[{"content":"guided sessions #I offer guided sauna sessions, one-on-one or in a small group.\nThese are not wellness treatments.\nThey’re slow, structured experiences where you can breathe deeper, slow down, and let your body reset.\nYour guide in the steam. No performance, just presence. what’s included #✓ 120 to 240 minutes total\n✓ Carefully selected private sauna in the Prague region, rented for the purpose\n✓ Silent arrival, slow warm-up, several guided steam rounds with aromas, herbs, and whisks\n✓ Cold water, rest, herbal tea\n✓ Space to stay quiet or speak, as needed\nwho it’s for #• Anyone feeling stuck, tense, or overloaded\n• People wanting to reconnect with their body\n• No experience required, just show up\nbooking #• Sessions are by request\n• Flat pricing: you pay twice the sauna rental price, half covers the sauna, half covers my service\n• Example: if the sauna costs €200, the total is €400\n• Same price for all formats and group sizes (limited by sauna capacity)\nwant to join? #Start by sending an email\nor simply DM me on Instagram.\nYou can also check my Telegram group (RU) to hear about open community sessions.\n","date":null,"permalink":"/go/","section":"Dark. Warm. Silent.","summary":"guided sessions #I offer guided sauna sessions, one-on-one or in a small group.","title":""},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/","section":"Dark. Warm. Silent.","summary":"","title":"Dark. Warm. Silent."},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/posts/","section":"Posts","summary":"","title":"Posts"},{"content":"Intro #Serbia has long intrigued me as a travel destination for various reasons: its culture, the many friends who have recently settled there, the friendly locals, the unique vibe, and the stunning nature. This is a short story about my spontaneous trip to Serbia with a mobile sauna.\nThe first Czech Whisking Championship was behind me, and after a few days of rest, I selected the best whisks I had left after the competition, bought firewood, loaded everything into the car along with the sauna, and set off towards Belgrade.\nLocation #The most important part of the preparation was choosing a suitable location. The requirements were as usual: a large body of water, seclusion, space to set up the sauna, and, ideally, a view. Several locations were in the running, varying in distance from Belgrade and natural surroundings. The most interesting places are near the borders with Romania, Bulgaria, and Bosnia. However, this time we decided to set up by the Danube in the Fruška Gora National Park, which is much closer to Belgrade than the other options. For those interested, I’ve provided links to a few alternative locations at the end of this post.\nUnexpected Turns #The forecast promised a hot day, so we decided to leave Belgrade early to reach the site before other visitors arrived to the beach and to accomplish as much as possible in the cool morning hours.\nOn the way from Belgrade, we immersed ourselves in the Serbian reality, discussing topics like the fate of lithium mining in the west of the country, where one of us has a summer house, joking about President Vučić and his refrigerator, and many other things that you can only learn from the locals. We planned a friendly recreational sauna session, and the vibe was accordingly relaxed. President Vučić leaving a fridge Our mood took a hit when we parked and got out of the car. It quickly became clear why the beach had looked deserted from the window. We hadn\u0026rsquo;t accounted for the storm that had passed a few days earlier, turning the entire shore into a swamp, and the hot weather had created ideal conditions for mosquitoes to breed. We were forced to find another spot. Fortunately, we came across a spacious area around a restaurant. There were no other guests we could disturb, and the hospitable owners kindly allowed us to set up the sauna for free and even provided us unlimited water supply for bathing needs. The Experience # The heat certainly affected both the sauna setup and the experience itself. After lighting the stove, the air inside heated up to 90°C (194°F) in a record 7 minutes. The stones didn’t take much longer to warm up. I had also prepared a special program for the session—dark and cold music like Beyond the North Waves and Antarctica by Immortal, favored by one of the participants, enhanced with the scents of pine and menthol.\nWe kept the sauna sessions short, with constant ventilation and plenty of water. Conclusion #We wrapped up the day with heartfelt conversations with the restaurant owners over a traditional Serbian fish soup called čorba, and we set our whisks afloat on the Danube. And to be honest, the mosquitoes followed us everywhere. Neither direct sunlight nor midday 36*C heat could scare them. This particular year they had super powers. The only refuge was the steam room, where they would fall on the bench after a few minutes.