in helsinki i stayed in the stadium that hosted the 1952 olympics, which has since been turned into a hostel. finland is terribly expensive – like everything is three as much as it should be. as expected, helsinki is a beautiful city. it is the world’s northernmost capital, and also has the northernmost subway system in the world. speaking of subway, i ate every meal there because it was all i could afford. the main reason i wanted to go to finland was to go to saunas, and it was glorious! the first i went to was called yrjonkatu. it has a large indoor swimming hall, the oldest in the city. there are different days for the different genders, and everybody gets naked to swim laps. the main attraction though are the saunas, of which there are a few divided by level of intensity. you are not even allowed to go in unless you are naked. yes, some tourists came in with swimsuits and they were yelled at. old guys who seem like they live there continuously ladle water over hot rocks; the speed at which they do this determines how hot things get.
the next day i met up with my classmate kady and her boyfriend adam, who were also in town to sauna, and we took a bus out into the forest to visit another sauna. this one was a traditional outdoor smoke sauna. it got even hotter, such that we all had painful sunburn-like reactions for days afterward. it was beside a lake, so after one or two minutes sessions in the sauna which was about the maximum we could handle, we jumped into the lake. saunas are probably one of humanity’s best inventions!
