Ten women and a hamam

Thursday afternoon was free so ten of us women piled into Sonja's van for an afternoon at the hamam in Urgup.  Sonja had me drive since she wasn't comfortable with the snow and ice.  I was also the 'instructor' as most of the women hadn't been to a hamam before.

It was a nice, marble one and the guy who let us in closed it to anyone else while we were there, except for the kese ladies.  He charged us 15 YTL per person which was a bit steep but it included the kese.  I made sure no one used soap for the first 30 minutes and then the ladies took us one at a time.  Relaxing and wonderful, though not a typical experience without village ladies gawking!

Ten naked ladies

Afterwards, we went for a hot drink to the pastane around the corner and then set off for the hotel.  But because the sun had gone down and the temperature dropped, the slush on the way down was now ice on the way up.  No problem....good progress...until we rounded a corner and there was a dog in the middle of the road.  I had to brake and we lost our momentum.  No matter how many times I backed down, I couldn't get back up.  Several men came running and..whaddya ya know...began to shovel sand onto the road from handy metal containers on the side of the road.  In the end it was the sand and Agneta pushing that finally got us back up the hill.

Gerrit says I owe him rubber for his tires.