\nmosquitoes this year vs mosquitoes otherwise I have a feeling that my Serbian sauna adventures are far from over, and I’ll be back soon—maybe with a few more banya programs and for a larger group of people. Hopefully omitting the mosquito part.\nEXTRA: Promising locations for a mobile sauna #I haven\u0026rsquo;t tried them myself, but all of them were on my list and recommended by locals. Stara Palanka Obrenovac Zavoj Lake Rovni Jezero Palićské jezero Banja Koviljača\nPlease drop me a message if you visit any of these locations with your mobile sauna.\n","date":null,"permalink":"/posts/komarci/","section":"Posts","summary":"Intro #Serbia has long intrigued me as a travel destination for various reasons: its culture, the many friends who have recently settled there, the friendly locals, the unique vibe, and the stunning nature.","title":"Serbia. Can mosquitoes survive 70°C heat?"},{"content":"Intro #In July 2024, I had the chance to take part in the Czech Banya Festival, hosted for the first time by the newly formed Czech Banya Association. Held at Aquapalace Prague, a venue known for hosting large sauna festivals and competitions, the event was an important step in growing banya culture in Europe.\nSide note: There is nothing new under the sun #At a certain point, the event was promoted as the first European Banya Championship, but that\u0026rsquo;s not quite accurate (though it was certainly tempting). Similar events have taken place across Europe long before, including the European Cup in Sport Steam Bathing in Ukraine in 2012, or the International Bathing Championship in Lithuania in 2008, which was the first banya championship I am aware of.\nIt wasn\u0026rsquo;t even the first banya competition in the Czech Republic—there have been for example in 2020, 2021 a 2022 organized by the Czech Sauna Association.\nThese events were organized and participated by very respected and globally acknowledged professionals of steam bathing, so it wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be fair to forget about them.\nThe festival was divided into two overlapping streams: an individual whisking championship and group non-competitive sessions. As a contestant in the whisking championship, I\u0026rsquo;ll focus primarily on that aspect in this article.\nThe competition # I had the honor of representing the Czech Republic among 20 other participants from various countries. There were 10 performances per day, 2 groups of judges, 2 models, and 1 competition sauna, where each hour a new contestant had 20 minutes to perform.\nThe judges had a hard time evaluating participants from different traditions and schools. Some went all out with showmanship, while others focused on creating a more sensory experience. This variety made it challenging for the judges to compare everyone fairly, and they even had to tweak the scoring as the competition progressed.\nI intentionally skipped many elements that could have earned me extra points. I know it was a competition, but as in a non-competitive setup, I wouldn’t rush to fill a 20-minute process with bells and whistles like massages or salt scrubbing, so I decided to stay true to myself and focused on showcasing whisking techniques and creating a distinctive vibe in the steam room. This resulted in me finishing in the upper half of the competition.\nMy program was heavily influenced by Vladimir Malyshev\u0026rsquo;s winning program from the 2023 Russian Banya Championship, and I want to use this opportunity to thank him once more.\nI had a Calcifer on each sleeve, and they were helping me. After my performance, one piece of feedback was that I managed to create a very special atmosphere in the steam room, as if there was a portal to a parallel reality that remained even after the model and I had left. For someone whose general focus in the sauna is on creating such altered states, this was very important and appreciated feedback.\nOn the final day of the festival, participants were given the opportunity for some non-competitive whisking. This was a rare opportunity to practice, and enjoy whisking with colleagues. It was a nice, unplanned touch to end the weekend.\nThere was more #In parallel with the championship, days were packed with group ceremonies where the king of Central Europe—Aufguss—played a significant role.\nWhile being busy with the competition I couldn\u0026rsquo;t dedicate as much time to this part as I wanted to, but still I managed get a glimpse of it.