Gate to the Orient

The old Sirkeci railway station in Istanbul, where the Orient Express arrived from Paris, 3098 km in 80 hours. Now just a station on the Marmaray underground  line, with many cats. More about the station here. From there, you take a short ferry ride to the Haydarpasa station on the asian side of Istanbul, and from there, take a train to Tehran or Baghdad. Not anymore, unfortunately.