Welcome back! It has already been TWO YEARS since my trip to Greece & Turkey. I was looking at my “two years ago today” photos and realized that I still haven’t finished my blog posts from this trip.
*sigh*
Anyway, let’s jump right back into it!
Out of all the places we traveled to in Turkey, Kuşadasi was one of my favorites. Here, we swam in the Aegean Sea, ate amazing food, and experienced a Turkish hammam.
The hotel
If you’ve read my first post in the Greece & Turkey series, you may know that we spent four nights at the Hotel Charisma: a 5-star hotel located right on the Aegean Sea. The hotel has the most wonderful buffet, as well as luxurious pools, saunas, and salt rooms. There are also massages available for an extra charge, but nobody from our group elected to try that. The BEST part (in my opinion) about Hotel Charisma is that there’s a small dock where you can jump into the sea!
How did we get so lucky?!
A quick dip before class
On the day that we first arrived in Kuşadasi, we were given approximately an hour of free time before our evening class. Most people had chosen to take a rest and get settled into their new rooms… Ellie, Piper and I had other plans.
We rushed into our room, pausing very briefly to admire the beautiful view from the balcony, and raced to put our swimsuits on. Then, we ran downstairs as fast as we could and jumped off the dock into the sea.
When we showed up to class with wet hair that night, everyone was wondering how we managed to squeeze in a swim in such a short amount of time. Determination, I guess!
Turkish Hammam
You’re probably wondering, “what is a Turkish Hammam?”
I wasn’t familiar with this either until Gulín told us that we ought to try it. It’s a Turkish bath! Typically, the experience involves a soak and an exfoliating scrub. You can also add on a massage if you wish!
Since we had a free day in Kuşadasi, my friends and I decided to book a Turkish hammam experience together.
We arrived at a hotel (not Charisma) early in the morning and followed the signs downstairs to where the spa was located. We were all a little creeped out by the dark, musty staircase that we had to take down to the spa… and for a moment we questioned whether we should have even signed up for the experience.
Once we stepped through the door to the spa, though, everything changed. Suddenly, we were in a soothing environment. We changed into our swimsuits and gathered in the first room for our exfoliating scrub.
The room consisted of a huge marble slab, a few benches, and faucets lining every wall. There was enough room on the slab for two people, so we took turns being scrubbed down by an older man and his wife.
It was funny watching the first couple of my friends go because we didn’t know what to expect… and neither did they!
First, a bucket of warm water was poured over their heads. Then, they laid down on the slab and were lathered up with a TON of soap. There were so many bubbled you could hardly see their bodies! Next, the man and his wife put on huge exfoliating gloves and scrubbed until rolls of dead skin appeared. Finally, there were a series of rinses, both warm and frigid cold. The cold ones were unexpected and often resulted in dramatic gasps!
When we finished with this part of the experience, we were given Turkish apple tea (my favorite) and a mud mask. Before long, it was time for me to go back for my massage.
A different, younger lady led me back to the dark massage room and introduced herself. She asked what type of pressure I’d like, and I opted for deep tissue. I had gotten a deep tissue massage before, so I *knew* I could handle it.
I laid down on the massage table. All of a sudden, I felt the lady climb on all fours on top of the massage table! I was shocked — I had never seen that before. It took everything I had not to start laughing!
Next, the lady grabbed my arm and put it behind my back as if she was going to handcuff me. I thought, “Well, this is interesting”! She dug her elbow around my shoulder blade, putting all of her weight on me.
I found myself holding my breath for quite some time. And then, I left feeling like I really got my money’s worth!
On our way out of the spa, the man asked us if we happened to have some guy friends who were planning to come in later that day. He then laughed and said they had tried booking the same time slot as us! Hmmmm… suspicious. 😂
Class swim!
After one of our day trips, we again had some free time before our evening class. This time, it was well over an hour — plenty of time to go for a swim! The second we returned to Hotel Charisma, my friends and I raced to put our swimsuits on. We all ran down to the dock and jumped in the Aegean Sea.
There were about ten of us swimming around when all of a sudden, we saw Jason (our professor) and Amy (his wife) come down to the dock in their swimsuits! We were all like, “NO WAY! Jason and Amy are going to swim with us?!” We counted down, “THREE, TWO, ONE” and they jumped in the freezing cold water.
Jason yelled out, “BEST CLASS EVER!!!!!”
More swimming
On our free day in Kuşadasi, a few friends and I decided to go swimming at a local beach. It may have been late January, but we were used to Minnesota weather… it was warm enough for a swim!
We bought some goggles and dove right into the water. As we did so, everyone else at the beach turned and stared. I take it the locals don’t swim in January?! 😆
We were hoping to be able to see fish or something with our goggles on, but all we could see was sand. Regardless, we had a fun time hanging out in the sea! Apparently, you can go diving and see octopi in the summer months. Hopefully, I will return to Kuşadasi someday in the summertime!
Until next time,
Clara