sauna

2006-01-16

With living in Finland comes the inevitable sauna experience (apparently, Finland has an estimated 2 million saunas, one for every three persons). Today I had some work related meeting which finished with sauna and dinner. That was quite an experience. The facilities at BÃ¥tvik included a pool, electric sauna and  most importantly a old fashioned smoke sauna. Very nice! I’m sold. I had no idea what I had been missing out on. The concept of getting naked with your (male) colleagues and sitting together in a dark, hot room full of smoke may seem unappealing but it’s really nice. I had the complete experience, including whipping myself with berch leaves. Standing naked outside afterwards is surreal. Strangely enough it takes several minutes before your body notices that is actually pretty cold outside. Sadly, while the facilities were on the seaside, the sea was frozen solid so we couldn’t skinny dip but I’m sure that would have added to the experience. Sadly my apartment has no sauna (as is common for newer apartments here), nor does the building have shared facilities but we do have a sauna at work that I might try. Though going outside naked is probably not really socially acceptable in the middle of Helsinki.