You Should Always Begin Your Road Trip With A Hamam

A stop at the Gönen historical hamam and a night in Galipoli in Northwestern Türkiye

For the next few weeks I’ll be sending you post card snapshots of various places. These are, for the most part, not the usual tourist cities. The weather is hot, and the beaches are crowded. WE HAVE NO RESERVATIONS. Join with me as we wander through the Balkans and parts of western Europe by the seat of our pants.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men…

The plan, at least in our discussions the past few months, was to take a vacation away from the heat of the farm in July or August and head north into Europe to somewhere cool. I wanted to relax in the mountains. Go to Scotland, maybe. I think my head was wrapped somewhere around Switzerland in the winter. Yeah, no. Wrong month and wrong country. And there’s a heat wave.

But we went anyway.

There are so many countries I have not seen, so we made a list of those north of us: Greece, Albania, Northern Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and northeastern Italy. A lot of travel, I know, but my husband was determined to drive, not fly, and I wanted to see as many as places possible, so we packed up and headed north.

He had a general route in mind, and after talking with his insurance agent for the green card (insurance) for our car (keep this tidbit in mind as the trip goes forward), we were ready.

Start Every Trip With a Hamam Break

Leaving our farm outside Istanbul, we headed around Bursa on our way to the smaller city of Gönen, in Balıkesir, Türkiye, stopping for a break at a local hotel for the oldest hamam in the area.

This isn’t a jazzy place, trust me. Its oldish and not somewhere you’d take your spousal unit out on date night, but the reputation of its water made it the right place. I’ve learned that when a hamam is new, they despense with much of the ritual involved, and the baths do not look or operate the same. I prefer a fiberglass jacuzzi instead of a marble pool.

In this old bath, we came for the heavy mineral content and how it makes us feel. It was a good start to this vacation. In the winter in most baths, the water is so hot that I cannot get into the pool. This time, however, the water was comfortably warm, and relaxing. My skin changes in this water, and for the week after, I have more energy than normal.

If you’ve never experienced a thermal bath, its time to try one.

Next Stop: Gallipoli

My husband loves history, and our next stop was Gelibolu, Türkiye, known in English as Gallipoli, the site of a campaign in World War I.1 (The footnote is important.) It sits on the edge of the Dardanelles, a body of water that connects the Aegean Sea to the Bosphorus Straight (through Istanbul) and the Black Sea.

What we were really looking for? The fish.

Reaching the town, it was PACKED with beachgoers on a Sunday evening. We checked into our hotel and went in search of grilled sardines. (Not my favorite, but when in Rome…)

The vibe of this town is more Greek than Turkish. Heavily so. We found luxury food at Ziyafet. Again, not a fancy place, but we were hooked when the manager took my husband upstairs to sample several of the chef’s own mezze creations. There are not enough words to describe how wonderful artichokes can be when a chef knows what he’s doing, especially when adding oranges, carrots and a few other things into the mix. And something that looks like your July 4 potato salad? Not even close. I have no idea what it was but it was fabulous.

Many people come to Türkiye for the food, but if you are really interested in something different, take a history break and come to Gelibolu. Travel north from Istanbul an hour or two and stop by. The roads and especially the freeways are great and easy to drive.

Just don’t come on a Sunday evening in the summer. You’ll never find a place to park.

The next morning we were off again, this time to the actual Greece, pumped and read for a long trip winding through the Balkans.

We got a bit more than we bargained for.

1

“[Considered] one of the greatest Ottoman victories during the war, is considered by historians as a humiliating Allied failure. Turks regard it as a defining moment in their nation's history and national identity,^[21] contributing to the establishment of the Republic of Turkey eight years later under President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who first rose to prominence as a commander at Gallipoli.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli