|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
If you ask someone what they know about Finland, you will probably get the answer "The sauna".
The sauna is a place to relax. Finnish people can heat it up to 100 degrees Celsius. You can stay in the sauna for some minutes or longer. When you feel like cooling off, you should come out. You could take a swim in the lake, if possible. In the winter some Finns even roll in the snow, or make a hole in the ice and swim there.
You can bathe in a sauna as often as you like. It relaxes you and makes you feel refreshed. If you get the possibility you should try the "vihta". The "vihta" is used to "slap" yourself or others and it cleanses your skin, it's made of birch. You cut birch twigs with lots of leaves and tie them together. The "vihta" should have lots of leaves so it makes the slapping softer! The vihta is NOT supposed to hurt, and a Finn should first show you how to use it.
The sauna is a Finnish idea and some other people have tried to copy it. I have experienced some copies, but the funniest must have been the "sauna" in Japan. They didn't want to let children in (they thought that it would hurt them), and they had a TV inside!!