The past week has been spent celebrating the EID holiday AND celebrating I have done. I spent the weekend in Istanbul, Turkey with a friend and then surprised my husband in Houston. I simply showed-up at 8pm on Sunday and rang our doorbell. It was so great to see his face light-up with excitement.
I really needed some grounding after the TRADITIONAL Turkish bath experience I had while I was in Istanbul. For any red blooded American, my experience was anything
but traditional. Courtney (my friend) and I paid our $35 for our Turkish bath experience. In exchange for our payment, we got what looked like a small Texas red and white checked table cloth. We were told to proceed into the "bath". We were NOT prepared for what was behind the door. It opened to a hot steam room with several topless women of all shapes and sizes. Courtney and I were struggling where to look. We quickly hurried our clothes butts upstairs to change into our table clothes. Since everyone else was nude (from what we could see) we quickly followed. Here we were in our birthday suits covered only by a small reminder that we were not in Texas anymore. As we were about to enter the actual "bath", two Turkish women came-up and took our towels. Courtney's gal looked like she could have used an extra piece of Schwarma. My lady looked pregnant and had boobs that made mine feel inferior. Did I mention, they were topless? Still trying to figure this detail out.....Anyways, there Courtney and I were sitting on a hot slab of marble completely naked trying to hold in our laughter (there was nothing funny about the situation, we just could not stop laughing to help with our insecurity of what was yet to come). Courtney quickly noticed that no one else was butt-naked. All of the other women were wearing matching black bottoms. Courtney turned to me with a serious face and asked "You think they all brought the same bottoms?" My Purdue Masters degree prompted me to respond with an equally serious face "That is not statistically possible". Our eyes met and we quickly ran out of the "bath" area naked (and laughing).
Once we found our matching black bottoms, we re-entered the bath area only to be instructed by our respective Turkish ladies to lay flat on the marble slab. What proceeded was buckets of warm water, lots of soap subs, and hand scrubbing of anything not covered by our black bottoms.
All in all, the experience was well...an experience. This is what this whole adventure is about. Thanks Courtney for a great weekend in Istanbul!!
I had such a great time in Turkey. Istanbul is a beautiful city with a lot to see and do. We visited the Hagnia Sophia, several different Mosques, Topaki Palace , shopping, eating, etc. We had none stop fun from the time I landed to the time I flew out. It was amazing to see the differences between the two Muslim countries. Qatari women wear abaya's where Turkish women wear scarfs over their heads. Qataris men do not traditionally talk to foreign women, where Turkish men are VERY forward. Qatar is not crowded and Doha is very much a car city. 
