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
Cinili means tiled. Apparently there are gorgeous tiles at this hamam... but there are all on the mens side. womp womp. It was so nice though. Very relaxing. We (I went with another au pair) got there and didn't know what to do at first. The staff knew a few words in English and we knew a few words in Turkish and we figured it out. There's a sign on the front door that says their will be a strong smell, but don't worry, it's just the history you are smelling ;) We got a kick out of that. We changed and were led into the warm room and omg it was so nice. Like it says above, you sit in one spot and they give you a bowl and soap and you wash yourself for a bit and relax. It's like a sauna, very warm. There is a big raised thing of marble in the middle of the room, heated marble! I die. You lay there while one of the ladies scrubs off all your dead skin. I felt like a snake shedding a layer of skin. There was so much. You rinse after and then move to a different room. There is the option of having a massage, but we opted out of that this time. The ladies were super nice, we went out to change and sat with them for awhile. There was even a cat at one point. I don't think they wanted him in there but they weren't exactly super fast with throwing him out ;) I think i might be going back before i leave :)
After the hamam we walked across the street to see cinili cammi, the "tiled mosque", that I had read was really beautiful. Everyone was leaving as we walked up so we had to have someone unlock the door on the inside for us. It was breathtaking. I kept saying "wow" over and over. That's all i could think of. the guy who let us in was standing super close to us the whole time and i felt really awkward about taking pictures. google it if you want to see it, i guess? it wont do it justice though ;)
We went to have lunch down in uskudar after our little adventure... and while we were eating a cameraman and a guy with a microphone (they are everywhere! I barely notice them anymore. There has to be a lot of news to report on with a city this big ;) ) must have heard us speaking English and came up and asked to interview us. I don't remember exactly what he said at first other than "are you finished with your meal?" when i replied no, he pulled up a chair. so. But they were with Fenerbahçe TV, which i guess is a big deal? It was awkward. Not even gonna lie. I felt like a deer in head lights. They asked which team we supported (galatasaray, the only team i know/bc i got to go to their match) They asked where we were from, what we did (he actually knew what an au pair was, holla~) where we were staying, how long we've been here and how we liked the city. And if we would predict the score for the game coming up this weekend. Then he asked us to speak Turkish :| :| :| omg. it was the worst. my Turkish is so bad. I think i said hello, good morning, soup, fork and knife. A+. BUT! I did notice today, I can now recognize the phrase "where are you from" I heard it three times today. When I heard it in Turkish I didn't even think before I replied.
so... progress!
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