Really? You came here to see me naked in a bath house? I don’t know how to react to that…
Anyway…
Yup, today we visited an authentic Turkish bath house.
Even though I have yet to get 8 hours sleep any night and I never caught up on missing sleep from my flight over, I was bright and awake at 7:30am this morning.
By 8:30, Nathan and I were out of the hostel on our way to the Karaköy area of Istanbul.
This area is easily reachable by foot as it’s just over the Galata Bridge a few minutes away from our hostel.
At 9am it was already 27C and 80% humidity. Yup, it was gonna be a hot one today!
Exploring Karaköy
In Karaköy the streets were pretty baren which was kind of nice. I guess walking around in the morning was a good choice as all the tourists were still in bed, I guess.
We stopped at Mum’s Cafe for breakfast. I had previously marked this restaurant on my map app as I place I wanted to visit because of their breakfast reviews and the fact their menu was marked with allergens.
I had Pyttipanna which is a traditional Scandinavian dish or sauteed sausage, potatoes, beetroot and egg.
Although it wasn’t Turkish, it was a combination of flavors I had never tried before and, you know me, I’m always up for new things to try.
I also had an Iced Peanut Butter Latte. Yeah, I know. Italians are literally rolled over in their graves at this monstrosity. And to no one’s surprise – it actually wasn’t that good.
Turkish Bath
Soon after we were on our way to the highlight of the day.
An authentic Turkish bath!
I had decided to bypass all the modern Turkish baths near the city center, and instead looked for the oldest one in Istanbul.
When researching Turkish baths before I left for this trip, I came upon Aga Hamamı which has been around since 1454.
The basic package includes entrance to the steam room along with a scrub and peel as well as a foam bath.
I also opted for a 20 minute oil massage which made the total cost 2100tl which is about $105.
Quite pricy but when else am I ever going to be able to have this experience?
Ironically, after complaining about how hot and humid it was, we willingly walked into a ridiculously hot steam room.
Granted by then I had switched to just a towel, but still, it was soooo hot.
We just sat in the room relaxing occasionally pouring water over ourselves to cool off.
After about 30 minutes, the attendant entered and led us to a room next door for our peel, scrub, and foam bath.
Afterwards I was led upstairs to the massage rooms where I laid down for a nice, relaxing oil massage.
Well, relaxing except for the occasional arm twist and knuckle crack.
After two hours inside the bath house we were both relaxed if not a little sore from the various massages.
Out into the nice hot humid day we went.
An amazing dinner
We arrived back at the hostel at 3:30 and after a shower and a little bit of vegging out, we headed back out for an early dinner.
We caught a 5pm ferry back over to Kadıköy where we had that amazing potato dish last night for dinner last night.
Tonight we headed straight for a restaurant that our tour guide had recommended the other day.
Kanaat Lokantasi was exactly what we were looking for.
They specialize in truly authentic Turkish dishes and there wasn’t a single tourist in site and none of the people working there spoke English.
Perfect!
Luckily their menu had a QR code on it that linked to an English menu with pictures so we scrolled through the extensive menu and picked some dishes.
All I had to do was show our waiter the pictures and soon after the food was at our table.
For all those people who are apprehensive of traveling and worried about how to communicate – you just have to be creative sometimes. These are the things that make for memorable adventureds.
I had fried beef liver and lamb ribs with rice.
Oh my God!
So damn good!
We decided right then and there that we’d be coming back tomorrow night which, incidentally, is our last night in Istanbul.
Rooftop drinking
After yet another shower, we headed up to the rooftop patio/bar on our hostel around 8pm.
My favorite waitress Augustina was working. After making our drinks she joined us for a nice talk about her life and struggles as a person from Ghana working here in Istanbul.
I’m sad we only have only one more night here in Istanbul. We’ve seen alot of cool stuff and eaten some amazing food and, ya know, flirting with a cute waitress has been kind of nice too.
Anyway, like I said, tomorrow is our last full day in Istanbul before we fly out to Bucharest, Romania the following afternoon.
On tap is a day trip out to the Prince Islands, another great dinner and probably more drinking with a certain waitress.
Stay tuned…
