“Would You Like to Try a Sauna?”
I remember the time I went to Helsinki. It was autumn 2015. The sun was shining brightly when my plane was approaching the airport for landing. I could see from the window, the orange autumn colours on the trees from afar. I was happy, feeling calm and really excited for whatever I’m gonna experience in this city and country.
I stayed in a flat belong to a guy I met in Couch Surfing. It was a very nice flat. In the bathroom, I noticed that there was a door leading to another room which interior was full of wood. Later on he told me that the room was the sauna room. Hmmm, okay.
After some wandering in the city and got lunch and dinner, we got back to the flat. And after some talking, finally he asked me the question, “Would you like to try a sauna?”
Going back three years before the trip, I watched a documentary about Helsinki in a show on TLC called “Waterfront Cities of the World.” I learnt that in Finland, there are more sauna than cars. It’s a part of Finnish’ not only culture, but also identity. What an interesting fact, I thought.
So, I said yeah, why not. But the thing is, for Finnish, they’re quite cool with full nudity when in sauna especially in single-sex saunas — there’s nothing sexual, just people with the same sex sitting together in a very hot and steamy room in silence with their genitalia in full view. So I was a bit shocked when the guy I just met suddenly started stripping his shirt, jeans and finally, underwear. Then he went inside the sauna room and sat quietly.
I remember asking myself, “Wait, should I do that too?”
I decided to still wearing my underwear. I didn’t have the confidence. I just felt extremely insecure when it comes to comparing the size and look of my dick to a westerner’s (regardless whatever his look and size really is/was).
It was hot and very steamy, way hotter than tropical hot climate. But instead of silence, we talked. And I must say, it was a good talk. I mean, in the hot air and steam our body and mind are fully conscious and aware, we were inside a small room with nowhere else to go (unless you quit the sauna and get out of the room, of course) or look at (no, I don’t mean to look at the genitalia), and we were naked and sober. It was a bit intimate, actually, and it’s hard to not being honest in that situation.
Overall, my first experience with sauna was very much positive. As a person with a rather conservative mindset seen from the western point of view, I quite enjoyed that.
From that same documentary, I also learnt about sauna diplomacy where leaders talk and negotiate about foreign/international affairs inside the sauna. I wonder if leaders of my country would do the same thing if they come there.
Finland is a first world country from the west that I had no idea that the mentality of the people are so different compared to other western first world countries. They communicate or speak in literal, they don’t do chit chat, and they don’t like to brag or show off. That trip has really opened my mind.
Later on still on the same trip, I did sauna again, twice. It remained as one of my favourite experiences in that country.
