OMG Today was interesting.
I barely slept last night for the room's changing temperature and the variety of night noises. The near-by train track provided a shocking amount of sound to keep me awake, along with the late-night calls to prayer.
We got up pretty early and headed upstairs to the terrace for our complimentary Turkish breakfast: tomatoes, cucumbers, eggs, olives (but those stayed on my plate as I never eat olives), fresh bread with cream cheese, cherry jam, tea and…cake!
Next, we wandered up to the Hagia Sophia. Hagia Sophia, which means 'God's great wisdom', was originally built by the Emperor Justinian in 532 AD on the site of an earlier church built in the reign of Constantine. It is cavernous. It's roof is made up of a large dome supported by four more half-domes. It was decorated in beautiful mosaics and gold-leafed paintings of religious icons. But when it was conquered by Sultan Mehmed in 1453, the Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque. In order for it to function as a mosque, some renovations had to be made. Over the years, the prayer niche (which faced Jerusalem) was moved slightly so that it faced Mecca. The religious icons were covered in plaster and minarets were added to the exterior. It remained a mosque until 1935, when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (the father of modern Turkey) changed it into a museum. He uncovered the original mosaics and today, the cathedral/mosque/museum displays both Christian and Islamic artifacts.
The Hagia Sophia is a beautiful building-- mostly because of it's size. It's actually immense. The old orthodox mosaics are really beautiful. The remind me of all the medieval triptych paintings I saw in Italy-- I love the graphic quality of the flat plains and bold colours.
For lunch, we grabbed some fast food- Donair meat and a coke. The sun had come out from behind the clouds, so we decided to take a leisurely stroll over to the Grand Bazaar. It was pretty cool. There were leather shoes, tea sets, lamps, harem pants, carpets, jewellery and all kinds of stuff. At almost every stall, a young man would step forward and say "Yes, please", "Hello, please" or "Can I sell you something you don't need?" We were constantly asked "Where are you from?" It was like being in that scene in Disney's Aladdin, when Princess Jasmine steps out into the marketplace for the first time. I bought some Turkish tea cups and saucers.
We dropped my tea set off at the hostel and the owner of the hostel booked a Turkish bath at one of the baths the locals use. We got pretty lost on the way there. Eventually, a young man helped us find it (before asking us for our phone numbers). From the outside, it looked a bit rustic. When we stepped inside… we looked out into a dark, murky room, where we saw dingy walls and dirty floors. It smelled very musty. Looking back, I suppose it wasn't much worse than hanging out at camp… but at the time, it just seemed gross. Aussie and I turned right around and left.
We found an internet café and googled "Turkish baths" to locate something a but more appealing to our clean-freak Western sensibilities. We found one in a hotel back in the tourist area. We undressed completely and wrapped ourselves in some towels. WARNING: Turkish baths are naked. For some naive reason, Aussie and I did not know this. We headed into the bath and a lady attendant got us to strip right down so she could shower us. Then, we went to relax in the sauna (wrapped in our towels again). We were in there for about 15 minutes, laughing and joking about how awkward we felt. We both said that we would refuse to have a naked massage. Little did we know…
I made Aussie go first. Through the sauna window, I glimpsed Aussie's towel on the raised marble slab in the centre of the room— then, she laid down on her back in the buff! I moved to another seat in the sauna so my view was obstructed. As Aussie's treatment continued, I stayed in the sauna. My sticky arms quickly became more and more moist and eventually, I began to drip as if I'd just stepped out of the shower. My face was soaked and my hair became damp. My heart race began to increase in speed and my breathing became heavy and hard. All of a sudden, I just couldn't take it any more— I had to have been in there for over forty minutes! I stood up and burst out into the other room. I turned away from Aussie and sat down to catch my breath in a much cooler area. I felt light-headed, but the cooler room was a huge relief.
Soon, Aussie was done and it was my turn. I laid down on m back, completely nude, trying to keep my nervous smile hidden by pressing my lips between my teeth. I tried to relax, but I am never naked infront of anyone, so I felt a bit tense. The attendant rubbed my arms, legs, stomach and chest with an exfoliating glove. I kept reminding myself "she's seen a thousand naked ladies, so this is perfectly normal for her", but coming from North America, I was just not used to it. I flipped over and the attendant exfoliated my back as well. Next, she lathered up some soap and and covered me in the suds, like I was laying in a bubble bath. She gave me a light massage, front and back and rinsed me off with hot and cold water. She even washed my hair for me. In the end, I felt very relaxed and soothed. (But I wish I had searched 'Turkish Bath' on Wikipedia so I had known what to expect!)
When I came out of the bath, Aussie was having her massage. Before I went in for mine, she warned me that it was pretty full-on. I soon learned what she meant. The masseuse (a dude), was very good. He massaged my feet, legs, back, arms, chest, shoulders and neck. But I started to feel very uncomfortable when he massaged my upper thigh and groin area. He really got into the muscles there and his hands were very close and sometimes touching my… ummm… bathing suit areas. So, if you are thinking of having a Turkish bath and massage, be warned that it can feel a bit intimate.
I felt very relaxed after my massage, and neither Aussie or I wanted do much walking. So instead, we found a restaurant with a great outdoor patio. It was called 'Medusa House' and there were live musicians playing all night. I ordered an 'Efes', which is Turkish beer and we shared some vine leaves. We had some kebab for dinner, with rice and vegetables. The food in Turkey is quite similar to Greek food, but it also reminds me of some Persian food I have tried before. There is certainly a lot of meat!
Today, Aussie and I started this game where we see who can count the most cats. Istanbul has a lot of stray cats wandering around. Some of them look skinny and sick and others look very well-fed. They are all friendly little animals and, surprisingly, they aren't easily scared off like cats at home. Today, I saw 33 cats and Aussie saw 30! That's a lot of cats.
