Saturday, February 21

Another birthday party! Rania, one of Lacey's friends, had a McDonald's Birthday Party this afternoon. I took her and wandered around the area (7. Cadde/Bahcelevier) in the snow and then chatted with "the moms" for a bit. I don't know why, but the chatting with other parents is just not my favorite part of parenting. I guess I need practice.



It snowed all day long, so the party we were planning on attending tonight was canceled. The snow sure looks beautiful though.

We watched Wall-E on the wall tonight (or Vol-i in Turkish, which looks remarkably like "Volume 1"). Brian and the girls first watched the movie when it was freshly released during our Disney cruise last summer. Now we're watching it on the wall amidst piles of garbage outside in the parks, little patches of grass amidst the vast stretches of concrete, and block after block of concrete cube apartment buildings. Two very different perspectives, both of which seem quite appropriate for the movie, which deals with overconsumption and garbage ruining the earth. Gosh the cruise was great, but it was also a little too like the spaceship the people escape from earth on!

Friday, February 20

Snow this morning! But not enough for a snow day for schools.

Thursday, February 19

Finally back to school today, though no bus showed up to pick us up. I finally got a phone number for another teacher who can help relay bus messages to the driver in Turkish to hopefully help this problem. Apparently he came each day I was sick, and then gave up by today, when we were finally ready to come back. Feeling much better now, though still not 100%. Hopefully soon.

Aeden said, clear as day, "Thank you". But it was a one-time deal. Please is working well for him, but thank you, not yet. Except that once, when all of us froze and couldn't believe it was really him. Hiiii and Byeeee with emphatic parade waves are his specialty. Which is kind of fun when we're out and about cause it makes him charm the socks off of strangers even more than he does just existing as a cute little boy.

Wednesday, February 18

Home sick again. Now I'm getting bored, too. But when I get up and try to move around I last about an hour and then crash really hard in a breakout of sweat and shivers. Won't work too well to travel to school and use patience in this condition.

Lacey started Clogging I after school, "a mix of Appalachian Folk Dancing and the Irish Jig" according to her teacher." She will finally get to wear shoes with taps on them! (She's wanted to for quite a while.) We'll see how it goes. I certainly wasn't expecting to come to Turkey to learn clogging to American country music. But there's something to be said for free dance lessons after school and wanting to learn something new.

Tuesday, February 17

Home sick. Aeden's getting bored. Finished "Bliss" by O.Z. Livaneli, a famous Turkish author. What a look into Eastern Turkey's Islamic world, among other things.

Monday, February 16

Home sick with Maren (she's fine, but wanted another day of rest) and Aeden (he's fine, too, just stuck staying home with me!)

Sunday, February 15

Sitting in bed all day trying not to cough. And a trip all the way to the Carrefour across the street for some groceries. What a waste of a day.

I've finished a few more books, though:

Ataturk by Andrew Mango
I had to take a picture to prove it. A biography of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of Turkey. A big fat book with little type and I finished it! It helped to learn the geography of Turkey and to learn more about the changes he made in the war of independence. Pretty big changes in a very short time frame, like changing to the latin alphabet, removing headscarves, banning the fez and requiring brimmed hats, closing religious schools and starting a national schooling system, and more. I'm frustrated that I don't remember him even being mentioned in history classes in school, and he certainly deserves some mention or a chapter in a leadership textbook (the subject would be effective delegation). There's a Fulbright research professor here this year studying Ataturk specifically, so I'm excited to know more about Ataturk so that I can actually have a conversation with him (and others) and learn more.

Its Not About the Tapas by Polly Evans
A travel book recording a bicycle adventure in Spain, sprinkled with some history and research. Travel books are dangerous reading. It might be better that I stay sheltered and not learn of more neat places to explore in the world!

A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel
A memoir of a little girl's childhood in small town USA in the 1970's. Scary words I've only heard my mom and grandma use like "pshaw"! A quick light read, perfect for breaks from Mr. Ataturk's war drama biography.

Saturday, February 14

Aeden attended his first friend birthday party today at "Smart Play" at 365, the newest shopping mall in town. Amy from school was turning 3 and the whole crew from school was let loose at the play area on a Saturday morning. Aeden sacked out in the stroller as soon as we strolled away from the ball pit and jumping castle. He spent almost the entire time playing in the little plastic house, not letting anyone else come in. His own little kingdom I suppose.







