The Orient Express arrives in Istanbul

The historic Orient Express arrived in Istanbul yesterday with 100 passengers, each of whom had paid $3,250 for the 5 day trip here from Paris. The Orient Express, which began running in 1883, was at that time the most important mode of transportation between the east and the west. As the subject of both an Agatha Christie novel and a James Bond movie, the Orient Express came to an end with its last run in 1976. Following its restoration in 1998, the Orient Express began coming to Istanbul once a year. Leaving from Paris, and spending a day each in Budapest, Bucharest, and Varna, the train comes to a final stop in Istanbul, where the tourists aboard tour the city and then fly back to their individual homes. On Friday, the Orient Express will leave Istanbul for Venice with a different group of tourists who have flown in for the return portion of the trip. Â