JEllis Adventures: Let's Get Nekkid!

First of all I would like to address the “older generation”. For those of you that are technologically inept and have messaged me on how to post a comment *cough* Aunt Kathy *cough* here are step by step instructions

Click on the little "no comments" part at the BOTTOM of the post. It might have a number if there is a comment

Scroll to the bottom again. Write a comment. Select your "status" in the comment as section. If you don't have a gmail account just click name/url or go anonymous. Then click publish. TADA!

Secondly, I want to apologize for the content of this post- both the story and the grammar (it’s late, give me a break).

Well things are starting to wind down. I’m beginning to count down the days I have left here. I am SO looking forward to going back home (even if it is only for a couple of days) and getting back to school.

These past two weeks I have had lots of time to myself. Lal and Can at are summer camp, so I have from 8:30- 3:00 off. I’ve been trying to get my last minute shopping and site seeing done during this time. Last week I decided to visit a Hamam or Turkish bath. I was making a list of things I still needed to visit when I realized I still hadn’t visited a traditional Turkish bath. Lal insisted that I go, “If you leave without going to a Turkish bath it will be like you never came to Turkey at all!” Zeynep helped me select the place because some of the baths can be pretty grundgy. The one I ended up going to was called Ayasofya Hürrem Sultan Hamamı in the Sultanamet district. In fact it was right between the blue mosque and Hagia Sofia. It is pretty old (1556) but absolutely beautiful.

I arrived at the baths to find out that my appointment was not penciled in, so I had about three hours to kill. Without having even entered the baths I was impressed. Take a look at the reception area.

The sky looked pretty stormy so I just ran into the first tea shop I could find. I’d actually ended up walking into a dessert shop. Since it was about 10a.m and I didn’t find myself to be craving baclava or Turkish delight, I ordered some Turkish bread and tea. The restaurant was pretty dead so the manager ended up delivering to me. He was shocked to find out I wasn’t Turkish since I had ordered a typical Turkish meal and I looked Turkish (I get this ALL THE TIME). He saw my kindle and asked me what I was reading (Game of Thrones) and we got to talking about books. I was pretty impressed by his accent, and he said “yes, well I lived in Canada for 10 years, I am a citizen.” Turns out he worked for P&G in Toronto! Such a friendly older man, I got my meal for free!

I still had some time to kill so I decided to go to the Grand Bazaar. I wanted to buy a tea pot. If you remember the last time I went to the Grand Bazaar, Sarah, Alix and I were not too impressed. It is far more commercial than the spice bazaar and EVERYBODY is vying for your attention. Going by myself was a completely different experience. Since Alix’s flaming red hair and Sarah’s golden mane were absent, people just took me for Turkish (which made it much easier to ignore the vendors). However, there is a certain amount of protection that is offered in a group. Entering a shop by myself is (for some reason) read as a romantic proposition instead of a business opportunity. One such conversation went like this:

Me: So I am interested in getting a teapot

Vendor: And I am interested in you

Me: I think you misheard me, I said teapot *gesturing to teapot*

Vendor: When are you free for dinner?

Me: How much is this teapot? *now holding up teapot*

Vendor: Do you like seafood?

The conversation went on like this for some time. I left with his business card and number (he insisted), but SANS teapot. After half an hour, I finally got fed up and left (5 numbers richer, but still no teapot).

All the numbers from the bazaar. I'm pretty popular!

Finally its time to go into the Turkish bath. The Koran dictates that cleanliness is not just an important for personal health, it is religiously essential. This is why the baths were, and are so culturally significant. In addition, the baths were important socially, especially to Ottoman women, who spent much of their lives living behind closed doors.

When I got there they gave me a little package with a bar of olive oil soap, lavender shampoo, conditioner and moisturizer, an exfoliating glove, a wrap and slippers. However, I noticed one crucial thing was missing. I had read Sarah’s post earlier and expected them to give me some sort of underwear. I was standing in the change room with a dilemma. Go into the baths commando or wear what I have on? Well it was pretty cold that day and I decided to save em’ for later. Commando in denim pants was just not an option, yuck. Some lady led me into the actual spa area. It’s big white marble domed room. The centre is a raised platform and off to the side are little domed antechambers with golden faucets. I was pleasantly surprised to see everyone was sporting their birthday suit - and when I saw pleasantly surprised I mean visually harassed by the vast vast quantities of nudity. I was easily the youngest person in there, the average age being about 50. One of the attendants led me to the antechambers, also known as the “warm room”, where I just sat relaxed on the hot marble. Your supposed to pour the warm water from the fountains on you to get your skin all nice and soft and ready to be washed. I started to doze off about 20 minutes in. I was startled awake by a nice young lady named Leila. She held my hand and led me off to the washing section. It felt very... maternal. That is until the washing began.

one of the anti-chambers

The entrance to the Hamam

The hot platform where you get the massage

Leila brought me into a room with three other ladies, all about 40 or 50 who were getting scrubbed down. They use this exfoliating glove to take off all your dead skin. I was taking a look around and on closer inspection, I noticed that all of the other women in there had something in common, small telltale scars under their breasts. The very observant Leila noticed my gaze and immediately understood. She grabbed my breast like it’s the most natural thing in the world, giggled at me and said “Real!” Now I was just getting used to a stranger touching my body...so I was pretty startled. The first thing that popped into my mind is My god, she just picked it up like it was a tomato in the market! Haha, but all I did was nod. She kept scrubbing away, and let me tell you they scrub everywhere: face, armpit, butt. I was starting to relax and get used to it. Then Leila piped up again “You must be about 20” as she was scrubbing my butt. I looked down at her: Is she guessing my age from my butt?! I was starting to get used to Leila’s nothing’s-off-limit attitude and I just laughed and told her yes.

After the initial wash they take you to the hot marble slab in the middle of the room where they massage you with bubbles. I had about a 35 minute massage, very relaxing. And at the very end they wash your hair and body, with alternating cold and hot water (to open and close the pores and improved circulation). I also got a head massage. The nice thing is that I got to leave with all my stuff- a bottle of shampoo, conditioner, moisturizer, soap and a new exfoliating cloth!

BUBBLES

I definitely recommend going to a Turkish bath. It was wonderful after I got over the awkwardness.

This past Friday I met up with a new Au Pair named Megan. She has been in Istanbul for about two months, but hasn’t had much of an opportunity to see the sites. Megan is super friendly. We have very similar taste in books so we had lots to talk about. We met up in Taksim and walked all the way to Galata Tower. Finally, FINALLY I get to walk up it instead of just looking at it. Galata Tower, one of the oldest towers in the world, was first built in 1348. It was first used as a lighthouse. Like almost everything here, it was destroyed in an earthquake (gosh darn earthquake zone). The rebuilt tower was used as a defensive watchtower, a astronomical observatory and a fire alert system. Ironically it was burned down in a fire. Below are some pictures of the the tower and the rest of our day.