In the afternoon we met some Australian friends of Nancy's at her place for a quick visit and some cheesecake. Sandra's daughter Isabel liked Lacey and Maren well enough and was complaining that it wasn't fair she couldn't come over for a visit to their house this afternoon. The universal, "its not fair" whine. :-)

Movie night at our house for the new Wallace and Gromit film, "Matter of Loaf and Death" Paul, Becky, Emma, Katherine, Roseta, Tim, Nuray, Lizzie, and Meggie (hopefully) enjoyed Domino's Pizza and a bulgur salad Nuray made called Kisir (but those i's have no dots on them in Turkish). I was officially sick by this point and was exhausted from the day and a cold settling in my chest that made it feel like an elephant was sitting on me. So it was an early night.

Friday, February 13

Valentine's Parties at school...except Maren came down with a fever Thursday night and couldn't go...so Aeden and I couldn't go either!

Thursday, February 12

Lacey lost the upper tooth this morning at school

100th Day of School party for Maren's class

Wednesday, February 11

Lacey lost the lower tooth tonight, even though she didn't know it was loose until this afternoon. She was busy wiggling the upper one and popped out the lower one!

Got travel itineraries for Myron and Kaye to visit in March and Rob to visit in April. Very much looking forward to the visits!

Tuesday, February 10

Aeden pushed a lady out of her seat on the bus wanting his own seat. And the other person watching encouraged it! The kid gets way too much of what he wants here!

Monday, February 9

Back to school for us all. Good to be back in a routine and have a fresh view on the apartment in the afternoon and some built-in fresh air.

Sunday, February 8

Another day of pajamas, but today's excitement was Lacey opening "Cortney's Diner" for lunch and dinner. She made up a menu and served us meals-made-to-order. It was Cortney's Diner and not Lacey's Diner because I was the boss, and she was just the waitress. But at least she knows that washing the dishes means wiping the counters and sink! And she washed the soap off the outside of the soap dispenser. There's hope for her! :-)

By the way, if she can't get a job as a waitress when she gets older she wants to be a lumberjack instead. "Where wood comes from" has been the top viewed page in Richard Scarry's "What People Do All Day" book lately, can you tell?

Saturday, February 7

Ditto Monday, except Lacey and Maren were home. I walked with Maren and Aeden to Armada so Maren could buy a Webkinz stuffed animal (she'd been saving her tooth fairy money). The selection was so poor Maren chose a puppy that she already has two of in Olympia. But she's happy and "Lily" and she have been playing online like old buddies. What a racket the Webkinz people have (buy an overpriced stuffed animal with a code to unlock an online character to play games).

We took a cab home, and when we were unloading I put Aeden down to walk over to the sidewalk. He did, but then made a bee-line to the open driver's door and climbed in (the driver was getting the stroller out of the trunk). I ran over to grab him out and he was, again, not very happy at all, and cried and screamed all the way back upstairs and into our apartment. Just lovely.

Friday, February 6

Ditto Monday. Except at about noon Brian got a call from Mustafa that he would be here in 10 minutes to pick him up for a meeting at school. Quickest shave and dressing in a tie Brian has ever mustered I think.

Thursday, February 5

Sore legs and lazy butts sitting around the apartment. But we did manage to go down to the market for some fruits and vegetables. This was the first time Brian had been to the market on Thursday and seen the differences--more clothes and curtains and towels/bedding on Thursdays than on Sunday.

But I found a watch battery for Brian's watch: at the jewelry store in the ODC Center...right across the street from our building. This isn't the first time thinking about the biggest store hasn't gotten us what we need. Sometimes local and small is better!

Wednesday, February 4

Brian, Aeden, and I took a dolmus to Kizilay/Guven Park to wander Kizilay on a weekday. Once again it was a disappointing wandering, even though it wasn't overly crowded. We didn't find a watch battery, the bookstore didn't have any interesting books in English (though I did finally find another Ankara map), and the wandering was kind of lackluster. So we headed toward the Ethnographic Museum for a visit. But we got there right at noon when they were closing for the lunch hour. So...we walked all the way back to Guven Park to catch a dolmus (I know how to get home from there), and ended up going to Armada to check for a watch battery, with still no luck. Walked over the pedestrian bridge to a big computer and electronics store, still no luck. Grabbed a cab and dropped off Brian and Aeden so I could go up to Oasis for conferences with Lacey's teacher and Maren's teacher. Oh my, was I tired by the time I walked home after the conferences!

