# From Austria to Georgia by train and bus



## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)

This summer, I made a 2 weeks trip by train and bus which led me from Vienna to the booming Georgian port city Batumi, crossing the Balkans and whole Turkey. During the trip, I made stops in Sofia, Istanbul, Bursa, Ankara, Sivas, Samsun and Batumi and took plenty of pictures there.
As I already portrayed the first two cities Sofia and Istanbul in another thread ( http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1423296&highlight= ), I didn´t make a representative city portrait this time, but only took some random snapshots there, mostly in average quarters.

Here´s the first part of my pics:

*Sofia, Bulgaria*

The Bulgarian capital (1.2 million inhabitants) is not really a popular touristic destination, both because of the infrastructure which is not really in good shape and because of its very chaotic cityscape. But though the city definitely deserves to be discovered and offers you an architectural diversity which sometimes even beats Berlin - where else can you find an Osman 16th century mosque next to a late Roman 3rd century church next to Stalinist monumental architecture of the 1950s next to commieblocks of the 1970s next to 19th century buildings next to modern steel and glass-architecture?


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)

A former mosque of the Osman time, 16th century, today National museum of archeology:










St. George, 3rd century, one of the oldest preserved churches in the world with 6th century frescoes in the interior (Taking pictures unfortunately forbidden):



















Another Osman 16th century mosque:


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## Odoaker (May 22, 2011)

Interesting!


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

So far, very nice photos; i am looking forward for more :cheers:


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)

Thank you!


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)

I continued my journey with the night train from Sofia to Istanbul:

*Istanbul, Turkey*

Istanbul, mega metropolis with a population of 14 million in the city and around 20 million in the agglomeration between Europe and Asia, won´t need an introduction. As I already portrayed the city extensively in my old thread, I only took a few random snapshots this time, mostly in average quarters and only a few historic sights.


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## JET_ARGENTINA (Sep 13, 2012)

too many photos dude...


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)

From Istanbul, I continued my travel with the fast ferry crossing the Marmara Sea and arrived at...

*Bursa, Turkey (Part I)*

Bursa, Turkey´s 4th largest city with a population of 1,9 million (For comparison: In 1960, the city had a population of 150,000) and situated around 100 kilometers south of Istanbul, is a must-see for everyone interested in islamic art history. In the 14th century, the city was for some decades the capital of the Osman empire and remained one of its most important cities during the 15th and 16th centuries. So you cand find there still plenty of impressive monuments of early Osman architecture - mosques, public baths, bazaars and old Osman wood houses.

Here´s the first part of my pictures:


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)

The great mosque, built from 1396-1400:


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)

A 15th century bazaar building:



















Little Osman 14th century mosque:


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)

Another 15th century mosque:


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## DWest (Dec 3, 2009)

interesting shots specially those coming from Eastern Europe.


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)

Thanks for the comments!


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)

*Ankara, Turkey (Part II)*


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)

*In the train from Ankara to Sivas, Turkey*

From Ankara, I continued my journey with the train to Sivas, a very cheap and quite comfortable way of travelling - for my ticket from Ankara to Sivas, I didn´t pay more than around 10€. In general, train travelling is incredibly cheap in Turkey - for less than 30€, you can cross the whole country from West to East, and a ticket for the 2000 km-distance from Istanbul to Teheran costs less than 40€. But unfortunately, the Turkish rail network is really not very dense, the whole system is focussed on the main line from Istanbul to Kars near the Armenian border, and has only a few short secondary lines. But in the last years, the Turkish rail system has been improved very much: New trains have been bought, modern highspeed lines were introduced and even some new rail lines are under construction.

Here are some pictures I took from the window of the train from Ankara to Sivas:


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)

*Sivas, Turkey (Part I)*

In Sivas, I stopped for two days in order to visit the many preserved 13th century Seljuk buildings for which Sivas is famous in art history. The Eastern Anatolian city with a population of around 300,000 was for some decades the capital of the Seljuk empire in 13th century and is still full of buildings of this time, among which you can find some of the first exemples of Islamic monumental architecture in Anatolia.

Here´s the first part of my pictures from Sivas:


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)

One of Sivas´ magnificent Seljuk 13th century mosques:


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## paul62 (Jan 27, 2012)

Very good pictures, especially the mosque photos .


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)

Thank you!


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)

*Samsun, Turkey (Part II)*


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)

*Samsun, Turkey (Part III)*


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)

The last pictures from Samsun:

*Samsun, Turkey (Part IV)*


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)

From Samsun, I took the direct Bus to Batumi in southwestern Georgia. Here are some pictures I took from the window:

*In the bus from Samsun to Batumi, Turkey/Georgia*


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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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## Malyan (Apr 2, 2011)




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