The Hammam Demystified in Istanbul, Turkey

Inside Agia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey

January 31, 2012

No, not the harem—which is demystified during tours of the fascinating Ottoman Empire palaces sprinkled throughout the Istanbul area.  I do mean inside the hammam.  This was my first experience with Turkish public bath rituals.  In Istanbul the tourist can find spa treatments in several modernized hammams.  Instead, I wanted a local scene and selected a hammam near a residential neighborhood mosque.  This is how it worked:  With a hair brush and forty lira in my purse I entered through the ladies door of the hammam and was greeted in a lounge area by a kind attendant.  After selecting the basic bath/pool package, including a vigorous scrubbing and massage, I was given a sarong, towel, key to a private dressing room and a new scrubbing mitt.  The dressing room was large enough to include a sofa with pillow for private lounging….a nap, thought I? 

Turkish tea in slim waisted glass

A cluster of girl friends were hanging out in one similar, drinking cups of tea and making merry conversation.  After locking my clothes in the private dressing room, clad in the sarong, I was directed down to the baths and pointed to a water basin in a pod of others.  All was clean steamy moist marble.  The pretty ceiling captured my eye:  sunlight streamed through numerous round pieces of glass, like stars, inserted into white plaster domes.   From the basin of running hot water I mimicked the other women in my pod who used a small bucket to pour water over the body again and again,  allowing time to open pores.  I spent another ten minutes in the sauna for the same purpose, accompanied by two giggling grand dames who spoke endless Turkish to me, even when they knew I understood not a word of it.  The masseuse and scrubber extracted me, pointing to a marble slab in the center of the room large enough to fit three reclining women.  There she gave me a lengthy massage and rigorous rub down, removing the top layer of my skin.  Oddly, the uniform of the two professional masseses was pretty black lingerie.  My scrubber wore a bra and under pants while the other wore only under pants.  Roughly a dozen other women were also in the baths:  a cluster of mom friends with their toddlers in tow, two sets of friends, one mother-daughter couple, and a pair of sisters.  It seems that the baths are a perfect place to parade in one's lovely underwear:  All wore either under pants or bathing suits.  There was much chatter, merriment, and an occasional break out into song as the women bathed one another.  After the scrub, the masseuse escorted me back to the basin where she cleaned my hair with shampoo and soaped my body, rinsing all with bucket after bucket of water.  What a luxury!  I was sent back to the changing room to dry off.  In the lounge area, while using the communal blow dryer, a cup of tea was served.  There the attendant runs a side business: she captured the attention of a cluster of guests lounging on divans and modeled a line of leisure wear on sale.  After 1.5 hours of special attention, I felt oh-so-relaxed-and-radiant.  Next time, along with my hair brush, I will bring an extra pair of pretty under pants and a girl friend. 
 

Descending through quaint Bebek to the Bosphorus

Overall, we had a marvelous experience in Istanbul--what a fascinating city and country!  I found myself shedding preconceptions and learning anew the unique east-meets-west culture.  In addition to the hammam, other highlights were the Bosphorus boat cruise, the Top Kapi Ottoman palace and underground Roman cistern tours.  Topping off the sojourn was listening to ex-pat Julia’s stories about living in a shared rental apartment with other young Turkish women....sort of Sex In The City penniless Turkish style.  Julia is one of the college students we hosted in our Berkeley home when she was interning for Berkeley Press a few summers ago.  Now a Wellesley graduate, she is successfully working as a freelance writer while learning Turkish and waiting for a PhD program to accept her.  We managed to share the better part of three days with Julia, touring and filling her with nutritious meals. 

Sinan's mosque on the Bosphorus

Because Istanbul fully occupied our eight days in Turkey, we made it no further into the country.  Three days of heavy snowfall, inefficient public transit systems on congested roads, and Gerhard's virus cold and suffering knee also meant a slower pace than we usually expect of ourselves.  While Gerhard and I had our hammam experiences, Karoline preferred to spend the time in the apartment on the slow internet service taking quizzes and completing a significant 7^th grade lesson milestone. 

View from apartment in Akatlar

We lodged in an attractive rental apartment in a relatively quiet middle class residential neighborhood.  We were thankful to be surrounded by creature comforts that included a kitchen, privacy, space, and spectacular views of the snow shrouded city from the living room picture window. 

As I write we are doing a load of laundry and expect to pack before falling asleep.  Tomorrow we fly to Rome where we will stay in another apartment, another home exchange arrangement.

Istanbul resources:

We can recommend the rental apartment offered by excellent hostess Oya.  One caveat:  transportation into the heart of the city is a bit problematic.  Streets are frequently congested with vehicles.  Metro, metrobus and trams don’t use the car roads so can be faster, but are not particularly easy to reach from the apartment.  The public transit system is crowded and it takes a while to learn the system.  In the 8 days here, we did not master the system.  If the goal is to race through the tourist sites in a quick few days one is better off lodging closer to them,  (www.istanbulcondo.com) .

Mehmet Tetik is an excellent tour guide who will pick up/deliver by car:  http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/guides/tetik_m.html
mobile number: +90 5326120113

I actively read and can recommend any of these guidebooks available in the rental apartment:

Wallpaper City Guide, Phaidon

Eyewitness Travel:  Istanbul

Rick Steves’ Istanbul (my favorite)

The Rough Guide to Istanbul

Culture Smart Turkey

Restaurants we can highly recommend:

Ciya in Kadikoy; reached by taking the ferry to the Asian side of the Bosphorus

As Pera in the fish market (Sancaktepe Merkez Mah. Ataturk Cad, No. 72) which is a street perpendicular to famed Istiklar St. in Taksim.

Asitane restaurant next door to Chora Church.

Hammam associated with mosque Mihrimah, very near Chora Church.

Pamuk’s Nobel Prize winning book Istanbul:  Memories and the City provides an entertaining read and useful cultural insight
Ataturk by Lord Kinross is extremely well written. 
Birds without Wings by Louis de Bernieres is a lovely if sad story based on real history
Not Even My Name by Thea Halo is a true story about the forced march out of Turkey by Pontic Greeks and Armenians around WWI.

Mehmet Tetik recommends the following Sufi music:

CD NeyIstanbul (flute-like music)

Anything by Kutsi Erguner, or, more modern, Mercan Dede