Food, hamam and dancing

I'm sitting on a bus on the way to Selcuk.  We've been on it already for five hours already with a half hour stop for lunch - a 'famous' cheese toastie which was ok but as much of a let down as welsh rarebit, and this funny foamy yoghurt drink which was quite sour but strangely good. We still have about two more hours to go in the bus.  Next time, I'm gonna travel in a really small country that doesn't take all day to get anywhere.

Friday night in Istanbul, we headed out to a nice fish restaurant and I have no idea where we were.  We were picked up by a van and he drove us on a zig zag through the back streets (from what I've seen so far, they are all back streets in Istanbul).  At the restaurant, there were people playing and singing and occasionally dancing.  A couple of them were across the street in another restaurant but I think they were playing the same tune.  It was  a very enjoyable meal and the waiter refused to let us leave until we had drunken our tea.

We spent the next morning travelling on a ferry to Mudanya and then a bus to Bursa.  I was a bit disappointed that we weren't allowed out on deck while the ferry was underway but we did get a nice view of Tokapi Palace.  Bursa was the capital at one time and is the centre of silk so we say window displays full of wedding dresses on our way in.  It also has sugared chestnuts (we tried some chocolate covered ones) and a hamam that used to be frequented by emperors.  Most of the group decided this was an experience not to be missed.  For 55 TL (about NZD 40), you get entry to the hamam, a scrub and a massage. 

I think hamams are all different but I will describe the one that we went to.  There are separate hamams for men and women.  You are given a room to change into your swimsuit (or not if you wish to, go au natural) and something the size of a tea towel to wrap yourself in.  You then enter a marble clad room about 6 x 4 metres with a low bench with sinks at regular intervals. You bath by using a small bowl to scoop water over yourself from one of the sinks, before entering the large very hot pool in the centre - there is an even hotter pool at one end of the room but I didn't venture here.  At one end, there are two low marble coffee tables.  Well, that's what they look like.  You climb onto one of these (in full view of everyone else) and the attendant (also clad in her bikini) removes your bikini top and then scrubs you down with an abrasive oven mitt - back and front - I was a little worried she was going to scrub my nipples off.  You're allowed to keep your bikini bottom on but she exposes your bum to everyone and then gives you a wedgie when she is doing your legs.  You then sit up on the side of the coffee table and she does your arms.  It's then back down again and she covers you in soap and give you a massage - front and back again before sitting you up and using bowl fulls of water to wash you off.  It was very nice but I had a challenge to not giggle in parts (I'm sure you can guess which).  Apparently the men's hamam was quite different - and they had male attendants.

We were picked up in the evening by a local gentleman who took us to his regular tea shop where he and his friends were having  a bit of a jam session in  a back room (it seems that this is a regular pastime after work for the men) and then back to his place where his wife had cooked a very nice meal.  It was great to have a vegetarian meal for a change.  Next we walked down to the dervish house and sat around in a room full of genie lamps listening to a sermon projected on the screen outside.  It was in Turkish of course.  Then it was time for the show.  The men sit downstairs and the women upstairs and then men in long dresses (I'm sure they're called something else) whirl - for ages.  They just keep going round and round and round without getting dizzy.  Each time they turn they are saying the name of Allah and it is apparently a form of prayer.  It also looks really cool with their skirts whirling round.  It finished with a prayer - again I have no idea what the prayer said, but it was very reminiscent of being in a Christian church.  There were very few tourists there other than ourselves and the women who we were crammed into the upstairs with were all very welcoming and nice despite that language barrier.  It was an enjoyable evening.