Dorothy Conquering Constantinople: A Day of Luxury at the Hamam

The past couple of days have been a wearisome struggle for most Bogazici students, including yours truly. We have been registering for classes. The Bogazici system is quite inefficient and stressful, and I don't really feel like talking about it any more. All you really need to know is that I am currently signed up for three classes- Turkish language for foreigners, Aegean history and archaeology, and Byzantine art and architecture. I need two more- easier said than done, especially when many are filled up and Williams only allows me to take classes that fit its liberal arts agenda. Also- FIVE CLASSES?! I guess that's not unheard of but I haven't had that course load since high school. Oh boy.
So today, to unwind, my friend Stella and I spent a day of luxury in Taksim at a Turkish Hamam, or a bath. Don't think bath as in a Roman bath. This is actually quite different! Allow me to explain what happened when we went to the bath in stages. Reader discretion is advised! Some nudity may be involved.
1) Stella and I walk into the bathhouse where we are greeted by the "bathers", mostly elderly women. We decide to get the full service bath. Expensive? Yes, but we deserved it.
2) We are shown into changing rooms that actually aren't private at all. In fact, each private room has a large glass window that looks out into the lobby. We undressed and put on towels and wooden sandal type shoes that they gave us.
3) One of the women takes us into the "bath", which is a large room where there is a round platform of heated marble in the

center and marble sinks around all four walls. This is kind of what it looked like (at right).
4) To our surprise, the lady pulled off our towels and put them in a corner! We didn't think that was necessary, so when she left we wrapped ourselves back up (because we're modest young ladies) and preceded to recline on the heated marble, which is meant to make you sweat. We lay there for about 15 minutes before two different bathers each motioned for us to come over to the sinks. Again, they took our towels away, so at that point we had to give up on modesty. Oh well.
5) They poured some room temperature water on us, and then had us lay back on the marble, where they started scrubbing our fronts and backs with some exfoliating pad, kind of like a loofah. You would not believe how well it worked. I had heard that they took a lot of dead skin off, but I could literally see it rubbing off. It was pretty gross... but also intriguing.
6) After rinsing off the dead skin, it was time to get soaped up. The soaping stage also involved a massage and lots of suds. I got really slippery and I was worried I might fall off the marble platform. It was quite luxurious.
7) After getting scrubbed and soaped, we were once more rinsed by the sinks. They shampooed our hair and washed our whole bodies. They then gave us clean towels and we headed back to the changing rooms to dry off.

It was all in all an interesting, fun experience. Probably a little too expensive, but still worthwhile. We left feeling absolutely wonderful! Things to keep in mind when considering doing a Turkish bath: Know what you're doing. Stella and I had heard a little about it, but did not expect to be fully nude. The bath ladies were also topless. No need for modestly at the hamam. Be prepared to not be able to communicate with the bath ladies at all. They didn't speak English, although mine knew how to say "very good" and "sit!". Finally, you should definitely tip them. They did just get your dead skin all over themselves.

Afterward we enjoyed our first real Turkish Delight, which is gelatinous and comes in cubes covered in powdered sugar. You can get it in different flavors, so we were adventurous and tried rose, kiwi, and something with chocolate in it. Not bad, but not fabulous. All in all, it was a great day of being touristy. We still have almost a whole week before classes start, so why not?