It began with a heavy-set man in a loin cloth and a old Turkish lady blabbering in Turkish about my options for the "Bath." Luckily there were prices listed in English on the wall and showing them cash is pretty universal to understand! I opted for the 'basic' 1.5 hour scrub with massage. The woman directed me into a private changing room were she cued me to undress and wrap myself in an oddly similar looking cloth. I assumed the cloth was meant to cover me from chest to mid-thigh.
I walked out of the changing room cinching the towel around the top-most part of my thighs, locked my door, and luckily was escorted directly into the 'bathing' area. After ducking through a low archway, you enter a room which leads to many passageways with fully marbled floors and walls. I was then passed on to another lady through one of the passageways who greeted me topless and somewhat frazzled. She dragged me into a room with a few naked women, ripped my towel off, set it on the marble floor and sat me down. She turned on a sink and started splashing water on me with a little bowl and the instructed me to continue splashing water on myself. I did as instructed as I overhead the other ladies speaking English. So I thought what not a better way to make some new friends then when in the nude! After a few minutes another new lady came in and directed the seated ladies out of the entry way. I was left to continue splashing.
It was a relatively warm room and the water was nice and warm too. The sink was beginning to overflow, with no drain. So I took the initiative to turn it off myself because no one a had come for me at this point . As I am sitting and patiently waiting, I tried desperately to get the ill thoughts out of my head of being trapped in this tiny marble room with no escape! I really didn't know if I had been forgotten about! The room was seriously about 10x10 ft. with a cement dome atop. The ceiling had tiny little cylinders cut out which maybe only my arm could fit through.
After about what felt like an hour, one of the ladies returned and said "massage?" I'm thinking I haven't had my scrub yet and assumed that would come first, so I said "scrub?" and she just flagged me to follow her. So I did as I didn't want to be left in that room any longer! Turns out the scrub and 'massage' are combined... She laid my towel on a solid marble table and pointed that I start face down. You can imagine the comfort of lying on a slab of marble with only a little piece of cloth underneath. She splashed yet some more water on my back and proceeded to scrub with a mitt on her hand. After about 30 seconds, my whole back side had been scrubbed down. She then took a towel, dipped it in some soapy water and basically just covered me in soap suds. The massage was a quick (that's being generous!) rub using the suds. She then rinsed and said "flip, flip." She proceeded with my front side in the same fashion. I think the goal is to get down about six layers of skin when they do the scrub. Lastly, she had me sit up and lucky me got my hair washed out of the deal!
Once again I was shuffled away. This time to the drying station where I was crowned with dry towels and escorted back out to the reception area. I was presented with apple tea (a Turkish drink pretty much like a packet of hot apple cider) and seated on a couch to sip. I looked at the clock and realized I was only in there for about 45 minutes, maybe only 10-15 of which was the scrub/rub! So I took my time with the tea and utilized the lotions and hairdryer on a nearby counter. Figured I might as well move slowly as John and I were not going to meet for another hour! Upon my dressing, I discovered a good size scratch mark under my neck for rememberence of my thrashing and abusing experience for the next few days! I was pretty darn clean though.
(sorry-no photography allowed!)
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