We built a DIY Orient Express trip! – Affordable train trip across Europe.

We built a DIY Orient Express trip! – Affordable train trip across Europe.

We’re about to set off on a train trip across Europe, traveling from Amsterdam all the way to Istanbul. Our goal to recreate the magic of the legendary Orient Express. Only this time, it’s 2025 and we’re doing it on a budget. Think of it as the poor man’s Orient Express. Three separate trains, Amsterdam to Vienna. Sleeper cabin. More like no sleeper cabin. Vienna to Bucharest. Shower. I think I could have just killed myself is what I’m trying to say. And Bucharest to Istanbul. Where are we? No idea. Somewhere in uh Bulgaria. Yeah, it’s like 4 in the morning and we have some simmits. Making our way across Europe, one stop at a time. [Music] First impressions. I love this so much. It’s tiny, but it’s cozy. It’s actually I think it’s better than I thought it was going to be. It’s smaller than I thought it was going to be. Yeah, but I mean, how much room do you really need? Not much. We’re good. We’re good. It’s better than sitting up in a chair. Okay, we’re on board. That’s the most important thing. Off to Vienna. Dear passengers, a very warm welcome to your nightjet service to help. Staff on the train will be on hand at all times to answer any questions you may have and to provide you with a range of snacks and drinks in the cushet and sleeper carriages. [Music] Welcome to train number one from Amsterdam to Vienna on the OBB Night Jet. The night jet, which implies it’s overnight. See, the sun is setting. We We’re in beds. We’re sleeping on this train tonight. This is our poor man’s version of the Orient Express or the DIY Orient Express. Why exactly are we doing this, you might be wondering. So, well, the Orient Express is like the most famous train trip ever in the history of time, right? It was one of the first transcontinental trains that went from the west of Europe to the east and there was a murder. I was inspired a little over a year ago. I read an article in the New York Times where the author put together his own modern-day DIY Orient Express trip from Paris to Istanbul. So we said, “Let’s do it ourselves from Amsterdam to Istanbul.” And here we are. And here we are. [Music] We’re in the back of the train right now. We’re at a stop. We’re in Dent, the Netherlands right now. The original Orient Express started way back in the 1800s and actually ran from Paris all the way to Constantinople or Istanbul in Durier. They had a bunch of different routes known as the Orient Express. They opened up tunnels. They went different cities. It changed throughout the years. It changed. So, we’re changing it again. They do still run a version of that original Orient Express route, but it’s very expensive and it’s super luxurious. It’s one of the most luxurious trains on the planet. And I think it’s kind of always been like that. Keeping with the times, it now costs about 20,000 to €25,000. We have pieced together our DIY, our poor man’s express. Takes three trips, three different train trips to get there, and we’re going to stop along the way. Uh we’ll break it down for you as we go. This night jet is our first train. It is number one. Number one. It’s moving. hardly moving. This leg of this trip for the both of us in a sleeper cabin is a little over €500. So, you can kind of see we’re we’re well below the 20,000 mark right now. We’ll keep track of everything for you as we go. We do get breakfast included with this room that we have booked and you have to fill it out on a little card here. It’s kind of like room service and you stay in a hotel and you like fill it out and hang it on the door. We get six items included from this beautiful list. I think I’m just going to get six servings of margarine. Right. Healthy breakfast, six portions of margarine. [Music] We’re going to give you guys a tour starting in the back of the train where we just were all the way to the front and go through the different cars, show you where we’re staying on. I think this is going to be probably the nicest train that we’re going to be on on this DIY Express. These back two cars are the sleeper cabins. And so this is where you get the bunk beds like we have. Uh you have your own bathroom and you have a shower. So we’re we’re walking through the cochet. Coset I don’t know that word. Cochet. Cochet. Cochet. And they have these little pods that are on these newer versions of the night jet where you’re in like a little cocoon. Seems cozy. I might like that. Seems cozy and claustrophobic though. Yeah. But they’re a little more cost effective if and if we’re traveling alone too. I think it’s actually like it looks like a like a pod. It is a pod. There’s another one of them ahead of us. Let’s go see this one, too. Okay, let’s go. [Music] to add extra mater. [Music] This particular car actually seems to be like half cushets and then half of these little sleeping pods right here. [Music] All right, we found the seating area. It’s tiny little seating area cuz there’s not many people who take this train just in a seat. Uh they must choose a pod to sleep. There’s probably people sleeping all around us right now. Probably. We’re being quite rude. Man, it’s going to like rock me to sleep tonight. [Music] Welcome to our humble abode, even though you’ve already seen the inside of it. All right, we don’t do room tours on this channel. We abolished them many, many moons ago. However, I think they’re boring. If you guys don’t think they’re boring, let us know down in the comments. Do you like room tours? Bring back room tours, maybe. But we’re on a train. This video is all about these rooms you can book. So, it’s an exception. So, let’s let’s uh show you the entire sleeper cabin for two here on the