ORIENT EXPRESS
Let me tell you a little bit about the ‘Orient Express’.
Not in the Agatha Christie novels, famous for her murders.
This is an interesting one, different murders are committed here.
If killing hope is considered a crime!
Queens/Flushing Line, Train 7!
It got its name because of the neighborhoods it goes through. Neighborhoods inhabited by citizens of all countries from the east, especially Korea and China. You can see all kinds of people. The animal too… From the Mexican $1 ‘Tamale’ vendor to the handmade rose. Street food, which is laborious, and how much is edible is debatable. Marine train stations with the smell of marijuana that Rastafari minds are now taking freely and the piss of diners! I love it :)
I came to a language school in this direction many years ago. The years when I didn’t start listening to people on the subway silently.
Every single person and type and voice and language and face…
The only thing that is the same among all the differences is their distraction.
It is…they look down and stay still. They are either tired or distracted. I don’t know if they are angry or sad! But they never look up and look at you in the eye.
It’s an eastern behavior.
Avoid contact with eyes.
Years later, the daughter of a Mexican patient said for her father. ‘He can’t look you in the face! We also do not look directly into the eyes of people who are in a respectable position…’
Here you go. It would be difficult to inspect. I would have to turn to his daughter. Like the child and his mother. 80-year-old man that look at you and not talk to you. You can’t say anything about culture! I was used to talking to his daughter.
I wrote my adventures in 7 Trains in my book ‘Train Notes’ which is coming soon. A different adventure at each station…
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Actually, Orient Express — a train service on the London, Paris, Istanbul line by a Belgian company in 1883… When I visited the Greater London Hotel in Istanbul, I had the opportunity to explore a lot. Towards 1977, the Istanbul direction was terminated.
You ask why?
Sounds like it’s related to the movie ‘Midnight Express’ in 1978.
This prediction owes an explanation! That statement is always in Hollywood! :) This is a movie directed by Oliver Stone.
In the movie, Bill Hayes, an American student, is imprisoned in Istanbul Sağmancılar Prison on charges of drug smuggling during his visit to Istanbul. There he sees all kinds of torture and disgrace. The bribery-swamped guards, the sadistic approaches and finally the legal and physical struggle to escape from there! Great scenario!
And kaboom! here come the prizes!
Well… what happened to the Turks? — With these stigmas, which are described as savage, barbarian, and con man, tourists are carefully withdrawn from Istanbul.
Oh, look at the dates… 1977 and 1978 … How ridiculous isn’t it?
Shortly after, in 1980s, the deadly revolutions and strikes, later chaotic mayhems & riots were going to begin… A lot of young people were murdered. You could not see those actual scenes in any movies… Even the blood was looking so real! Because it was real.
Movies should be taken seriously.
Sometimes they edit the pioneer works for the film before it happens in real life. In fact, we love to see them later we realize that they might be a real plot.
In short… I attribute the complexity of those times to the Hollywood attitudes that indicate that there is no security left, or that the same agenda is at work. They are not wrong though. Being bombed by 100 people at Ankara Train Station in 2015 or dying while walking in Istiklal Street is at the level of martyrdom. It may not matter much to the incoming European tourists. Because dying while having fun has nothing to do with martyrdom.
Express means “fast "anyway. I don’t think it’s related to speed for some nations. “Ex” part is gone with many expired bodies. However, “Press” part remains.
Hey! Raise your head, look at me bro! into my eyes…
Who knows how much pressure that you can hold in real life?
Wake up and say something!
Opps… I am in the train, and I have arrived at Queens Borough Plaza station.
Back tomorrow…
