The Hamam!

This translated into english means... Turkish Bath. Yes ladies and gents, friends and family, I did it... I went to a Hamam. And it was quite the experience. It was actually amazing... so warm and soothing.. it's like you can't hold any tension or stress in there it all just melts away with the steamy water. But I'm getting ahead of myself, as I often do. So, I had planned to go to the Hamam friday night with Lynda ( a Welsh lady living here) and Alison and Erin the two other American girls that I've befriended. The plan was to meet in the city, go to the Hamman, hang out and get dinner and watch a movie afterwards and then I was going to stay over and spend the wkend in the city. So, I found myself in yet another bus situation that I had never been in before... (I sometimes feel like half my culture shock is due to the buses : ) apparently I was in on a bus in the middle of rush hour traffic... but I didn't know that at the time because the way that they deal with that here is the police will block of an entire lane of traffic for like 15 minutes while everyone else goes by and meanwhile everyone in my lane lays on their horns... I thought I was in the middle of a riot! But no, come to find out it's all quite normal here : )

ANyways- so after that delightful little experience the turkish bath felt like heaven... I wish I could've taken my camera in just to show off the architecture of the room. Almost everything inside is made of marble even the floors and the drainage canals that are carved out, leading to the center of the room. Around the perimeter of the room were these marble benches and marble basins with old metal faucets spouting out of beautiful intricately tiled designs on the wall. So the idea was you fill up the basin with water and then take this old metal bowl and scoop up water out the basin and bathe with it. The room was warm and relaxing and of course just women (they have a a men's Hamam also). There is a circular marble slab in the center of the room where you lay and get this sort of exfoliating rub... the best description I could think of is like a peach getting all of it's fuzz rubbed off. And then you feel like you're in a cloud because you get doused in this super bubbly water and it's all soft and light.... anyways- it was fun and apparently really normal here- the hamams are pretty cheap. I think it's a pretty great part of their culture- especially in the winter : )