Hammam with Mom!

Sorry, folks. No photos from this adventure! Actually, you probably won't be sorry.

Today was the day. I finally took my mom to the hammam. I booked us an appointment at the same place where I had my first hammam thinking it was easy and the woman there was helpful and led me through it all. It worked a little differently today.

So, we got "ready" and went into the hammam. There really isn't much to it since, well, you don't wear much. Anyway, in we went in and hung out in the chilly hammam while the steam started to warm things up. We waited quite a while and just as we couldn't see anything in the steamy hammam, "la femme" came in to get us ready. No, we did not do all of this fun stuff on our own. We had someone else to do the dirty work. Fortunately, Mom has heard many of my stories from the Hammam so was ready for what she was getting into. I let her go first. And as I had prewarned her to PLEASE not groan or shriek, she was well behaved. It was funny looking over and seeing her lying facedown in the superman position getting the skin scrubbed of her. And also while she was being stretched and twisted, presumably to help her relax now that her muscles were warmed up. But really, I find it hard to completely relax when you don't know where that steel wool glove is going next.

After we had our "gommage" or peeling we had a clay mud or "algae" rubbed and left on us. It was minty so felt cool on the skin for a while and I actually felt chilly inside the finally hot steam room. As the hammam woman (I'm really not sure of her official title. How do you properly "name" the woman who scrubs the skin off your hoo hoos?) led us back and told us to shower off I felt a terrible stinging in my eye. For some reason I tried to ignore it so as not to draw attention to myself (silly if you have understood exactly what I look like at this point) but once it started feeling like a needle in my eye I tried to get it out, only to find I had had an ant biting my tear duct!!! What the hell kind of a pampered ant hangs out in a hammam waiting to bite eyes??? So once I got past that excitement, we showered off and relaxed for a bit before our massages. Luckily we were clothed this time... for a while.

I haven't mentioned that we left the girls home alone with my dad, who, on our way out the door said, "So you won't be more than 2 hours." Notice it wasn't a question. So we get out of the hammam and see that we have been in there for more than an hour. Only about 40 minutes until Dad expects us home and we haven't had our massages. As I said, we relaxed for a few minutes, trying to figure out if we had to go find the massage room or if someone would find us. Luckily someone found us and guided me first to the massage. Which turns out was a massage table set up in the hair salon. Strange since I had been there before and had actually been in a massage room. What if I had also wanted to get my hair done? How would they have gotten around that? So at first I was actually concerned that the hair dresser was just filling in for the masseuse but, if she was, she was pretty good. I'm not sure a hair dresser would have the hands 2 hour-long massages. Just another of the unexpected things today. I didn't specify (in my barely-French booking of the appointments) how long we wanted our massages, I just thought we would get half an hour. But after my leg massage took 15 minutes I figured I had been mistaken. So poor Mom hung out (and dozed I think) for an hour while I was in my massage. I couldn't really relax knowing Dad was home alone with the girls and wasn't expecting us to be gone for 4 hours. But, the massage was lovely! I rushed out of the massage as Mom went in, showered and drove home without Mom. It turns out that Dad and the girls were doing fine. Next time we know we can leave them for longer!! ;) Mom enjoyed her massage, I think. Her next adventure was riding the taxi home alone. Which is always an adventure. So interesting trusting someone you can't communicate with to take you somewhere neither of you really knows how to get to. But she made it home safe and sound.

So whether she goes again or not, at least Mom has experienced a real Tunisian hammam! I think she will be the last of my guests I escort into the hammam. The rest of you are on your own! ;) I thought I could do it like the Tunisian woman do, but, as it turns out, hanging out naked with women you know (even your Mom) is just a little awkward. Christopher had a teammate in Germany who met his girlfriend's parents for the 1st time at a Turkish Bath or Hammam. And they don't wear ANYTHING! Wow!

So, next adventure... taking Mom to the Centre-Ville Souk. Dad has been there so it will be fun to go with Mom, Dad and the girls. Let's see what we will find!

(Just kidding Mom. It was fun showing you my new found pampering place! <3 Thanks for being a good sport!)