Let me preface this by saying that I hope this story does not make me look like an ugly American. Chock my discomfort up to American prudishness or the experience getting lost in translation, but I just thought this was too hilariously ridiculous not to share:
My friend and I decided we'd like to try one of the famous Hammams of Istanbul. We asked our hotel for recommendations and decided on one that was "pretty authentic" and a "good deal." We quickly realized that "authentic" was not really what we were looking for. What we wanted was a Turkish twist on a Western spa. We got something a little different.
We selected the Bath and Massage option. We were given towel sized cloths and told to wear those into the bath. The bathroom was a large grey stone room with a high domed ceiling and three alcoves with benches and taps where we were instructed to rinse ourselves off. There was a sauna, a very thorough body scrub, and rub down portion to the experience, too. It all smelled a little like, well, I'm not sure - dankness? mold? sulphur?
What we didn't count on was the large quantity of nudity that would be involved. When we walked into the bath, we were confronted by several older Turkish women taking their actual baths. Kind of like their American counterpart, the old women in the YMCAs showers, these women were no beauty queens. As I was being hit in the stomach with a soapy pillow case by the naked Turkish woman who was attending to me, I couldn't quite believe what was happening.
My friend and I used the sauna as a place to engage in some highly middle school maniacal laughter. We couldn't help ourselves.
Cleaner,
Maria
My friend and I decided we'd like to try one of the famous Hammams of Istanbul. We asked our hotel for recommendations and decided on one that was "pretty authentic" and a "good deal." We quickly realized that "authentic" was not really what we were looking for. What we wanted was a Turkish twist on a Western spa. We got something a little different.
We selected the Bath and Massage option. We were given towel sized cloths and told to wear those into the bath. The bathroom was a large grey stone room with a high domed ceiling and three alcoves with benches and taps where we were instructed to rinse ourselves off. There was a sauna, a very thorough body scrub, and rub down portion to the experience, too. It all smelled a little like, well, I'm not sure - dankness? mold? sulphur?
What we didn't count on was the large quantity of nudity that would be involved. When we walked into the bath, we were confronted by several older Turkish women taking their actual baths. Kind of like their American counterpart, the old women in the YMCAs showers, these women were no beauty queens. As I was being hit in the stomach with a soapy pillow case by the naked Turkish woman who was attending to me, I couldn't quite believe what was happening.
My friend and I used the sauna as a place to engage in some highly middle school maniacal laughter. We couldn't help ourselves.
Cleaner,
Maria
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