\nHere I would like to highlight the pair work of Antonio Legua and Marcelo Antunes whose shows were an eye opener for me - these were the best Aufguss ceremonies I have attended, and I have attended quite a few in my life. With these guys I spend time discussing their approach to group sessions, regional the traditions and much more.\nAlso Anton, whose sessions I couldn\u0026rsquo;t get a chance to properly participate but spent a lot of time talking banya. A very easy-going and a very knowledgeable bloke.\nThe festival was a wonderful place to network, exchange ideas, and learn from the fellow banya lovers. The banya community is pretty tight-knit and many of us participating the festival already knew each other, which made the event feel even more like a reunion. It was a great opportunity to work together and learn from one another. Looking ahead #There’s a potential for growing banya culture in Central Europe, where the steam-bathing scene is currently dominated by aufguss. I believe the introduction of banya practices could provide a complementary perspective, and these two approaches can coexist to enhance the overall experience of steam bathing.\nThe Czech Banya Association did a wonderful job with this first-time event, and I really hope they consider the feedback received to make future festivals even better. This event has the potential to become a regular, important fixture in Czech banya culture, filling the void left by previous festivals that ceased due to lack of ideas. I’m excited to see how the event evolves and look forward to the next edition.\n","date":null,"permalink":"/posts/banyafest24/","section":"Posts","summary":"Intro #In July 2024, I had the chance to take part in the Czech Banya Festival, hosted for the first time by the newly formed Czech Banya Association.","title":"Banyafest`24. Prague"},{"content":"sweat, stillness, and being human #I\u0026rsquo;m Dima Garkush — a steam ritualist, researcher, and host of communal sauna experiences.\nAfter years of exploring traditional and experimental approaches to heat, I’ve come to treat the sauna as more than a wellness tool. It’s a medium for sensing, reordering, and returning.\nI trained with the International Bath Academy and the Steamology Institute, and now I run guided sessions in the Czech Republic and beyond.\nI also write about sauna as a cultural, somatic, and creative practice - and study its therapeutic potential for modern, overloaded minds.\n","date":null,"permalink":"/about/","section":"Dark. Warm. Silent.","summary":"sweat, stillness, and being human #I\u0026rsquo;m Dima Garkush — a steam ritualist, researcher, and host of communal sauna experiences.","title":""},{"content":"Why Lithuania? #The Lithuanian school of sauna bathing has a traditionally strong reputation. For example, Jurgita Alima Shakti (Mazurkevičiūtė) once won a European bathing Cup in Ukraine; Vladas Jokubauskas is one of the most respected teachers in the post-Soviet space. So, I was excited to participate in several workshops organized by Rimas Kavaliauskas and Birutė Masiliauskienė.\nThe workshops #We spent about a week in various locations, discussing trees and herbs, stoves and steam rooms, and the dynamics of the process. Some parts were led by Rimas, and others by Birute. It was fascinating to watch Birute skillfully manage the group dynamics, smoothly guiding participants with very different cultural backgrounds and life experiences to a common base, essential for productive work.\nThis included overcoming the fear of one\u0026rsquo;s own body and the bodies of fellow sauna-goers.\nAs a result, none of the participants had any problems, whether it was simply being in a small space with unfamiliar, naked people, whisking, undergoing and providing honey massages, or juniper needle therapy. She handled it all masterfully.\nI also want to highlight the vivid imagery used to describe the processes, which ran through most of the workshops. For example, using the seasons to describe the stages of sauna bathing, or comparing the steam to cappuccino foam. These images were bright and memorable, and some echoed the ideas of Ivan Ivankin, viewing whisking not as a series of mechanical actions but as the sauna master\u0026rsquo;s presentation of a certain image, which the person being \u0026ldquo;whisked\u0026rdquo; experiences.\nThroughout all the workshops, there was a strong emphasis on plants. One particularly memorable aspect was the extensive usage of birch and its derivatives in steam bathing: infusion, \u0026ldquo;tea\u0026rdquo;, hydrosol, tar, birch water, sponges. Hydrosol I liked the least, despite the fact that we made it ourselves.