night jet from Amsterdam to Vienna. We have a bunk bed situation here. I of course get the top bunk because I don’t know why I do, but I guess I just default to reasons. Because of reasons. So, this is Nate’s bunk down here. He actually has a nice window here. I do not, unfortunately. That’s a little strange. Couple extra pillows. There is a towel on each of our beds because we do have a shower. I’ll show you that in just a minute. We came into some welcome gifts. There’s a nice little table here that does go down and you can take this cushion and make this into a little couch. You have all of your controls right here. So, you can control the lighting. I’m not going to change that cuz I might not be able to get it back to where it is right now, but you can change the colors in here. You can change the temperature, which is nice as well. I thought it was going to be like super hot. Okay, we’re just going there. Now, you have some mood lighting. And I think which one is changing the color look it has where you can call for I’m going to call it room service but any kind of service you need coffee food whatever um which we will be calling here shortly because they do have food on board. We’ll get to that. You get this key card. Key card that acts as your lock and a way to open the door when you leave. So you don’t have to worry about any of your valuables in here. There is storage underneath. Look at those level eight suitcases. The bottom bunk. Those are brand new suitcases that we’re going to tell you about later in this vlog. Very fancy. Now I’m going to tag you in. Why do I do the bathroom tours? What’s up with that? Very compact bathroom as you might expect. Uh, this has all been redesigned for these new versions of the NightJet. A toilet. We have a toilet. Look at that toilet. Toilet. Button to flush said toilet. You have a sink temperature gauge. Here’s the shower situation in this little room. You take your shower head and you hook it up here like so. And you just let water go all over everything. So, it’s like a wet room, which is not something I I really care for. I’m assuming there’s a drain down here somewhere. Yeah, there’s a drain down there. You just shower in this room. Have at it. We’ll see if we do that or not. It’s just an overnight trip. May not need a shower. It’s great to have a private bathroom, though. Like, and just like that, now we have a lounger. It’s a Sha’s lounge. It’s a Sha’s lounge. Look at us all day long. I’ll just these glasses cuz we don’t have a table anymore. You’re doing a great job. I just want to drink. I’ll be the table. Actually, putting that down makes me feel like we have more space in here now than having that table up there. And I have tested out the upper bunk already, and it’s pretty comfortable. I think I’m going to be rocked to sleep tonight. I think it’s going to be okay. You want to order some food? Oh my god. Can we eat, please? Magic table. Now we can eat. [Music] Welcome to Germany, I think. Yeah, we just crossed into Germany and we’re at another stop and we got this delicious food. You don’t know that it’s delicious yet? I’m, you know, I’m trying to be positive about this entire experience cuz I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. And I believe not every train that we are on has food options. So, if they do, we have to try them cuz it’s a full experience just in case. When we left the Netherlands, we got some beautiful cheese croissant twists. I love these things. And look, dipping, you know, you know, on the real Orient Express, there was fancy dining cars. I believe they had a piano playing on that train. We don’t have any of that. Uh we’ll turn iPhone music on and listen to ourselves think in a little bit. This frightens me on some level. Um here we go. I don’t know what this sauce is supposed to be and I’m a little weird about sauces. Only the best. Smells okay. That is not very good. But it is hot and it is food so we won’t starve. We’re going to Vienna. We’re going to eat great in Vienna. Oh, it’s hot. Like you said, it’s fine. It’s edible. It probably needs a little salt and pepper. This is the poor man’s Orient Express, might I remind you guys. So, it if if that’s the bar, we’re at it. [Music] How do you look both ways? I have to look both ways. Uh, we’ve stopped and I’m going to get off the train. I just stepped out in Germany. It makes me very nervous like they’re going to leave me though. But, uh, yeah. Hi, welcome to Germany. Back on I go. I want to get left. Hi, bro. Hi. Come on. Wave to her. Yeah. Nobody else is waving. Look up on your phone. I got one guy. He laughed. Yeah. All right. I have to try and climb up into Katrina’s upper bunk. I just feel like I have to experience the whole sleeper cabin, including the top bed, right? No, because you banished me to the top bed, so you don’t get privileges to even see what it’s like. Um, yeah. This is like I’m I’m up above the world. Hey. All right. That’s your bunk there. I somehow have lost one of my slippers. What are you doing? I don’t know. I didn’t even get the free champagne, so I know it’s not that. But I’m going to sleep down here now. This is not bad. You’ll enjoy it because what if I roll out of bed? Don’t worry. Strap you in. There you go. Now you’re safe. [Music] Why do you laugh every time I turn the camera on? I don’t know. Cuz you’re like, “Okay, here we go. What craziness am I doing now?” We we’re we’re headed towards Vienna. It’s getting late. We’re going to shower cuz there’s a shower in our room, so we might as well take advantage. And I’m going to take you with me, friendly viewers. You ready? Let’s go. Action cam. Oh boy. Katrina thinks this is hilarious. I think it’s funny. Oh, the lighting is just brutal. Okay. Make sure that we stay decent