The State Agency for Information Technology and Communications (SAITC) released a commemorative stamp collection entitled 120 Years Orient-Express on September 11 2008.

The stamp collection consists of a series of two postage stamps, an illustrated envelope at a price of 0.6 leva and a special postage stamp.

Through the years, many different trains and different routes have used the name Orient Express. Several of these routes have crossed Bulgaria.

The name Orient Express has become synonymous with intrigue and luxury travel.

On June 5 1883, the first Express d'Orient left Paris for Vienna. Viena would remain the end station until October 1883.

At Giurgiu in Romania, passengers would take the ferry across the Danube to Bulgaria's Rousse, from where they would continue their trip by train to Varna and from there by ferry to Istanbul.

From 1885, a different route went into operation, from Vienna via Belgrade and Nis, then by carriage to Plovdiv and by train to Istanbul.

In 1889, the train's eastern end station became Varna, from where passengers could take the ferry to Istanbul. On June 1 1889, the first non-stop train from Paris' Gare de l'Est left for Istanbul.

It was not until the 1891 that the train was renamed Orient Express.

After World War 1 and with the opening of the Simplon Tunnel between Switzerland and Italy in 1919, the Orient Express ran a more southerly route via Milan, Venice, Trieste, through Belgrade and Sofia to Istanbul.

The current Orient Express does not serve Paris or Istanbul and it has not passed through Bulgaria since 1979. Instead, it only runs from Strasbourg to Vienna.

The route of the original Orient Express can still be followed with four different trains.

The release of the commemorative stamp collection 120 years Orient Express released by SAITC, coincides with the 120th birthday of Bulgarian State Railways. The stamp collection is available at the Museum of Communications on 6 Gourko street in Sofia.

The collection has been released in an edition of 20 000.