\nFarewells #I couldn\u0026rsquo;t attend the entire program, and with a bit of sadness from parting with new friends and blackened fingernails from oak whisks, I headed home. I made many pleasant new acquaintances, such as Yoichi, who teaches banya whisking in Japan; Katie, who is at the forefront of the UK sauna scene.; Jackie, whose sauna business in Maine is thriving; and Laura, a very spiritual sauna master and tradition bearer. I learned something from each of them and carry it forward. Including the unique, region-specific perspective on the sauna conveyed by Birute and Rimas. It was very vivid, yet at the same time grounded and natural.\n","date":null,"permalink":"/posts/bathacademy/","section":"Posts","summary":"Why Lithuania?","title":"Lithuanian pirtis with Rimas and Birute"},{"content":"This post is a part of a mini series describing my sauna-centered road trip across Southern Finland.\nA usual visit to wood fired Kotiharjun Sauna #Last time, I was at Kotiharjun Sauna in Helsinki, a place I try to visit every time I\u0026rsquo;m in the city. This sauna is conveniently located near the city center, easily accessible by public transportation, and is one of the last, if not the last, wood-heated public saunas in Helsinki.\nKotiharjun Sauna has a special charm. You can take a walk to get there, enjoy a nice chat in the steam room, or sit outside half-naked with just a towel, sipping on a beer or another drink, while facing a relatively quiet Helsinki street. Despite being close to the city center, it offers a unique experience where you can relax and unwind in a communal setting.\nThe crowd at Kotiharjun Sauna is always diverse. You might meet businesspeople on a trip, lumberjacks from Canada with Finnish roots, or regulars who frequent the sauna. The mix of people—older, younger, locals, and tourists—creates a welcoming atmosphere. Even if many visitors are not accustomed to this type of experience, the sauna naturally encourages a sense of community, openness, and friendliness.\nThere are a few charming details about Kotiharjun Sauna. For instance, just inside the entrance, there\u0026rsquo;s a communal freezer where everyone stores their beverages. People drop their drinks into the freezer when they arrive, so they\u0026rsquo;re nice and cold after a sauna session. No one marks their drinks; there\u0026rsquo;s an unspoken trust that no one will take someone else\u0026rsquo;s beverage.\nOne thing I learned at Kotiharjun Sauna is a crucial word in the Finnish sauna culture. The steam room is designed with multiple levels, and the higher you sit, the hotter it gets. There\u0026rsquo;s a custom where someone entering the steam room asks the people already sitting if they want more steam. The people sitting at the highest level, near the ceiling, usually have to confirm or deny this request. In Finnish, this question is asked, and it\u0026rsquo;s a key part of the sauna experience. I often sit at the highest level, enjoying the intense heat, so I’ve become familiar with this word, recognizing it as the signal that more steam might be coming.\nI highly recommend Kotiharjun Sauna for anyone looking to experience a communal and authentic sauna in Helsinki. While it’s not fair to compare it directly to other saunas, I do prefer Kotiharjun for its larger steam room and overall ambiance.\nmen\u0026rsquo;s changing room Recently, I\u0026rsquo;ve started visiting another sauna in Helsinki—a community-driven sauna on the outskirts of the city. It requires a bit of a walk from the metro station, but it’s worth it. This sauna is free to use and offers a different vibe, with smaller steam rooms and a location by the water, which I appreciate. It\u0026rsquo;s mixed-gender and attracts a variety of people, from tourists to locals. The saunas are well-maintained, and I particularly enjoy visiting in the winter, when I can jump into the cold Baltic Sea after heating up in the steam room. The contrast between the hot sauna and the freezing water is exhilarating.\nEspoo and a pleasant final touch #As a funny aside, on my last trip outside of Helsinki, I stayed in a modern area that used to be a student town but now hosts many offices. To my surprise, the bathroom in my accommodation had a sauna. I didn’t use it, though, as I had much better options in the city, and I prefer the communal sauna experience over a private one. Still, it was a nice touch to the overall sauna journey I had across certain parts of Finland.\nEXTRA: Relevant links # Kotiharjun Sauna ","date":null,"permalink":"/posts/kotiharjun/","section":"Posts","summary":"This post is a part of a mini series describing my sauna-centered road trip across Southern Finland.","title":"Helsinki. A usual visit to wood fired Kotiharjun Sauna"},{"content":"This post is a part of a mini series describing my sauna-centered road trip across Southern Finland.