for this nonsense. Probably going to get water all over everything. I’m a little worried about that to be quite honest. Um, so yeah, [Music] bit of a fail. There is no hot water in that bathroom, so I’m not taking a cold shower. Can’t do it. I wonder if like we waited too long or something. I Everyone beat us to the hot water. Well, let’s call it a night. We’re going to like dial it back here. We’re going to wake up in the morning and eat that amazing breakfast that we ordered earlier. I cannot wait. Hey, man. It might be okay, right? I can’t wait. I’m excited. Good night, everybody. Good night. [Music] Sleeper cabin. More like no sleeper cabin. Oh my god, that was rough. That was a very rough night. I got a little sleep when we stopped, but then when we were moving, like we’re in Austria. We’re headed towards Vienna, probably about an hour away. They’re going to bring us our breakfast soon. Oh, the lights just randomly came on in the middle of the night. And these lights are like, think of the worst overhead like fluorescent lights. Here, I’ll show you this. 12:30 in the morning. We’d been asleep for about half an hour. Yeah. I woke up to Katrina down here fiddling with it. She got it off, went back to sleep. 20 minutes later, if that. Yeah. Boom. Back on again. So, we got out sleep masks, put them on, and just dealt with it. I think they stopped coming on randomly till they did it again at 7:00 a.m. So, there’s something glitchy and wrong with the lighting in our cabin. Our beautiful breakfast is here. So, remember, we got to choose six things. Apparently, I don’t know how to count and I chose seven. So, we had to pay an extra 20. Yeah. E20 for I don’t even know. probably like this pad of butter that’s going to come with me when we leave. Uh-huh. You know, it’s a simple breakfast, but it’s nice to have something in the morning. We came prepared with stuff from Albert Hind. But [Music] I’m sure this is exactly how the original Orian Express breakfasts were. This is exactly how that was, right? Where’s the caviar? I’m glad to have it. Caviar. You’re not going to get out there. Get out of here. That’s true. But you know, [Music] so in addition to the lights coming on randomly, now our toilet won’t flush. Just flashing red. It has a red just like flashing light on it. And we’re at our second to last stop, I think, before Vienna. How would you rate your overnight train trip on the OBV night jet? Uh, I would say taken into consideration the lights turning on randomly, the toilet not working now, the screaming child next door. I hope he’s okay. 7 like 7.3. This was comfortable. The food was fine. It was uh exciting and an adventure and I think a good way to start off this trip. A few minutes we will reach our end station, Vienna Main Station. We would like to say goodbye to all our passengers and look forward to welcoming you on board again very soon. [Music] All right, welcome to Vienna. Stop number one. Stop number one. We have an extra long layover here by choice. You will see a Vienna vlog from us next week. And we got to continue on our DIY poor man’s Orient Express trip to Bucharest in just literally moments. See you back here in a few seconds. Hey everyone, we’re coming to you from the middle of this crazy DIY Orient Express train trip and we want to give a big shout out today to the sponsor of this video. You guys know we’ve been traveling a lot lately and if there’s one thing that can make or break your trip, it’s luggage. I’ve had a lot of bags, a lot of luggage over the years. So, I know what the good ones are and I know what the good ones aren’t. That’s why we’re excited to be partnering with this week’s sponsor, Level 8. They make awardwinning luggage for real travelers like us where we’re pulling these things through airports, in this case, through train stations and through cobblestone streets all around the world. Spoiler alert, friendly viewers, these don’t just look good, they’re built like tanks. 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We’ll drop a link in the description below so you guys can get an extra discount on the Gibralar aluminum carry-on or on any of their collections that Level 8 has. [Music] [Music] [Music] We’re back. We’re back. We’re still in Vienna. It is the second leg of our journey across Europe from Amsterdam to Istanbul. our DIY orient express. We’re about to board our second train. This train is the Daca Express and it’s leaving at 7:42 in the evening. 7:42 Vienna straight through to Bucharest with stops along the way. We’re going to cross Hungary and like the plains of Hungary, the the forests of Transylvania, northern Romania, and then the Carpathian Mountains. Nailed it. I’m excited. This is too. We had a great time in Vienna, but we have loaded ourselves up with supplies. Oh my god, you guys. We have so much stuff. We’ll get into that. We’re ridiculous. Yeah, let’s go. Second leg. [Music] Our train is here. We need to board. I’m so excited. Doesn’t look like there’s too many people, but I think they’re going to pick people up like at every stop. Very cool. Yeah. So, let’s get on. [Music] [Music] So heavy. Why did I bring so much? [Music] It’s nice and warm. First impressions. I love the loud ringing noise. That makes me feel welcome. [Music] Oh, look. We live here. Bro, and this is it. Here’s the Where do we put all the stuff? Freaking no, man. [Music] Welcome to the double sleeper cabin on our Dasha train from Vienna. From Vienna to Bucharest. Vienna to Bucharest. I know it might look like we’re being held prisoner here, but we’re not. We can open the door and leave. It’s okay. The lighting is rough in here. They don’t give you a lot of information about this exact train trip. It’s a bit of a mystery. You have to book it. It’s a Romanian