Strizivojna, a small Slavonian municipality, hides a murder mystery from the Orient Express
Chapter Five - Crime. Twentythree minutes up till one after midnight. Hercule Poirot can't sleep. First of all, he lacks train moving. He doesn't understand why the Orient Express stands. If it's at the station - it shouldn't be so quiet. Poirot forgot to ask for his usual bottle of mineral water, so he called the staff. After a few minutes, the steward responsible for food and drink and other passengers' requirements arrives at the train. The famous detective asks for his water, and the steward starts talking about the snow.
- Snow?- Poirot asks him.
- Yes, Monsieur. Sir did not notice? We stuck in the snow. God knows how long we will stay here. I remember once we were stuck for seven days - steward answers and Poirot asked him where the train is currently located.
- Between Vinkovci and Slavonski Brod - says a staff member of one of the most famous trains in history.
Poirot went back to bed after this conversation, but did not stay there for long. There was a murder on the train. One of the passengers was stabbed 13 times.
Analyzing the act, the inhabitants of Strizivojna are convinced that the murder took place in the area of Strizivojna. This is evidenced indescriptions of the forest, which coincide with the one near the railway. Strizivojna is at the very beginning of the Spačva Basin, which is the largest slavonian, red oak forest in Europe. There are also timelines that also provide sufficient confirmation that the murder occurred in that district.
"Orient Express Murder ” is one of the most important and known literary murders ever. Agatha Christie wrote the novel whoseprotagonist is Hercule Poirot and she located geographically that culminating part of the novel in Strizvojna.
Orient Express was one of the most famous trains in the history of the railway, an association of luxury and ancient times.
At the very beginning, the train was travellingtwice a week, departing from Paris every day, and had several lines. During World War I and World War II the routes were discontinued, but after the wars the train started to run again. The trip to Istanbul took three days, or more precisely 67.5 hours. The train ran on the Slavonian rails for the first time in 1919. The Simplon Orient Express route connected Paris with Dijon, Milan, Venice, Trieste, via Zagreb and Belgrade, up by Sofia and Istanbul.
It was just one route, and the other routes ofOrient Express and Arlberg Orient Express,were running through Vienna and Bucharest, and Budapest and Athens. There was hardly any major city in Europe without a train station. The train changed its name through the years, they were removing and returning it to the rails, and in 2009 he took its last ride.
Edit and translation: Marela Sopta
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