\nIntro #One of the goals for this journey was to visit a proper savusauna. There aren’t many left in Finland that are still in operation (although the number is increasing), and only a fraction are open for communal bathing.\nA savusauna is a smoke sauna where the stones are heated by direct fire, and there is no chimney, so the smoke exits through the door and windows. It is \u0026rsquo;the old way\u0026rsquo; of sauna.\nA colleague recommended Niemi-Kapeen to me, but according to their website, they only offered private rentals. This would have been quite pricey and too much work for just one person since heating up a savusauna takes about four or five hours and a lot of firewood. The steam rooms are usually large, so arranging this just for me felt like overkill. However, I decided to call them and explain my situation, mentioning that I was really eager to experience a savusauna, but it was only me. To my surprise, I was in luck. During that particular period, they were offering public sessions, which meant I could join a group of around 10 to 12 people. I reserved my spot and headed there. Preparation #The day I arrived, it was raining heavily, and the landscape was dark and foreboding, even though it was early afternoon. There were only three other people there: the owner, who runs the business with his father; the father himself, who was preparing the sauna; and an Italian sauna enthusiast who like me was eager to try the sauna.\nThe sauna wasn’t quite ready yet but was in the final stages of preparation. It had already been heating for around four hours, and the stones were hot enough, so it was time to perform the final steps: let the fire die out, clean up, and get rid of the smoke. For the latter, there’s even a special term in Finnish (which I forgot—if you know, please drop me a message). This is done by creating the first steam while the windows and door are open, which pushes the smoke out.\nThe sauna #The sauna was built by the owners using timber that had fallen as a result of a lightning strike. It was spacious and dark because of the small window, and the surfaces were blackened by soot from the smoke. The benches ran along both walls, with an enormous pile of stones by another wall between them. Outside the sauna, there was a wooden pathway leading through the forest to a large lake about 30 meters away.\nThe steamroom is ready The other guests were arriving late, and the Italian fellow was busy with something, so I got to experience the first steam all by myself. I was instructed to gently pour water over the stones rather than throw it, which is typical in a regular sauna. They didn’t explain why, but I assume it’s because the stones are extremely hot and hold a lot of heat. If too much water is added at once, it could overwhelm the steam room with heat, or perhaps it\u0026rsquo;s about conserving the heat in the stones so it lasts for the entire bathing session. Unlike a regular sauna, the stones in a savusauna are heated beforehand, and no more fire can be added during the session.\nThe best sauna experience of my life #The experience in a properly prepared savusauna is extraordinary. The steam room felt like a totally different, mystical space—dark, warm, filled with the smell of smoke, and occasional unusual sounds you don’t usually hear in a regular sauna. It was easy to imagine that sauna spirits like Finnish Saunatonttu or Russian Bannik were hiding in the dark corners under the bench. The heat was very different from a regular sauna—intense and powerful, yet surprisingly gentle. It felt as if the massive pile of hot stones was a living, breathing being, demanding careful interaction.\nIt was still raining heavily. After leaving the sauna, I headed to the lake, immersing myself in the surrounding environment—the wooden bridge under my feet, the raindrops, the smells of the forest. Nature was all around, with its sounds of raindrops hitting the trees and the ground, the smell of the wet forest, and the mist over the lake. With all this, you jump into the cold water with raindrops hitting you and the water’s surface around you, and you feel truly alive, truly a part of the world. The entire experience was deeply physical and emotional. I was completely present in the moment, feeling alive and connected to nature. It was an overwhelming experience filled with emotions; I felt like I could cry, laugh, or scream with happiness. It was pure and genuine.