company, so CFR Railways. So, you booked the ticket and Why did our lights go off? I don’t know. They must have to turn them off at the stop. You got to be kidding me. Like, Blair Witch, help us. I don’t Romania. We have bunk beds. We have prison lighting. There’s no food on this train apparently. There might be a snack car that gets hooked up at some point, but we brought tons and tons of food cuz we’re scared of starving. Well, they also said there was um shower. Oh my god, you almost just witnessed our murder from a hanger. Orient Express. Stop it. Murder on the poor man’s Orient Express by a hanger to the head. I mean, that would, you know, that would be fitting actually. This is an adventure, though. Here we go. We’ll be back. We’re at the Austrian Hungary border right now. [Music] We’re calm down here. We’re air conditioning came on. We shut the doors. The temperature is good. It’s comfortable. It’s not like that night jet out of Amsterdam. This is a much much older train situation. We read lots of reports about there not being any food on this train at all. This is like a 19-hour trip. And we kind of panicked and said we need to make sure we have food for tonight, tomorrow morning, lunch. I mean, we don’t get into Bucharest till like 3:30 in the afternoon. So, we brought some food. We got these pretzels yesterday morning in Vienna that we got some pretzels. Went to this bakery called Offerel. Offerel. We have a whole baguette. I know that right now a lot of people watching this vlog are saying that’s all you need. You’re good. We have strobe waffles left from Amsterdam. More baked goods from overall. Not one cheese roll, but there’s two in there. Trina wanted a cruffin. We have a cruffin from the same place. This was going to be dinner. We have a ham and cheese sandwich. This actually looks like legit. But then we ate a sausage at the train station, so we don’t need this. But that’ll keep, right? We have crowd note. And we have crackers. Uh we have candy. We have potato chips. Got to have something salty. These are like Austrian Slim Jims. I will call them little beef snacks. These are probably horrible for you, but we grabbed them for some protein. I got to get two. That’s a good mandarin. This is an endless bag of food, by the way. That’s ridiculous. Uh, we’re going to be okay. [Music] [Music] I came to the back of the train to see what’s out here and I opened this door. I’m pretty sure there’s no I think I could have just killed myself is what I’m trying to say. Yikes. I opened the door and it was just like Oh yeah, there’s nothing there. That was bad. Very short stop in Budapest. I’ve stepped out. Now we just try not to get left behind. Picking up some new passengers. Gives me the chance to be brave and walk a few more feet away from this train. [Music] This is like an adventure. We go by these little stops in towns I’ve never heard of out here in Hungary. And it’s like, man, I’ve never been to this part of the world. was black out. There’s no moonlight at all. Kind of like the vibes of it being like early fall. It’s dark out. I almost died. Nate, I didn’t like that. You showed me the video. I don’t like that at all. We’ll inspect that in the morning to see how dangerous it actually was. Maybe there’s like a thing I couldn’t see keeping me from falling to my death on a dark train track in the middle of Hungary. We’re going to have them come fold this down into a bed. Yep. Apparently, it’s locked and it needs a key to unlock it. And I think we’re going to turn in and we’ll see you in the morning. Do a poor man shower and uh get some rest. Bye. [Music] Wake up. You alive up there? Yeah, barely. Say hello. Hello. I got to leave. There you are. So, we’re speeding through Romania right now, headed towards Bucharest. Got a ways to go. [Music] It’s bathroom. There’s a sink. There’s a mirror. There’s no toilet paper left. Katrina’s going to be want to know that. And there’s a toilet. [Music] We’re out here in like central Romania. It’s like farmland, corn fields, hay bales. We’re at a a town called Blah. We’re at Station Blah. I looked it up. It’s 17,000 people. Very rural out here. It’s pretty though. like the the landscapes. It’s very pretty. This is for my puffy eyes. I need some too. I know. Anyway, but yeah, this is old Romanian train over here. This is cool. This is adventure. And the sun’s out. It’s nice. And now we can see stuff. We couldn’t see anything last night. So now we can see all those Carpathian mountains you’ve been talking about. They’re coming. We’re headed towards them. [Music] [Applause] [Music] You can definitely hear people in the cabins next to you. They have a toilet next to us and we know every time they go to the bathroom and then and we can hear them singing like it’s this way. I think it’s this way. Yeah, it’s this way. Of course, it just stopped, but trust me, they’re singing show tunes to the show tunes song. So like it sounds like Julie Andrews like the hills are alive, but it’s not in English. It’s entertaining. And I’m a little cold, so I have this blanket from last night on me. We’re just getting going here. Slowly [Music] leaning this way right now. We wanted to give you guys a tour of this thing, but we’re sequestered to our own car, I guess. [Music] Try it one more time. [Music] Last night, somebody put out a bag of free candy and I think it’s still there. [Music] [Music] We’re at the end of the train right now. Very bad. This is where Nate almost died last night. [Music] So, this is what you opened last night? Yes, I opened this. I left you to your own devices. Nate. Yeah, that was a bad idea. There’s clearly a no smoking sign everywhere. Everywhere. But somebody smoking. As soon as you get to this car, which is like What are these the couchets? Couchets. Yeah. Cushets. And you can clearly Yeah. Yeah. I killed myself last night here, apparently. I didn’t know it was dark. I couldn’t see. He’s just like going off. I don’t know. I thought there’d be like a little platform at the back of the train, but they’re bad. Whoopsies. Something almost died and then they locked it. I don’t think it’s locked. I think I can still I think too, but maybe you should. I’m not going. We were going to give you guys a room tour of our room, but we’ve kind of destroyed it as we do with most of the rooms that we sleep in. So, this is one that is currently not being occupied. It’s exactly like ours. We are in a double sleeper room. I think you can get these triple as well cuz there’s like an extra bed up there. You can sometimes get an on suite that has a toilet and a shower that you like shower over the toilet. It’s totally the luck of the draw. We lost that draw. So, we just have a sink just like this, which we’ll show you in a second. A second. There’s not a ton of space in here, but we have the bottom bunk here. This obviously is a bed right now, but you can fold this up and it becomes a couch that you can just sit on and chitchat and enjoy. Then you have your upper bunk right here. You do have power outlets up here. They are Euro plugs. So just if you’re an American coming over here, be mindful of that. If you bring your Pentium processed brick laptop, you’re in you’re in good shape. You can charge it. Your Zach Morris Nokia first version generation phone with you. That also we plugged in here. We were wondering like I wonder how old this train is and we looked at that and we’re like up here we have some controls that sometimes work, sometimes don’t. This is your air conditioning. I use quotes because it doesn’t really work. We had air conditioning for about the first 45 minutes of this train way back in Vienna and none since. So, you have lights that you can control up here. How loud the announcements are, which there actually aren’t very many announcements on here. I haven’t heard very many announcements, and I don’t honestly know if they’re in English that we’d even be able to understand them. So, emergency brake glass in case that says not hammer, but that is a hammer. You do have a beautiful window over here that almost keeps the sun out when you shut it. Not really. Almost. This pops open. It’s locked in this one, but this pops open so you get a little bit of fresh air. Little bit. Couple trash bins. Place to set things like your phone. This room is actually cleaner than ours. Looking at this area over here, but that’s okay. This is where your lovely sink is. Turn the light on. Just like that, which is actually better lighting surprisingly. Water. Ours has a soap dispenser, but I don’t think there’s any soap in it. Well, this is a little like goodie bag. You have a towel, a toothbrush, and like a wet wipe. Since there are no showers in these, I think there’s some soap in there, too. Bar soap’s in there, too. We had um two bottles of water in ours that we’re using um to brush our teeth cuz it said don’t use or drink the water on the train. Little trash area, a little ladder to get up on these bunks. I’m sure it would be even more helpful if you’re up on the very very top. You can control the lights over by the bed here. So, it’s pretty basic. You got a bed and you got a place to wash your hands and brush your teeth. Back in our room here. Where do you want to be? Come down here. Just do it. I’ll come down here with you, Katrina. So, this double sleeper compartment cost about €228. Uh-huh. For the whole trip, which is far cheaper than the night jet from Amsterdam to Vienna. Um, half the price. Less than half the price. Not as modern, but it does go farther. We’re on it for a longer distance, longer time. Very true. Uh there’s no food there. Nobody coming and serving us breakfast. You We actually can’t get past our car right now. So, we were able to see the back way. We can’t go forward. I think it’s locked. Maybe to keep people from coming into the sleeper cabins or maybe to keep us from I don’t know. This is the uh the Dasha Express Vienna to Bucharest. [Music] [Music] education. [Music] [Applause] We’re off the train. We’re in Rasolv. Rasolov. I think you just got nervous getting away from the door, didn’t you? I Well, cuz he’s looking out here. They’re like I know they’re going to leave yells at us. So, we have a short yell at us. He’s nice. Anyway, we just want to get outside, get some air. Some people come out and smoke real fast. We come out. I was going to say you’re not getting any fresh air right now. You want to stay here? No. Our stuff’s all in there. [Music] This is a room that has an on suite. Oh, it’s like an enclosed shower. I’m jealous. Ah, could have had a shower. [Music] Bastards. We didn’t know anything about Brasoft, but we just looked it up and it looks incredibly pretty and it’s super cute and cozy and in the winter time it’s up in the mountains, so it looks like skiing. Maybe snow everywhere. I think we will be back in Romania someday and we’ll get out of the cities and probably explore a little bit. I can just tell by going through and seeing the landscapes. I want to do that. We’re pulling away so I just talk faster. [Music] The air came back on. Yeah, the air came back on. So, we went from like sweating and just stuffy to freezing, which I’d rather have it freezing. So nice. [Music] We are almost to Bucharest. I look and feel a little tired. I mean, this is a trek. We are We are long distance train traveling, but we’re at the home stretch for this leg. Second leg. Yeah, we’re literally pulling into Bucharest. 15 minutesish. We’ve booked long layovers in these cities so that we’re not just on the train the whole time. Uh so we’re looking forward to Bucharest, new country for us. You’ll be seeing that vlog in a couple weeks. [Music] Made it. Stop number two, Bucharest. [Music] Dasha Express. Check. Check. We made it. Uh, we could be totally different people when we get back here for the final leg of the tour. We’re going to go explore this new city, new country for us. We’ll be right back next [Music] Good morning. You probably thought we’d be in a train station. Well, we’re on our way there, but we are sitting in Bucharest, standing in Bucharest. We had to load up on supplies cuz we are about to embark on the longest leg of this journey of our DIY Orn Express. It’s a 24-hour train trip, and I’m not sure that there’s any food. I don’t think there is. And I think we probably have too much food, but I’d rather have too much and not enough. So, here we are. We got to catch a car, get to the train station, and head on to Istanbul to complete this crazy journey. This is it. This is the final leg. More to go. [Music] Bucharest North Train Station right on time. Right on. There we go. Perfect. All right, we’re here a little bit early, which is fine. This is a long journey ahead. 24 hours to Istanbul. This is going to be an experience, but this is it. This is the culmination of this trip. What’s super unique about this last leg of the journey, it’s called the Bosperus Express, and what they do is they take a couple sleeper cars and it’s like a relay race. They drop us off with another set of trains in Bulgaria and then we transfer to a Turkish train for the last leg. I think we hope [Music] you got to be on your game at train stations cuz they give you about 10 to 15 minutes for the time they flash your your train line to where you go. Which station? What what’s it called? Line platform. Platform. Thank you. You got to go cuz they’re leaving like 15 minutes after that number comes up. Can’t dillydally. No dillydally. It’s that right now. Our train is supposed to leave in 11 minutes and we still don’t know where it’s going to be. T minus 7 minutes of departure. Still no platform. My like planner brain OCD really doesn’t do well with stuff like this. Like I don’t even know where we’re going and when. There’s going to be a mad dash one direction to the other here in in a minute or two. Chaos platform number seven. Lucky number seven. Standing right in front of it. No train. 5 minutes. Train. [Music] We’re here. We made it. [Music] We have made it into our little cushet. And we were just told that there are no restrooms until we get to Bulgaria, which is like four hours from now, maybe three. My math might have been Doesn’t matter. When you have to use the restroom now, that’s a problem. There’s no air or electricity right now either. So, we have the window open, airing it out in here, and we’re hoping for the best. [Music] Okay, we cleared something up. The toilets in our cars are not available until we get to Bulgaria. The toilets in the other cars and the trains are working. And I did get to go use the restroom. However, the room was like very wet in there when I got in. I couldn’t understand. The seat was just wet. I’m like, man, people are animals. So, I did what I needed to do and I pressed the button, not shutting the lid cuz I didn’t want to touch stuff. And it sprayed water up out of the toilet. Like soapy water. So I have Easy. Easy. Yeah. Easy, kid. Easy. They got to pay extra for that. Time to give you a tour of our couchet. Cowette. Iette. Cushet. Cushet. That’s a weird word. I want to give you a little tip. If you ever decide you want to take this overnight sleeper train, sleeper train from where were we? Bucharest to Istanbul. the cushet compartments that go all the way. They’re fourperson cushets. We booked all four positions. So, our ticket says four adults. There’s only two of us, so we don’t have any friends. That’s a good thing. We don’t want any friends on this trip. We want our privacy is what we’re looking for really. You have a curtain. Keep the outside world out so people aren’t staring in at you. You have seats. Right now, everything’s set up as seating areas. I will demonstrate for you seating. That is seating. Underneath the seating, there’s lots of good room in this cushet car for your luggage. I’d like to show you my Level 8 luggage. Thanks again, Level 8. We appreciate you. When we are ready to go to sleep, these two will fold down into beds. We kind of have the choice of like, do you want upper bunk or lower bunk tonight? We haven’t really decided yet. Maybe we’ll put all four down just to get crazy. We could go diagonal like one up or one down. One down. When you come in, there are some controls up here. You can plug your headphones in. Oh my god. This is probably the announcements for volume and channel. I have no idea. It looks so old. They might have had like music or like something on those channels. I don’t know. We have electricity. Not yet. We’ll have it once we get to the next country. We’re going to only one though. So, we’re going to have to like share a little bit, which you’ll be fine. I don’t know what these do. Maybe I’ll push them later. One probably calls the attendant. Oh, the ejector seat is the other one. Yeah. So, we don’t want to push that one quite yet. These are lights. That’s a light. Yeah. But no electricity. Oh, there’s no electricity for whatever reason until we get hooked up with the next train that’s taking us to Turkey. Allegedly, there’s also going to be some kind of air conditioning, but not yet. So, we will check back in with you once we get hooked up to all that electricity that I’ve been told so much about. This looks like You said it’s like a blanket and a sheet. Honestly, I think it’s just a sheet there. This is not a blanket to me. Maybe a pillowcase. Technically, this