Continuare la...

... frumusetzile Turciei, care pe vremea cand loc. in Ro. nu prea må atrågea, iar acum loc. la o asa de mare distantzå tot o doresc, vizitez, descopår si nu må mai satur de ea :D Aståzi despre Turkish Hammam .

 "The tradition of the Turkish bath extends far back, to a time before Turks had reached Anatolia. When the Turks arrived in Anatolia, they brought with them one bathing tradition, and were confronted with another, that of Romans and Byzantines, with certain local variants. The traditions merged, and with the addition of the Moslem concern for cleanliness and its concomitant respect for the uses of water, there arose an entirely new concept, that of the Turkish Bath. In time it became an institution, with its system of ineradicable customs.

In Ottoman times every district of every town or city worth the name, had a public hammam for the residents to use. Better off people had small hamams in their homes for their private use.

Turkish hammams are considered to be one of the classical bathing traditions that still remain popular. Hammam is a product of a Turkish culture that expanded beyond the borders of religion, hygiene or health treatment.

Hammams have been significant for Turkish culture for centuries as they held many social occasions. For instance previously, women would go to the hammams to check the single girls out and then tell their sons. Similarly, single girls would go to hammams with their mothers and hang out with their potential mother-in-laws. All the women would bring traditional cuisine there to enjoy and that would serve as a test for the brides-to-be.

Turkish Hammam and its Rituals
Going to Turkish bath has its own rituals; knowing what to do saves energy and makes the experience more worthwhile.

Feel free to take your own shampoo, soap, towel, etc. to the hammam. If you do not have those, they will be given to you. When you get to the hammam, you decide if you want to get a traditional Turkish bath in which someone washes you a bit harshly, kind of like a massage with a lot of foam, a self wash or some kind of modern massage that are becoming popular in fancy hammams. You will get your small pouch type of cloth to wash (kese), a traditional cotton body wrap (peştemal) and soap if you like.

Then you go to the dressing room area where you take off your clothes and wrap your body with the pestemal. Now you are ready to get into the hot area which has a heated marble platform in the middle. This area is called heated stone (göbek taşı) and has many bathing basins (kurna) and private bathing cubicles (halve).

The first thing to do is to let your body perspire. Lay down on the hot marble and start watching light coming in from the holes of the hammam's dome. When you get too hot, you could go to one of the basins and pour some water on yourself. If you chose to be washed by an attendant (tellak), she/he comes and tells you to lay down. He/she will give you an exfoliating scrub which at the end surprises many people by the amount of dead skin and dirt coming out of the body. It is truly purifying. After the bath another attendant will wash you by the one of the basins, including hair wash if you like.

After the washing session, you may wish to stay and relax while enjoying a cold drink as many people do. And leave whenever you want, there is no time limit in hammams. In some hammams there is a cold (soğukluk) section at the end where they give you the dry peshtemal and you cool off. After you leave the bathing section you could still spend time in the dressing area where some people chat and have drinks. After 2-3 hours you are as good as new, clean and relaxed.

Best Hammams in Istanbul-
A selection of recommended and historical Turkish hammams in Istanbul:
Çemberlitaş Hamamı, Istanbul - Built by the famous architect Sinan in 1584, this is a classic hamam experience.
Süleymaniye Hamamı,
Istanbul Cağaloğlu Hamamı, Istanbul - By far the most spectacular of Istanbul’s hamams; its steam rooms are lavishly arched and domed, and decorated with tulip tiles.
Galatasaray Hamamı,
Istanbul Büyük Hamam,
Istanbul Çinili Hamam,
Istanbul Ağa Hamamı,
Istanbul Gedikpaşa Hamamı,
Istanbul Ayasofya Hürrem Sultan Hammamı,
Istanbul Kılıç Ali Paşa Hamamı,
Istanbul Çardaklı Hamamı,
Istanbul Sofular Hamamı, Istanbul Eski Hamam, Istanbul
Eski Hamam, Istanbul "
Sources-
 http://www.triptravelturkey.com/turkish-bath/

Culori, stråzi... si vise.

 De prin istorioarele gåsite de Binnur in tzara ei natalå  Turcia :-), care pur si simplu må face så-mi doresc acum o mini vacantzå.

 

"Alaçatı, a village 72 km (45 miles) west of İzmir near the tip of the Çeşme peninsula, is one of Aegean Türkiye's up-and-coming vacation getaway havens. Visitors come for the charming old stone houses on narrow streets lined with sidewalk cafes, restaurants and boutiques. Over 80 small inns and boutique hotels provide hospitality. Among the most eager visitors are windsurfers, who come for the predictable brisk winds over a safe, wave-less, sand-bottom bay.

There are numerous stories about the name Alaçatı. According to some, Alaca At (Red Horse) is used for the whole area. Their claim is based on a story, that the ruler of Alaçatı had a red horse to ride. When riding the horse, bystanders would refer to him as "Alacaatlı (the man on the red horse)", in time the name was somehow changed to Alaçatı.

Alaçatı became an Ottoman town in the 14th century. Ottoman Greek workers from the Aegean islands were brought to the mainland to drain malaria-breeding marshes around 1850. The Ottoman-Greek workers and their families liked what they found (when the malaria was gone), and stayed in the Turkish lands.

The Greek population of Alaçatı was forced to leave in 1914 and the village was emptied. Most of the Greeks returned in 1919 during Greek administration of İzmir (1919-1922) when the Greek Army invaded the region of Izmir, Türkiye. The majority of Greek fled hastily with the retreating Greek Army following Greece's defeat in the Turkish Independence War, whilst others fled from the shores of İzmir.

The unilateral emigration of the Greek population, already at an advanced stage, was transformed into a population exchange backed by international legal guarantees. Under the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 and according to the implementation of the compulsory exchange of populations, Muslims who lived in Crete,Thrace, Macedonia and Dodecanese settled in motherland.
Source- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaçatı "