Day 5- Turkish Baths

Clark and I knew we couldn't come to Turkey without having a proper Turkish bath. The problem was, we had no babysitter for our kids. We briefly considered looking up the local LDS ward/branch to see if some adventurous Mia Maid would want to come babysit for some total strangers, but quickly decided that idea was kind of absurd. So we decided to take turns. Clark would go first, come back to the hotel and report. Then it would be my turn.

Next we needed to pick a Turkish bath. The concierge at our hotel was able to recommend some tourist friendly hamams but they were all super expensive. Plus we wanted the real deal. As we did our research, we were careful to eliminate any gay hamams which apparently are quite plentiful in Istanbul. Next, we looked for one that was both affordable and not too far from the hotel. Enter the Turvan Turkish Bath priced at 50 Turkish Lira or about $30 and just around the corner.

For those who don't know what a Turkish bath is, here's a little summary from Wikipedia:

A Turkish bath (Turkish: Hamam) is the Turkish variant of a steam bath, sauna or Russian Bath, distinguished by a focus on water, as opposed to ambient steam. A person taking a Turkish bath first relaxes in a room (known as the warm room) that is heated by a continuous flow of hot, dry air allowing the bather to perspire freely. Bathers may then move to an even hotter room (known as the hot room) before splashing themselves with cold water. After performing a full body wash and receiving a massage, bathers finally retire to the cooling-room for a period of relaxation.

Clark went first and returned about an hour and a half later. He looked happy, relaxed and especially clean. I had two questions for him: 1) Is there a female attendant/masseuse? and 2) Were you naked? He assured me that there are both male and female attendants and no, he was not naked. They gave him a little towel/sarong to wrap up in. Good enough for me. Off I went.

Now, I would have Clark guest blog about his Turkish bath experience, but frankly I think mine was a little more interesting. Plus, I think I'll ask him to blog about waking up in the middle of the night to go watch the Super Bowl at a local Turkish bar.

I showed up at the Turvan Turkish bath and was met by Marguerite, the female attendant who was Armenian and didn't speak a lick of English. She brought me downstairs to a locker room where I was glad to see they had lockers with working locks. I think she wanted to help me get undressed but I ushered her out and locked my things up. Thankfully, she left me with a sarong (a very small sarong) and a pair of wooden sandals.

She took me into the main room and gestured for me to sit down on the gobek tasi or the big stone in the center of the room. Next she wanted my sarong, which seemed unfair for two reasons. First, the center stone lies over a giant furnace- it's scalding hot and she wanted me to lie down on it. And secondly, uh, didn't Clark get to keep his sarong? He promised me I wouldn't have to get naked! I was a little hesitant at first but I figured when in Istanbul... Plus this woman seemed friendly enough and we shared the same name. I'll get naked. Why not.

So there I was. Naked in the basement of a hamam in Istanbul. Separated from everything that was familiar to me. My husband back at the hotel, my wallet and passport in another room. Separated and naked. Naked naked. Naked enough that Marguerite inquired about my c-section scar. At least, I think that's what she was asking about. Hard to tell. The language barrier was thick and things were steamy in there. She also noticed that I was pregnant and seemed concerned. She didn't let me lie on the gobek tasi for very long. She brought me over to a table and had me lie down.

The next thirty minutes were awesome. She threw hot water on me. She threw cold water on me. She rubbed my skin raw with two pumice gloves. She rubbed me down with sweet smelling suds. More hot water. More freezing water. And on and on. She took it easy on my belly, especially with the hot water. At one point she even bent over to whisper some Armenian baby talk to my unborn child. I wish I knew what she had said. I was torn between feeling incredibly uncomfortable and feeling completely relaxed and pampered.

The following thirty minutes were even better. She took me into another room (without steam) and gave me one of the roughest massages I've ever had. My achy pregnant body hasn't felt that good in months. After the massage, she brought me into a traditional steam room. She wouldn't let me stay there long, gesturing at my belly and shaking her head. Next came a traditional sauna room, same thing, she only let me stay 2 minutes or so. Then she brought me over to a small pool of ice cold water and had me get in. That was painful. Good painful. Then repeat several times. Steam, sauna, ice cold pool, repeat.

In the end, we came back to the main room and spent more time on the gobek tasi. Man, it felt good. I didn't want it to end. I was vulnerable and naked with my flab and stretch marks hanging out for a strange Armenian lady to see and yet I felt so relaxed... and so CLEAN!

And then suddenly it was over. It was odd, it was heavenly. I took a shower and got dressed. I said goodbye to Marguerite and walked back to the hotel feeling cleansed and yet slightly dirty at the same time.

Obviously, I didn't bring my camera to the Turkish bath but here's a photo of me shortly after. Wet hair and red-faced. Overheated or incredibly embarrassed? Probably a little bit of both.

Day 5- The Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts

The hippodrome was a little disappointing so I was beyond delighted when we discovered that the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts happened to be located right next door. Although I wanted to visit this museum, it was low on our list of priorities because well... it's a museum... of Islamic arts... and Booker and Ike are not exactly lovers of the Islamic arts... at least not yet. But we happened to be in the right place at the right time, so we headed inside.

I suppose I shouldn't speak for Clark and the boys, but here's what I think everyone will remember from this museum:

Ike: Puppy dog. Doggy kisses for Ike.

Booker: There was a cute bulldog who kept slurping us. Oh and some ruined carpets.