isn’t like a sleeper pod. It’s just a cushet. So, maybe we don’t I don’t know. Get blankets. We’ll just be cold. There are beautiful pillows up here. Nate is very happy because the pillow situation on train number one was not that great. I really hope that there’s a pillowcase in that little bag for that. I’m thinking that that’s what it’s going to be cuz this e this have a lovely little seating table here where you can watch the world go by. You can enjoy your drinks. One of the many pastries that we have brought with us on this train. The thing about this particular train, you don’t get told very much. It’s kind of just like, “Okay, get on the train, go.” 24 hours dist. And I mean, I don’t know what I’m expecting them to tell us, but like maybe that you should bring your own food, cuz I bet there’s people on here that didn’t bring enough food. I’m eating one of the ham and cheese pretzel thingy things that we got at uh Luca. It’s excellent. Very good. This is lunch. We just crossed over into Bulgaria. We haven’t been to this country on the vlog yet, but we are not including this because we’re not like experiencing it. So, this doesn’t count. We will be back. We just crossed the Denube River. Very wide, very blue. So far, it’s pretty comfortable. Oh, they came on, checked our passports. [Music] Hey, welcome to Bulgaria. Technically, we’ve stepped foot in Bulgaria. New country not unlocked. No, no, no. This ain’t it. We’ll be back. Our locomotive just left us here. See that? Look at that. See where we were getting swapped off to another locomotive? getting swapped with someone else. There are 39 stops on this trip from Bucharest to Istanbul. And how many have we hit? Four. Four. This is number four. We also have a passport control when we get into Turkey at 1 in the morning, which is scheduled for 2our stops cuz they also check your luggage. They screen luggage. So, that’s going to be interesting. Um, it’s one word for it. [Music] That man looked like he got crushed by these two trains. That was frightening. That the one that we thought was going to be the front is now leaving. And now we’ve attached some new friends and new cars at what used to be the front, but then was the back and now it’s the front again. There’s nothing left. We have now become the back of the train. [Music] We’re at the back of the train. This is the car we are in. It’s the very back. See out the window. I’m not going to attempt to open the door. Please don’t. I just like had flashbacks. You wanted like stealing yourself. All right. So, what we’re going to do is we’re going to try and walk to as far forward as we can go. Right now, there is a restroom back here. Would you like to see the restroom? Oh god, you don’t want to see the restroom. But let’s show the restroom. At least you can’t smell it. [Music] It smells worse than it looks. This whole car is cooched. I think garage is four person or there six person ones too. Don’t know. Ours is a four. I can’t imagine being in one with like four other people in us. That’d be crazy. But let’s go see what else there is. Another water closet on this end. [Music] This car is going to detach at some point and go to Sophia, but we are not going there. So, it’s going to go. We’re going to go You can smell the bathroom at this end. [Music] This one’s open. This train is going so fast right now. It is so hard to keep your balance. These are not pushets. These are just situp cars. Just seats. Situp cars. This is like an airplane taking a flight somewhere and you just have to sit upright. [Music] Little bit tighter quarters in here, but their windows go down on each side, which is very fun. Here we go. I think there might be two more cars. Nice ride. We saw this guy get on here with his bike. We have reached the end. Look at how old school this locomotive looks. It’s kind of cool and scary at the same time. Looks like it’s coming towards us. It actually does. I think that’s why it’s making me feel like a little uneasy. And to see it’s shaking like this. You would think being on tracks that it would be like smooth, but everything is going like this. You see the sparkle blue and the beautiful brown leather. Wow. Handbreaks. I have the owner and she also. What’s your name? My name is Amra. Amra. Amra. Yes. Ah, very nice. I am from Egypt. Egypt. Yeah. You want to go to Egypt? You are so welcome. On our list. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. 1735. 1735. We have 1 hour here. Where are we? No idea. Somewhere in uh Bulgaria. Yeah. We’ve been to so many places in the last week, I can’t remember. [Music] traditional Bulgarian beer. Oh, you got a Bulgarian beer. Look at you. First, I picked up one from Prague that I’ve seen before and I was like, “No, I can’t get one from Prague. I have to get a Bulgarian beer.” So, even though this doesn’t count, I’m having a beer in Bulgaria because there is no bar card. She could have lit literally charged me like $4,000 for these three things and I wouldn’t know. So, they just attached some more cars to our train. We’re no longer the back. We’re not the back now. This is our train right here. I kind of like that they have these longer stops right now so that you can get off. We actually could have probably gotten some food and whatever, but we’re good. [Music] [Music] It is now dinner time and we are going to have one of the most luxurious est dinners you can have on our poor man’s DIY Orient Express. Peanut butter and jelly. For everyone who’s not American is going to think this is really gross. I always get that when we make a PB&J like, “Ew, you put jelly with peanut butter.” Yeah. When eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the DIY Orient Express, I find it’s a little fancier. If you just use two fingers and then dab your