Not Your Mama's Hamam!

A few weekends ago I headed off to sunny Cyprus for some much needed vitamin D exposure as experiencing an Amsterdam summer has turned my skin the color of slightly-off mayonaise. Coupled with the whistful looks of longing whenever the golden orb is mentioned this is not a good look for Kate. I also got to see the little squirrels Sophie and Max who just get more adorable and fun everytime I see them - arguably the cutest kids in the world but I'm willing to concede a slight bias when it comes to my niece and nephew.
I stepped out of the plane Thursday night feeling the lovely warm night air that usually accompanies a far away holiday locale only to have my sister tell me "Wow, can you believe it? We're having a cold snap!" Having shed my 49 layers of clothing down to my singlet standing in teh airport parking lot I looked at her like she was crazy. Little did she know this "cold snap", which was temperatures in the low to mid 80s, for me was equivelant to standing on the surface of the sun!
The next day Claire and I decided to go to a traditional Hamam in town for a little R&R and sister bonding time. We were both looking forward to a little relaxing retreat to catch up sans children and be pampered a bit. We'd spotted Hamam Omerye on one of my previous visits - a beautiful renovated spot in the Center of the Walled City in Nicosia. At first glance it does look like something out of Star Wars, but it's incredibly gorgeous inside. We had read a bit about what the traditional Hamam experience was like and lucked out we'd come on a lady's only day so were ready for the full sweating and bathing experience. Stepping inside we were in a circular stone room with a ceiling that seemed to stretch on forever. The perimiter of the room was fitted with tranquil little cubbies for lounging, changing, chatting, etc. and in the center a tea service was highlighted both by sunlight and the long colorful fabric lamp hanging from the peak of the ceiling. Claire suggested we go for some luxury and in addition to getting the Hamam (which basically means access to the facility including the hot sauna rooms, etc.) and we sign up for massages. "No no" I said. "We're here at a Hamam let's go for the traditonal scrub - seems like it would be fun!" [background noise of my skin screaming out in protest of my unwitting decision].

The woman at the front took our request and then gave us our Hamam Kit which consisted of a wicker basket filled with two towels, a robe, flip flops, a bottle of water, a small steel bowl with a loofah and a small little packet of underpants. I have to pause a minute to discuss the undies. These are provided for those who are a little modest and would like to not be completely naked. Fine. However, the feat of engineering that holds this gauze and string contraption together cannot possibly be helping anyone's modesty. Not only are they uncomfortable becuase they don't actually fit - they seem to just hover somewhere around you - but they must be made of those travel soap papers because when they get wet the pants basically turn to paste. And ain't nothin more uncomfortable then wearing a pair of paste pants attached to a string that keep migrating! Needless to say I routinely reject the paste pants and opt for al fresco.
Claire and I stepped inside after reading the "rules" of what we were and were not allowed to do in the Hamam which included, i'm not kidding, No Smoking. hmm. ok. The inside of the actual Hamam was 38 degrees Celcius so a nice humid temp and consisted of one large circular room with a giant pentagon shaped marble slab in the middle. Around the sides were 6 vestibules with smaller marble slabs and a sink for filling your steel bowl. Not quite feeling up to being center stage we chose a vestibule and settled onto the heated marble. It was very relaxing (and hot!) but we were finally getting into the groove of the relaxation and chatting we'd been missing living so far apart. We were the only two in the Hamam at this point so we didn't really have any guidelines - do we lay on our towels or not? What do we actually do with this loofah and steel bowl? So many questions.
Feeling used to the scene now we moved to teh center slab (which actually had it not been so tranquil in there could have been reminicent of some sort of ritual killing site but thankfully no such thoughts entered our minds.) After a while a woman walked in and asked who wanted to go first. I volunteered and in I went for my scrub! Yay! this was going to be great I love spa scrubs! She took me into one of the vestibules and pulled a curtain. The room was the same as our smaller one with a stone slab and a stone sink. I hopped up on the table and she took my steel bowl (ahh that's what it's for!) and ran the water and poured it over me in swaths. Then...the scrub. ow...ow...Ow. OW OW OW WOWWWWWWWWWW! OUCH!! Jesus this woman wasn't fooling around! She was scrubbing like I'd been in the jungle for 18 months. I started to think this was going to be less like a spa experience and more like a Silkwood Shower. I knew when it got to the point where I couldn't tell if the burning was actually hot or cold that I could be in some trouble. This lasted approximately 20 minutes and I emerged shiney and raw...and approximately 10 lbs lighter due to skin loss. I hobbled out of the vesitbule and met Claire's wide eyes as she passed me going in to face her fate in the skin removal machine. After soothing our seaping wounds and sitting in our cubbies drinking tea and chatting we both vowed to next time get the massage! The rest of my trip in Cyprus was, as always, great. I was there for my sister's birthday and on Sunday we went to gorgeous Konos beach with the kids and then Laurent had a party with their friends that night. It was so much fun and as always I cannot wait to go back! Photos from this latest trip below!