I entered the sauna and my breath was sucked out of me. The “host” then told me to head to the sauna and relax for a bit, then come out and do like the old men, wash myself.
It was a large domed atrium with a few old Turkish men sitting along the walls dousing themselves with warm water that is fed from hot springs below the building. I obliged and was then shown to the first room in the Turkish Bath House experience. When we arrived, I was escorted to a changing room where I was instructed to get butt naked and wrap myself in a sarong. 10 minutes later I was chugging down the old cobblestone streets of Istanbul in a van with some other tourists all headed for the same destination. After glancing at the cover images and seeing beautiful women in bikinis giving massages, I was sold. The hostel I was staying at gave me a brochure for a couple Turkish Bath houses (I highly suggest you opt for a hotel in Istanbul over a hostel), but suggested I try the Gedikpasa Bath House because it was so historical, and that they would pick me up and drop me back off. There are no beautiful Asian masseuses at Turkish Bath Houses.
I have been to a bath house before (went to one in Budapest), and I felt more like I was at a pool club rather than a hammam (Turkish Bath house), but that’s not what I walked into in Istanbul.
