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Jack Eadie

@jacktravels.co.uk

630 followers 46 following 99 posts

European. Probably planning something. Visited 2,576 / 2,587 National Rail Stations. (99.5%). I post scenery and photos from around the UK and Europe! https://www.jacktravels.co.uk

www.jacktravels.co.uk

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Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · 6h

Leaving a rainy Almaty for another long distance sleeper train with the same Talgo rolling stock, this time an international service across the border to Tashkent, Uzbekistan!

🇰🇿 ➡️ 🚆 ➡️ 🇺🇿

The Almaty-2 to Tashkent sleeper train, which runs every other day.
Pictured sitting at platform 1 in rainy Almaty

Interior of the 2-bed sleeper cabin on the Talgo rolling stock, one bed is folded up for single occupancy

Almaty-2 departure board showing my 1913 train to Tashkent as well as other departures to Saratov, Uralsk and Shymkent

Barren Kazakh Steppe, dry dusty landscape between Shymkent and the border with Uzbekistan

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Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · 1d

Almaty Family Park, and nearby Sairan reservoir 🇰🇿

Large park which has had old Soviet statues and military equipment moved to as a sort of bare bones open air museum!

Soviet Helicopter out of use sitting in Family Park Almaty

Cascade of water down a manmade slope into Sairan Reservoir seen in the distance below

A Soviet plane and 3 Soviet tanks sitting in Family Park Almaty

A golden, roughly 20ft formerly Soviet statue of Vladimir Lenin, placed amongst similar statues in Family Park, Almaty.

Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · 1d

Almaty Metro!
A ticket system not really seen in Europe, you pay to receive a plastic token which is valid for a single journey. Each token costs 120 Kazakh Tenge (£0.17 / €0.19) 🇰🇿 🚇

A very long escalator from a metro station in Almaty, Kazakhstan

Ornate patterns and decorative styles at one of the metro stations in Almaty

Interior of a metro station in Almaty
This is the nearest one to Almaty-2 railway station

A metro train pulling into a metro station in Almaty

Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · 2d

A wander around Almaty! 🇰🇿

Ascension Cathedral, a Russian orthodox style cathedral in Almaty, Kazakhstan

Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the blue domes on the roof lit up at night

Arbat Almaty, the primary shopping street in Almaty, fully pedestrianised with rows of gold lights hanging above in the night sky

Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · 2d

A couple of nights in Almaty now, and I cannot resist a cable car!
Kok Tobe is an entertainment area up a hill to the east of Almaty city. 🇰🇿

Kok Tobe entertainment area cable car station

Huge mountains to the south east of Almaty with Kok Tobe food outlets, ferris wheel and “petit train” in the foreground

Beatles statues surrounding a bench with information plaques. The area near the bench had music from The Beatles playing continuously

View of Almaty from the Kok Tobe cable car

Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · 3d

The time comes to depart Astana and head south, and I can’t turn down the opportunity of an over 800-mile and 16 hour sleeper train across the Kazakh Steppe

Private sleeping compartment on the fairly new Talgo sleeper rolling stock operated by Qazaqstan Temir Joly

Exterior of the Talgo sleeper rolling stock at Astana Nurly Zhol station

Exterior of Astana Nurly Zhol station
The station is quite a way out of the main city centre, and although it is walkable a bus is much recommended

The vast emptiness of the Kazakh Steppe between Astana and Almaty

Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · 3d

Astana Grand Mosque!
Really beautiful and massive structure, the largest mosque in Central Asia and second largest outside the Middle East! 🇰🇿 🕌

Astana Grand Mosque, with the exterior lit up just before darkness falls.
The low base structure is white with many blue domed roofs, four 3-tiered minarets tower into the sky from each corner.

Grey clouds cover the sky above with a few people wandering and taking photos in the foreground below

Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · 4d

A couple of days wandering around Astana!
A surreal place covering a vast flat expanse, very shiny and clean with imposing structures and large spatial parks! A really interesting city!

View of Baiterek with symmetrical park / pedestrian area down a central strip.

Astana, Kazakhstan

Ornate white column supported structure in one of the large parks in Astana, a bike lane and path in the foreground

Large tent like structure (Kahn Shatyr) housing a recreation centre facility
The highest tensile structure in the world.
Astana, Kazakhstan

Fountains in Lovers’ Park, Astana Kazakhstan
With large building in background featuring an arched gap.

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Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · 7d

After a fairly pleasant flight east from Frankfurt, I arrived in the small hours in Astana, Kazakhstan! 🇰🇿

Side of the AirAstana Boeing 767
Disembarking after flying from Frankfurt to Astana

Baiterek Monument, Astana City centre
Baiterek is a large white structure with spikes forming the main length, fraying out at the top where a golden sphere sits.

Photo taken at around 2am, with the tower lit up in the night sky

Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · 8d

Last time I visited Koblenz, delays resulted in not having enough time.

This time I had plenty of time so it was time for a cable car ride!

Deutsches Eck, Koblenz
Seen from the Koblenz Seilbahn

Railway and castle seen from the Koblenz Seilbahn

View of the northern part of Koblenz from a viewpoint near the cable car top station

View of Deutsches Eck and the Rhein from Koblenz Cable Car

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Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · 8d

Time for another trip where I escape the UK and this time something slightly different 👀

I start off my usual way with a Eurostar service over to the continent!

