Hamam

All the store fronts and businesses around here have a couple guys hanging out, offering to sale whatever goods or services they provide.  The other night when we were out for dinner, the guy next door wanted us to try a new Spa that just opened up.  Instead of paying 100 Euros ($150) for a two hour treatment, he was offering the deal for 20 Euros ($30).  Kory and I had such a wonderful experience the first time we did the whole Turkish Bath thing, we decided we shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to do it again before we leave.  So this morning, at 9am, before anyone else in the house was up, we walked down the street to get another “Hamam” (Turkish Bath.)

The environment in this new spa was pretty high class, since it’s a destination place, rather than just a spa in the basement of a hotel, like the first one we went to.  The reason I wanted to go to this one is because they had a sauna, salt room and steam room, which the other Hamam didn’t offer.  We spent 15 minutes first in the dry sauna, we went into the salt room, which was much cooler and supposedly good for breathing problems.  I was breathing deeply as I’ve been told I have seasonal asthma.  I don’t believe it, but I do wheeze from time to time, so I thought I’d see if breathing in salt had any merits. Huge rocks of salt were anchored to the walls and ceiling and fine grain salt covered the floor.  Because the salt is fairly transparent, lights were set behind the rocks which changed colors every minute or so.  The mood in the room changed as it rotated through the colors of the rainbow.  It was pretty surreal.

I didn’t notice much improvement with my wheezing after deep breathing in that room for 15 minutes, but we then went into the steam room where I really felt a difference with my sinuses, which are often kinda cruddy.  When we first walked in, we couldn’t even see our hands or feet it was so steamy.  We soon discovered there were other people in the room as we tried to find a place to sit down.  That room sure gave us a good sweat.  I don’t think we made it the full 15 minutes in there because we couldn’t see the timer.  We then moved on to the Hamam room, where the attendants were waiting to bathe us like our mothers did when we were young – pouring water over our heads and body parts and scrubbing us down but good.  We were spread out on the altar again and covered in bubbles.  This new place didn’t have the same attentive feel as the first place we tried, so it wasn’t nearly as relaxing, even though it was still quite pleasant. 

After we were bubbled, scrubbed and rinsed, we were sent to a “relaxing” room where we waited for our oil massage.  Kory really liked his massage but I thought the guy that did mine, did it in too big of a hurry and it was more like an application of oil all over my body than any kind of massage.  He still stopped on my problem spots and said, “Problem,” though, then went and got a guy who could speak English.  The guy told me I needed a “medical massage.”  I didn’t want to tell him I already had one scheduled for tomorrow in another spa, so I just told him I didn’t have time, but yes, I knew I had a problem.  He sold me some medical cream, which works kind of like Ben-gay only it’s all natural and brings relief from the pain in my problem spots.  I really like that cream, so it’s nice to have that now, when and if the pain gets bad again.  I guess I never knew how much pain I was living with everyday until I stopped feeling it.

We got home before noon from our Hamam and then went with Kaleb and Tobias up to the local farmer’s market that only comes to this town on Saturdays.  It took a while to walk through all the booths and negotiate some prices, but we ended up with some very nice cotton pants and tops, a beach towel and a few souvenirs.  Kory didn’t approve of my bartering skills (he said I have none), but I was happy with the prices we paid (and I’m a cheap-skate) so I didn’t see any reason to pay less.   He said I was insulting them by not bartering.  Right.

Everyone was lying around the pool when we got back and Bjørn was working on yet another hand railing.  I think he must be like Kory – always needing something to do.  I would have never thought those handrails needed repainting, but he did.  They certainly look better now but I would have told myself they could wait another year. 

Tobias made us tomato soup for lunch and Bjørn went and bought some fresh pita bread and taziki dip to go with it.  Yum.  We ate at home for once, which went much quicker than going to a restaurant.  It was almost like a dinner theatre performance too with the twins acting up (like they often do) during the meal.  Markus couldn’t stop himself from jumping up on his chair and not just shouting HALLELUJAH, but singing it out, with his head tilted back, arms outstretched toward heaven and holding the notes like he was singing an opera.  What a character.  I don’t know where he comes up with this stuff, but he is one funny kid.  His parents don’t appreciate his humor as much as I do, but they were even laughing at him today.  I had to get out the video camera just so I will never forget his precious little voice shouting HALLELUJAH with an occasional PRICE THE LORD thrown in there (I told him what Hallelujah means and he does his best to say it in English but he doesn’t have his words quite right, yet.)  His mother is sure now he will become a priest.  He had to ask what that was.

After lunch we went into downtown Side and walked around the main shopping area for a little while and visited some streets we’d previously missed.  I bought a few more souvenirs and insulted a few more shop owners by not bargaining.  I’m happy with what I got, but now am wondering how we’ll get it all home.  Uff.  The twins kept chanting “Ut paa tur, aldri sur,” which is a Norwegian rhyming phrase that literally means “Out on a walk, never sour,” meaning one’s attitude can change from sour to sweet just by getting some fresh air.  True enough. 

Dinner tonight was Norwegian waffles and a special chocolate caramel cake I bought at a local bakery.  It was a good choice.  Afterwards the hand-held electronics broke out and the evening got pretty quite.  We’ve yet to decide what tomorrow will bring but it’s our last full day here in Turkey.  The time has gone far too quickly.