Have you ever been to a real Sauna?

My Uncle was rich and he had a sauna in his house which we used to use when he and his wife were away for the weekends. It was very popular with my friend to sauna and swim and play pool at his house. Luckily my cousin was very hospitable.

Savusauna is the best sauna ever😃

missä ne kaikki retkeilyvideot on YT:sta, kanava oli #ninaonilo

I adore sauna and relish every opportunity to dream about the next sauna visit. Yes, I'm a saunaholic.

Yes ! With real fire, water from the lake, the same lake to jump into and North of the Arctic Circle (only by 3km). I was staying at the cabin of some climbing friends and their grandparents (or even older?) had built a black sauna that had somehow survived WW2, but I couldn't try that too as it was being used as a store-room.

Having an electric indoor sauna @home: so that's the regular sauna experience, but in Finland and Norway and a few other countries i have experienced wood fired stoves in real saunas and in sauna tents.

Nina, in 1969, when I was 15, I spent the summer in Ranua--where I had my first sauna experience. It was the first of many over my 71-year lifetime. This story will be in a book I'm writing. In the meantime, it's in my free Substack at https://jimstravels.substack.com. I hope you enjoy it: *** In 1969, when I was 15, I was a summer exchange student in Ranua, Finland, just below the Arctic Circle. It's also where I had my first sauna experience. That first evening, the entirety of my host family stripped naked and trundled into the hot wooden box. Do I strip? Do I join them? My impossibly cute host "sister" opened the door and used sign language to encourage me to strip and to join them. I did. She smiled. I blushed. Followed quickly by “Look her in the eyes, Jim. In the eyes!” And “Is my whole body blushing or just my face?” With the exception of some toddler hanky-panky, I’m pretty sure this was the first time I’d seen a girl naked. In 3D anyway. I was grateful that my entry into the inferno was met with soft cheers rather than them pointing toward my mid-section and exploding in raucous laughter like in my nightmares. I knew that hot air rises, but I hadn’t considered the implications when I took my place on the top row of the sauna benches. I could barely breathe (had I been thinking of puns at that moment, I might have thought, “But I’m breathing bare!”) I looked at a thermostat hanging on the opposite wall. 80 degrees. Then why did I feel like I was burning up? Oh yeah. Centigrade, not Fahrenheit. What was that formula again? Oh yeah, multiply by 2 and then add 30. OK, yeah, 190 degrees Fahrenheit. That explained my lightheadedness and the rivulets of sweat, two of which were flowing into my eyes. I shut my eyes to reduce the salt sting. It was then that I heard two sounds–swish and snap–followed by moans of contentment. After the third or fourth salvo, I forced my eyes open. They widened as I saw my hosts swatting each other with birch branches. Had I known what S&M was at that time, I might have bolted. Or become a young convert. Instead, I saw my host sister lean forward to hand me a bouquet of stitched-together birch branches, actually more like a short whisk broom. I took it, and my tentative look caused her to smile. Using gestures, she made it clear that I was to engage in flagellation. She moved her flat palm up and down quite slowly, which I reckoned to mean “Whip me, but whip me softly.” Then she turned away from me and offered me her bare and sweaty back as a target as her brother and parents looked on approvingly. A few adorable moments later, she turned and took hold of the birch-branch broom. She gestured for me to turn around, and I soon felt the flicking of birch branches against my skin. First-time seeing a naked girl and engaging in mutual flagellation. It was going to be a great summer! The next morning, I awakened early to find the entire family huddled in front of a small black-and-white TV set. They beckoned me over, and I watched as a marionettist simulated the lunar landing of Apollo 11. A background voice spoke excitedly, and the family applauded. “Kuu!” they shouted, pointing at me. “Moon!” It was indeed a great leap for mankind. Later that day, when I walked around town, people recognized “the American” and came up to me and shook my hand. I didn’t know how to say, “It was nothing, really,” in Finnish, so I simply smiled and said, “Kiitos!” “Thank you!”

An old, German friend lives in a lake last at the start of the Alps. Her ex husband was Finnish and had built a sauna in their old boat house. Was amazing to run out and jump into the lake with that view! X

Growing up in a family of Finns, the family gathered at my grandmother’s house and all took sauna almost every weekend. The sauna was built in about 1920 by my great grandfather and was wood fired.

I live in Ireland, a real sauna isn't readily available but we have plenty of wet hot rooms... Even those I've never really experienced with any intention. It's absolutely on my bucket list now though.

I'd love to go to a wood-fired sauna!

I built my own wood fired sauna at my home in Australia. And yes, it can get very cold here!

Almoust every day🤣