The ancient Turkish people normally lived as nomads but also built a few towns such as this. From writings, it is said that people normally had only 2 children. More than that and the child was supposed to be aborted or if born, should be killed within two weeks of birth. They found ancient abortion tools. The society favored boys and they attended the Gymnasium which was a place of learning for the mind and they also practiced Olympic type games (in the nude of course). This started at age 15 and lasted until age 20. Then they must join the army for another 10 years. The people today believe that this 15 years separated from women was the cause of much homosexuality in Turkish men during these ancient times. After the army, most men, then age 30 would marry a 13 year old girl and have a family.

Turkey today is a country of 70 million people. 15 million live in Istanbul. Kusadasi has only 50,000 people. The average monthly wage is less than $300 per month. They claim that everything is very cheap except gasoline and electricity. Fruit and vegetables for a week only costs about $10. Housing is still cheap in terms of Europe and the US and many foreigners come to buy homes or condos.

Back to town for a tour of a hand made carpet factory. Beautiful things but since there were no flying carpets, we did not buy any. We were given tasty apple tea (kind of like hot apple cider). Back on the ship we learned coin and card tricks from the ship’s magician. Several children had very wide eyes! Dinner was a much smaller crowd tonight as many people left the ship to continue their trip in Turkey. Back to Athens in the morning.