Finns reveal their true selves in the sauna
Finns are often thought of as a stoic and taciturn bunch. Yet get them disrobed and into a sauna and suddenly they’re as garrulous as a Dublin taxi driver.
‘Do you know what is the difference between smoke and wood sauna?’ a gravelly voiced Finn asked a pair of perspiring Americans in the soot-walled smoke sauna at Löyly – a new public sauna opened last year in Helsinki.
‘In wood sauna, the fire heats the stones but the smoke goes away in the chimney. In a smoke sauna, the fire heats the stones and we are in the chimney.’
Breathing in the searing, mucky air, we were most definitely in the chimney. Public saunas in Helsinki were once ubiquitous; but a post-war housing boom saw many of them replaced by apartment blocks with their own private saunas. Recently, though, a new breed of public saunas has arrived in the Finnish capital, with two of the most popular recent additions being Löyly and Lonna. A sprawling, recreational complex perched on Helsinki’s shoreline, Löyly is housed in an undulating, ecofriendly building and features a restaurant, large outdoor patio, a dock from which to jump into the Baltic Sea, and three saunas: wood, smoke, and a private-hire wood sauna for up to ten people.
Atypical for Finnish saunas, Löyly is co-ed, so swimming costumes are mandatory.
For a more traditional, laidback and bucolic atmosphere, head to Lonna, a ten-minute ferry ride from Helsinki’s market square. Housed on a small island, formerly a military base for decommissioning mines, Lonna is a bit smaller and less of a ‘scene’ than Löyly. One man summed up Lonna dryly to me with a characteristically Finnish assessment: ‘I think it’s quite OK.’
Löyly (loylyhelsinki.fi): €19pp for a two-hour session, which includes towel, seat liner, shampoo and shower gel. Lonna (lonna.fi): €16pp for a two-hour session, including soap, shampoo and seat cover. For general information, go to visitfinland.com. For more on Helsinki, visit myhelsinki.fi.