Istanbul, Part 3: The Bosphorus and Beyond!

Wednesday afternoon we took a cruise up the Bosphorus. It was good to get out of our tiny little neighborhood, which has the historical sites but is obviously only a tiny slice of Istanbul. We went up the channel between the European side and the Asian side of the city. Fun, cheap, freezing, and all the apple tea you can drink!

One of my favorite foods that I can remember when I spent time in Turkey before was manti. It's like ravioli, but smaller, and the sauce is actually made of yogurt. So I dragged the girls around looking for a manti place, which we found, and consumed. (The manti, not the place.) I think Greek food is way better than Turkish food, so other than that we didn't really set out to purposefully sample the local cuisine. We did so, but it's all the same in this area of the world I think; it just goes by a different name.

Wednesday night Janell and I went to a Turkish bath ("hamam"). As I mentioned, I got to experience a true Turkish bath in the town of Bolu several years ago. The village ladies all came down once a week for their bath & the weekly gossip. The family I was staying with had three girls, and they thought I should have the full experience - so they hired someone to "bathe" me, exfoliate my skin (translation: rub 12 layers of skin off my body), and wash my hair (translation: nearly pull my scalp off my head), while they watched and laughed. :)

The one Janell and I went to (pictured here, from their free postcard) had a huge marble slab in the middle that was heated, with rooms around the edge with basins and faucets pouring cold and hot water into them. After you are foamed up & have a massage on the heated slab, you pour the water over yourself in one of the rooms to rinse off. In the back we floated in mineral pools. A few hours of this and we felt perfectly refreshed. :) This particular hamam was built in 1584 by a sultan for his wife.

Such was our trip; a little roaming through the Grand Bazaar and fending off aggressive shop owners and their propositions, listening to the call to prayer, dragging our suitcases down cobblestone streets, and then it was time to come home. Athens home. :)