in Istanbul | 0:15:59 | 0:16:01 | |
-that you're in this meeting place of East and West... -Yeah. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:04 | |
-..of Islam and Christianity? -Yeah, definitely. | 0:16:04 | 0:16:07 | |
And I think the church really shows, in one building, the whole city. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:13 | |
There's an extraordinary buzz about the streets of Istanbul. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:29 | |
The shops and the cafes tumble into the street. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:33 | |
The restaurant owners invite you into their premises. | 0:16:33 | 0:16:37 | |
The merchandise is exotic. | 0:16:37 | 0:16:39 | |
OK, it's touristy, but it is undeniably different. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:43 | |
You have made the journey. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:45 | |
Hello. | 0:16:49 | 0:16:51 | |
Cheese, potato, apple pie. Turkish borek. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:53 | |
-Apple pie. Apple pie. -Apple pie. | 0:16:53 | 0:16:56 | |
-How much is that? -Three dinar. Four dinar, three dinar. | 0:16:56 | 0:17:00 | |
-There we go. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you. -Bye-bye. -Bye-bye. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:04 | |
-Hello, good day. -Mm. -Yes, please. | 0:17:07 | 0:17:09 | |
It's good. It's good. | 0:17:10 | 0:17:12 | |
Leaving the hectic buzz of the Old City behind, | 0:17:19 | 0:17:22 | |
I'm making my way down to the banks of the Bosporus, | 0:17:22 | 0:17:25 | |
the narrow channel which links the Black Sea with the Mediterranean. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:29 | |
-Hello, Caroline. -Hello, good to see you. -Very good to see you. | 0:17:29 | 0:17:34 | |
Here, I wanted to discover more about Istanbul in the early 20th century | 0:17:34 | 0:17:39 | |
from historian Caroline Finkel. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:42 | |
Caroline, we can see the Suleymaniye Mosque and the Topkapi Palace. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:45 | |
I suppose these buildings really represent | 0:17:45 | 0:17:48 | |
the Ottoman Empire at the height of its powers. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:50 | |
That's very much the case. | 0:17:50 | 0:17:52 | |
They're built, as you can see, | 0:17:52 | 0:17:54 | |
on the spine of the hill in a very dominating position. | 0:17:54 | 0:17:57 | |
Everyone who approached by sea would see them immediately, | 0:17:57 | 0:18:00 | |
standing there on the promontory, | 0:18:00 | 0:18:02 | |
and it must have been quite a sight when you came to the city. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:05 | |
'The Topkapi Palace was the first seat of government | 0:18:05 | 0:18:08 | |
'for the Ottoman sultans, | 0:18:08 | 0:18:09 | |
'who held absolute power across the empire. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:12 | |
'Next to it, the Suleymaniye Mosque was completed in 1557, | 0:18:13 | 0:18:18 | |
'when the empire controlled | 0:18:18 | 0:18:20 | |
'most of the eastern and southern Mediterranean.' | 0:18:20 | 0:18:24 | |
But by the early 20th century, the city was no longer | 0:18:24 | 0:18:28 | |
at the centre of a thriving empire. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:30 | |
The 1913 traveller, using my guidebook, | 0:18:33 | 0:18:36 | |
what would he have found in Constantinople? | 0:18:36 | 0:18:38 | |
It seems to me rather surprising | 0:18:38 | 0:18:39 | |
that people were being encouraged to come. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:41 | |
I don't think the FCO today would recommend that people came in 1913. | 0:18:41 | 0:18:45 | |
It was a terrible year. The city was in turmoil. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:49 | |
It was just, of course, before the First World War, | 0:18:49 | 0:18:51 | |
but the First World War was merely a culmination | 0:18:51 | 0:18:54 | |
of everything that went before. | 0:18:54 | 0:18:56 | |
The empire had shrunk dramatically, | 0:18:56 | 0:18:59 | |
losing provinces that had been Ottoman for five centuries | 0:18:59 | 0:19:03 | |
in a matter of weeks during the First Balkan War of 1912. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:07 | |
There were refugees everywhere. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:11 | |
Muslim refugees from the Balkans crowded every available space. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:15 | |
Hundreds of thousands of refugees with nothing. | 0:19:15 | 0:19:17 | |
While the empire's borders contracted, | 0:19:18 | 0:19:21 | |
pressure for reform built inside Turkey | 0:19:21 | 0:19:24 | |
from a revolutionary group known as the Young Turks. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:28 | |
And the great powers circled like vultures over the Bosporus. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:32 | |
The greatest threat came from the Russians, | 0:19:32 | 0:19:35 | |
who were trying to come down and take warm-water harbours. | 0:19:35 | 0:19:39 | |
They only had the cold waters of the north, frozen much of the year, | 0:19:39 | 0:19:42 | |
and this was the cause of much of the wars | 0:19:42 | 0:19:44 | |
between the Ottomans and the Russians. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:47 | |
As the Ottomans had grown weaker, they'd sought an ally in the West | 0:19:47 | 0:19:51 | |
and had aligned themselves with the newest state in Europe, Germany. | 0:19:51 | 0:19:56 | |
The Germans did not have a record of having tutored the Ottomans, | 0:19:56 | 0:19:59 | |
for better or for worse, throughout the long centuries. | 0:19:59 | 0:20:02 | |
They had industry, technology to sell, military reforms, railways, | 0:20:02 | 0:20:07 | |
and it was a very happy alliance between the two. | 0:20:07 | 0:20:10 | |
The Ottomans' defeat in the First World War | 0:20:14 | 0:20:17 | |
gave rise to the nationalist movement which was to remove the sultans | 0:20:17 | 0:20:21 | |
and lead to the foundation of the modern state of Turkey. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:24 | |
I've stayed overnight in this opulent hotel | 0:20:37 | 0:20:40 | |
which, at the time of my guidebook, | 0:20:40 | 0:20:42 | |
was the property of the International Sleeping Car Company | 0:20:42 | 0:20:46 | |
which ran the trains of the Orient Express. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
Ah, the elegance of centuries gone by. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:51 | |
Good morning. | 0:20:57 | 0:20:59 | |
Having relished the heights of Edwardian luxury, | 0:21:00 | 0:21:02 | |
there's one more treat I have to delight in while I'm here. | 0:21:02 | 0:21:06 | |
-Hello, Hande. -Oh, hello. -Good morning, I'm Michael. -Good morning. | 0:21:10 | 0:21:14 | |
-Nice to meet you. -What a delightful shop. -Thank you. -How old is it? | 0:21:14 | 0:21:18 | |
It's 238 years old, exactly. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:21 | |
It was opened 1777. | 0:21:21 | 0:21:24 | |
'Hande's ancestor, Haci Bekir, moved to Istanbul from Anatolia | 0:21:24 | 0:21:29 | |
'and set up this shop. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:30 | |
'His excellent sweetmeats came to the attention of Sultan Mahmud II, | 0:21:30 | 0:21:35 | |
'who appointed him Chief Confectioner to the Palace. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:39 | |
'Today, Hande Celalyan is the fifth generation of the family | 0:21:39 | 0:21:43 | |
'to run the shop.' | 0:21:43 | 0:21:45 | |
And when can we call these confections Turkish delight? | 0:21:45 | 0:21:49 | |
This is when an English traveller | 0:21:49 | 0:21:51 | |
bought some Turkish delight from Istanbul | 0:21:51 | 0:21:54 | |
and brought it to England. | 0:21:54 | 0:21:55 | |
At that time, it was called rahat-ul hulkum. | 0:21:55 | 0:21:58 | |
-What was that word? -Rahat-ul hulkum. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:01 | |
Rahat-ul hulkum. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:03 | |
And then it was rahat lokum, and lokum simply for us, too. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:07 | |
-Oh, lokum is easier. -That was the development of the word in Turkish. | 0:22:07 | 0:22:10 | |
