Leaving İzmir

(Llig-ho en valencià)

Our train was supposed to depart at 14:30. It seems that the railway track or something was under construction, so instead of taking the train directly at the main station we should take a bus which had to lead us 20 minutes away from İzmir to another station to link with the train there.

Anyway, we said goodbye to the people thinking that we still had time. Fortunately the Turkish crazy driver (the same who horned at the cows, remember?) offered himself to give us a lift to the station where the bus was waiting. We got onto the crazy driver's bus, which was waiting at the Hotel entrance. Unfortunately there was a traffic jam so at 14:15 we were still at the hotel main entrance, we hadn't even got out from the hotel street.

From the nervous smiles we all began to get really worried about being late and miss the train. Özge and Sevim who accompanied us began to speak nervously in Turkish with the driver demanding something to him and he just shrugged his shoulders as if saying: 'I can't do anything.'

We managed to take the main avenue but the traffic was very slow. Then the Turkish crazy driver began to dodge the rest of the cars and to speed up the bus. At a given moment both the Turkish girls and the driver were talking by mobile phone with somebody who was giving instructions.

He took a shortcut by a street which was barely tarmaced and then he began to drive at full speed by narrow streets and in the wrong way, so we found cars which were coming in the opposite direction. He just horned at them as if ordering them to get out of his way. I was clung to the back of the seat and didn't feel safe at all...

At a given moment the girls told us that we had already missed the bus, but a few seconds later they told us that Berat was trying somehow to stop it and wait for us. Then suddenly we were at a big avenue where they told us to get off the bus cause the other bus would wait for us at some point on the road. We crossed the street running in a hurry, under the rain, striving not to lose our luggage and with all the crazy Turkish drivers of the world horning at us. We were putting our lives at risk once more.

Once at the other sidewalk we hardly said goodbye to the girls and from the heavy traffic appeared a bus which stopped in front of us. We got onto it and Berat and Iga appeared from nowhere as if Superman and Lois Lane. He had just time to say 'You're lucky guys' before the bus door closed between us without time to say goodbye or thank him for everything.