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Haydarpaşa Garı, Istanbul's Teutonic pseudo-castle railway station on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus is the terminus for trains to and from Anatolia (Asian Turkey), including the all-important Istanbul-Ankara route, as well as trains to Kayseri, Konya, and points east and south.

Haydarpaşa Station has ticket sales offices, a rather dull waiting room, shops selling drinks and snacks, Left Luggage/Baggage lockers, and a classic railroad restaurant, the Gar Lokantası, offering decent traditional Turkish cuisine and drinks at reasonable rates. A three-course dinner with one drink need cost no more than TL25. A light meal can be had for TL16.

Clientele in the Gar Lokantası is a coterie of local regulars rather than travelers, 95% male, chatting over meze and glasses of rakı. It's a mellow scene. Women are completely welcome. There's a fair amount of cigarette smoke. The waiters take good care of everybody.

Şehir Hatları and TurYol ferryboats from Karaköy (Galata), at the northern end of the Galata Bridge, and TurYol ferries from Eminönü, cross the Bosphorus frequently to Haydarpaşa and Kadıköy. Many ferries stop at both docks. Any ferry designated Haydarpaşa stops right at the station's own ferry dock. If you end up in Kadıköy by mistake, it's only a 10-minute walk north to the station.

To take a ferry from Haydarpaşa Station to the center of Istanbul on the European shore of the Bosphorus, exit the station and bear right to the Ottoman-era Şehir Hatlarıdock, or left to the TurYol dock. Here's how you pay the fare.

Suburban trains (banliyö treni) depart Haydarpaşa and travel southeast along the Sea of Marmara shore as far as Gebze, not far from Izmit. More...

The neoclassical Haydarpaşa Station building, a gift to the Sultan from Kaiser Wilhelm II, was built by the Anatolia-Baghdad Corporation between 1906 and 1908. Its foundation is 1100 wooden piles, each 21 meters (69 feet) long, driven into the mushy shore by steam hammer.

Haydarpaşa was an important link in the railway chain of the Kaiser's Berlin-to-Baghdad railway scheme, part of the German Empire's strategic Drang nach Osten ("Drive to the East") during the later 19th century.

If you're a train buff, take a ferry from Eminönü or Karaköy over to the station on the Asian shore, wander around, then board the next ferry back to Karaköy or Eminönü. The intercontinental voyage will cost only TL2 each way.

In 2013 or 2014, when the Marmaray rail tunnel beneath the Bosphorus is completed, Haydarpaşa Station will be retired from active service and repurposed as a museum or hotel. Intercity trains will then depart from Söğütlüçeşme, a station farther east reachable by Metro or Marmaray.

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