My neighbour offered a belated birthday trip to a public sauna with him, and in this balmy weather, who could turn that down? It has been raining and just above freezing today, and after working for a bit in the garden to get ready for spring, a sauna sounded great.
I haven't been to a public sauna for a year or two I think and while we were talking I realised that I might have only gone to them in the winter, or close to winter, but I would like to try in summer also. This particular one has been operating as a public sauna for just shy of a hundred years, but it isn't the oldest public sauna in the city. In fact, it is just a youngster, as the oldest public sauna in Finland is also in this city and has been operating for 120 years.
As this is a mixed sauna, everyone is wearing swimwear, though some others have either separated times for same-sex groups, or two different saunas where people are naked. But, there is a very large age range of patrons that use them where for instance there were late teens all the way through to people in their eighties enjoying the heat. And these are big saunas, that sit somewhere around fifty or sixty people at a time. Though as you can see from the pictures, people are coming from and going to the lake, or sitting out having a drink all the time, so at any one moment there might be a hundred people visiting. There is also a smaller, slightly cooler sauna out of shot, that sits about twenty.
Also as you can see, people are swimming in the lake, which they keep open through the winter by using pumps that keep the water moving. The ice would otherwise close up in a couple hours. And normally when I have been, the air temperature is much colder than the water temperature, but today it was a couple degrees above zero, and the water was at 1.1°C (34°F ), making it seem a bit colder than usual. I only dip in after the sauna for ten seconds or so, but the feeling when exiting is like having mild electricity through the limbs. It feels really, really good. And no, people don't have heart attacks doing this, unless they are already about to have a heart attack.
If you have the chance, go.
While we were sitting in there, I was wondering how unique this kind of thing is, where you have a group of strangers, hot and sweaty, sitting in close proximity to each other. And while you might think it is nice and quiet, it is often louder than a nightclub as people are talking to each other, but with everyone so close, the level keeps going up to be heard. But it isn't an unpleasant experience, just something to get use to. Same with people who decide to throw water too often onto the stove, because these saunas can get hot, very fast. Next time, I will be sure to take a sauna hat of some kind, or a beanie, to protect my ears. We normally don't think too much about the feeling in our ears, but in here when the steam descends, your ears will let you know they are there.
I skipped the gym for this.
However, since I can go to the gym often enough, I chose the experience instead. And it is nice to sit around with a mate and just talk about various life things. There was no discussion about the news or politics or war, and instead through the several rounds of sauna to lake and back again, I just asked about his kids and talked about renovation ideas they have planned. Nothing in particular.
And as we say every time:
We should do it more often.
Taraz
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