Last Day - Beach and Hamam

Today I spent relaxing on a lovely little beach near the hotel.  It is in a little lagoon near the marina and an easy five minute walk from the hotel.  Bonnie and I went down about 11 and stayed till well into the afternoon.  For 12 lira ($6) you get a chair and umbrella and we got two right on the water.  The water there is crystal clear with a lovely view of the mountains.  We laid on the beach reading and occasionally going in to cool off and about 3:00 I left to go try a traditional Turkish bath - hamam.  That was quite an experience!  I was escorted into the women's area and given a changing room and told to take everything off.  The little Turkish lady who was my attendant then gave me a little wrap to put on to get into the hamam itself.  It is a huge, marble walled, floored room, hot and steamy, with a number of marble sinks at floor level.  She took me in and took my wrap and then indicated that I should douse myself with the warm water.  She then disappeared!  So I had a good dousing, using some soap they had there.  When she returned she had me get up on the large marble slab in the center of the hamam area and she did the "peeling" which is a very intense scrubbing with a loofah that is very coarse.  She scrubbed every inch of me, taking off a layer of dead skin.  When that process is done you then go back over to the little sink and rinse all the dead skin off.  After that back to the marble slab and this time she covered me in soapy bubbles - she has a soapy mixture in a little plastic tub and she puts what looks like a thin double layered towel into the soapy water and somehow squeezes it out so that you are completely engulfed in bubbles.  She then massaged me all over with the bubbles, head to foot on both sides.  After that another rinse procedure and then she gave me two towels to wrap up in and we went back to the entry area where I awaited the masseuse who gave me an oil massage.  Also all over, every inch, with a lot of oomph!  I must say, when I left there my skin was baby soft and my muscles felt quite invigorated from the vigorous massage they both did.  Neither the masseuse nor the lady in the hamam spoke a word of English so we managed all this with hand signals!  I loved the place itself - all white marble - walls, ceiling, floor and in the main hamam area the roof is domed and there are holes in it where the sunlight streamed into the room.  That hamam has been there for about 700 years, so they claim.  The whole experience was like something out of a movie!

After Bonnie got back from the beach we all went shopping (or rather Bonnie shopped and I tagged along, having done mine in Istanbul).  Then we went to dinner at a lovely restaurant on the cliffs overlooking the water.  Great food and once again we were surrounded by Russians!  Nary a word of English has been heard during our time here. 

Must be off to bed now.  Have to be up at 4 to be ready for the driver who will pick us up for our early morning flight, which leaves at 7.    Pics today are me and Bonnie at the beach, a couple of shots at the beach of the scenery and me at dinner.