Lokum. I can manage that, actually. | 0:22:10 | 0:22:13 | |
'Hande is constantly developing new varieties | 0:22:13 | 0:22:17 | |
'using a vast array of tantalising ingredients.' | 0:22:17 | 0:22:20 | |
This is Turkish delight with walnuts. So, as you see... | 0:22:20 | 0:22:25 | |
they are produced in rolls. | 0:22:25 | 0:22:28 | |
-Like sausages. -Like sausages, yes, indeed. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:30 | |
-And then they are cut here by hand freshly in the shop. -Fantastic. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:35 | |
What would you say to someone like me | 0:22:35 | 0:22:36 | |
who finds Turkish delight a little too sweet? | 0:22:36 | 0:22:40 | |
You should try something with nuts, | 0:22:40 | 0:22:42 | |
because the nuts are cutting the sweetness. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:46 | |
Tell me your impression. | 0:22:46 | 0:22:47 | |
Well, I think you're right. It's not too sweet. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:52 | |
It has a lovely elasticity. Yeah, I like that. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:55 | |
You should feel the resistance | 0:22:55 | 0:22:57 | |
but your teeth should be able to bite cleanly through the product. | 0:22:57 | 0:23:01 | |
Well, I think I had that experience, | 0:23:01 | 0:23:03 | |
but I think I might need another to be sure. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:06 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:23:06 | 0:23:08 | |
For my final delight here in Istanbul, | 0:23:13 | 0:23:16 | |
I'm heading back to Sirkeci Metro station | 0:23:16 | 0:23:19 | |
to cross one of the most fought-over sea channels in the world. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:22 | |
Bradshaw's tells me you can take a rowboat from the European side | 0:23:24 | 0:23:28 | |
across the Bosporus to the Asian side in 15 minutes. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:32 | |
But since 2013, this brand-new railway has existed, the Marmaray, | 0:23:32 | 0:23:37 | |
and that goes deep in the tunnel from the Asian side to the European side, | 0:23:37 | 0:23:41 | |
and then that's going to connect to railways | 0:23:41 | 0:23:43 | |
that go all the way out to the suburbs. | 0:23:43 | 0:23:45 | |
And, of course, it will connect to railways | 0:23:45 | 0:23:48 | |
going all the way out to the suburbs on the Asian side, too. | 0:23:48 | 0:23:51 | |
Plans for a rail tunnel under the Bosporus | 0:23:53 | 0:23:56 | |
were first mooted during the reign of Sultan Abdulmecid in 1860. | 0:23:56 | 0:24:01 | |
But they've only just been realised. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:03 | |
This tunnel, 60 metres underground, | 0:24:06 | 0:24:08 | |
was particularly problematic to engineers | 0:24:08 | 0:24:11 | |
as it crosses a tectonic faultline on its route to Asia. | 0:24:11 | 0:24:15 | |
Amazing to think that we're now under the Bosporus. | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
If I could tunnel through the roof of this train and keep going, | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
I'd arrive in one of the most famous stretches of water in the world. | 0:24:22 | 0:24:26 | |
Quiz question - when do you change continent without changing city? | 0:24:32 | 0:24:36 | |
Answer - in Istanbul. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:38 | |
Welcome to Asia. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:40 | |
Now on the Asian shore, I'm drawn to the famous Haidar Pasha station, | 0:24:45 | 0:24:50 | |
from where trains used to depart for Izmit and Ankara. | 0:24:50 | 0:24:54 | |
It was completed in 1909 by the Ottoman Anatolian Railway Company | 0:24:54 | 0:24:59 | |
after being chosen as the Asian terminus | 0:24:59 | 0:25:02 | |
for the ambitious German Berlin to Baghdad railway. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:06 | |
But with the advent of the new Marmaray line, | 0:25:08 | 0:25:12 | |
the station is now redundant. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:15 | |
Haidar Pasha Terminus marked the end of many a journey. | 0:25:15 | 0:25:19 | |
But I'm amazed to discover tucked behind the now-derelict station | 0:25:19 | 0:25:23 | |
