My Birthday!

What a day! Buket and I started the day with a shopping trip to Bebek for dinner ingredients. John was happy to spend the day at home with his writing tools. After dropping off the "sharcuteri" groceries (there is an ongoing French connection here with variations on the spelling), we took a taxi, Metro, funicular and tram to the Modern Art Museum. It is located on the Bosphorus with a beautiful view that was totally blocked by a 20 storey high cruise ship that was tied up alongside the building!!

The exhibition spanned the Turkish artists of the 1900s to include several of today's famous artists.
It was wonderful to have Buket as my tour guide, explaining the works and importance of each piece.
This sculpture outside the Museum reminded Buket of my "four polka dotted sisters" painting so she had to take my photo.

After the gallery visit we tried to hail a taxi (there are 19,000 in Istanbul) but they were all full and tried to take the tram(it had broken down) . After confronting a taxi driver about scamming some tourists, Buket managed to convince another driver to take us to the hammam area. I was surprised when we didn't go in the front doors to the hammam. Instead Buket led me down a cobbled side street to the women's entrance.

Inside we were greeted by Turkish women in various states of undress or semi-nudity in the reception area. At first, when we entered the hammam, I didn't think that I would be able to stay. The air was so humid that I couldn't breathe. Laying on the marble slab in the centre, along with several other women, I forced myself to breathe normally and finally relaxed. The scrubbing removed layers of skin, the dishes of cold water revived me, the shampooing massaged my scalp. We had skin like babies when we re-entered the frantic pace of Istanbul to head home at 7:30pm, in rush hour!!