Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Hamami Mommies
What would a trip abroad be without indulging in tradition? I don't know if any of you remember our traditional Lao massage, but it was maybe one of the more awkward things we had experienced on that particular trip. Well, we thought we'd put the past behind us and head to the local Hamam in Istanbul. A Hamam is a Turkish bath. A Turkish bath consists of laying on an octogonal marble slab, topless, while a stranger scrubs you down. In this particular Hamam, the men and women were separate. Upon entering the woman's side of the hamam, someone greets you and shows you to a locker and gives you a towel and traditional hamam underwear (lets face it, they were cheap black bikini bottoms... I wore my own, thank you). I got changed into my bikini bottoms, wrapped up in my little towel and slid on the rubbery bright orange sandles that were two sizes too big, took a deep breath and headed into the bathing area.
The bathing area was beautiful. It was a large room lined by fountains of running water. The ceiling was domed with stars and shapes carved into it. In the center of the room, below the dome was a giant octogonal marble slab where about 20 women (mostly nervous tourists like myself) were laying down along the edges being scrubbed down. The women doing the scrubbing were a tourist attraction in themselves. They were sweaty and very very large, wearing not so large bikinis, well actually lets face it... they were wearing itsy bitsy teeny weeny bikinis. These big mamas certainly ran the show in there, shouting and pointing "lady, here. lady lady..." They were going at us very systemically in their little production line. The hamami mommies had big soapy concotions that they flung about and rough gloves that removed dead skin from all over our bodies... they scrubbed so hard, I think more than just the dead skin came off. There was nothing gentle about the way they manhandled our skin as we were pushed downward into the hard marble surface and poured buckets of water over our heads before we could catch a breath. The way they went about washing us seemed very childish and unplanned even though this type of traditional bath has been going on for centuries.
As uncomfortable as I felt, the whole experience was worth it and perhaps I will do it again someday now that I'm a seasoned pro. I couldn't take pictures inside but here's the link to the hamam... there are a few pictures so you get the idea of what the room looked like:
www.cemberlitashamami.com.tr/hamam_english.htm
The bathing area was beautiful. It was a large room lined by fountains of running water. The ceiling was domed with stars and shapes carved into it. In the center of the room, below the dome was a giant octogonal marble slab where about 20 women (mostly nervous tourists like myself) were laying down along the edges being scrubbed down. The women doing the scrubbing were a tourist attraction in themselves. They were sweaty and very very large, wearing not so large bikinis, well actually lets face it... they were wearing itsy bitsy teeny weeny bikinis. These big mamas certainly ran the show in there, shouting and pointing "lady, here. lady lady..." They were going at us very systemically in their little production line. The hamami mommies had big soapy concotions that they flung about and rough gloves that removed dead skin from all over our bodies... they scrubbed so hard, I think more than just the dead skin came off. There was nothing gentle about the way they manhandled our skin as we were pushed downward into the hard marble surface and poured buckets of water over our heads before we could catch a breath. The way they went about washing us seemed very childish and unplanned even though this type of traditional bath has been going on for centuries.
As uncomfortable as I felt, the whole experience was worth it and perhaps I will do it again someday now that I'm a seasoned pro. I couldn't take pictures inside but here's the link to the hamam... there are a few pictures so you get the idea of what the room looked like:
www.cemberlitashamami.com.tr/hamam_english.htm
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Istanbul
After a lovely 2 days in Cappadocia we flew to Istanbul. I was pleasantly surprised by the city... for being so big, the major tourist sights were relatively compact and they had great public transit that went around to all the attractions and areas of the city worth visiting. I only wish we had more time and energy there. Here is a rundown of what we did:
Hagia Sophia-- I was so excited to see it. While I'm sure it was very beautiful at one point in time, its glory days have definitely passed and it is in worse condition than I expected. I left feeling a bit disappointed.
Blue Mosque-- Would have been cooler if we hadn't seen the Great Mosque in Damascus first. This was dinky in comparison but quite beautiful from the skyline.
The Grand Bazaar-- a sprawling shoppers paradise... that is if you don't mind bargaining for your purchases or being hasseled by the vendors. I heard horror stories about women being followed and pulled around by them but I never had a problem and I even managed to strike up some great conversations with these guys. Whether I bought something from them or not it didn't matter, they seemed to enjoy the company and they were very polite.
The Spice Bazaar-- Same same as the Grand Bazaar but smaller and less pushy
The Bosphorus-- Pete wasn't feeling well when we went here so taking a boat around was out of the question. Even though I slightly regret never getting on a boat to take in the views of Istanbul from the water we walked around the area and could see the bridge that connects Europe and Asia. We even had lunch there. They catch fish in the ocean and then they fry it up on these boats that are rocking around. It is served on bread with tomato, onion and lettuce and then you can sit on these little stools and it eat. I thought it was disgusting, but Pete really enjoyed it, even though he probably should have steered clear given his intestinal situation that particular day.
