Well, that was an interesting day. First stop, the Hamam in Kadikoy. Glad my Turkish has gotten better as I am now able to debate the tourist price for ladies hamams- 40 lira my arse. The scrub lady seemed quite pissed off that I could read the price listed posted quite plainly in Turkish on the entryway and that I did not accept my perceived illiteracy and imposed tourist status and even had the nerve to order a mineral water in Turkish on top of paying the local price. At least there were no men allowed in this hamam, and I managed to escape the unfortunate fate of one of my last Turkish bath excursions, which ended in somewhat of a ruckus after a fully clothed male geriatric who worked in the hamam walked into the main ladies sauna room to have a look around stating that it was a mixed hamam. Onward to Uskudar, which trumpeted religion at every streetcorner, with AkParti flags and municipally-funded religious paraphenilia hung everywhere. Nothing against people having and celebrating religion or Ramazan at all, but it did make me wish that Sisli would trumpet itself as a left-wing secular enclave at least to reinforce the statement that Turkey was founded with the spirit of separating religion from state. This used to be such a nice city. Too bad these days it maintains such a polarized atmophere. Not loving my life here quite as much anymore. Heres hoping it will return to the more balanced and welcoming place it was several years ago.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 13:05:43 +0000
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