Telephone cards are available to make cheap phone calls at PTT phone boxes. At many touristic places you can use your credit card in the phone machine. Also there are private telephone and fax offices. On TRT, short news are given in English, German and French in the evenings. There are also international TV channels available like CNN, NBC-Europe, BBC, Eurosport.
Plugs have two round prongs.
The reception will help you for laundry. Automatic laundries are common in many touristic cities. Bottled water is suggested. Tap water has no guarantee to be clean enough. Or it may not be tasty since in most places it is very chlorinated.