Very early up on Wednesday morning for the beginning of our travels to Istanbul. Flying from Helsinki to London (3 hrs 10) to Athens (3 hrs 30) to Istanbul (1 hr 10) and also the transiting in between made for a very long, tiring and irritable day, very proud of Greg though he handled it quite well. I almost lost it in Athens when we were told we didn't have seats on the plane to Istanbul! All sorted in the end and we arrived at our hotel around 1am.
We had booked one hotel and it got changed because of some renovations to their other hotel. Therefore they upgraded us, so we are currently in the Royal Suite, best room in the hotel, great view and heaps of space.
One of the things on Gregs bucket list is to have a 'Hamam'. We stumbled across one of the more famous ones, Cagaloglu, built in 1741 as a gift to the city. All sorts of famous people have been here before us including Russian tsars, Sheiks, Royalty and movie stars. The only famous Australian we could see was Steve Irwin? It has separate male and female sides and is enormous. Marble everywhere. We decided to do the whole thing and had a 2 hour session each.
Females, you start off sitting in a large room with a giant vented dome above you, the room is huge and completely marble, with a large marble stage in the middle, this 'stage' can fit10 people laying head to toe around the edges, so there could be10 people at once being 'hamamed'. Fortunately for my nakedness it was just 3 of us to start with and eventually I was on my own. So you sit on this marble stage with a Turkish wrap on and steam. The marble floor is very hot and all the water creates a humid environment. After around 15 mins, a lady came in with her equipment and tells me to follow her. We move over to a marble basin, one of about 8 that come from the marble walls. She turns on the tap and allows the basin to fill, says to me sit here next to the basin and proceeds to douse me with warm water by the bucket full for about 5 mins. We move back to the stage and she lays out my wrap, 'lay on back!' With an exfoliating glove she scrubs my body all over, back, front, top, bottom, everywhere. This is called peeling and that is exactly what it does, you can see the skin peeling off, it doesn't hurt at all, it's back to the basin for another rinse, then back on the marble stage for the soaping! Same thing as the scrubbing but this time with soap. This soap/rinse process is repeated and then she starts to massage all over, with another soap product finally finishing by washing my hair and more dousing of warm water. I was then towelled and moved to another room for an aromatherapy oil massage! Given a plate full of fresh strawberries, Apple and banana with a hot black Turkish tea and I was done!
I got dressed and went out to wait for Greg, who I could hear yelling while he was being pummelled by his attendant!
If you have been to Bali and had a body scrub and massage, it is much the same, but a bit more tribal or violent, and you feel really good after.
Males,
Well, things were a little different in my world. I was approached by a middle aged, bald Turkish man who looked fit and strong enough to to snap me in half. Whilst he smiled a lot, he was very imposing. Not a word of English was spoken, but getstures indicated he wanted me to strip. His manner was such that I was too frightened not to. I was given a tiny sarong that looked like a handkerchief to put on.
Firstly, he sent me into a room with lots of little cubicles. I dutifully waited for my next instruction. After waiting for some time with no further direction I became curious. And checked out what was inside the cubicles. Oh, I see....they were toilets! Oh my god! I had been in there for ten minutes already! So I quickly did my number one and flushed. Well, tried to. The toilet didn't flush, no water. So I reached over and turned on one of the water taps on the wall. Of course, it was the bidet....water squirted all over me and my little sarong! I emerged from the toilet, no doubt to the mirth of my minder, late and soggy.
I was then subjected to sweating within an inch of my life, before my minder laid me on the hot marble bench where he proceeded to massage me.....again within an inch of my life. Every now and then, he would giggle as he dug his knuckles into a muscle I never knew I had. He showed me how to slap my hand on the marble when I was in pain. I soon found out this didn't deter him or stop him, he just thought it might help me get through the experience. He giggled louder when I furiously slapped my hand! The fellow finally eased up on the massage and took another weapon from his arsenal. A skin scrubber!! He proceeded to scrub my entire body. He scrubbed hard and had to hold on to my ankle to stop me from sliding off the marble bench.....or running away?
He then got a large bucket, and from two huge marble water fonts, proceeded to smash me with bloody cold water. Each time I managed to stay upright, he yelled "gooooooood". He then led me, beaten, but thankful to be alive, to another room and yet another Turkish man who looked like he ate bricks for breakfast. This man laid me on a table, completely naked, and covered me with oil.....thoughts of Midnight Express ran through my mind. Those thoughts soon left as this guy proved to be much more gentle than the last. A completely relaxing massage almost put me to sleep....that is until he discovered that my calves were still a bit tight. So he dug deep, deep, deep. I tried the old hand slap, but that had the same affect on him as his mate. He giggled and continued. I wondered how many other men had cried in this very same spot? Possibly none that had also wet themselves in the toilet before the whole process had even got under way? Oh dear!
From there I was lead back to the water fountains and to my old mate. I was no longer thinking about my vulnerability, or being naked in the company of two sadistic muscle bound Turks who were clearly competing as to who would snap me half first. I was now thinking "I can do this, I have survived"? Anyway, first mate mixed up a hot soapy concoction, sat me down, and bathed me from head to foot. Washed my hair, massaged my head and washed all my bits. The same way it has been done there for three hundred years. He then got those big buckets of water and smashed me over and over and over. I thought I would drown sitting down! Finally he dried me off, and wrapped me up and sent me on my way to a hot Turkish tea and fresh fruit. It was only then that I realised how good the whole experience was. Let's go back tomorrow Cath???
We had a stroll through part of the spice market, there are police everywhere due to the last few months of bombings by extremists the latest being Tuesday morning, the day before we arrived. So don't particularly want to hang the tourist areas for any great lengths of time. Although it appears that the police are the main targets.
We have been here before, if you remember and have seen all the major sites. So we found a bar that we had been to 4 years ago and had a couple of beers and a snack. Tried to book into a restaurant that we were unsuccessful with last time and again were thwarted this time due to Ramadan, so we went back to an old favourite with what has arguably the best view in a well known hotel. The restaurant Imbat, the hotel the Orient Express and it is where your journey from Paris would end, perhaps with the likes of Hercule Poirot, and maybe, just maybe, next time we come to Istanbul it will be on this particular train!
Stay tuned for more adventures from the very clean intrepid explorers?
You two make me giggle
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