After four long hours , we arrived in Izmir. The rain made everything looked sad. The gloomy sky and chilling breeze told me to go home and be warmed. The fact that we were at a station to manoeuvre a couple of unruly bags made me nervous. We need to find a bus to the hotel soon before dark. Once the bus arrived we tried to pay by card and it kept rejecting them until one of the cards got us through. Pheeewwww! Everyone on the bus looked restless …. gave us “ they must be tourists “ kinda look. I used to be in their shoes looking annoyed when tourists struggling to settle local things like paying or getting around. But they put up strong innocent faces and resolve the issues amicably. I tried to remember that and made the same face but with a little fake smile. The rain, the luggage, the hassles, the long ride and the locked-stares made me stronger, actually , like you push yourself in the water to keep afloat. I felt contented somehow fulfilled with the challenges. With all the shits in my life, at that moment, I felt numb yet energetic. Discretely , I smiled to myself, confused as I didn’t know what I was doing there. As if punishing myself for being too long in the comfort zone. But, still, I missed my afternoon lazy time watching Frank Gallagher in Shameless and munching some nuts.
Drenched and tired we arrived at the hotel. Then the online reservation messed up and suddenly found myself at the pit of despair. This was not happening and the anxiety started to boil inside. Let me breathe and sort my emotions.
We decided to buy a new room and sort the online reservation tomorrow.
Monday morning was a bliss. After breakfast we headed out to join the morning rush. The destination was efgxgx a Greek historical site. At the train station we could not buy the card — the cards are out—— so? Well no card no entry ….. in a long turkish sentence of course.
Are you old? Let me see your passport, the lady uttered a few English words. Oh you are not old sir so no free ride but you can pass anyway. And we ran through to catch the train. On the train , I tried to breathe again and looked out as it pulled out of the station. The morning sun was soft and beautiful so the chilly air got me settled down for now.
The train was very comfortable, clean, fast and of course on time. The morning commuters packed up quietly and we were carried away as soon as the doors closed. It took about three hours to reach Selçuk (pronounced seljuk).