Tuesday, February 3

We set out on foot to Cepa mall. It is a bit of a long walk, but the weather was nice and we had plenty of time to waste. We approached the mall from the back and happened on a store called Bauhaus, which is a little bit Ikea, a little bit Home Depot, and a little bit Circuit City. But there was nothing little about it, it is huge. We wandered for quite a while and Brian admitted it was probably a good thing this store wasn't handy in Olympia. After lunch and shopping for new pants for Brian we took a cab home to meet the girls from the school bus. Aeden was not happy that he didn't get a turn driving the car. Not happy at all.

Monday, February 2

Girls back to school, Brian, Aeden, and I sitting around and vacationing after our vacation. Oh, and updating the blog with our trip!

Sunday, February 1 Back to Ankara

Up at 6:00 to load up the car, eat breakfast, and head back to Ankara. We waved at the Artemis Temple on the way out of town (there's only one column left of the temple and a big ditch) and started the long drive back inland.

A few rounds of 20 Questions to pass the time, then Maren started getting tricky and using Turkish words for her objects. It made it more difficult, but also easier, since I know most of the words she knows, but Brian doesn't!

As we moved further to the east and higher in elevation we hit some snowy areas (the roads were bare and dry though), and saw some cars pulled over with families outside making snowballs. More people tasting a bit of the life they don't normally lead.

Some through-the-windshield shots required of all road trips:





A beggar woman at an intersection. She's wearing the common "MC Hammer" pants that all the women were wearing out on the coast. They wear skirts in Ankara, no Hammer pants.


Burger King for lunch in Afyon. Aeden loves coke bottles and other gummy candies, and just one will buy about 5 minutes of quiet if he's crying. He also is really enjoying the Richard Scarry books we have and has spent at least a few hours over the last few days studying just the covers alone. Lacey finished Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator today. She just started it a day or two ago. She started James and the Giant Peach last Sunday and finished it on this trip, then went straight to Charlie. She is really enjoying Roald Dahl right now, and also enjoying not having a Reading Log to fill in at school (ironically, when she has to do a log she only reads the minimum 15 minutes per day. When she has no log, she'll read for an hour or 2. Was the same way at home in Olympia, too.)

When we got home Aeden had one last turn driving our rental car (when we would arrive somewhere he'd yell or whine until we unbuckled him, but then immediately walk to the driver's door, open it, climb in, close the door, and then "drive" the car for as long as we let him.) I think he could have passed the whole vacation just sitting in the driver's seat of the car. He might have opted for some of the tractors and trains he got to sit in for a break from the car, but I'm not sure.

Coming back up our road in Ankara


Aeden: "Cheese!"


We came upstairs and dropped our bags and immediately started in on "normal" stuff...the laundry, unpacking, etc. Aeden went to his room and hugged his big puppy and then played in his bed with his cars for quite a while. I think he was happy to be back to his toys and bed, if you could even call it that (it is two hide-a-bed upholstered chairs--you'd use both together to make one twin bed--one folded flat and the other backed up against it to make another side to the bed. Works for him and us, so I can't complain).

Saturday, January 31 Efes Museum, Maryemem, Ridgeline Hike, Train Museum

I went to stop by the Selcuk Tourist Information office this morning on the way into the museum...but learned that it is closed on weekends. Nice. We toured the Efes Museum and saw the best of the artifacts from Efes brought indoors to the museum to protect them better (those that haven't been shipped off, legally or illegally, to other countries' museums over the years, that is).



Then we were off to the Virgin Mary's House. Pretty spotty information about how this was supposedly where Mary lived and died, but the Pope says it is so, and so it shall be. No pictures allowed inside, but we purchased some postcard photos we'll scan shortly...

There's a spring also, and a prayer wall with little bits of tissue and fabric tied on, some with prayers written on them. I was overwhelmed by it, realizing just how much hope and desire had gone into each piece of material.



