Discovering Moments: Finland 27/06/2011

Highlights

All of the green in Helsinki, the fresh air, going to the trots, spending a couple of hours collecting mushrooms in the forest and then preparing them for dinner, swimming in the beautiful lakes,the Sauna and trying different foods such as reindeer and liquorice ice-cream.

Sweat

Sauna, a word so engrained within the Finish vocabulary that I could not visit without experiencing a true Finish sauna. So Mikael and I catch the bus to the public sauna. It is a completely unassuming place, a small wooden structure which is divided into men and women. We walk into the building to pay our fee and there is a window which starts about waist height and ends at about my knees. It slides open and a voice can be heard from beyond. I hand over my fee and bend over to say thanks and catch a glimpse of the figure behind that window. It is a very skinny topless man, in what appears to be a loincloth in a tiny room that is set below the floor. The whole scene feels like I am witnessing it in a strange surreal movie. My mind wanders as to the duties of this man, could it be that he is the one that stokes the fires of the sauna in some subterranean chamber?

After paying we walk into the change room where we strip down to nothing. This is very challenging for me as it is the first time in my adult life that I have been naked in a public situation. We walk through a small wooden door into a two level sauna. The room is larger than what I expected but none the less very cosy and simple. The oven with the rocks is to my left and a small wooden ladder to my right leads to the upper chamber and seating. We progress straight ahead into the wash room. We both grab a pale of water and pour it over ourselves, the water splashing to the floor. The room is fairly bright and there is a wooden bench around the edge. The most striking thing for me is the aroma of birch and pine that fills the room and seems to seep into my pours and has already started to carry away some of my stress.

We progress to the upper floor, the heat immediate as we cross the invisible line of the upper chamber. This is a much smaller and darker room, perhaps 2m by 2m with a single bench around the edge. The birch and pine is still present but now magnified by the heat. We hear the creak of the oven door and the sizzle as a new amount of water is added to the stones. The effect is immediate and the heat is intensified. I can feel the beads of sweat forming on my body, collecting and dripping down. As the intensity hightens, I drop my head and can feel the heat passing my throat and travelling all the way down into my lungs. As I breathe out, my breath hits my legs and it feels like a blow torch. I take the birch branch, dip it in water and slap my body, the aroma now completely surrounding me. I put the birch down, close my eyes and continue to breathe the fire deep into my lungs. I start to feel all my cares and all my worries coming to the surface and then pass into the little beads of sweat. They linger for a moment before beginning to run down my bare skin. They pause for just a moment, as if to ask me if I am sure that I want to shed them, and then as if sensing my answer they drop. I watch the bead fall into the darkness that surrounds my feet and can almost hear all those cares and worries shattering on the concrete floor.

I slowly rise to my feet, finally the heat has become too much for me. I leave via the washroom to once again dose my body with what now feels like purifying water. I exit the little door and breathe the lighter air, grabbing my towel as I pass. We are now in a little garden taking soft breathes which we now do not notice. I stare up into the piercing blue sky, my mind now free and floating in that little garden. We sit in silence, words simply not necessary at this moment as we both have our own journeys to explore. As our bodies start to recover, I smile and feel a sense of joy, for it is time to return to the sauna.

The following photos are from Helsinki