Alanya vacation part 2

Author’s note, the story is fictional. Any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental.

Part 2

While Tiina stayed on the beach, Tuija headed towards the hotel, passing the beach bar where quite a few teenagers and a few older people had gathered, all probably tourists from nearby hotels. She also noticed a group of older men who looked obviously local, chatting and gesturing towards her sister and Mehmet who were near the bar. Without paying any more attention, she continued towards the hotel where her father and mother were probably in the restaurant on the ground floor. There was an advertisement along the way, in a side alley there is a Turkish Hamam, a spa, the kind that Tuija’s mother and father had talked about during the flight. Tuija stopped at the alley, thinking that a bath might be a good idea. It would wash off the suntan lotion and the sweaty skin from the day.

After a moment of hesitation, the young girl stepped into the alley and headed towards the spa door ahead. At the door, a woman, perhaps around 50 years old, began to advertise the spa’s services in poor English. Tuija didn’t understand everything the woman was saying but decided to take the full-service package because the price was affordable compared to domestic spas. Tuija paid and the woman handed her a towel and motioned for the girl to go into the women’s side. When she reached the changing room, several women were already getting dressed. Tuija heard them talking and laughing about the great happy ending.

The young girl didn’t understand the significance of it but undressed and put her things in a drawer. The towel the woman had given her was just enough to cover Tuija’s body, but she didn’t let it bother her because everyone had the same small towel around them and some of them revealed more and some less. Tuija stepped into the spa, looking around, wondering what she should do. The spacious space had several doors and a small sign on each indicating which room was which. Tuija took a shower and ended up going to the steam room first. There were three other women in the sauna and Tuija heard them discussing massage. That’s what I’ll try too, the girl thought silently to herself. After sweating for a while, Tuija left the steam room, took a cool shower and started looking for a place to get a massage until she noticed a sign with an arrow that said massage. Tuija headed in the direction of the arrow through a small corridor and arrived at a small lobby with many doors and a reception desk.