Tag: Germans

The Origin Of The Orient Express

The beautiful and elegant Orient Express we now know is a new and not the original Orient Express. The original Orient Express, considered by many as the really true descendant of the very first Express d’Orient train is the one that had gone from Paris in 1883. About 125 years old or so, the Orient Express’ history can be traced from 1883 to 2009. The two expensive tourist trains known that time were the Orient Express, which is actually the Venice Simplon Orient Express and the Nostalgic Orient Express which is as beautiful as the Venice Simplon Trains.

Strasbourg- Giurgiu Route in 1883
And so in 1883, Express d’Orient began service twice weekly. First stop at Strasbourg and last stop at Giurgiu where the travelers would traverse the Danube River by ferryboat. The ride would go all the way to Bulgaria to meet a second train that would be picking up all passengers for the 7-hour journey to Varna on the Black Sea. After which an Austrian Lloyd steamer would join for the 14-hour sea expedition to Constantinople in Istanbul.

Paris-Vienna Route in 1889
Through the years, Express d’Orient’s service improved and became a daily trip doing the Paris-Munich-Vienna itinerary while at the same time, continuing operations twice a week from Vienna to Giurgiu to be picked up by the ferryboat to Ruse, Bulgaria. It was in 1889 that Express d’Orient started doing direct Paris-Constantinople operations and eventually officially named The Orient Express. After that Orient Express experienced incessant suspension of operations from left to right.

And finally in1919, Simplon Orient Express began its services and operations as the newest addition to Orient Express. They traversed the Southerly path from Paris heading to various places including Trieste, Lausanne, Belgrade Milan, Venice, and Istanbul beginning in 1920. They particularly took this path to be bale to avoid Germany that time. The Allies did not have full trust of the Germans at that time; thus, taking the route of Calais-Istanbul instead.

Looking back at history, we would see that it was actually the Venice Simplon Orient Express which stopped operations in 1977 when suddenly the Orient Express was asked to cut back its services. The Orient Express therefore was limited to running only from Paris to Vienna. With this the company lost several of its cars and seats from Paris to Budapest, even its sleeping car from Paris to Bucharest which ran twice a week. At that time, the name Orient Express almost got snuffed out.

However, it continued existing. It was beautifully brought back into full operations for some time again. However, in June 2007 when it started to run again its services since the TGV-Est express lines resumed operations, the Orient Express for Paris-Vienna route got cut back again. So that time, they had no other choice but to just run services from Strasbourg to Vienna.

And it was so unfortunate that it happened again and was announced that come December this year, specifically on December 12, 2009, the Orient Express’ Strasbourg-Vienna route is finally going to be withdrawn after a long period of 125 years.

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The World in One Country

Some have said that if you want to enjoy all of the pleasures and excitement of visiting every foreign port all around the world, just vacation in America because we have it all. And to be sure, you can literally experience almost any part of the world right here in the heart of the United States of America.

It makes sense that the cultures of dozens if not hundreds of countries have been recreated beautifully in the borders of The United States. After all, this country was comprised almost entirely of immigrants from every country across the globe. And as each new immigrant group made their home here in America, they found their countrymen so they could live near each other, if for no other reason than to hear their nature tongues spoken. And within those communities, the cultures of the old country were beautifully reproduced to make those immigrants get over a little of their homesickness for the familiar and for home.

The beautiful thing about life in America is that the different ethnic groups are not stingy about keeping others from other cultures from learning of their customs, tasting their foods, enjoying their music and really getting a good exposure to a culture that they would otherwise have to travel around the world to see. So in one country, often in one city and often within city blocks of one another, you can experience cultures as diverse and different from each other as night is from day.

In places that would seem unlikely, you can discover entire populations of Germans, the Polish, Bavarians and other ethnic groups from central Europe. And without much coaxing, they love to share their delightful foods, music and dance with you as well. So even if you are as English as tea or hail from far away Spain, Africa or the Middle East, you can take an evening, eat a bratwurst, enjoy a stout beer and for a little while, you too are just as German as anyone at that party.

The American melting pot surfaced a trait that seems to be common in most if not all of the ethnic populations around that world. And that is a very basic hospitality, openness to outsiders and excitement to share their cultural richness with anyone who wishes to join in. And the natural American trait of friendliness and hospitality to strangers assures that if you want to experience the world in one country, you can easily do that in this great country.

In many cities in our country, you can take an evening and seemingly leave this world behind and lounge in the exotic atmospheres of ancient china, Thailand, Persia or Tibet. The foods of these countries will delight your mouth and give your taste buds some exciting new adventures as well. And the ambiance and music that the natives who create these worlds for us transport us to their home lands just as magically as one of those special effects movies from Hollywood. So be sure to take the time to listen to the music, enjoy the dancing and really soak up the culture and atmosphere of the country of origin as you savor the delicacies of their foods as well.

When you go to traveling across America, be sure you take notice of areas of the country that have particularly strong communities from around the world. These local outposts of far away lands are usually excited to share with you their native customs. You may even walk out of that Pakistani area of Pittsburgh decked out in robes and a native headwear that you will enjoy lounging around in at home, remembering the many great experiences you had when you set out to enjoy the world in one country.

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