Hammam, a Turkish Bath

Wow, this is one of those cultural experiences you just can't resist, okay maybe some people can, but I really can't. So a Hammam is a Turkish Bath, it's like a Bath and Sauna, Scrub down, and Massage all in the same beautiful and ancient place! Let me try to paint a picture. You arrive to this unassuming place, ancient but who knew what it held inside. Upon entrance there is an indoor courtyard, with sofa's (All amazingly beautiful and intricate in design), a fountain with Coi goldfish, tons of artifacts that add to the ambiance, as well as some brightly colored birds hanging out in the rafters (The majority of the ceiling in the courtyard is glass structure, beautiful).

Then we walk into a dressing room where we don our bathing suits and flip flops. Then we enter into the main part of the Hammam. It smells like incense and spices. We are led to a shower to rinse of and warm up, and then into a Sauna. This is NOTHING like the Saunas we are familiar with, it is so difficult to breathe in the steam, so hot, and sweat just pours off your body, as well as the steam of course. There is a strong smell of sweet citrus and lemongrass. A woman in a traditional robe comes in to serve us Hibiscus tea, which is in slushie form, and very delicious. It tasted like juice concentrate from a combination of juices, but it was very tasty, plus it was like slushie, so I put the cup up to my nose so I could breathe the cooler air coming off. After a few minutes in that Sauna, our skin started to shed...it was so weird-like if I rubbed my hand on my arm, I would pull off a ton of skin, gross. It's like when you get a bad sunburn and peel like crazy. So we sit in the sauna for like a half hour, maybe twenty minutes.

Then we rinse off again and sit in the jacuzzi and soak. The temperature isn't so high, just pleasant and warm. We wait our turn to be scrubbed. So I went first, and I approach the marble slab table, where a very nice woman instructs me to take off my bathing suit on the top, meaning keep it around the bottom, keep my buns covered. I lay down on the marble which is surprisingly warm-ish, but very slippery! On my front side all over and I mean ALL over, I get scrubbed by this woman who is wearing a scrubbie mit, very course, and she scrubs with vigor, like she's waxing a car. It was a little painful, and she kept exclaiming, look, feel, so dirty, very very dirty! And I would touch my back or arm that she just scrubbed and there would be tons of skin rolling up into little pilly balls. GROSS. So she did that front and back, and on the back

(WARNING if you don't want to read details, skip to next paragraph, and don't say I didn't warn you!) On my belly she scrubs my back, legs, and butt. She lifts up my suit so she can reach. then pulls down my suit so as not to miss a spot. It was kind of funny, when she scrubbed my feet, I laughed so hard, I felt like such a dork as everyone in the hammam looks over at me, but I am SO ticklish, I really couldn't help it. So then a soapy wash with a milder but still abrasive spongy-loofa thing. All done and my layer of dead skin has been scoured off my body. Then best part, the lady pours warm water over me with a bowl, rinsing away all the skin and soap, more and more splashes of warm water, it felt like heaven after the scrubbing! Then I walk over to the massage table...mmmm...massage. A tiny girl gave me my massage, she had strong hands for such a little thing. It was so nice, they use olive butter to massage with, it's moisturizing but not oily-gross like some massage oils. And yes she totally massaged ALL of my back side and ALL of my front. Any sense of modesty was left at the door, but it felt SOOOO nice! It was hard to relax at first, but I just had to embrace it. I especially loved the back and scalp massage, and that oil stuff felt so nice. Then a rinse off and just chill in the jacuzzi with some more hibiscus tea until everybody else was done. Jenni and Debbie and our friend Rhonda came. It was a fun girly time, I would totally do it again, and the best part is, I feel so clean and like I'm just glowing from the inside out...or the outside in...whatever I am glowing. Okay we also went to some shops a few blocks from our house for some fresh bread, hummus and felafel. We also went SHOPPING (shocker right, mom I can hear you laughing). And I got some really fun stuff.

Just outside, I don't know if you can read it, but the sign says Al Pacha, Turkish Bath

In the courtyard at the fountain, Me, Jenni and Debbie, all clean!

Very front of the entrance, I LOVE all this wood with intricate carving and inlays!

Anxious for the unknown...

The ceiling in the courtyard (can you see the hanging glass lanterns toward the bottom of the photo? so cool!)


This door was made into a chair...I am fascinated by all this old stuff, i love it!


The chair part of the piece, SO cool!
This sofa was so beautiful, every inch was carved and inlaid with patterns and different woods, and just a beautiful design

Interesting textures everywhere, Dad I thought you would enjoy this. It is the side of a push cart
Another really cool door, with bathing ladlesThis is the jacuzzi inside

A really great picture of the ceiling, all those colored holes let in the natural light, it so neat!Some cool old stuff, notice the photo above the telephone, it is of the King and his wife on a motorcycle, the king is young, and you can't walk into anyplace without seeing multiple, usually very nice framed pictures of the King, this one was interesting to me because the King ad Queen are riding a Harley. Awesome.