9th to 13th of April, 2022.
I ask for directions in the gas station right beside the bus station. The men over there are a bit scared because they cannot speak English. But they want to help. So they manage to tell me that, one of them is leaving in a few minutes, and he can drop me off on the road to Turgutlu. Yay! He drops me off in what looks like a highway, cars passing real fast, but what to do?
Now, if I am not mistaken, the next person to stop for me is a man called Orhan, and he drives me until somewhere before Manisa.
Then a young man, an engineer as he tells me, going to work somewhere outside Manisa too, stop his car and I decide to get in. He lights up a huge marijuana cigarette. Dear, Loki! People are miserable in this planet. And I don’t like him very much but he drops me in a good intersection.
The next guy is Aydam and he cannot speak English at all but we use his phone to do some translation. He seems like a very nice and responsible man. We stop to have some coffee in a gas station, just outside Turgutlu, and he writes in his phone that I am the first hitchhiker he ever picked up. Owm! That gives me hope! Hope that more and more people will start to see and understand that hitchhiking is not a dying art and that to help people is always a good thing. (The cute photo with the yellows guys on the featured image I took in his car).
Aydam drives me all the way to my Workaway host’s house. We try to call him before but there is something wrong with his number. When we arrive at the house, he is not answering, but some people from the same building, but from another apartment, receive us. We get his number with them and he tells me he will be home later. For the time been, I can wait in these people’s apartment because they are part of his family.
People say that bad things never come alone. I can say, lunatics never come alone.
My first Workaway host in Turkey was a complete lunatic. I believe the reason is because he could not deal very well with the fact of being by himself for so long. Some people just cannot. He would never accept when I had a different opinion of his and was always trying to persuade me to change mine. And he completely exploded one day only because I didn’t wash his dishes from breakfast. He wanted a maid not a Workawayer.
After he lost his mind I decided I wouldn’t stay and luckily I manage to find a place to go right next day. It is a lavender farm.
The first person to give me a lift is Jelil. Some people are just confused when it comes to places for hitchhiking. Take Jelil, for example. He knew I was going towards Fethiye, but he thought that taking me to Sore, where he was going, which is a small town about 20 minutes out of the route to Fethiye, it was a good idea.
The next person is a young man, very calm and quiet, who is going to Aydin. It is not too far from here but at least, it is in the right way. And this guy is such a nice person! In a gas station he buys me a bottle of water and a delicious pistachio chocolate! He drops me off in a very strategic point.
A lot of cars pass by until Mutlu stops. He is also very quite and calm but he cannot speak English. He insists on paying me lunch: lentil soup! And a delicious bread! He is a bit worried about me hitchhiking again. He thinks it is dangerous. I give him my email address and blog, and try to calm him down saying that I have been doing this for many years. Later on, he would send me an email, in Turkish, which goes like this: “Kucuk bir kızım var 8 aylık umarım büyüdüğünde senin kadar cesur olur.” (I have a little girl who is 8 months old. I hope she will be as brave as you when she grows up.) How sweet is that?!
Mutlu drop me off in a town called Nice. Suleyman and his Blablacar passenger, Veidat, stop in a few minutes. Poor Suleyman, at first I was a bit uncertain about him, perhaps because he looks like a military man (who he is, a helicopter engineer for the army), very strong and serious. Well, after a few minutes you can see how nice and sweet he is. He took me for a been snack (which he called “been party” later) and after we stop for a great view of a beach called Akyaka, where we also have some tea. We talk about our travels, he has also been to many countries in Africa with the army. He is going to his hometown, Doloman, where he drops me off in the highway.
When I am waiting for the next lift, I can’t help but to get a bit sad. I just can’t stop thinking how, sometimes, hitchhiking can be tricky. You see, I know I will manage to arrive to Seydikemer today, no doubt, but it just taking so much longer than it should. And now it is almost sunset time.
In only a few minutes, a man tells me he can take me to Fethiye. So here I go again.
Once outside Fethiye, we call my host to check if they are in Fethiye or should I keep trying to get in Seydikemer. The driver is the one talking to them, he seems like a very calm and responsible man.
So I have to go to Seydikemer. I ask for a piece of cardboard in the gas station I am standing in front and write my destination. Again, only in a few moments, two very nice and simple men, Okrush and Aycram, pick me up. They both can speak English and we chat a little bit. I have the name of the market where they should drop me off and they know the place. We arrive in a matter of 20 minutes.
My second Turkish host arrive briefly. U. looks very charming, even though he is a bit overweight, as he comfesses himself. He seems like a chill and cool guy. We get some provisions and he gets us a beer. One for me, one for him and one for the other volunteer who is waiting at his place
About what I was saying in the beginning of this text, in how lunatics never come alone, here is where I meet the second one: the other volunteer. His name is Ali (or Ady, who knows!), from Albania, and he is even more out of the little house than my first host. I have met so many wonderful people when I was in Albania but this guy, dear Loki, he is a total prat!