We went to the sauna in our building, which we had reserved earlier in the day. The room had the typical wooden interior, with one small window. As soon as we entered, the heat hit us, but it felt surprisingly soothing. We stayed in for about 15 minutes during our first round, sweating and chatting about the world and our stay in Finland.
After the first round, we ventured outside into the cold, which was a bit of a shock to our bodies but incredibly refreshing. The contrast between the warmth of the sauna and the cold air made the experience feel even more invigorating. We all took a few moments to breathe deeply, feeling the cooling effect.
For our second round, we went back into the sauna, taking turns pouring water over the stones to create more steam. It felt even better the second time, as we got more comfortable with the heat. Afterward, we decided to make the experience even more memorable by heading outside and creating snow angels in the small layer of snow. The freezing temperatures were sharp against our skin after the sauna, but it felt amazing, and we couldn’t stop laughing, which made us go for yet another round.
We went in for a third round, feeling incredibly relaxed and a bit tired but also recharged. We really appreciated the Finnish sauna tradition.
During the experience, we also picked up a few new words in each other’s languages. In Czech, we learned sauna (sauna), pára (steam), and sníh (snow). In German, we used words like Holz (wood), Schwitzen (sweating), and Eiskalt (ice cold). It was a fun way to mix language learning with a traditional Finnish activity!
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