On the way down the winding mountain road, there was a dirt and rock road that Brian decided to investigate. We came up on a little pasture of green among the trees and got out for a walk. We ended up hiking up to the ridgeline where the outer Efes wall had been built centuries ago for a terrific view of the entire valley on both sides, and postcard perfect peeks over Efes, where we had just toured the day before. Scrambling up the rocks was interesting toting a 20 month old, but it was a great little hike and Brian and the girls had a ball exploring and climbing about while Aeden and I stayed put on the ridgetop, happy to take in the views and throw pebbles down the side. Aeden likes to do his part to contribute to erosion whenever he gets the chance.

The road:


The pasture:


The ridgeline (from the road below after the climb):


The reward:






We came down from our hike and headed to the train museum just outside of Selcuk. It was wonderful! It had a huge collection of real trains and engines and included Ataturk's special car with his sleeper cabin, bathroom (with marble bathtub!), full kitchen, planning room, etc.



We had a late lunch at Le Wagon restaurant next door to the museum, where the food was great but the service was terrible. It started out great, the owner suggesting a family plate of mixed grill (chicken, steak, and meatballs/kofte) and salads all around--sounded perfect and like he would take care of us. But then other parties were being served second rounds of beer and they had not brought even any water for us, so I asked the owner if we should go somewhere else, were they too busy? Oh, no, of course not. And what showed up at our table but water, Coke, bread, dolmas, etc. Finally. And the bill...well, we were out in tourist land and it was quite a bit more than we'd had at any other Turkish restaurant. Hmm. It was tasty at least.

We fueled up the car for the drive back to Ankara tomorrow, and reviewed the poor dusty ancient collection of CDs and cassette tapes in the convenience store, hoping for something to help pass the time between radio station reception. And what did we find? Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince Greatest Hits, Everything But The Girl Greatest Hits, and a Massive Attack album. Better than if we had been in the states! We'll just ignore the layers of dust and broken jewel cases, that part is not important. What is important is that we'll be jamming to Parents Just Don't Understand, circa 1990, tomorrow on our drive!

I took a walk with Aeden along the marina to get a better look and breathe in some more salty marine air before leaving. And to stock up our car snacks at Migros for the drive home tomorrow. Dinner, packing, reading, sleeping. The routine at night here has turned into Aeden lying down on his mattress on the floor and looking at a book or playing with his cars, Lacey and Maren both reading books in their hide-a-bed horrible bed, Brian sitting out in the hallway with a chair and table so he can connect to the wireless network that doesn't work in either of our rooms, and me in an armchair reading a book. At some point over the next hour each of the kids dozes off, I get sleepy not long after and go to bed, and Brian sits out in the hall for some period playing World of Warcraft online. Not bad for a vacation evening :-)





More photos from today are in the album:

Efes Muzesi, Meryemana (Virgin Mary's House), Ridgeline Hike, Camlik Train Museum

Friday, January 30 Tire, Zeus Cave, and Dilek National Park.

Packed up and drove to Tire (Tee-reh), an "off the beaten path" rural town that is too far from the coast and the cruise tours for many tourists to have bothered with. What a great little stop it turned out to be. The drive was nice (it was bright and sunny out), and though the Lonely Planet tidbit of info didn't really help us figure out where to go once in the town, it did wind us up a steep road to the top of a hillside where we could see out over the town and plot our walk through to see the old 15th century mosques. There was a family walking up the steep windy road; I was not jealous.

The roads in the town were narrow and Brian masterfully drove us right down one to one of the mosques only to discover it was a dead end. No problem, we'll just back out. Aeden provided "vroom vroom" sound effects and giggled at driving backwards. I was glad I wasn't the one driving, we'd still be there backing out slowly!

The comment popped up at some point that we hadn't heard the call to prayer at all in Kusadasi. It took just over a day to miss it, and as soon as we heard it again we said, "OK, now we're still in Turkey." It felt like we had gone to a different country, where most people speak some English and there's not a call to prayer broadcast 5 times a day. But then we visited Tire and were reminded where we were.

We parked the car and wandered onto the mosque's grounds. The weather was perfect and it was nice to be out and about with little agenda. There was a man there sweeping and tending to things and he invited us inside. He pointed out the original pieces of the structure, gave us some brochures on mosques (in French), and sat Aeden down on his lap while he showed us some old pictures of the mosque and its congregation on the computer. He played some recorded music and the girls danced around in the open space. I don't know if that was OK or what, but they had a nice time and he didn't seem to cringe at all. Just a little bit later we heard him singing over the loudspeaker system while we were walking...it was nice.