Well, off to bed!
I barely slept last night for the room's changing temperature and the variety of night noises. The near-by train track provided a shocking amount of sound to keep me awake, along with the late-night calls to prayer.
We got up pretty early and headed upstairs to the terrace for our complimentary Turkish breakfast: tomatoes, cucumbers, eggs, olives (but those stayed on my plate as I never eat olives), fresh bread with cream cheese, cherry jam, tea and…cake!
Next, we wandered up to the Hagia Sophia. Hagia Sophia, which means 'God's great wisdom', was originally built by the Emperor Justinian in 532 AD on the site of an earlier church built in the reign of Constantine. It is cavernous. It's roof is made up of a large dome supported by four more half-domes. It was decorated in beautiful mosaics and gold-leafed paintings of religious icons. But when it was conquered by Sultan Mehmed in 1453, the Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque. In order for it to function as a mosque, some renovations had to be made. Over the years, the prayer niche (which faced Jerusalem) was moved slightly so that it faced Mecca. The religious icons were covered in plaster and minarets were added to the exterior. It remained a mosque until 1935, when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (the father of modern Turkey) changed it into a museum. He uncovered the original mosaics and today, the cathedral/mosque/museum displays both Christian and Islamic artifacts.
The Hagia Sophia is a beautiful building-- mostly because of it's size. It's actually immense. The old orthodox mosaics are really beautiful. The remind me of all the medieval triptych paintings I saw in Italy-- I love the graphic quality of the flat plains and bold colours.
We dropped my tea set off at the hostel and the owner of the hostel booked a Turkish bath at one of the baths the locals use. We got pretty lost on the way there. Eventually, a young man helped us find it (before asking us for our phone numbers). From the outside, it looked a bit rustic. When we stepped inside… we looked out into a dark, murky room, where we saw dingy walls and dirty floors. It smelled very musty. Looking back, I suppose it wasn't much worse than hanging out at camp… but at the time, it just seemed gross. Aussie and I turned right around and left.
We found an internet café and googled "Turkish baths" to locate something a but more appealing to our clean-freak Western sensibilities. We found one in a hotel back in the tourist area. We undressed completely and wrapped ourselves in some towels. WARNING: Turkish baths are naked. For some naive reason, Aussie and I did not know this. We headed into the bath and a lady attendant got us to strip right down so she could shower us. Then, we went to relax in the sauna (wrapped in our towels again). We were in there for about 15 minutes, laughing and joking about how awkward we felt. We both said that we would refuse to have a naked massage. Little did we know…
I made Aussie go first. Through the sauna window, I glimpsed Aussie's towel on the raised marble slab in the centre of the room— then, she laid down on her back in the buff! I moved to another seat in the sauna so my view was obstructed. As Aussie's treatment continued, I stayed in the sauna. My sticky arms quickly became more and more moist and eventually, I began to drip as if I'd just stepped out of the shower. My face was soaked and my hair became damp. My heart race began to increase in speed and my breathing became heavy and hard. All of a sudden, I just couldn't take it any more— I had to have been in there for over forty minutes! I stood up and burst out into the other room. I turned away from Aussie and sat down to catch my breath in a much cooler area. I felt light-headed, but the cooler room was a huge relief.
Soon, Aussie was done and it was my turn. I laid down on m back, completely nude, trying to keep my nervous smile hidden by pressing my lips between my teeth. I tried to relax, but I am never naked infront of anyone, so I felt a bit tense. The attendant rubbed my arms, legs, stomach and chest with an exfoliating glove. I kept reminding myself "she's seen a thousand naked ladies, so this is perfectly normal for her", but coming from North America, I was just not used to it. I flipped over and the attendant exfoliated my back as well. Next, she lathered up some soap and and covered me in the suds, like I was laying in a bubble bath. She gave me a light massage, front and back and rinsed me off with hot and cold water. She even washed my hair for me. In the end, I felt very relaxed and soothed. (But I wish I had searched 'Turkish Bath' on Wikipedia so I had known what to expect!)
When I came out of the bath, Aussie was having her massage. Before I went in for mine, she warned me that it was pretty full-on. I soon learned what she meant. The masseuse (a dude), was very good. He massaged my feet, legs, back, arms, chest, shoulders and neck. But I started to feel very uncomfortable when he massaged my upper thigh and groin area. He really got into the muscles there and his hands were very close and sometimes touching my… ummm… bathing suit areas. So, if you are thinking of having a Turkish bath and massage, be warned that it can feel a bit intimate.
I felt very relaxed after my massage, and neither Aussie or I wanted do much walking. So instead, we found a restaurant with a great outdoor patio. It was called 'Medusa House' and there were live musicians playing all night. I ordered an 'Efes', which is Turkish beer and we shared some vine leaves. We had some kebab for dinner, with rice and vegetables. The food in Turkey is quite similar to Greek food, but it also reminds me of some Persian food I have tried before. There is certainly a lot of meat!
Today, Aussie and I started this game where we see who can count the most cats. Istanbul has a lot of stray cats wandering around. Some of them look skinny and sick and others look very well-fed. They are all friendly little animals and, surprisingly, they aren't easily scared off like cats at home. Today, I saw 33 cats and Aussie saw 30! That's a lot of cats.
Well, off to bed!
1 comment:
lol. this was the best entry yet! i cannot believe you went through with it all. i think it sounds awesome! but i remember when i got my first brazilian wax and some random lady was grabbing and tugging at my lady parts. it was really weird but now that I've had a ton of them it's weirdly normal to strip down to nothing next to this lady. i think even if it was awkward it's an amazing experience and a great story!
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