Hagia Sophia-- I was so excited to see it. While I'm sure it was very beautiful at one point in time, its glory days have definitely passed and it is in worse condition than I expected. I left feeling a bit disappointed.
one of the mosaics in Hagia Sophia
Blue Mosque-- Would have been cooler if we hadn't seen the Great Mosque in Damascus first. This was dinky in comparison but quite beautiful from the skyline.
Blue Mosque at Sunset
The Spice Bazaar-- Same same as the Grand Bazaar but smaller and less pushy
The Bosphorus-- Pete wasn't feeling well when we went here so taking a boat around was out of the question. Even though I slightly regret never getting on a boat to take in the views of Istanbul from the water we walked around the area and could see the bridge that connects Europe and Asia. We even had lunch there. They catch fish in the ocean and then they fry it up on these boats that are rocking around. It is served on bread with tomato, onion and lettuce and then you can sit on these little stools and it eat. I thought it was disgusting, but Pete really enjoyed it, even though he probably should have steered clear given his intestinal situation that particular day.
the boat where they cook the fish is in the background and the
people sitting are eating it
people sitting are eating it
Cappadocia
From our hippie town in Olympos, we overnight bussed it to Cappadocia. It is a very interesting place where rocks jut from the ground forming phallic sym... I mean chimneys. There is a lot to do there, but besides our 6 hour tour one day we didn't do much but sit around, eat, relax and smoke the sheesha.
On the tour however, we saw lots of neat stuff... including a spot where one of the Star Wars movies was filmed in the 70ies and we went to an underground city. You may not think much when I mention the underground city but this thing was massive. We were only allowed down 8 stories but apparently there were 80 stories. It was used for centuries by various people and it held something like 10,000 people at a time for up to 10 straight months. I know the Christians used it when they were hiding from the Romans... and it was used again during the crusades... and I'm sure it was used for more than that, but I stopped paying attention to the guide. There is even a tunnel in there that stretches 7 kilometers to another underground city. Inside they had kitchens, classrooms, churches, animal stables (yuck), wineries and even a morgue. The ceilings in this place were so low that Pete found himself practically crawling from room to room at times.
I almost forgot to mention that we stayed in a cave! Yes, our room in the hostel was dug out from a cave. The ceiling was carved out with some nice details and the bathroom wins the award for biggest hostel bathroom I have ever seen, complete with blue tiled floors. It was awesome because the room stayed nice and cool even though it was probably 90 degrees outside. Cons were that the walls and ceiling were constantly crumbling on all of our things and the ventilation was terrible and everything stayed pretty damp after a shower.
"fairy chimneys"
thing from Star Wars
us in the underground city
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Cheese
This blog posting is not for children.
Having Turks aboard the boat with us made for some interesting conversation and some interesting revelations particularly because of the language barrier. None of us knew any Turkish and they only knew simple words and phrases in English.
Here are two quick examples:
The typical filler word "um" in English takes on a whole new meaning here. It's meaning is, how do I put this nicely... the female part of a female. We learned this quite quickly being on the boat. And now I'm imaging what all these Turkish people must think when tourists come up to them with various questions.
"Can you tell me how much the... um.... kebab costs?"
"Where's the... um... mosque?"
"Do you know... um... where I can find... um... an ATM?"
etc. etc. etc.
We also learned the Turkish word for cheese. Well written, it looks like this: Peynir. However when spoken, it sounds like this: Penish. Every morning we had penish for breakfast... and you can image the hilarity around the table when the Turkish men were innocently popping the penish in their mouths trying to explain to us that penish means cheese in Turkish.
.jpg)
Having Turks aboard the boat with us made for some interesting conversation and some interesting revelations particularly because of the language barrier. None of us knew any Turkish and they only knew simple words and phrases in English.
Here are two quick examples:
The typical filler word "um" in English takes on a whole new meaning here. It's meaning is, how do I put this nicely... the female part of a female. We learned this quite quickly being on the boat. And now I'm imaging what all these Turkish people must think when tourists come up to them with various questions.
"Can you tell me how much the... um.... kebab costs?"
"Where's the... um... mosque?"
"Do you know... um... where I can find... um... an ATM?"
etc. etc. etc.
We also learned the Turkish word for cheese. Well written, it looks like this: Peynir. However when spoken, it sounds like this: Penish. Every morning we had penish for breakfast... and you can image the hilarity around the table when the Turkish men were innocently popping the penish in their mouths trying to explain to us that penish means cheese in Turkish.
Group Shot
Pirates and other shady folk....
Given the title of this post, I thought about writing an email rather than putting it in the blog but against my better judgment, I've decided to blog it anyways.
I need to update you further about our boat trip. While we got off to kind of a bad start, things really turned around half way through the second day and we didn't want to leave by the end. First of all, the characters we shared the boat with were wonderful. A great mix of people who I wish I could ramble on about but I won't, in case they stumble upon my blog some day. The key element of our boat trip were by far the 3 Turkish guys we shared it with. They were two brothers (age 27 and 15) and their cousin... who just happened to look like a pirate. By the end of the second day, he was responding to 'Korsan' which is Turkish for pirate. He probably would have preferred Johnny Depp, but it didn't quite have the same ring as plain old pirate.