\nConclusion #Later, I believe there were about 12 of us enjoying the steam room together. You could feel the stones gradually losing their heat, and the steam becoming thinner. After a few hours, we shared non-alcoholic beers with the owner, which I had brought with me, and enjoyed a delicious vegetable soup and some cake. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay overnight (they offer this option), so I packed up and left. As I drove to my final stop in Helsinki, I lingered on the experience, knowing that this was the best sauna experience I’d ever had. It was so complete and profound, a memory I will cherish forever.\nEXTRA: Relevant links # https://www.niemikapee.fi ","date":null,"permalink":"/posts/niemi-kapeen-savusauna/","section":"Posts","summary":"This post is a part of a mini series describing my sauna-centered road trip across Southern Finland.","title":"Niemi-Kapeen. Savusauna"},{"content":"This post is a part of a mini series describing my sauna-centered road trip across Southern Finland.\nRajaportti. The Oldest Public Sauna in Finland #(Almost) everyone who is into saunas and Finland knows about Rajaportti sauna, built at the beginning of the 20th century.\nNo spitting on the floor As they say officially state:\nFinland\u0026rsquo;s oldest still-functioning public sauna.\nI have no interest in repeating information that everyone can easily find on their website or elsewhere on the internet, so I\u0026rsquo;ll limit myself to my own impressions and experience.\nI was in the changing room, undressing. It was relatively full of visitors in their forties to sixties, \u0026ldquo;actively\u0026rdquo; resting after being in the steam room: they were drinking beer and throwing an empty plastic bottle at each other. A guy next to me dodged the next throw, and the bottle hit me. No harm done, no hard feelings, and everyone genuinely laughed.\nThis was a good example of the atmosphere in a proper public sauna, where people who don\u0026rsquo;t know each other don\u0026rsquo;t necessarily throw objects at each other but are definitely equal, relaxed, and have a sense of community.\nDressing room Rajaportti sauna has two rather compact steam rooms—one for each gender. A very typical setup for public saunas in Finland, Russia, and other countries in the region.\nAs for this particular sauna, I heard that it was originally mixed-gender, but at some point, the city of Tampere issued a law prohibiting such practices. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure if this is true, but at least this is what one of the fellow bathers told me while I was there. If you can prove or refute this, please drop me a message.\nThe stove is powerful, as you often encounter in older public saunas, and it produces nice and pleasant steam.\nThere is also a very pleasant, secluded yard where one can rest and chat about anything with fellow bathers, who often happen to be complete strangers.\nA side note:\nIn public bathhouses, I usually don\u0026rsquo;t hear or engage too often in discussions related to politics—people tend to avoid \u0026ldquo;heavier\u0026rdquo; topics in these spaces. However, while writing this, I realized that in Finland, it’s not the case. Quite the opposite—such topics are quite popular in and around steam rooms.\nFor example, while at Rajaportti, I had an engaging chat about an ongoing war. The guy who was about to leave even went for another round in the steam room just to continue the conversation.\nthe yard Once done with bathing, I dressed, sat in the onsite cafeteria to cool down, ate a snack, and skimmed through a few sauna books from the impressive collection they have on the shelves. After that, I drove back to where I was staying to rest before the big day ahead of me.\nSide story: Lepaa Manor. Unplanned Peasant Encounter #My general rule for road trips is to never book accommodation in advance since you never know where you\u0026rsquo;ll end up in the evening. This rule generally works, but as always, there are exceptions.\nThis time, some kind of event in the city had brought a lot of outsiders to the area, straining hotel capacities and leaving me with very few reasonably priced options for the night.\nAs a result, I ended up staying at a charismatic manor some 50+ kilometers outside the city, at the price of a bed in a 12-bed dorm in the city center.\nYou are thinking there must be another reason why I mentioned this in a sauna post, aside from advising to check for big events in the area you\u0026rsquo;re visiting. And there is—a smoky one.\nDuring my evening stroll in the vast area surrounding the manor, I stumbled upon a beautiful savusauna (smoke sauna). It wasn\u0026rsquo;t in great shape, as you can see in the pictures, but it was still a pleasant discovery, especially considering that next day, I would be visiting a fully functional savusauna elsewhere.