Written By Kelly Silver
It’s been a week since we left and wow, did that fly by! Today was our first day off. I woke up at 8:15am after my usual going to sleep at 2am. I was so annoyed with myself, I fell back to sleep pretty quickly. I woke again at 11:30am to the maid knocking at the door. I jumped up and rushed the girls to wake up. Our plans were to go to the Prince’s Islands. It’s a full day trip. You take a 55 minute boat ride. There are no cars on the island, so you travel around either by foot, cycling or horse and carriage. Clare, the company manager, was coming with us. She had emailed saying there were thunderstorms expected, so it was probably best not to go today. I suggested the aquarium.
We met Clare in the lobby at 12:30pm. We jumped in a taxi having no idea how far the aquarium was. I showed the Taxi driver where we were going on my phone. We were driving for so long, both Clare and I wondered if we were being taken out of the country and our relatives would here of us being kidnapped. I had no idea Istanbul was so big, or that the traffic was so bad. I was watching the taxi meter go higher and higher. 65 Turkish Lire later we were there. It still sounded like so much money to me, but really that was only about $25. If we went that distance in NY it would probably be closer to $65 not Turkish Lire. Clare and I hadn’t eaten yet, so we grabbed lunch over looking the Marmara Sea, The aquarium was absolutely amazing! without a doubt the best aquarium I’ve been to. There were fish above us, below us, all around us and it seemed to go on forever. This was the perfect way to spend the day off and I killed two birds with one stone. This weeks science enrichment was to go to an aquarium.
We’re back in the hotel room. The kids are watching Netflix. We’re just going to relax tonight, Back to tech tomorrow. I’m not sure if we’ll have another day off before the opening, which would bring us to the following Monday, but we shall see.
Tonight has been another battle, this time regarding sleeping arrangements. We have a double bed and a sofa which is kinda like a daybed. At home, even when Olivia would come in to lay with me, she will never stay there to sleep. She loves her space. Our bedroom is like a sauna and she likes to be cool. Eliana, on the other hand, loves to sleep next to me and would be as close as she could. I don’t allow this very often. I think it creates bad habits and I like my space too. Anyway, it seemed to make the most sense that Olivia have the daybed. Eliana made such a huge fuss about this, so on the first night I said that on the nights that Olivia doesn’t have a rehearsal, or a show, Eliana could have the daybed. Last night Eliana got the daybed. Well it backfired on her. Olivia loved sleeping bed with me. I said to Olivia “that wasn’t so bad was it?” She said, “no, I loved it” Eliana jumped up and down with joy and said she was keeping the daybed Of course, now Eliana wants to be back in bed with me, so they had a fight about it. I had pretty much fallen asleep with them watching a movie and they woke me up, You can imagine how annoying that was. after having all three of us in one bed and me getting more and more irritated, Olivia said she would go to the daybed so that I could have some peace. Thank you, Olivia. Well now I’m wide awake and sitting writing again, On a side note, I bought a small bottle of the Turkish drink Raki to try. I had some earlier. It was absolutely disgusting and honestly should be thrown out, but right now it may save me and send me back to sleep. Night night!