Aah, Saunas!

Above: Sunset in the Lapland wilderness

As I mentioned in my last post, every wilderness cabin has a wood-fired sauna. The Saami house also had one, and I reluctant tried it on day 2 as I am not a big fan of saunas and steam rooms. Much to my delight, I found that it is standard in the country to have a water cistern attached to the stove, which heats hot water for bathing. Indeed, this was the only way to bathe the entire week (I had been prepared to go without the whole week so I was pleasantly surprised). After spending a couple days in minus temperatures, I immediately understood the draw and function of the sauna (which is a Finnish invention) in northern Sweden. It provides much needed heat and moisture, and a comfortable environment for getting clean!

Going back to civilization, I saw that all the saunas are electric, with no hot water, the same as we have the U.S. It’s just not the same without the cistern of hot water and the open slats in the floor showing the snow below. Despite this, Jordana and I (we were referred to by the others as “the girls”) took one last sauna on the last night (electric), but went outside and did snow angels in a snow bank before running back to the stifling heat.


Above photo: Wilderness cabin with sauna cabin in background.