Things carried on as normal for the next few days with short sailings, lots of bonding and more swims in the beautiful water. However on the 3rd morning after breakfast we revved things up with a dance party on deck, boat crew and all. We sailed on, swam and danced for most of the afternoon because we were all excited to head to the infamous "Smugglers Cove" bar after the sunset. The party got started a bit early that evening and not all of us ended up making it to the bar and this is why:
Sometime before dusk we had parked for the evening. We all decided to have one last swim since dinner was still a few hours off. We all noticed the boat, 'Romeo' parked next to us. One of the girls curiously invited herself aboard upon noticing the giant bottles of vodka and all the chatter happening aboard the Romeo. Slowly but surely, the captain of our boat and all of us ladies ended up on the Romeo. I was one of the last but when it came time to make the decision between free vodka on the Romeo or an expensive beer on our boat, I jumped in and hopped aboard. Low and behold I found about 10 Turkish men with giant tummies and rotting teeth well into their fifties whooping it up on board. I was wisked into a flurry of belly dancing and shooters. I even ended up helping one guy barbeque meatballs for their dinner while sipping some vintage red wine. There was one other greenish substances on board besides alcohol that I won't mention. (But don't worry mom, I refused it.) On top of the ridiculous dancing and drinking, there were some conversations about various restaurants and yachts some of these men owned and I found them all to be very interesting folk. .jpg)
I bet most of you are wondering how the heck a bunch of Turkish men can afford this lavish lifestyle. In a country where it seems many people struggle to afford the basics these men were sailing around in their boat and paying for tourists to get drunk. Later that night and the next day two different outside sources confirmed for us that we were in fact partying with the Turkish mafia. So, I'd like to thank you, Turkish mafia for making our boat cruise so memorable. And let the record stand that Pete and myself did in fact make it the Smugglers Inn that night.
I need to update you further about our boat trip. While we got off to kind of a bad start, things really turned around half way through the second day and we didn't want to leave by the end. First of all, the characters we shared the boat with were wonderful. A great mix of people who I wish I could ramble on about but I won't, in case they stumble upon my blog some day. The key element of our boat trip were by far the 3 Turkish guys we shared it with. They were two brothers (age 27 and 15) and their cousin... who just happened to look like a pirate. By the end of the second day, he was responding to 'Korsan' which is Turkish for pirate. He probably would have preferred Johnny Depp, but it didn't quite have the same ring as plain old pirate.
Things carried on as normal for the next few days with short sailings, lots of bonding and more swims in the beautiful water. However on the 3rd morning after breakfast we revved things up with a dance party on deck, boat crew and all. We sailed on, swam and danced for most of the afternoon because we were all excited to head to the infamous "Smugglers Cove" bar after the sunset. The party got started a bit early that evening and not all of us ended up making it to the bar and this is why:
Sometime before dusk we had parked for the evening. We all decided to have one last swim since dinner was still a few hours off. We all noticed the boat, 'Romeo' parked next to us. One of the girls curiously invited herself aboard upon noticing the giant bottles of vodka and all the chatter happening aboard the Romeo. Slowly but surely, the captain of our boat and all of us ladies ended up on the Romeo. I was one of the last but when it came time to make the decision between free vodka on the Romeo or an expensive beer on our boat, I jumped in and hopped aboard. Low and behold I found about 10 Turkish men with giant tummies and rotting teeth well into their fifties whooping it up on board. I was wisked into a flurry of belly dancing and shooters. I even ended up helping one guy barbeque meatballs for their dinner while sipping some vintage red wine. There was one other greenish substances on board besides alcohol that I won't mention. (But don't worry mom, I refused it.) On top of the ridiculous dancing and drinking, there were some conversations about various restaurants and yachts some of these men owned and I found them all to be very interesting folk.
Me and Borat on the Romeo
I bet most of you are wondering how the heck a bunch of Turkish men can afford this lavish lifestyle. In a country where it seems many people struggle to afford the basics these men were sailing around in their boat and paying for tourists to get drunk. Later that night and the next day two different outside sources confirmed for us that we were in fact partying with the Turkish mafia. So, I'd like to thank you, Turkish mafia for making our boat cruise so memorable. And let the record stand that Pete and myself did in fact make it the Smugglers Inn that night.
Friday, July 17, 2009
quick update
Just a short hello to fill you in on our whereabouts. We are off the boat in a small seemingly hippie commune in Olympos. It's a little boring but we are outta here tonight on an overnight bus to a place called Goreme. (12 hour bus ride, keep your fingers crossed for us because I know it will be hell.) From there we fly to Istanbul where we will spend our last two days. When I have more time I will write more about the boat. After the first night things got so much better and we ended up having a wonderful time. Despite the solid ground beneath my feet I still feel like I am on the boat and quite can't see straight or keep my balance. We have some great stories so stay tuned....
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