Hammam (Turkish Bath, by Rachel)

    Istanbul had so far been a lovely experience. We'd done some mosques, seen the locals, bought a transit pass, and eaten grilled cheese. However, we decided, it would be such an amazing, relaxing idea to do a Turkish bath. This is called a hamman.

    So after we finished going to the Grand Bazaar, (Wow, it's really fun to use that in a sentence) we headed to our hamman. Males and females are seperated during hammans, and so Dad decided that he didn't need to do it if he was going alone. 

    We arrived at the front door excited, but our enthusiasm was dampened by the fact that the door said NO ENTRANCE WITHOUT RESERVATION. We didn't have a reservation, because our hotel front desk person had said that one was unnecesary. For a few minutes we debated about what to do. Mom had the place's Whats-App number, so she texted them to ask what to do. A minute later, a man came out and asked us to come in. He checked that it was us by asking, "Whats-App?" When we said yes, he let us in. 

    I'm not really sure how long we waited in the waiting room. My guess is about ten minutes, but it might have been five or fifteen, too. When the man came back to get us, we were taken to one of those changing cubicles in pool changerooms, except this one was dry and had two cots. He left with no instructions, but from reading about it, we had a guess of what to do now. 

    There were three towels and threee pairs of sandals, so we took off our clothes and wrapped ourselves in the towels. We put on the sandals, though Ava was disappointed because the purple ones had flower designs on them, and were too big for her. She and I wore yellow sandals, while Mom took the purple ones. We emerged out of our changing cubicle wearing towels and sandals, but no clothes. I'm not sure we would've known where to go, but a staff lady took us to a door and down a very windy marble hall. 

    Now, it was feeling much more like a pool changeroom, although I have to say that in my opinion, changerooms are never clean. They are covered in hair an all wet. This wasn't wet or dirty, but it was hot and humid, and the floor was marble. I feel like they could've installed a pool with not very much renovation. 

    The lady took us to a warm room, and we lay down on what I would call a large marble table. It sort of remeinded me of a massage table, but without a mat; just marble. The marble was heated, the room was heated, it was like a sauna, only less stuffy. We were still wearing towels at this point, so we had hot marble, towel, skin. It was nice for 3/4 of our time in that room. Then things started to get too hot for my liking.

    When she returned, the lady took us out of the room we were in into a sauna. On the way, we walked through a room where a guy was covered in bubbles. He was probably naked, but he was covered in five feet of bubbles, so I can't say for sure. 

    The lady gave us each a bottle of water, which was nice because it was cold, and we were hot. Then she left again, leaving us in a hot sauna. Now, let me be clear: So far, this had been a lovely experience. But in general, I only stay in saunas for a maximum of about two minutes. I like the heat, but it's just too stuffy. This sauna was quite stuffy. I was grateful when she came back after only five or so minutes. 

    We went back through the marble room we'd been in, and then behind a curtin. It was pretty much the same room we'd seen Bubble Man in, only ours was far more private. There were two of the warm marble table things, one ocupied by a lady covered in bubbles, one empty. There was one staff lady wearing only underwear working on the woman covered in bubbles. The other staff lady who'd brought us in removed her towel and told us to do the same. 

    At first, it was a little awkward to be in the same room as three naked strangers, but I was over that pretty quickly. I was told to get up on the marble slab and lay facedown. I did so, while Mom and Ava watched from a seat in the middle of the room. I expected water, or bubbles, but I didn't expect the lady to start rubbing me with a cloth. It kind of reminded me of pumice, though it was softer, like a rough loofa. She rubbed all over me (literally), the purpose being to get rid of dry or dead skin. It felt very nice, and in no time, I'd completely relaxed.

    I couldn't really see the rest of the room, as my face was pressed against the marble, but at some point the other lady covered in bubbles must have left. I was essentially passed to the other lady, and the other marble table. Ava shifted into the rubbing table.

    This time, the new staff lady put something that looked like a pillowcase (not kidding) into a bucket of bubbles. It sort of floofed up with bubbles, and she wrung out the pillowcase on me, no water came out. Only bubbles. In no time, it was like a bubble bath, if you can have a bath without water. I had bubbles about 1 foot deep covering my whole body. She began giving me a massage, so I was in the most heavenly spa-bubble bath-massage thing ever. 

    Periodically between parts of the bubbles and massage, a bucket of warm water would get poured over me. After my whole body was massaged, my hair washed, my body soaped up, and several buckets of water poured over me, I moved over and Ava moved on to my table to get her soapy massage.

    When the three of us were all done, we were wrapped up in towels and went back to the main area and served tea. The tea was really hot, which seemed weird because we were already really warm. When it cooled down enough that we could drink some, we did, and then we got dressed again in our little changeroom and said goodbye.

Mom, covered in towels at the end, and ready to get dressed.

    This was a really unique and fun experience. I've never been to a spa or had a massage before, but being wet and soapy and steamy with my mom and sister while a friendly topless lady took care of us was really fun. It felt like a celebration of our feminine side, and a way to really experience and enjoy a traditional part of Turkish culture.