face with your stolen paper towels from the place you stayed in in Bucharest. [Music] That’s our room. [Applause] [Music] We’ve made our beds, you guys. It’s like prison beds. Just like two top sheets that you kind of just tuck around the edges. They did give us one pillowcase for the pillows. And somebody has definitely been smoking on this train. The issue that we face is there are passport controls both leaving Bulgaria and entering Turkey and the Turkey passport control is all your luggage as well which you have to take off the train and get x-rayed at like 1:00 in the morning. So we’re trying to decide if we sleep now. It’s not even 11:00 yet and they come around on the train in like an hour maybe on course. So we don’t know. This has been a lot of fun. Sure. This This is €280 of luxury here on the Bosro Express for the both of us. It could be worse, right? Oh, it could be way worse. Yeah. But but it’s still I’m tired and I’m fading and I have to get my passport out for these people soon. Well, we’re going to give you like the real deal here. Passport. Passport control. Passport control number one. Hey, there’s a lot of razor wire out there, by the way. Yep. Outside. Yep. [Music] We made it to Turkey. It’s like 4 in the morning and we have some simmits. I need sleep, Katrina. Okay, let’s try and sleep a little bit. If our neighbors would be quiet and the sun doesn’t wake us up, see you in 5 hours, I stumble. Morning. [Music] Morning. How’d you sleep? That was um an interesting night. We have like an hour and a half left. Maybe isish. ish until we get to Istanbul. [Music] I’m really glad that we bought these€1 cements at the border crossing. Border control simmits for the win. Never had a simmit. I got Turkish bagel. A Turkish bagel with sesame seeds on it and they’re all kind of toasted and it’s hearty and it’s dense and it’s you can travel with it. It’s like the perfect little snack food. We are pulling into IstAnul right now. Almost there. We’ve almost completed this Orient Express recreation trip. [Music] Thank you. Thank you so much. So, take care. [Music] That’s all. We made it. We’re in Istanbul here. Amsterdam to Istanbul. The DIY and Express. Let us know. Would you do this? Or if there are any other weird kind of train trips like this that you think we should go on. Let us know down in the comments. Tell us something. Tell us how crazy we are from doing this. Thank you for watching. appreciate following. Bye. [Music]

Ever wondered what it’s like to travel across Europe by train? This is our DIY “Poor Man’s” Orient Express: the ultimate budget-friendly European train journey. We took sleeper trains from Amsterdam to Istanbul: seven countries, three trains, and one unforgettable adventure.
Starting on the OBB NightJet from Amsterdam to Vienna, continuing with the Dacia Express through Romania to Bucharest, and finishing on the Bosporus Express into Istanbul, we crossed nearly all of Eastern Europe by rail.

It was a mix of adventure, exhaustion, and unforgettable moments. From surprisingly cozy sleeper cars to chaotic border checks at 3 a.m., each leg of the journey had its own story. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s really like to travel from Amsterdam to Istanbul by train, or if the modern-day Orient Express experience is worth doing on a budget, this video is for you.

Join us as we travel from Amsterdam to Istanbul by train and discover why exploring Europe by rail might just be the most memorable (and chaotic) way to see the continent.

And a special THANK YOU to our sponsor of this video, LEVEL8. Click one of the links below to get your hands on a new piece of luggage for your next travel adventure and be sure to use our code for an extra discount!

Level8 Website: https://bit.ly/GibraltarCarryOn
Use our code for 15% off: nateandkatrina15

Visit Amazon for your own Level8 luggage. No code needed: https://amzn.to/4nZk97D

New York Times Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/05/travel/budget-orient-express-train.html?smid=url-share

#TrainTravel #EuropeByTrain #BudgetTravel #SleeperTrain #OrientExpress #NightJet #DaciaExpress #BosporusExpress #AmsterdamToIstanbul #Trains #TravelVlog

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✼ ABOUT US ✼
We are Nate and Katrina, two Americans living in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and traveling as much as we can to see what there is to see! Call us expats, immigrants, whatever… just call us already.

We balance work life with travel… as best we can! We would love to visit every country in Europe while we live here, and definitely keep a list of our global “must visit” destinations.

We try to give you a true view of us and how we travel and explore the world. Lots of food, definitely some jokes, and probably some swearing…. Hope you enjoy taking these trips with us!

0:00 Intro
1:00 Train #1: ÖBB Nightjet
2:23 WHY Are We Doing This?
4:52 Nightjet Train Tour
6:48 Nightjet Sleeper Car Room Tour
10:15 Food On The Nightjet
12:13 Amsterdam To Vienna
14:04 Shower Time
14:58 The Next Day
16:08 Breakfast
17:36 Arriving in Vienna
18:24 LEVEL8 Ad
20:14 Vienna Train Station
21:25 Train #2: Dacia Express
23:55 Food Haul
25:22 Nate Almost ☠
27:06 The Next Day
27:57 Bathroom Tour
29:35 Somewhere In Romania
30:13 Dacia Express Train Tour
32:22 Dacia Express Room Tour
36:59 Still in Romania…
39:02 Arriving In Bucharest, Romania
39:39 Leaving Bucharest With Food
40:28 Bucharest Train Station
42:06 Train #3: Bosporus Express
43:41 Bosporus Express Couchette Room Tour
47:43 Somewhere In Bulgaria
49:12 Bosporus Express Train Tour
52:23 Somewhere in Bulgaria… Still
53:59 Dinner On The Bosporus Express
56:10 Passport Control
57:10 The Next Morning
58:08 Arriving In Istanbul, Türkiye
58:45 We Made It!