Hi guys!
Hi!
Welcome to our channel.
If you’re new here, my name is Eileen.
And I’m Marc.
And in this video, we are talking all about Turkish baths.
That is the face because just thinking about Turkish baths makes me feel relaxed.
So relaxed!
And it’s definitely one of the top things that I would recommend doing in Turkey.
Absolutely, as a cultural experience…
as a way to spend your time and your money… you really need to see a Turkish bath.
Yup.
We had never been to one before so we really didn’t know what to expect
so in this video, we’re going to take you through the entire experience
and also give you some tips that hopefully would make your time at the bath go very smoothly.
Come out feeling…
Just like this.
Squeaky clean.
The bath that we went to is called the Süleymaniye Hamam and it’s very old.
It was built between 1550 and 1557.
And it’s been operating almost continuously for over 450 years as a bath.
So that’s pretty incredible to be part of that.
It was built by Suleiman the Magnificent
and the architect is very well known and he built more than 400 buildings in his lifetime.
And I believe almost 200 of those buildings are still standing —
one of which is this bath, which was commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent.
And Istanbul is a huge city of more than 15 million people.
There’s a lot of traffic and noise and excitement
so when you enter that lobby, it really does hit you that
this is a place where you've left all that behind in the street
and something very good and relaxing is about to happen.
And it helps that we were there at night so there’s just no one else around.
Yeah we were the only people there which made it nice.
Actually that’s another thing we should point is that traditionally men and women would bathe separately
and one of the reasons we chose to go to this bath is that we wanted to experience it together for the first time
and they allow that at this bath. -We thought it would be more fun.
And it was.
It was.
Anyway so in the lobby they have different couches, seating areas for you to relax.
There’s soft music playing in the background, rose petals and all sorts of things to kind of calm your senses.
And you take your shoes off and put them in a little cubby they provide
and then upstairs are where all of the private lockable cabins are where you head up to get changed.
So you come up these stairs.
You have to take your shoes off.
And then you’re on the upper level.
You can look down and see the lobby area and they have all these places to sit.
And if you don’t have your own bathing suit or you don’t want to wear your own,
for women they give you a bikini top
and then these shorts.
And these are the kinds of shoes that you wear.
And they’re a little tricky to walk in.
And these are the towels.
So women also get a towel and this is what they give men to wrap around their waist.
And then they have all of these private change rooms
that have a key with a lock that you put around your wrist.
So you get your own sort of cabin here
and you can leave everything in there while you’re in the bath.
And it’s so pretty.
This is a really old one.
And I think it’s the only one in Istanbul that both men and women can go to
because traditionally they’re separate.
And then afterwards, they have a little area here to dry your hair
or if you just want to kind of relax, there’s some seating.
And then of course downstairs, they have this whole area set up downstairs
so you just relax afterwards.
Unfortunately, we were not allowed to film inside the actual bath chambers
so we’re going to describe it all so you can picture it.
When we entered the bath itself, the first thing that I was immediately struck by
was just how hot it was.
Yes!
I mean obviously you know it’s going to be hot
but I don’t think I was prepared for how hot and steamy it actually would feel in there.
It almost took the wind out of me.
Oh it definitely took the wind out of me. -You know like when it’s really cold in Canada,
it’s sort of the same thing in this bath.
You just feel a little bit winded so I had to kind of just stop for a second.
Sit down for a second.
No I couldn’t sit down because it was too hot.
Oh yeah, true!
Because, that’s the second thing I was going to say
is that once I had recovered from how hot it was,
the next thing I noticed was that every surface is covered in marble.
It’s absolutely stunning.
And there’s this huge dome in the middle and then smaller domes around the outside.
And then what’s cool about it is that off of that centre dome,
there are little private bathing areas
and each one of those areas, which is under one of the small domes,
has two separate marble beds with marble columns and a wash basin.
And one of those — there’s a sign where it says that that is where
Suleiman the Magnificent liked to take his baths.
I guess he used to like to be in the same place every time
and because we were the only ones in the baths, we thought let’s go where Suleiman the Magnificent went.