Clark: Ike is really heavy and also where can I adopt one of those Turkish bulldogs? (They confiscated our baby backpack when we entered so Clark had to carry him on his shoulders the entire time. Someone had to protect all those Islamic treasures from the Ikenator).

Margaret: Awesome examples of illuminated Qurans and crazy cool carpets.

I'm so glad my kids' memories of Istanbul will be of fish and dogs and not of illuminated manuscripts and calligraphy. Reason #5423 to leave your little kids at home when traveling to culturally and historically rich cities anywhere.

Anyways, the museum happens to be the former palace of Ibrahim Pasha who was Suleiman the Magnifcient's Grand Vizier. It was built in 1524. So the building itself was kind of cool. It's a treasure house of beautiful objects, some from the Ottoman period (14th to 20th centuries), the Seljuk period (11th to 13th centuries) and some even as early as the 8th century. We saw some amazing examples of calligraphy and the carpets were impressive not only because of their age but because of their size.

I just wish the museum staff would have cooled their jets a little bit. Obviously they don't get a lot of kid visitors, so I understand why they were a little nervous about Booker and Ike being there. But why did they keep shushing me and Clark when we wanted to talk to each other? One security guard followed us room to room (even though each room had it's own guard) to make sure we were being quiet and you know, not carving our names into the inlaid wood or smashing the ancient porcelain vases. Awesome collection, really uptight staff.

Day 5- The Hippodrome

Back when Istanbul was Constantinople, the hippodrome served as an arena for sporting events and other forms of entertainment. Nowadays there's not much left of it, especially since it was undergoing some pretty extensive renovations when we showed up. Basically it's a U-shaped race track with some interesting monuments in the middle.

Like the Obelisk of Theodosius above. Back in 390, the Roman Emperor Theodosius took part of this obelisk from the temple of Karnak and brought it to the hippodrome in Constantinople. So the only ancient Egyptian monument we saw during this trip happened to be in Turkey and not Egypt.

Hippodrome with the Blue Mosque in the background.

Hot drinks on wheels! I wonder if they served sahlep back during the chariot races?

Day 5- Strolling

Among other things, the unrest in Egypt messed up our plan to spend two weeks with our good friends the Glausers. I was really bummed out about this. There's nothing like traveling around in a third world country together to really solidify a friendship. I was sad we didn't have the opportunity to travel with them, but the silver lining is that I didn't have to reveal how ridiculously small my bladder is right now and my overall slowness (waddle-ness?) to non-family. Thank goodness Istanbul had plenty of public toilets which were mostly free and mostly of the non squat variety. We took breaks and we took them often.

Even these boys with their short little legs had to stop and wait for me to catch up.

And it seemed like every time we stopped, we were surrounded by stray cats and dogs. Well fed and well kept stray dogs.

Our hotel was just around the corner from the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. They provided a nice backdrop for our frequent breaks.

I thought this roasted corn would be amazing. It was mediocre at best.

But don't tell Ike, he liked it.

I should name this baby Sahlep Proffitt since I drank so much of that stuff.

We also drank lots of freshly squeezed orange and pomegranate juice. Many of the cafes and public parks had free Wifi, which was often faster than the internet at our hotel.

Speaking of our hotel...

This is the crib they provided. One side was broken so Ike could crawl out and onto Clark's sleeping face whenever he felt like it. I love spending time with my kids and I will always remember this vacation as one full of family closeness and bonding, but MAN was I glad to get home and crawl back into my own perfectly-distanced-from-my-children bed. Heaven.

Day 4- Rustem Pasha Mosque

Had it not been included in our tour package, we probably wouldn't have visited the Rustem Pasha mosque. Although it was built by the famed Ottoman architect, Sinan it's much smaller than his other constructions like the Suleymaniye mosque. It's definitely a hidden gem and I'm glad we had the chance to go. Of all the tile work we saw in Istanbul, the Rustem Pasha was my favorite and it was so well preserved. Our guide told us that the Rustem Pasha mosque was named the "best ancient mosque" by Newsweek a few years back. Considering how many how ancient mosques there are out there, that's quite the acknowledgement.

We showed up right as the call to prayer went out, so we had to hang out until everyone finished up praying.

Booker and Ike did their best to disrupt the prayers of any remaining stragglers.

Floor to ceiling tiles.

Day 4- Bosphorus Videos

Day 4- Bosphorus Ferry

Istanbul is the only major city in the world that straddles two continents and the Bosphorus Strait is the boundary that forms the divide. Here's a little map that better illustrates.

Our hotel and most of the sites were on the European side, so the purpose of our ferry trip was to cross the Bosphorus over to the Asian side.

The scenery was really beautiful, but the boys were mostly interested in following the birds on top of the boat.

These little fishing boats/restaurants catch the fish and cook them up right there.

Dolmabahce Palace, if we had one more day in Istanbul we would have visited it.

Rumelihisari, Sultan Mehmed's fortress as he tried to take Constantinople.

More of the fortress/castle.

The Bosphorus Bridge. Every year they have a marathon that crosses the bridge so the course includes two continents. According to our guide, aside from the marathon, the only other time they've closed down the bridge was so Bono of U2 could run across the bridge.

More of Sultan Mehmed's forts.

This young woman wouldn't leave Ike alone.

Fancy summer homes on the Asian side.

More Bosphorus photos here.