Istanbul Day 4 (part 1): Hamam heaven

I didn't take any pictures on Day 4, because cameras weren't allowed in either of the two places we went. The first place Leanna, Patreshia, and I went to was a hamam, or Turkish bath. We headed to Çemberlitaş Hamam, the second most famous hamam in Istanbul (also in the Sultanahmet region). According to the website, the bath was established by Nurbanu Sultan (I haven't heard of her either), wife of Selim II and mother of Murat III, for the purpose of bringing in revenue to support a local charity. The bath was built in 1584, and has sides for both men and women.

Patreshia and Leanna were both REALLY hesitant to go. They'd both gone to hamams either in their home town or some other smaller, less professional/touristic facility. Leanna, with her pale skin, blue eyes, and light blonde hair, had been stared at so much she couldn't handle the intense attention again. Both had also been scrubbed as if they were being punished for something, and niether had been impressed with the overall hygiene as well (the towels smelled "used" for example).

Well, I was determined. So, I dragged them there and we had a great time. We entered the entry room of the women's section (which had been recently restored) and were surrounded by marble columns and wooden benches. After changing into our towels, we then went into the bathing area, technically, the hamam. The entire surface of the hamam was warm marble that could almost burn your feet if you didn't wear the slippers they handed out to you. There were several fountains along the smooth, marble walls where you could bathe yourself with metal bowls; there were two hot pools in a back room, and then a large, flat circular stone in the middle of the room, known as the göbek tasi (navel stone). The göbek tasi was built over a wood or coal furnace that then heated the rest of the hamam.

Women laid on the göbek tasi and waited until the attendant called them over. Turkish women in their bras and panties, their hair tied up in messy bundles, scrubbed our bodies down with the loofah scrubs we'd been given at the entrance. They had this amazing technique where they could create a pillow-sized mass of bubbles and then scrub you down (yes, we're either naked or in underwear). As I usually do in saunas, I got totally overheated, so I couldn't last long, but it was lovely and cleansing, and felt like an official baptism into my life in Turkey.

You can check out images from the actual hamam on their website, here.