Getting naked (with other men)

Finnish saunas are a national pastime. Apparently lots of Finns have their own saunas and are supposedly the ones who came up with the idea to jump in the snow and back into the sauna.

So there are a few Saunas here in Helsinki. Two of them were reccomended to me by one of the Hostel employees. One called 'Sauna Bar' and another one called Yrjonkadun Uimahalli. Both of these places apparently require that you do the Sauna's naked and there is someone there to check that you are doing it right.

I wandered though the streets trying to find Sauna Bar last night and I was able to find it. The entrance was at the back of a building, down some sketchy looking stairs with lots of grungy looking paper posters on the wall. In the bar there was about 3 people in one smoky corner and about 2 in another corner. In between was about 12 empty tables. Very much a dive bar. Not a place I would want to take my clothes off in. I 'high tailed' it out of there.

Today I went to the other one. I had seen a picture of it before hand and it looked far nicer. It has huge ceilings which are reminicent of greek baths or buildings. On certain days only the women are allowed to go. On other days only men are allowed to go. Today was Man's day... And it sure was.

After paying my fee and walking upstairs a female clerk yelled at me. Then in english she told me to put on these shoe covers before entering the change area. I told her I was new and she offered to show me around a little.

From the second floor, I could look down to the pool in on the first floor. Yes there were naked bums in the pool. Also I noticed the lifeguard was female. The lifeguard looked bored.

She showed me a to a little personal change room, where I could undress and put on a dressing gown and showed me where the sauna was and where I could get coffee.

The sauna was a wood fired one, which is apparenlty the best kind to find and is becoming more scarce. There was another guy in there. I noticed by his posture that he was not an exhibitionist. I was curious about what the philosophy would be. But basically, I think it is appropriate to keep your legs together in the sauna. I also noticed that often people would sit with one leg folded towards their chest while sitting down, which provides a bit of a shield. I tried this once, but I thought I was a bit more exposed in this pose so stopped fooling around and stared at the wall.

Actually I talked a bit to the guy in the room. He was Russian and figured that in Canada, being nordic we should have lots of Saunas then.

He told me about the buckets of cold water, where you go out of the sauna and dump a cold bucket of water on your head to cool off. I actually did try this and found it did feel really good. I also noticed - about a minute later it also helped shrink my uh pores.

After trying that I went to the Turkish sauna, which is the kind of sauna you see on TV (or I do) where it is all very steamy and hard to see the person next to you. One rather muscular guy sat next to me and I was able to tell that he was doing some strange kinds of stretches involving pointing his toes, however.

Finally after that I went for a swim in the big pool on the first floor. I carefully selected the side away from the lifeguard, in case she started some sort of small talk - which might be a bit uncomfortable.

After jumping in it felt nice to be skinny dipping. I swam around breast stroke way and then as I was about to flip over to do the back stroke - I decided against it as no one else was doing this. Is it obvious why???

Actually later I did see someone doing the backstroke, so if I go again, I might try that.

Anyway, I thought it was great and I felt really good and relaxed afterwards. So far this was the highlight of my time in Finland.

P.S. A minor benefit of this system is you don't have to deal with that bothersome wet swimsuit afterwards.

P.P.S. I now know what a Finn looks like - really.