the final resting place for thousands of British soldiers and expatriates. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:28 | |
Historian Lynelle Howson is showing me around. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:32 | |
Lynelle, Bradshaw's says that, | 0:25:32 | 0:25:34 | |
"In the beautiful British cemetery of Haidar Pasha | 0:25:34 | 0:25:38 | |
"are buried thousands who died of sickness or wounds | 0:25:38 | 0:25:40 | |
"during the Crimean War." | 0:25:40 | 0:25:42 | |
This is truly a very historic place. | 0:25:42 | 0:25:45 | |
And is Bradshaw's right about thousands lying here? | 0:25:45 | 0:25:47 | |
Yes. Most of the Crimean servicemen buried here are in mass graves. | 0:25:47 | 0:25:52 | |
I've heard anything from 6,000 to 8,000 | 0:25:52 | 0:25:55 | |
buried right here in the cemetery, in Haidar Pasha. | 0:25:55 | 0:25:58 | |
Do you get the impression that in the 19th century, | 0:25:58 | 0:26:01 | |
this was a place of some homage, of pilgrimage? | 0:26:01 | 0:26:03 | |
I certainly do, not least because Bradshaw mentions it. | 0:26:03 | 0:26:06 | |
He points it out as somewhere that people might be interested to come | 0:26:06 | 0:26:09 | |
specifically because of the Crimean War | 0:26:09 | 0:26:12 | |
and the fame of Florence Nightingale and the nearby hospital. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:16 | |
'Shortly after my guidebook was published, | 0:26:16 | 0:26:18 | |
'thousands more would die during the First World War, | 0:26:18 | 0:26:21 | |
'not far away at Gallipoli. | 0:26:21 | 0:26:23 | |
'And some of those casualties were brought here, too.' | 0:26:23 | 0:26:27 | |
9th Battalion Australian infantry. | 0:26:27 | 0:26:30 | |
A soldier of the Indian Army. | 0:26:30 | 0:26:33 | |
South Wales. | 0:26:33 | 0:26:34 | |
How many nationalities are represented here? | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
Well, if we consider modern nationalities, | 0:26:37 | 0:26:40 | |
we'll have more than 20, I would say. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:42 | |
Here at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, | 0:26:47 | 0:26:50 | |
it's poignant to reflect on the price of conflicts past and present. | 0:26:50 | 0:26:55 | |
In 1913, the intrepid Bradshaw traveller | 0:27:00 | 0:27:04 | |
would hope to journey to Constantinople on the Orient Express, | 0:27:04 | 0:27:08 | |
passing through the newly independent Bulgaria. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:12 | |
But warzones would interrupt his progress | 0:27:12 | 0:27:15 | |
as the Ottoman Empire disintegrated. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:19 | |
The Balkans were the tinderbox that would ignite the First World War. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:23 | |
And two years later, | 0:27:23 | 0:27:25 | |
Turkish cemeteries would fill with British Empire dead. | 0:27:25 | 0:27:29 | |
Today, trains pass from Europe to Asia under the Bosporus. | 0:27:29 | 0:27:34 | |
Turkey is a democratic nation | 0:27:34 | 0:27:37 | |
with a majority Muslim population that borders Iran, Iraq and Syria. | 0:27:37 | 0:27:43 | |
Just like 100 years ago, | 0:27:43 | 0:27:45 | |
it is an important square on the international strategic chessboard. | 0:27:45 | 0:27:50 | |
'Next time, I'll learn how the Austro-Hungarian Empire, | 0:27:53 | 0:27:57 | |
'when faced with the future, | 0:27:57 | 0:27:58 | |
'fought to hold on to its past.' | 0:27:58 | 0:28:01 | |
Not everybody likes it when a new world begins. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:04 | |
A new world beginning means an old world ends. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:08 | |
'I'll attempt an Edwardian-style winter sports challenge...' | 0:28:08 | 0:28:12 | |
Yay! | 0:28:12 | 0:28:14 | |
'And I'll travel along one of the world's | 0:28:14 | 0:28:16 | |
'most impressive feats of railway engineering.' | 0:28:16 | 0:28:19 | |
There weren't tunnel-drilling machines, | 0:28:19 | 0:28:21 | |
so they had to drill the holes by hand. | 0:28:21 | 0:28:23 | |
So, it's a handmade railway line. | 0:28:23 | 0:28:27 |