Moroccan experience

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged.  First, I took the weekend that Paul was in Florence to accomplish a sewing project that had been on my to do list since last summer—good news…the transformer that I bought from the sketchy shop on Electra street worked and my sewing machine didn’t fry!  Depending on which wedding you're at this summer, you may get to see the dress :)

My "new" transformer--it looks to me like it was made in the 80s and possibly used before judging by the box.
I'm fine with that as long as it doesn't kill my sewing machine!

Then we were off jet-setting to Europe 2 weekends in a row.  It’s a rough life, I know.  Finally, this past week I have been going cross-eyed with researching and booking the flights back home in the fall.  But now that’s done and we’re officially coming!  Not that I think anyone really had any doubt that we wouldn’t.  We ended up having to make 4 separate bookings and will have 7 different legs of flights (at one point it looked like we were going to have 10!).

I figured that before I delved into the 362 photos from Italy and 301 photos from Athens, I would share my latest experience.  A few months ago, I bought a groupon that included a morocan bath, 1 hr massage, hair treatment, and pedicure for about $50—a pretty good deal!  I’ve been wanting to try a morocan bath since I got here and this seemed like a good opportunity.

I had heard from some friends that it was an “intimate” experience, but they did not elaborate a whole lot.  So I did a little research online before I went over to the spa.  But I still didn’t totally know what to expect.  Would this be one of those typical bath houses where there are just a bunch of women relaxing in a steam room / pool area?

Traditional morocan bath set-up  (from http://www.familyadventuretravelworks.com)

I showed up (after making some phone calls on how to get there—it’s amazing how much you learn about a city and how to get around when there are no addresses…you start learning all the landmarks and neighborhoods).  The filipino ladies ushered me upstairs and into a dressing room where they gave me a towel and told me to all but get into my birthday suit and go to the room across the hall.  Luckily, I was pretty prepared for this based on the limited research I had done just 30 minutes earlier.  This next room was just a single “bath room” kind of like the photo below and not the communal room like the one pictured above.

More of what my room was like (from http://www.wellness-uae.com)

I didn’t know what to do so I just sat there with my towel on.  Then a lady walked in and gestured for me to give her the towel and it was go time.  First she rinsed me and put some sort of “black moroccan soap” on me.  Then left saying lay for two minutes—or was it ten minutes---I couldn’t tell.  She left the room and turned on the steam.  It was really nice.  I laid on the bench which reminded me of a boat bench—it was covered in a type of waterproof leather.  I just soaked up the steam and relaxed.  Then she was back.  Rinsed me off and now it was time for the real deal.  She put a loofa/brillo pad-type glove on and started scrubbing.  Wow!  That’s about all I can say.  Like my friends had warned, I was so disappointed in my own daily cleansing habits.  To see that amount of dead skin just come off your body is really something else.  And I use a loofa in the shower everyday!  It really felt very good—it was a bit hard and my skin was definitely turning red, but it never really hurt.  I think I was just so happy to see all of that dead skin come off.  After that she washed my hair a few times and then applied an avocado moisturizing cream and let me bathe in the steam for another 5 minutes.  Then it was time to rinse off and head to the massage.  I would definitely go to another Moroccan bath.  It was really relaxing and enjoyable, not to mention the fact that now my skin is baby smooth :)

The massage was nice too although I got gypped out of about 20 minutes of it.  It was a Thai lady so I was a little nervous that it was going to be a repeat of our Phuket experience, but it was very relaxing and enjoyable.  Then a quick application of some minty smelling oil to my scalp and off to the pedicure.  The pedicure was nice but nothing fancy.  I thought it was odd that only “clear” was included with the package and I would’ve had to pay an additional $5 to get a color for my toes, so I passed.

All in all, I think I got a good deal based on what I got and what I paid for it (I’m glad I didn’t pay the estimated value of $170 though).  If you ever make it to the Middle East I’d highly recommend that you give the morrocan bath a try, although I imagine that experiences can vary greatly depending on the spa and the country you’re in.  I would recommend that Paul go, but with his sensitive skin it might be more torture than enjoyment.