Today was another cold and rainy day in Helsinki. So we decided to spend our time in a classic Finnish sauna.
We made a 2-hour appointment at a place called Loyly which was right on the water. They have coed saunas so swimsuits were mandatory. They have two saunas: a wood-burning one and a smoke one. We started in the wood-burning one and got nice and hot. I actually didn't know my body could sweat so much. After about 10 minutes we left to cool down and drink some water. They had a nice area to sit around a fire and look out at the sea. They also had a huge deck area which I'm sure would be a great place to sit on a nice day but no one was out there today. After we cooled off we went back in for awhile. It's incredible how hot it gets when water is added; it almost hurts your skin. We stayed in there as long as we could take it and then we ran outside and jumped off the dock into the cold Baltic Sea. Brrr! You know how if you cook a hotdog too fast and it's all burnt and black on the outside but then you bite into it and it's still all cold inside? I felt like the exact opposite; my insides were boiling but my skin was ice cold. It was a weird sensation! I ended up doing that two more times during our time there, which would've made Katy Perry proud ("Cause you're hot then you're cold"). We also rotated into the smoke sauna a few times as well, which really felt pretty much the same but just smelled smoky. Overall it was a fun experience and a good thing to do on such a cold rainy day.
After we got cleaned up we went out for a traditional Finnish dinner since tonight is our last night in Finland! We went to a place not far from where we're staying called Cella's. We shared a plate of sautéed reindeer with lingonberry sauce, potatoes, and pickles. I wasn't a fan of the reindeer (tasted/smelled like venison) but everything else was good.
I might not be able to blog tomorrow since we're taking an overnight ferry to Sweden!
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