Eurostar “Thalys” service from Bruxelles Midi to Köln Hbf

Hohenzollernbrücke, Köln.
Seen from the platforms at Köln Hbf

Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · 8d

Back in Britain and it’s time to tick off some stations, a visit to Cumbria with friends and a day in East Yorkshire brings me up to 99% of National Rail Stations visited ✅🚉

A Northern class 156 crosses a viaduct just east of Wetheral station

Wetheral station with station sign on the left and a class 156 departing towards Newcastle
An aesthetic footbridge in the background.

Broomfleet railway station on the line between Selby and Hull.
A Hull Trains class 802 is passing towards Hull

Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · 20d

And finally reached Budapest! 🇭🇺
Which means I’ve returned to my original plan

Sadly the Serbia issues meant I lost time exploring Belgrade and trying out more of Serbian railways, another time maybe!

Gyor town centre, a very nice place to relax in the evening

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Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · 20d

After a brief few hours in a hotel it was time for 2 consecutive long distance trains totalling about 23 hours of travel, from Sofia to Bucharest and onwards overnight to Arad in northern Romania 🇷🇴

Astra Trans Carpatic service from
Bucharest to Arad

6 seater compartment on the Sofia - Bucharest train

Mezdra station in Bulgaria seen from the Sofia - Bucharest train

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Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · 20d

Phase 2 of the “Serbia avoidance route” was a coach to Sofia, due to arrive at 2330.

However, the bus decided to start smoking and caught fire leading to being stuck in rural Bulgaria for 2 hours whilst a new bus was sent from Sofia!

Eventually made it to my hotel at 2am 🇧🇬

Skopje - Sofia bus service/destination board in Latin and Cyrillic script

New bus from Sofia, seen from the broken bus having sat at a petrol station near Kyustendil for nearly 2 hours

Sofia central railway station, around 0200

Roadside evacuation shortly after the bus started smoking

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Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · 21d

As a result of the Kosovo border shenanigans, I find my self travelling south into North Macedonia!
A new country for me and hope to return soon, the brief visit to Skopje was very pleasant! 🇲🇰

Horse statue in Macedonia Square, Skopje

Skopje Railway station, devoid of trains, not a very frequent service

Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · Sep 17

Upon leaving Kosovo my intention was to take a coach back north to Belgrade.

However this proved to not be possible as Serbian authorities denied re-entry into Serbia as I had not received a Serbian entry stamp from police when entering from Montenegro.

Cathedral of Saint Mother Theresa, Pristina, Kosovo

Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · Sep 16

Prishtina station!

Sadly none of the 2 trains per day were running due to renovation works.

Closed up ticket office in Pristina railway station

Frontage and entrance to Pristina railway station

Advert poster on the wall inside Pristinë railway station
A row of fold down seats below the poster

Two tracks with a low concrete paved platform between them at Pristina railway station

Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · Sep 11

Prishtina, Kosovo! 🇽🇰

A very interesting city in a lesser visited area of Europe!

National library of Kosovo in Pristina Kosovo

Gjergj Kastrioti "Skanderbeu'' statue in Pristina, Kosovo

Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · Aug 25

Sadly didn’t have long in Belgrade to properly look around as a coach south awaited me the next morning!

After around 5 hours I arrived into Pristina, Kosovo 🇽🇰

Belgrade trams to take me from the centre to the bus station, located in Novi Belgrade

Bill Clinton statue in Pristina, Kosovo
An American flag pole lies to the right and a large draped banned from the building behind the statue states “Bill Clinton Boulevard” with an image of the US President on a US Flag background, a Kosovo flag on the same banner below

Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · Aug 24

After a very long and slow journey….

Beograd Centar! ✅🇷🇸

Exterior of the new Belgrade Central (Београд Центар) station, located a few kilometres out of the main city centre

Serbian ministry of transportation
Also including a railway museum and Serbija Voz’s main offices

“Belgrade Center” / “БЕОГРАД ЦЕНТАР” station sign

Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · Aug 24

Bijelo Polje!
A station where we swap the Montenegrin train for the Serbian Stadler Flirt! 🇲🇪 🇷🇸
Border control for both countries also happens here!

Stadler Flirt for Serbija Voz (Србија Воз) at Bijelo Polje station in Montenegro

In the background a sign with the Montenegro Coat of Arms states “Montenegro Crna Gora, Dovidenja Goodbye”

Bijelo Polje station sign

“Željeznička Stanica Bijelo Polje”

Serbija Voz Stadler Flirt unit sitting at Bijelo Polje station alongside Montenegrin Railways Hauled passenger coaches

Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · Aug 22

The Mala Rijeka Viadict, near Podgorica on the line towards Bijelo Polje and Belgrade, it is the highest railway bridge in Europe. 🇲🇪

The Mala Rijeka viaduct, Montenegro
Surrounded by dry mountains scattered with bushes and trees

Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · Aug 21

Took a little train ride out to the lovely town of Nikšić! 🇲🇪

ZPCG multiple unit CAF train from Podgorics to Nikšić

Nikšić Station sign above a Montenegro Flag

Nice fountain in Nikšić town centre, unfortunately turned off

Orthodox temple of St. Vasilije of Ostrog in Nikšić

Jack Eadie @jacktravels.co.uk · Aug 21

Had a day wandering around Podgorica!

The Montenegrin Capital doesn’t have quite as many usual tourism sights as most places but definitely an interesting and pleasant city to explore! 🇲🇪

View of the river Morača from a footbridge
A glass skyscraper in the background has a large Montenegro flag at the top on all 4 sides

A statue in one of the parks in Podgorica

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