\nAbandoned savusauna two separate steam rooms for each gender? EXTRA: Relevant links # Rajaportti Sauna ","date":null,"permalink":"/posts/tampere/","section":"Posts","summary":"This post is a part of a mini series describing my sauna-centered road trip across Southern Finland.","title":"Tampere. Rajaportti"},{"content":"This post is a part of a mini series describing my sauna-centered road trip across Southern Finland.\nThe Festival #Directly from Helsinki port, I headed to Teuva, planning to spend the entire next day at the annual Mobile Saunas Festival. Just before that, I had acquired my own mobile sauna, making the event especially relevant for me.\nApproaching Teuva The festival\u0026rsquo;s setup is simple: a large collection of mobile saunas of every imaginable kind are brought to the location by their owners, heated up, and opened to guests.\nI heard of some people challenging themselves to try every single one (see Mikkel Aaland in the first episode of Perfect Sweat).\nI managed to try around 20 of them.\nSome had long lines (like the dumpster sauna), while others had no visitors or owners at all (like the tent sauna). Amazingly, almost all of them had excellent steam, and everyone I met was incredibly friendly.\nThe Healing Power of Sauna #In my case, attending the festival was actually a bit risky, as just a few days before, I had undergone a complicated tooth extraction, leaving me with a deep wound, inflammation, and a few stitches.\nThe doctor was skeptical about the idea of going to a sauna but gave me his blessing on the condition that I avoid extremes in the steam room or cold plunges, once I explained how important the event was to me.\nHealed by sauna ☺ I looked around, selected what seemed to be a moderately heated sauna, tried it for a few minutes, and nothing bad happened. I tried again for longer, and still, nothing bad happened.\nIn fact, quite the opposite—very soon, the mild dental pain and inflammation I had been experiencing were gone for the first time since the extraction.\nHotter than the Hottest #At the end, I witnessed what was probably the hottest sauna at the festival catch fire and burn down.\nA very hot Volvo sauna A very very hot one yet I could get even hotter Surprisingly, the owner didn’t seem upset at all. In fact, he even gifted a horseshoe from the sauna to a colleague.\nNothing could top that, so I finished the traditional snack I had and left the festival, aiming for my next stop on the journey—the sauna capital of Finland, Tampere.\nI definitely need to return and find out what kind of luck that horseshoe brought its new owner.\nGoing Back Home #On the way back home, I made a brief stop in Estonia to test out my newly purchased mobile sauna with a local friend. Just like the stones I bought at the festival, it performed beautifully and continues to do so even now. ","date":null,"permalink":"/posts/teuva/","section":"Posts","summary":"This post is a part of a mini series describing my sauna-centered road trip across Southern Finland.","title":"Teuva, Finland. Mobile Saunas Festival. Extracted Teeth."},{"content":"Intro #As someone who enjoys visiting Finland, I try to seize every opportunity to do so. This time, the excuse was attending the famous annual mobile saunas festival in the somewhat remote city of Teuva. To make the most of it, I extended my journey by adding a few interesting sauna spots along the way, suggested by a Tampere-based colleague of mine (thanks, Aki!).\nI ended up with the following list of locations for my journey:\nTeuva: Mobile Saunas Festival. Extracted tooth. Burned down Volvo. Tampere (and beyond): Rajaportti - Finland\u0026rsquo;s oldest operating public sauna. Flying plastic bottles. Abandoned savusauna. Niemi-Kapeen Smoke Sauna: Best. Sauna Experience. I ever had. Helsinki: Kotiharjun Sauna. Sompa Sauna*. Surprise in Espoo. Originally I was planning to create a single post covering the whole journey, by while I was writing, I realized just how many emotions, impressions, I carry for each of these places on top of the few dry facts I was aiming to mention. It wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be fair to compress it all into a single post, so there is a dedicate one for each of the destination.\nI can\u0026rsquo;t help but finish this intro with a beautiful picture taken on a ferry on my way to Finland.\n","date":null,"permalink":"/posts/roadtrip-fi/","section":"Posts","summary":"Intro #As someone who enjoys visiting Finland, I try to seize every opportunity to do so.","title":"Road Trip: Essential Finnish Sauna Spots"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tags"}]