Always mix pleasure with business

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So, the hotel that my hosts have arranged for me to stay at is a very nice hotel. It is probably nicer than I would normally stay at when traveling on my own. It is certainly nicer than almost any place I can think of staying when traveling Europe with mom and dad in the past. Having said that, it was close to the train station, it is close to the "campus", and they arranged for a discounted rate (which is probably still close to $100 a night for a single). However, the breakfast buffet is incredible and a nice way to start the morning.

On top of that, this place is famous for its "Turkish Spa" In fact, Rick Steves mentioned in one of his travel books that he thought it was worth the expense to stay at this hotel when visiting the area and to plan enough time in your schedule to enjoy the Spa. SO, last night I did.

First of all there is a nice lady who checks you in. Hands you a couple of towels, a pair of sanitized "flip flops", and a key to a locker in the changing rooms. Here starts my first feeling of uneasiness. My locker sits right in front of the door to the locker room. While "dropping trou" as it were, should someone come through the door I am on display to, at least, the nice lady who checked me in. On the other hand, I had read about spas like this, and it is unclear to me if I am expected to have on my suit or if it is a "birthday suit" kind of place. Ok, I am a modest guy. I am putting on the suit.

Stepping out of the locker room into the spa I see a bunch of towels hanging on hooks around the initial room, but no real sign of whether I am "overdressed" or not until one of the sauna doors opens up and out walks a very tall, very muscular, very NAKED man. Ok, this might be one of those places. Fortunately, another one of the saunas opened up almost immediately after this and it was a young woman in a two piece bathing suit. Whew, I won't feel compelled to get naked. In my whole time in the place (about an hour last night) I saw two naked men, and probably a dozen others all wearing suits (no naked ladies dang it. Of course I have been away from home for three weeks now. Not sure if I could handle naked ladies!).

This spa was interesting. It had three DIFFERENT sauna rooms. The description of each is on the wall next to the door, and it is translated into Italian and German but no English. No problem, I can read between the lines and get the point.

The first sauna was the "wet" sauna. The temps in there were the coolest of the three saunas - 45-50 degrees Celsius (120 F) - but with 100% humidity (it was practically raining). The mist was scented sort of a mix between Eucalyptus and Menthol. In fact, it was KIND Of like being in a room of Vicks Vapo Rub. There were color changing lights in the ceiling which changed from purple to yellow to blue to white and back again with a full cycle taking probably a minute or so. It was very psychedelic, but actually a nice room. There are actually two shower nozzles on the wall and you can rinse off with cool water from time to time.

The second sauna I went into was the "hot" sauna. The temps were the hottest of the three rooms - the sign claimed 80-100 degrees Celsius with nearly no humidity. Given that water BOILS at 100 C that means HOT. I don't know what the actual temp was in there last night, but I lasted three minutes before I couldn't take it any more. It was HOT.

The final sauna is the "bio sauna" and was the middle of the two. Temps supposedly run 50-70 degrees Celsius (120-155 Fahrenheit) with nearly no humidity. By the time I got here I was tired so I didn't last long here either.

In addition to all of the heated rooms there are a lot of options to get wet with varying degrees of heat. There are several foot baths you can fill with water of whatever temp you like - Not my thing. There were several showers including the kind where water sprays you from three of the four walls as well as straight down like a rain shower from the ceiling. There was a mineral "plunge pool" right across from the super hot sauna. If I interpreted the signs correctly, this water was coming straight in from the mineral springs from the mountains around here and it felt like it. About the temp I would expect the water in my Brita Filter from the fridge to come out at. COLD.

Finally, there was a "whirlpool." Notice I didn't use the word hot tub. My guess is that the water in this was in the mid 70s Fahrenheit?? It was on the edge of cool pool water. I have swam in colder, but I have swam in hotter. Actually, after sitting in the heat for a while, this was a nice whirlpool to sit in for a while. Because it wasn't hot you could sit there forever, and because of the jets, it was very relaxing.

There you go, that is how you mix pleasure with business - you enjoy the Turkish Baths for an evening. I will certainly do so again tonight and try to "plan" my route through the process now that I know what each room is like.

The weather here is is still cool and dreary, but I actually find it kind of pretty. The mountains around the village are often partially shrouded by low clouds which makes an interesting scene. Now, I won't complain if the sun came out tomorrow on my "tourist" day on my schedule!

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