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Hi, we are wanting to travel by rail the following route: Krakow – Budapest – Sighisoara - Suceava – Brasov – Sinaia – Bucharest - Veliko Turnovo – Plovdiv – Rila Monastry – Sofia – Istanbul. We are looking to take the overnight train Krakow to Budapest and then leave that evening from Budapest overnight to Sighisoara. We have been told that we should wait until Budapest to buy the City star ticket Budapest through to Istanbul. My question is will we be able to purchase a ticket (double sleeper preferred) for this journey at short notice in Budapest ie in the morning for travel that evening. Also the leg from Sofia to istanbul would be overnight train (where can we book a sleeper for this). If anyone has an approximate cost for the journey that would be very helpful. Would this be better in reverse ie Istanbul to Krakow? or finish in Athens instead of Istanbul (an alternate option is the following: Krakow – Budapest – Sighisoara - Suceava – Brasov – Sinaia – Bucharest - Veliko Turnovo – Plovdiv – Rila Monastry – Sofia – Thessaloniki – Kalamaka - Athens.
Sorry for all the questions, but we are trying to organise flights and am a little concerned about the bookings for the rail section. Thank you for any assistance.

Hi,
Question on how to get from Krakow to Budapest overnight was already discussed, so you might simply take a look here - http://europetrainsguide.com/forum/index.php/topic,57.0.html, http://europetrainsguide.com/forum/index.php/topic,61.0.html. We are glad to answer any additional question you might have after reading those posts.

About CityStar: Hungarian railways doesn't offer CityStar to Turkey, but only to Bulgaria, thus you can buy it only for Budapest-Romania-Bulgaria/Turkey border. Just to remind you, CityStar is a return ticket, it cost 113 euro for one passenger, 169.5 euro for two etc. It can be used for your route, but you will need to buy additional ticket Bulgaria/Turkey border-Istanbul (in this case it will be Svilengrad-Istanbul and will cost around 10 euro per person). But purchase of the CityStar only makes sense if there are two or more passengers traveling. If you are alone, then it is cheaper to buy point to point tickets.
If you decide to use CityStar ticket, then you will probably need to change the route to Budapest – Sighisoara - Suceava – Brasov – Sinaia – Bucharest - Veliko Turnovo – Sofia – side trip to Rila Monastry- Sofia - Plovdiv - Istanbul. It's needed because Plovdiv is located on the route from Sofia to Istanbul, so you would avoid doint Plovdiv-Sofia twice. In such case your ticket will be issued for the route  Budapest – Sighisoara - Suceava – Brasov – Sinaia – Bucharest - Veliko Turnovo – Sofia - Plovdiv - Svilengrad.

Generally, if it is not peak season, it's not a problem to buy sleeper reservations Budapest-Sighisoara for the overnight train. Same with Sofia-Istanbul + this one, unfortunately, you can buy only in Bulgaria, while Budapest-Sighisoara you can buy at any ticket counter which has access to Hafas reservation system.