We wandered around some more and soaked in the reality of living in a town like this without running water in your apartment, with chickens on the roof next door, and with no mega-super-deluxe grocery store down the block. Brian and I agree that part of us would like to try living in a town like this, but we definitely do like having the luxuries we have--like running water even if it is not drinkable.

There was an old tractor parked on the street and Aeden got pretty psyched up to "drive" it. While he was busy test-driving a man came by and introduced himself and chatted (as best he could with no English) with Brian and invited him up to his apartment to say hello and see the view from his rooftop.





Everywhere dress-up is fun, even in white bridal gowns...the girls were delighted! Makes me want to ship off Lacey and Maren's dress-up clothes for these kids to play.



We met Dalma on the walk into town, and now saw her again on the way back to our car. Here she is posing for a picture, and proud grandma watching from the window:




After Tire we drove back through Kusadasi and picked up some lunch snacks at the little Migros and drove south to Zeus Cave for a dip and I sat back and almost cried at how amazing a day we were having. The girls were swimming in the blue water, Aeden was increasingly urgent in his pestering to get into the water, and it was overwhelmingly good. What a lucky family we are to be together and here in such a beautiful place.



Next we stopped at Dilek National Park to go to the beach. We waved at Greece across the water and took a dip in the Aegean. I was sure we would be the only ones in the water in the winter, but a Turkish family on holiday showed up and the two guys ran screaming into the water and dove in for a quick swim yelping and hollering at the cold. It was funny to watch and hear. Clearly not from those parts and having to take advantage of the time at the beach, cold or not. I was busy changing the kids out of their soaking clothes and into another set of clothes with a makeshift dressing area at the back of our car's trunk. Naked kids alert! We were nice and tired and headed back to the hotel just before sunset, stringing about all of clothes to try and dry them out for the next day.

The beach:



We also got to experience the fun of squat toilets again at the National Park. My girls need some practice still, and we'll leave it at that.

This morning we got pulled over by the traffic police, but then waved on before they even spoke with us. Luckily that turned out to be the only time we even came close to having a snag in our driving tour, though each day had many opportunities for excitement, whether a "trafik kontrol" slowdown (mostly trucks were pulled over), a dog or sheep in the road, or some other car driving in an "interesting" way.

More neat pictures from our awesome day in the album:

Tire, Zeus Magarasi, Dilek Milli Parki (Aydinlik Burun)

Thursday, January 29 Tour of Efes and Selcuk

We're sleeping in Kusadasi (Koosh-uh-dah-suh) and touring the neighboring towns and historical sites on this trip. Today we're touring Efes (Turkish for Ephesus) and sites in Selcuk (Sel-chk). No Turkish keyboard, no fancy Turkish letters to help pronounce the names!

We parked at the lower entrance to Efes and learned of a shuttle service to the upper entrance...the "shuttle" ride first stopped at a carpet factory (surely no commissions are paid to the driver!); No, we won't let Aeden sit in the front seat with Daddy, much to the driver's dismay. The driver's name was Torkay (spelling is wrong), but when he said it we thought he had made a joke and said his name was "tour guide". He was very nice and mentioned he was showing us his "Turkish Hospitality."

Lacey's picture of the "shuttle" to the top entrance for Efes
Aeden saying, "Cheese!" for Lacey to take his picture
as he prepares to drive the shuttle

In the carpet factory we were able to see women sitting and knotting carpets and the guide explained how they double knot in Turkey and that is why the carpets are so special. Lacey got to sit down and tie a few knots--the guide said that girls ages 9-15 sit with moms to work, but after age 15 are "professionals" and can work their own carpets. Then he showed us the silk worm cocoons being cooked and the silk being spun off of them. It was amazing.

Then we went into a side room and they rolled out carpet after carpet to show us the different patterns from different regions and tempt us into buying one. The asssitant (shown with Aeden) had a special wrist flick to spin the carpet as it was landing to show the color change from the nap and the dyeing process. Lacey fell in love with one and wanted to know why we weren't jumping at the opportunity to buy it for her right away...but then understood when we explained that it was $2000! It was of course really just a scam to get us to buy carpets, but a fun scam at least.






