I don't have a Turkish keyboard, so I don't have the diacritics that belong in the name. Please forgive me!
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Photo from www.istanbul-turismo.com |
When I was in Istanbul, the one place I knew I had to visit was a hammam. I went to one of the most famous Hamams in the world -
Cagaloglu Hamami.
This is the description I sent my fellow author,
Sloan Addams. She calls me Wonder Woman. I call her Power Girl.
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Power Girl! I have come to the conclusion that the hamam is the cure for all the world's ills.
First, some nice lady pours hot water all over you as you sit on a heated marble floor. Then you get to lay there in wet, fabulous bliss. She comes in with soap and a exfoliating mitt and scrubs you all over, front and back, so that your skin is incredibly smooth and clean. This is not fast, either. It's complete relaxation.
You get rinsed by more hot, clean water splashed over you. This feels like heaven.
Then you realize that heaven is even cooler than you thought, because you get a massage with the soap suds. The soap and water is so thick and bubbly that your massage is slick and relaxes every damn part of yourself.
Finally, she washes your hair.
At the end, you ooze your boneless way back to your little room and try to remember how to put on clothes.
I bought some of the soap and one of the mitts there, so I can give myself a cheater's hamam here at home. No heated marble floors, you know. ;)
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Her response?
Wonder Woman - I just turned green.