Moving on, yesterday was quite an eventful day with sightseeing and some entirely new experiences. After class we went to see the Hippodrome and the Blue Mosque. There is not much left of the Hippodrome, but when it was still a stadium, it was the city's focus for more than 1,000 years. Istanbul really is unique and interesting with the way ancient and modern civilizations and structures merge and coexist. The Blue Mosque was built in the early 1600's by some the same stone masons who later helped construct the Taj Mahal in India. They do a pretty good job ;) It was beautiful and has intricate patterns and details from top to bottom.
After sightseeing, we went to check out the Turkish Baths. Not really knowing what to expect, we were in for quite a surprise. Basically, this is the Turkish version of going to spa and is meant to be relaxing and cleansing--with a European twist. So everything is communal (but with different sections for men and women), with no shame and full exposure. In the changing area you stow your clothes in a locker and you are given a towel, which you then lay on once you enter the bathing area. This section is a huge steam room with marble floors and a raised marble platform in the center, where you lie down until some old Turkish woman says its your turn. She then uses a coarse, soapy mitt to give you an exfoliating body scrub, and then leads you to a smaller, connected room to wash your hair. After that you can rinse off and lay back down on the marble slab for as long as you like. I didn't really see the need for any more lounging around ;) Almost of all of the other girls in the group really enjoyed it and want to go back. My skin did feel nice afterwards, but maybe I'll just have the facial scrub next time ;)
Our plans for the night were dinner and a show at the Galata Tower. The tower was built in 1348. After a few days here I should be getting used to how old things are but it's still hard for me to believe. We had another traditional Turkish dinner and then a dance show. It started off with belly dancing, during which two girls from our group were called on stage and sat with the sultan, and then belly danced as well. There were a lot of different acts, one with male dancers who use their faces to throw knives at a wooden slab. That wooden slab that happened to be covering a vital area of someone lying on the ground. And after an initial demonstration that someone was a guy from group. A little scary (especially when the knives got close to the end of the slab), but very entertaining! It was also pretty neat that our company for the show was fairly representative of the world, and at a flag was placed at the end of every table to indicate where the people were from. There were people from Australia, Spain, Portugal, China, Congo, Nigeria, Egypt, Jamaica.....
Sightseeing, Turkish Baths, belly dancing.....a long but very memorable day. . .
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