About a year ago, I was studying abroad in Cyrpus and matched with this girl on Tinder. She had a list of things she wanted to do while traveling there, including going to a hammam.
I went to one a year prior in Istanbul, so I thought this would be a great cultural experience for her.
For those of you who do not know, a hammam is a traditional Turkish bathhouse, where men and women are segregated into two different buildings, or go on different days completely. You get scrubbed down like crazy (the amount of dead skin they pulled off is always jarring) by a person of the same sex on a big marble, truly a culture shock on your first time. Oh yeah, did I mention that everyone is just naked as well?
Back to the story, when she said she wanted to go, I didn’t see a problem with it at all. What we didn’t realize, is that the only hammam in Nicosia (the city we were in) was co-ed; something I had no idea existed.
This makes sense a bit seeing that the city is currently divided in half between the Republic of Cyprus, and the occupied Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. This will not be a blog going into the history of the divided island, but here is a good, easy-to-follow video explaining some of it.
So it was certainly a surprise to us when we were told we would be in the same area and would be doing the cleaning part ourselves. But don’t worry, we weren’t naked, as I got to wear this lovely “cover-up.”
If you are wondering what that covers, I am still wondering the same thing.
So it was the two of us and a friend she made in her hostel from Australia, all in this interesting wardrobe, lying in this hot marble room. If there ever was a better (or worse) way to break the ice it was this.
But long story short we all just sat in there together and talked while profusely sweating and wondering how we got here. Nonetheless, it was a beyond memorable experience, that ties into my current travels.
She and I stayed in contact, just as friends, since she left the island, and I realized my trip would take me through where she currently lives, Santa Cruz.
I knew nothing about this beach town, but I absolutely fell in love with it once I arrived. The warm weather, beach, and food were all something to write home about (or blog about).
Since I only got into town around 6 p.m., we went for a swim in the ocean (it was so cold) then played beach volleyball till the sunset with a bunch of old hippies and other locals; one of my favorite memories from this trip.
I love meeting the people who call the place I’m traveling home, and this group did not disappoint. It feels like with each day, I just feel more comfortable in situations that normally make me feel the opposite. It’s difficult to not look back at that date to the hammam as a big turning point for all of that.
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