The journey don't finish by the end...
The last day dawned abroad. The plan was to get to Cesme, to regulate the tickets and go an hour earlier to customs procedural. Although the procedures were entirely typical, the inexperience of an employee could be enough to delay. Moreover, You never know what was likely to happen and our theme was that we should take one more boat to finally get to Piraeus... so even the smallest delay could be costly!
We thought on our way to the coast, to visit the archaeological site of Sardis, located in small distance from Salihli. We put it on the edge of our minds, but what will finally do, would depend on the time that we would arrive in Salihli. In any case, this archaeological site is worth a visit, as it was very well restored (by a German university) and impresses, as it gives you an excellent view of how was possible at the time of its prosperity.
The kilometres were more than 400 in the same -almost- backdrop to the previous day. On the substance, we didn’t have something new to see, after starting our journey before 21 days -for inside Turkey; we followed the path Cesme - Izmir - Salihli - Afyon, in other words same but in opposite direction.
As regards the way up to Izmir was passing through the highlands, clearly lower than the previous days. Now we began to descend altitude -under the 1000m.-, while the landscape had more vegetation compared with that of the previous day. The road might be less monotonous. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that the weather was better and did not threaten us with rain ... something that plagued us the previous day, before entering Afyon.
Arriving in Salihli, we realized that the time was now late, to visit Sardis. From Salihli to Izmir separates us approximately 80km. Our goal was not to go through the city, so do not get into trouble with traffic jams and delays. We would pass around the city, just as we did last time. Unfortunately, somewhere we missed the correct intersection and now the crossing of Smyrna was a fact...
A main avenue is connecting the entrance to the harbor. Lucky for us, it was Sunday, so we diden't find traffic and move with a relative comfort. Following the signs to Aydin and upon for Cesme-, we enjoyed the view of cardioid building section of Smyrna. Low and colorful houses, densely built together, give a nice effect with a quirky charm! The feeling of a small disappointment for our mistake, gave place to satisfaction and impress on what we see!
Once we arrived in the coastal zone of the city -in zero altitude after 22 days travel, we got on the highway of 60km until the port of Cesme. We used the auto-crossing cards HGS and continued. I want to mention that the cards indicate the entry point to the motorway in order to make the charge (from the money available to the card) at the exit point. The price was 1,8TL. Eventually we were charged 45TL to pay 1.8 & 2.25 in total!!!
Sometime after 4pm we arrived at Cesme. Essentially that was the end of the road part of our journey. We moved to the headquarters of the ferry company ERTURK to do the check-in on tickets that we bought from Chios. The employ told us that we need to pay +3€ each, as tax. I do not know if that was true or not, because as we found out later, Stelios did not pay...
Before heading to the customs area, where Stelios was waiting for us, we made a short stop in the pedestrian zone of the city to get some last gifts.
At 5pm we met with Stelios who by luck, had his birthday today... What a nice thing the day of your birthday reach you while travelling...!!! The best gift... The best wish... Soon we finished with the procedural and changed clothes to be more comfortable for the rest of the trip... "Cruise at the Aegean" as featured by Stelios! On the other side Sideris was waiting, to share with us our impressions with beer and souvlaki accompaniment...
At 7.30pm the hatch of the small Turkish ferry closed... The sky was wearing his best colours. The sun was dropping his last sunrays at the beautiful fortress of Cesme ... The wind that was blowing, forced most of the people to get inside the ship, as the rest of the gang...
I was left alone staring as we were living the port... I didn’t want to miss a single one of the last moments of the trip...
A journey of a lifetime...
A journey of promise...
A journey dedicated to one of the most loved persons that passed through my life...