Lacey's photo of one of her favorite carpets
Maren's photo of one of her favorite carpets


We took the shuttle to the upper Efes entrance and were dropped off in a tourist trap of roadside stands with souvenirs, including belly dancing costumes.

A guide talked us into hiring him (45-60 minutes he said, but he spent 2+ hours with us). He was full of patience and engaged the kids; he is a retired teacher.

Guides are helpful, but frustrating too since Brian likes to explore things on his own (and sometimes sneak a peek behind the closed doors, so to speak). And the kids were whining to be done after the first 2/3 or so. And the stories about what this is and what that is often don't have any actual data to back up the claim, so it leaves Brian quite skeptical. I liked the stories. I'm glad I'm not a servant that had to go sit on the marble toilet benches to pre-warm them for the rich folks. I had a hard time digesting all the information and taking in the views. Absolutely amazing to be among carvings, walkways, homes from so long ago.

Maren's Efes photos:







Lacey's Efes Photos:









Look, all five of us really are here!


To see more pictures of Efes and the rest of our day, follow this link to the web album on Picasa:

Efes Tour, Isa Bey Camii, St. Jean's, Selcuk Citadel

A lot of the building materials from Efes were mined to build St. Jean's Basilica. Then they were mined again to build the Isa Bey Camii. Each time stealing from someone else's hard work and creating something a little less splendid. It was hard to look at the destruction that others imposed on their predecessors. Recycling, right? But now we wish they hadn't. Hmm.

We had lunch at our guide's suggested restaurant Agora Kebap's (I'll pretend the apostrophe is correct). When we used Turkish words to order our waiter was confused and we had to use English. How different from Ankara!

Brian followed a tour bus down the road and parked; we picked out some pretty pashmina scarves for the girls at a souvenir stand and wandered around Isa Bey Camii (mosque) and then St. Jean's Basilica. Aeden was asleep in his stroller when we got to St. Jean's and the paving was too crazy, so I offered to stay outside with the kids and wait while Brian took a peek inside and took some photos...well I forgot that I'd be a sitting duck for the shoe shiners and other peddlers following the tour buses around and got quite a dose.

One shoe shiner struck up a conversation with me and I learned he has two kids, one Maren's age, and then he pulled out a shiny new cell phone to show us a picture of them. Another man (who claimed to be 50 but I just don't see how he could really be 50 since he looked younger) was there lingering with a boy who was maybe his son, and the boy was selling little flutes. They laid it on thick:
"You are 20 years old, no?"
"You are beautiful like flower"
To Lacey, on the boy's behalf, "You are his first love, he says. You are beautiful. Like Charlie's Angels on TV."
To me, on the boy's behalf, "How many camels you want for her?"
Followed by the inevitable, "You tell husband to look my old coins." The perennial old coin peddler at the ruins.

Inside St. Jean's Basilica:




Oh well. It was good people watching as the tour bus groups wandered in and out and the shoe shiners came and went, rarely successful but always pushy. A group of 20-something Turkish tourists asked to stop and pose with us for a picture.

Brian drove a bit more around town to see if he could find a gap in the fence skirting the hill where the citadel was built behind St. Jean's Basilica. (It is closed to tourists right now because a wall collapsed and there are not funds to re-open it according to our tour book.) Closing the entrance gate only piques Brian's interest in exploring something even more, and he's full of wondering what's "around the corner" and not wanting to miss anything waiting to be discovered. Of course he found a hole, and ventured out to poke around the citadel and take some pictures while the rest of us stayed in the car and observed a side street of the town.

There was a group of about 8 boys splitting wood with very unsafe tools and methods, some more boys kicking a ball around and tormenting the goat staked in the grass field, and motor scooters buzzing up and down the street. In fact, the shoe shiner I had chatted with earlier buzzed on by, pulled up to Blok B and went upstairs with his loaves of bread. Small world.

The whole hill was fenced off, and yet Brian ran into dozens of sheep grazing on the hillside and even a man up top talking on his cell phone, seemingly up there for no other reason than to get better cell reception.

We called it a day and headed back to the hotel around 4:00. I was going to do a snack run to the grocery store...but didn't, too tired. We sat around and watched Turkish television for a while, went down to dinner, watched an episode of The Simpsons (in English! with Turkish subtitles) and headed to bed. Sample the adult tourist Kusadasi nightlife? We did not.