So Turkey has been interesting. Not so sure it is at the top of my lists of places to come back to, but it has been a cultural experience. Maren got really sick the second day we were here, so I didn't venture too far from the hotel for fear that my life would be taken if I wandered the streets alone for too long. We stayed at a small hotel which has an AMAZING view of a mosque from our window (the picture here is of the mosque, but not the exact view from our window), which is wonderful until you are jolted awake at 10 minutes to 5am when prayers are being blasted through loud speakers from every mosque in the city which exist on every street corner, kind of like Catholic churches in Italy or LDS churches in Salt Lake, except for the blasting of prayers. The prayers are supposed to be at 5am, but obviously clocks here in Turkey are not synchronized because they start at ten to 5 and continue until at least 5:20am in which case you are already too awake to go back to sleep....
Yesterday we took a nice cruise down the Bosphorus river and saw lots of little fishing villages. Today we were VERY adventerous and went to a turkish bath (this picture is a tame representation of what we did). This is NOT for people that are afraid to be naked in front of others (Whity, you would feel right at home :)). We were taken into a room and asked to put on a small towel that I was constantly trying to pull up as well as down. We then were led through 4 doorways where each rom got progressivly hotter when we finally were told to lie down on a large marble slab. After sweating it out for about 15 minutes with the fear of passing out the masseuse came in and bathed us. She gave a massage, which was NOT for relaxation, because my back is still tender and I will probably have some bruises tomorrow. We were then washed down from head to toe many times and led to a fire where we sat and were served apple tea (it's just warm apple juice, don't worrry I checked the ingreedients). Who's idea was this? Then it was back into our normal clothes and more adventures.
We are going to go hit up the bazaar today to see if we can find some fun things to buy and then it's off to Greece tonight!
4 comments:
Wow Laura! That actually kinda sounds fun! :)
I hope you wore your garments under that towel. I don't think that fulls under the 3 "S" rule.
This is Heather's mom...
I have several friends who have gone to the Turkish baths and they say you HAVE to do it, it's an amazing experience, etc. I have always wondered if I'd really enjoy it. After all I'm the person who goes into a porta potty to change rather than do it in front of someone else. So it was good to hear that someone else was kind of uncomfortable with the teeny towel. I think I'll pass. :)
I also liked hearing about the call to prayer. It brought back memories of Israel. Have fun in Greece. My friend, Helen, was trying to decide if she had liked Egypt or Greece better. It will be interesting to hear both you and Heather give your reports.
Ha, ha. Yeah, I don't think Davis would be uncomfortable there either. Really, after a week together in a hotel room where you're constantly in your bathing suit or applying aloe...who cares anymore? :) Rach, is one of the 3 s's sunburn? Because there was this one night...
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