Too cool

My sister has a way with words and an incredible job that allows her to travel to great places around the globe. She was recently in Finland and this is what she had to say about it. I wish my emails contained this much imagery.


Hello all - I have my first free, non-work day in helsinki tomoro, but I just wanted to share some highlights of this seriously cool place while they're fresh in my mind

1. reindeer. Tastes like steakums. (Tho served atop incredibly buttery yum mashed potatoes and with a delicious, if odd, sweet/bitter turnip and berry concoction)

2. sauna. I just returned from my first finnish sauna experience, completely sold on this bizarre tradition. I didn't know, but sauna's a finnish word. There's a part that's like the saunas we know - where you sit and sweat with strangers on a wooden bench while some kind of stove running electricity generates steam. Except here you do it naked (sexes strictly separated). It feels completely natural after about 5 seconds. You start to wonder why you'd ever consider clothes. Though, even at 100 degrees (celsius!), it's still not hot enough for some old broads, who sit sweating naked while wearing peaked wool hats. I'm told it's to protect their hairstyles, but I like to think they're just tough.

Then, there's a part that's fully finnish. You put on a bathing suit and head outside in the cold (abt 35 degrees fahrenheit). You pull back a flap on a wooden hut near a gorgeous pine-tree ringed lake. Smoke pours out. It's dark. You walk in and fumble around till you find a seat. Men and women are crowded together on log benches, amid soot-stained walls (you only see the soot, on you, when you get outside), sweating profusely and often chatting happily away. Someone takes a long - like six feet long - copper ladle, fills it with water from a built-in tap, then pours it on an enormous pile of hot stones in the corner. This makes it hotter. There's no electricity involved - I guess there must be fire somewhere ... But I don't know. It was too hot to think. My ears felt like they do when it's freezing out and you forget a hat. Like they were about to fall off. Several times, it felt too hot to breathe. It cools down after a while, after which someone gets up and pours more water on the stones.

You leave when you've had enough. Maybe after 3-5 min. You emerge from the hut. Smoke pours off your skin. Walk to the lake about 20 steps away. Water temp: just above freezing. Walk a short pier, then lower yourself slowly in on a wooden ladder. Don't jump - bad for the body. Similarly, don't get your head wet - bad for the brain. And it's so freaking cold, all you can think about anyway the second you get in is getting out. Limbs seize up. Bones hurt. One sauna veteran's goal: to stay in 13 seconds. I managed to swim from one wooden ladder to the next - like going from one side of mom and dad's kitchen table to the other - and they hailed me as a native (I didn't tell them I couldnt feel my feet). In winter, when the lakes and ocean are frozen over, they cut a hole in the ice and slip in. This, they say, can be dangerous - it's hard to swim if your body goes into shock. Some skip the swim altogether and just roll around in the snow.

After the cold, it's back to the hot. Then back to the cold. Then back to the hot. You're done when you're done. You shower and change, then get a cup of tea in the lodge and head home, feeling invigorated, exhausted, and very clean. Most finns do this every saturday. They start kids on it before they're a year old. Finnish parliament has saunas in the building. The central bank of finland owns about 20 across the country for staff and guests. Business and political deals are routinely struck in saunas. One finn said: we owe our independence to sauna!, only half kidding that the finns secured their freedom by working out a deal with sweaty, muddle-headed swedes and russians in the sauna.

Today's Song: Jos Sanot by Rajaton