This was the most amazing, relaxing, unique experience. There were 8 of us that decided to go for a Turkish bath today, 5 women, 3 men. The Hammam is separated for men and women. A lovely Turkish lady, who only spoke about 20 words of English explained the process to us, and even tho the only words we caught were facial, sauna and naked, we figured the rest out as we went along. First we had a mud facial applied, then hit the sauna looking like green Martians. After 15 minutes in the sauna, we washed off the mud, and went into the bathing room. Oh yes, we were wrapped in Turkish towels, about the size of a large placemat. The ladies doing the scrubbing were all very pleasant, singing, and humming, giving the bathers nice, gentle massages, and I thought, I am going to love this....and then my bathing lady walked in....have you ever watched Sumo wrestling? She had me lay down on the bathing stone, a huge circle of marble, beautifully warm and I immediately relaxed. They wet you down by pouring buckets of warm water on you, then a massage. When my scrubber wanted me to turn over, she would say "Lady! " and smack my leg. She was very strong and I developed a love/hate relationship with her hands, but because of her generous size, every time she leaned over me, I felt like I was back in the womb, which was a pretty cozy feeling, so I forgave quickly. All your dead skin is taken off with a "goat hair" mitt. The soaping up is quite the thing to watch. They take what looks like a pillow case, dip it in the soap, swing it around, then capture air in it, lay it on your body, and the suds and bubbles cover your whole body, it is amazing. After the bathing, we showered, a dip in the cool pool, then into the lounge for warm apple tea. A 20 minute olive oil massage with a tiny little thing who tried to teach me belly dancing on the way down the hall to the massage room, gave the whole experience an awesome ending. 3 hours of amazement, and feeling so grateful, I will remember the comfort of that hot bathing stone enveloping my body whenever I think of this incredible day.....stay tuned
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