As a psedo-foreigner in the city, I was not sure what to do for her party, thank god Ayca thought of an amazing idea: a day at the HAMAM!
None of us have done the traditional turkish bath before (we should have, after the first time I am hooked already) and had no idea what to expect. We closed to 500 year old Galatasaray Hamam (located behind our fabulous highschool) for four of us, and took Asli there as a surprise. She could not even guessed what we planned her until she got there and was happy with our small plan.
We entered this foreign land, with our bathrobes and flipflops on our hands (asli's mom bought us hamam sets before hand). The owner of the place was unexpectedly young and modern, and behind her there were 4 older ladies, on the other side of the lobby there was a table set up for us with food and drinks, and a gipsy band (all female) and a belly dancer waved at us from another room. We were each given a private changin room, so we got rid of our clothes and put a pestemal (a rectangular cotton fabric you wrap around you) and very Jean Paul Gaultierish wooden sandals (they are the traditional bath sandals though, he copied them so did Prada in the late 90s) . The owner explained to us that we shall sweat for a little bit, then be exfoliated, then eat and dance, and later they would soap us and bath us.
Taking a Turkish bath firstly involves relaxing in a room (known as the warm room) that is heated by a continuous flow of hot dry air allowing the bather to perspire freely. Bathers may then move to an ever hotter room (known as the hot room) before splashing themselves with cold water. After performing a full body wash and receiving a massage, bathers finally retire to the cooling-room for a period of relaxation.
We asked them to serve us cold beer after a while at the steam room, and after a can of beer each, due to the heat we were buzzed! We were giggily and anxious to see what was going to happen. Then the door opened, and a lady, younger than the other ones appeared in her cheesy black underwear holding a glove. She looked more like a cheap hooker than a hammam personel, she asked with a sweet voice who wanted to go first (for exfoliation) and we suggested Tanji, Asli's friend from college who had been in a bath before. She bravely went and lay down in front of her. We all watched her getting her skin peeled off, but she seemed confortable. I volunteered next, mostly out of curiosity. I really did not want to lose my great tan before the wedding but getting a baby soft skin was a great idea.
I lay down in front of her, the hot marble burning my ass, and shut my eyes, I rather fantasized about George Clooney washing me instead of a cheap whore looking bath worker, she scrubbed all my body, throughly, turning me around, and shortly she was like "Ok, you're done, who's next!" We left the bride to be for last, and when she was done, we showered and went in to the lobby area to eat and listen to gipsies.
It was so much fun to belly dance on top of the uncomfortable slippers with our towels falling off, gipsies playing known tunes to our ears, turkish mezes served and some more cold beer helping us to bear with this surreal activity overall. I am sure we were all trying to erase the picture of the scrubbing lady's saggy tits moving in front of our noses half an hour ago (I never understood why she was naked)!!!
I dont know how much time we spend there, we were then asked to go back so that they could soap us with their special lavender soaps, and they did, then washed our hair, clean the bath and closed it after us.
All we could do after the hammam was to get a drink at a near bar, but we were so exhausted we all went home and dreamt of being washed just like this but by hot men (at least that is what I dreamt!) all the time!
