Cooking class and then a turkish bath!

April 25

Finally! I was able to take a cooking class. We LOVE the food here so it was perfect. Something about turkish food. Everything is so flavorful. Di found a class at a hotel in the old town. They got us involved with the prep work (smart, free labor) so it kind of hands on. The menu was grape leaves stuffed with meat, cheese pastry, green beans with tomatoes, stuffed figs. After the class we sat down with a glass of wine and enjoyed the fruits of our labor. To start, we learnt how to make a pretty rose with the tomato peel. Cant wait to try out these dishes at home! My favorite was the cheese pastry. We used a special pastry that's as thin as paper, hope I can find it at home.

THEN, L went home and Gary joined us for a traditional turkish bath. We went to one of the oldest hamman in the city, which is on the official list of "1000 places to see before you die". I can't go into the details here but it was an experience I'll never forget. The place is about 500 years old and mostly of made of marble. Upon selecting what you want (just bath and/or exfoliating scrub) you have the opportunity to buy your own exfoliating glove which they will use on you OR you can go cheap and just let them use a community glove. Um, you can guess which route we took! Then the guys and girls go separate ways and get a "locker room" which is basically a small room for you to change, leave your things, and even take a nap afterwards. They give you a piece of cloth to wrap around you. Swimsuit bottoms are optional. You go into a big room with a huge octagonal shaped marble slab where they lay you down to basically bathe you. Before that you sit around the slab where there are running fountains of warm water with a bowl that you use to pour over yourself to prepare your skin for exfoliation. Once you've been bathes and exfoliated the woman leads you by the hand back to the fountain where they pour water over you and then wash your hair. After that is a great massage. This was better than any spa treatment I've been to but have to say that it's not for the faint hearted! Can't wait to tell my girlfriends the full details. Di and I will laugh about this experience for the rest of our lives. I was impressed Gary was sport enough to try it.

We were so sad for the trip to end. Only 10 days in turkey but it was jammed packed with adventures. I'd love to come back and see more of this country. Now it's a week working in germany and then to Ukraine!