In Praise of the Turkish Dish Towel

I leave for the airport in about 10 minutes... back home, back home!

Yesterday I experienced the greatest Turkish pleasure of them all - the Hammami, or Turkish Bath.

Jane and I met up with Lisa, a friend from grad school who was also in Istanbul, and made arrangements to arrive at Sulemaneyi Hammami late yesterday afternoon, to wash away all of the grime and grit accumulated over the trip. The building is over 500 years old, ansd is heated by a great wood-burning fireplace several levels below.

We were led into an old, wooden changing room where we changed into cotton shorts, and a cotton sarong to wrap around our tops, in addition to these 500 year old version of Dr. Scholls. We scuffled down the corridor, and were led into a great marble hall with a domed roof, and asked to lie down on the large, heated marble slab in the center of the room. The fires below had made the hall about 100 degrees, and the surrounding baths had made it dripping with humidity. For about 20 minutes we lay there, feeling our muscles melt into the marble, and our skin soften.

Then the bathers arrived. I was quite surprised to find that they were men, wrapped in towels. They led us to individual baths, where they splashed us with hot water from silver bowls, removing, layer by layer, whatever sense of modesty we might have had. Then we lay down on smaller individual marble slabs, where we received a massage, and covered us with soap. They took these pillowcases made of terrycloth, filled them with hot water and suds, and pressed them down, covering you with soap.

This feels a little too personal... hmmm. Anyway, the end result was the three of us sitting in the "relaxing" room, sipping fresh orange juice, wrapped from head to toe in turkish dish towels. Don't ask... I just assumed that it was all part of an ancient tradition. That, or some Turks were cracking up behind the scenes at our expense.

At the end of the session, one of the employees brought us to the roof of the Hammami, climbing over domed rooftops and portal windows, revealing stunning views of the city.

All of this followed by a blowout sushi dinner.

A perfect ending to a fantastic trip.