Hammam Madrid Plaza Mayor

I ended up visiting Madrid for the first time shortly after visiting Istanbul for the first time (when/where it was first demonstrated to me that I could be treated like a potentate’s beloved pet carp) and I’ll tell you what, when you’re spending most of your time haunting art museums and climbing all over a city and stuffing yourself at mercados (also do all of those things and buy yourself a beautiful pair of scissors in Toledo, they are famous for their knives) going to a hammam (to this hammam, in fact) is THEE BEST. Splurge on an oil massage or don’t, that’s less important, but the soaking and the plunging and the navel contemplation: imperative.