-We’ve got to bathe in that one!
So we were going to lie down each on one of these marble beds but truthfully it was so hot.
Way too hot. -I could barely touch the marble
like even just putting my hand on it, was way too hot.
So we did a bit of a tour first.
We were still trying to adjust.
We were trying to adjust —
familiarize ourselves and just really take in the beauty and the history of the atmosphere.
But it was also starting to feel really good
so as my body was getting more used to the heat, I started to feel really good.
And I think that’s probably the detox process, right?
Yeah so the idea with the bath is that you sit in this steamy chamber for about 40 minutes.
And you can of course leave if you need to
but that’s how long they give you to, you know, release toxins and sweat it out as they say
and just try to relax also.
So after a while, we worked up the courage to actually lie down with our bare skin on the marble,
which was really hot.
And soon after that they came to take us over to another area where we had the actual bath.
And they sat us down at these…washbasins. -Washbasins.
Yeah, of marble again so we sat directly beside it on the floor.
He had sort of a silver bowl and started just dumping bowl fulls of water on my head and all over me
and it felt really shocking
and he was doing it to himself at the same time probably to cool down and wash himself at the same time.
And then they have the exfoliation.
So they have these exfoliating mitts or pads.
They did arms, legs, stomach, chest, back… just everywhere and it feels wonderful
because you've sweat so much that having that feeling of the exfoliation afterwards is wonderful.
After they finish doing the exfoliating, they ask you to get up onto one of the marble benches
so we climbed up on there and then this was one of my favourite parts.
This is where the fun really begins because you get covered in bubbles.
And I’ve never felt or seen bubbles like this in my life.
They were so silky and soft
and the best way I can describe it is that they dip it in some sort of bucket
and then they…it’s like they’re wringing out a bag… a magical bag full of mystery bubbles.
And there are so many bubbles.
And I kept peeking over at you…I don’t know if you were doing the same because we couldn’t film it,
and I wanted to see what was happening
and all I saw was a giant pile of bubbles with a vaguely human foot like peeking out the back.
I really couldn’t see anything but a foot.
He was completely covered in bubbles.
*this is Polly!
You want your dinner?
And once you’re covered in these soapy bubbles, then they give you a massage
and the massage is pretty rough.
It might not be the kind of massage… like gentle massage that you are used to.
It doesn’t put you to sleep.
No and they, you know, they might like hit you with an open hand or chopping action or something.
Just so that you know.
And he did ask me a couple of times, “are you okay?” or “okay?” and it was fine but…
My guy didn’t ask me.
And then once you’ve been rinsed on your back, then they ask you to turn over
and they repeat the process so you get covered in bubbles
and another massage and then rinsed off again.
And I had to hold on at some points because the marble got so slippery from the soap
that it was a little bit like a slip-and-slide
where I was having to just make sure I wasn’t literally going to just fly onto the floor.
I was like, “I’m going to be the first person to just fly off while he’s giving me a massage.”
Anyway so that added to the fun of it.
So when all of the fun with the bubbles was over, they got us to sit back by the washbasin.
Yeah and asked if we’d like our hair washed
and I wanted to experience the whole thing so I said yes
and I had my hair up, which I’d recommend if you have long hair just so it doesn’t get in the way.
So I took that out and then he used those same bubbles to wash my hair
and then again used the silver bowl to dump just buckets of water over me just everywhere.
Once he was finished rinsing my hair and indicated that he was finished
and, you know, we could head towards the door, I was absolutely sopping wet dripping everywhere.
My towel was sopping, my clothing, everything
and we were trying not to slip as we exited again on those marble tiles.
And once we left the hot area of the bath, there was someone waiting for us outside the door
and he told us that we should go and take off our things
so for women like the bikini top and the little shorts and your towel.
To take them all off and to wrap ourselves in a fresh Turkish towel.
And when we came out, he put my hair in another smaller towel
and then more towels in this very specific way
that I felt like a little kid after the bath when you’re so snug you can barely move but you feel really cozy.
That’s how I felt.
And I didn’t put my towel on right so he just stripped me down
and put it on for me in a proper manner and sent me on my way.
It’s a very specific way of tying up the towels and the different sizes of towels and everything
so it was really neat to see how you should actually use Turkish towels.
And then he rubbed rose oil on our wrists, which was so luxurious and I love the smell of roses.
And then they brought a menu so we could order some food or drink items off of there.
Yeah so there’s a little chamber where it’s all marble again with cushions
and these beautiful murals of people bathing and we ordered apple tea, which was so good.
Just sipping our apple tea and feeling so snug and warm
and having just had this wonderful experience, I felt so content.
Like I could’ve sat there forever it felt like.
I just felt really good in that moment.
We’ve just completed our first Turkish hamam experience.
Ever.
It was…it…I didn’t really know what to expect but it surpassed any expectation I could’ve had.
It was so relaxing and it was so wonderful to just lie on the hot marble slab.
I’m very hot as you can see.
Yeah!
We spent about 40 minutes just sweating it out and this hamam is from the 16th century.
And inside is all marble with columns and they’re playing music and it’s so hot.
And yeah there are these sort of marble tabletop beds that you get to lie down on.
They’re really hot.
And we got to be in the section of the bath where the Sultan used to bathe.
His own personal section for bathing.
So that was pretty cool.
Yeah.
And then yeah you get exfoliated and they dump water all over you.
They washed our hair.
We got a bubble bath!
Yeah these…I’ve never felt bubbles like that.
They were so silky and smooth feeling.
And a massage.
A massage, yeah.
And still my face is so red.
We came out a while ago and I still look like a lobster.
And then they come out and they wrap you in these Turkish towels.
We’re both wearing three different-sized towels right now.
And then you sit in this very calm area and they serve you whatever you’d like to drink
so we had apple tea, which was delicious.
I’ll always think of this experience now whenever I have apple tea.
Yeah.
So I just loved it so much.
I already want to do it again.
Go for round two.
When we left and had to reenter the real world again,
there was a man by the exit who was holding a big bowl of candy
and he also had a bottle of rosewater that we put all over our hands and so
when you exit, you just have this wonderful reminder lingering of the amazing experience you’ve just had.
I cannot recommend this bath enough.
I know there are lots of options for Turkish baths especially in Istanbul
but we really loved this one.
I love the history of Suleiman the Magnificent
and just, you know, being inside that marble dome and looking up and knowing that,
you know, so many people throughout time have… -Centuries of bathers.
…of seeing the exact view that you are including the Sultan who was in that exact area that we were.
It really just feels special.
The whole experience was fantastic and I’m glad that we were able to go together.
Especially for the first time experience it
so I will link all the information below to their website for the Suleymani Hamam if you want to check it out.
It is cash only so make sure that you have cash.
You can pay with lira and euros and I believe American dollars.
It’s 40 euros per person.
Fully worth it.
And I would also recommend for women if you’re wearing makeup, remember to bring makeup remover
because otherwise it’s very sweaty
and I don’t think you’ll have as good an experience if you’re… if you’re not barefaced when you…
If your mascara’s going everywhere.
Yeah it’s just not going to be as pleasant so try to bring a hair elastic and also some makeup remover.
And I would just use, you know, the garments that they provide you.
100%.
Definitely.
You want to be able to breathe.
Yeah.
If you have any questions at all, please let us know in the comments below.
We’ll do our best to answer them.
And if you’ve been to a Turkish bath,
we would love to hear how our experience compares to your experience.
Let us know does this sound familiar?
Or not?
Did we do things right?
Should we have tried something else on the menu?
Yeah or just, you know, how it compares really
and if there are any particular baths that you’d recommend going to, we would love to hear that.
So leave us a comment down below
and if you like this video, which we hope you did then remember to give it a like.
And subscribe for lots more travel adventures and perhaps more baths along the way.
I hope so.
And we’ll see you in our next video.
Bye!
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Say hello.
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