My first sauna experience was in a new house in the city belonging to a couple of friends of Sari. The sauna was located upstairs to the side of the bathroom and the women got to go first. When it was our turn we got fresh cold beers and headed upstairs and began to get ready. Whilst I was familiar with the concept that the sauna required you to be naked, I was a little unsure of the practicalities and a little nervous about being naked in front of a man I had just met. He went out to the bedroom the change I after using the toilet I started to take of my clothes, but when he returned in a dressing gown I was still in my underwear wondering whether it would be a faux pas to be completely naked, but a little wary of him thinking I had the usual Anglo hang-ups about being starkers. Whilst Finnish people may be a little shy about talking to you they are definitely not shy about getting naked in front of strangers, so Juko dropped the dressing gown to shower, advising me that it was best to get wet before getting in to the sauna. The ice was broken, so I dropped my strides, got wet and headed in to the sauna, which was only about wide enough to sit two people and not much deeper. The inside was entirely covered with pine decking, and in the corner there sat what looked like a wood heater, the top covered in a layer of rocks that were glowing red hot. Behind the heater, running the length of the sauna was a second level, upon which there was a bench for sitting on,
As soon as I closed the door I could feel the heat, and I was glad to sit straight down on the little towel that made sure my ass didn't get burnt from the hot timber decking that was the seat. I checked the thermometer and it was a cool 80 degrees, and pretty quickly my entire body was covered in sweat. I began to recline against the back wall but immediately jumped forward as the wood was too hot to touch. Gradually I began to get used to the heat - the cold beer helped immensely, but my body was completely covered in sweat, and the hot water left in my hair from the shower was dripping on to my shoulders, each drop stinging me as it fell. Then Juko threw some water from a pail between us on to the hot rocks and after a moment I found I could no longer breathe. The water immediately turned to steam and rushed to the top of the room, and seemingly straight down my throat, burning all the way down. I clamped my mouth shut and when I started to run out of air I sucked it threw my closed lips so that it only burned a little. Slowly the air cooled and I could open my mouth, and next time Juko threw water on I was prepared.
After what seemed like quite a while but wasn't much more than 15 minutes we got out and showered, wrapped ourselves in a towel and then headed outside (for Juko to have a smoke) and stood on the back porch in the rain - and I felt fantastic. The heat coming from inside my body kept running in to the cold from outside, and as I sucked in deep breaths of cool air the drops of rain were stinging my skin in a painful but enjoyable way. My senses were heightened, and I could feel every square millimetre of my skin, millions and millions of nerve fibres twitching, sending a flood of neurons bouncing along to my brain. Juno told me that it is even better in winter when you can jump in the snow !!! Before we got cold we headed back inside, and then back in to the sauna, and despite the initial shock of the heat again I felt comfortable much more quickly. After another 10 or 15 minutes Juno announced that he could feel his heart beating in his ears which was a sign to get out, which was just fine by me as my temperature was going through the roof and I was feeling a little uncomfortable, but I didn't want to seem like a wuss and get out first. After showering and cooling down somewhat we headed back downstairs for another beer, and despite feeling a little flustered and still quite warm, my skin felt very soft and I felt clean and tired. The ride back to Sari's house by bicycle in the rain was almost as refreshing as I could feel the rain and the wind on my skin all the way home.
My second sauna experience was in Sari's grandparents home. This was a much bigger sauna of the wood variety, attached again to the bathroom, but big enough to fit in maybe four or five people. Gramps lit the fire, and then Sari restocked it with wood about half an hour later, and about another half an hour later it was ready to go. The heater looked almost identical to the previous one I had seen, a metal box with rocks on top, but it had an empty chamber below in which you lit the fire. Gramps and Gran went in first, during summer they sauna twice a week and during winter it goes up to three times a week. Sauna really is a way of life and I could imagine how pleasant it would be to escape the monotonous cold of winter (it gets down to -40 !!!) by stepping inside a sauna a couple of times a week. When it was our turn the heat in the sauna had peaked but was still around 70 degrees. It was, however, far more comfortable because the burning wood gives off moisture (or something like that). It was much easier to relax and I lasted much more time, even throwing a bit of water on to the hot rocks myself. When we came out for a break I cranked the water up to full cold and it was absolutely freezing, and despite it initially feeling quite painful, it was actually enjoyable, feeling the contrast between cold skin that was turning in to goose bumps and a core temperature that was still high. (Sari later told me that when you go ice swimming, which is common in winter during sauna the water is about the same temperature.)
My third sauna experience was what the Finns consider to be the Rolls Royce of sauna, a smoke sauna, at the cabin in the woods. The sauna was a separate building itself, constructed out of logs, about the size of a small room. Inside there was a much stouter looking heater covered in hot rocks.
I admit that I only half paid attention to how the smoke sauna works but it involves enclosing the sauna and then burning wood which smokes up the room and heats up the rocks. Then you let the poisonous gases out, wait a little while, and voila, you have a sauna with the air that tastes like a mix of smoked salmon and a dark, rich bottle of red wine. Inside it was quite dim, but the temperature was only around fifty or sixty degrees, so you could sit around for longer, or indulge in another favourite Finnish pastime, whipping yourself with a bunch of branches of birch strung together just for the purpose. (Still no so convinced on that one) 
After a while when we grew too hot, we could simply amble out of the sauna, down the path for twenty metres or so and jump in the river, and have a swim until we started to feel the cold. We would then head back to the sauna and do it all over again. It was so enjoyable we ended spending almost all evening in either the sauna or the river, only stopping when after we watched the sun go down around 11pm. The other cool thing about the smoke sauna is that it stays warm for a longer time, so that we could even have another go the next morning !!I got so used to having saunas whilst I was in Finland it was one of the first things I missed when I left the country. Starting to think maybe I could build one at home !!!
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