Caution: Public saunas for experts only!
@ 1:19 pm This is pretty funny, but perhaps only when looking at it from the outside. Some unpleasant sauna patrons in Vuosaari are heating things up by dumping copious amounts of water on the stove and causing their fellow sauna-goers to run for cooler refuge. But that’s not all…
Ruthless throwing-on-of-water is only one of the causes for complaint this year: there have been reports of swearing and insults, too.
“We have a lot of children in here. Something has to be done.”
Swearing and insults?! Seems like things are really out of control. Those must be some hyper-competitive experts practicing to win acclaim in the World Sauna Championships. Let’s hope they get things sorted-out before someone has a heart attack.
Speaking of sauna mischief, I staked my own claim-to-sauna-fame many years-ago as a youngster of about 6-years-old. I was the first one in, and my father and grandfather were still in the adjoined changing room. For reasons I cannot explain, I couldn’t resist peeing on the sauna stove. Needless to say, that seemingly innocent act ended our sauna session before it even began, and we had to evacuate the house for a while. It was the source of chuckles for many years thereafter.
These days, I’ve mostly retired from such antics. A traditional wood sauna (mine is over 100-years-old) cold beer, cool lake and midnight sun is all I need. No competition necessary. Only pure summertime enjoyment.
Any other sauna stories out there?
That sure was a funny story and heavy “löylying” is something I can very much relate to. I’m born and raised in Sweden with a Finnish father so I can recall many sauna occasions whilst on vacation in Finland with people, both relatives and people in the sauna who has detected that I’m Swedish, very eager to “löyly”. I have always laughed at their atempts to “test the Swede” or even in some cases “smoke out the Swede” (in a friendly manner of course). It’s hilarious.
Comment by Mika — Sat, May 26th, 2007 @ 2:01 pm
Hay, my new house is finally under construction, and its going to have a Sauna here in Southern Maryland. No idea how I will pull this one off, as the building codes don’t seem to know what to do with one.
It will have an outside widnow looking at the water.
Comment by winter “Yea, Proton Power, now in remission†— Sat, May 26th, 2007 @ 2:09 pm
The public transit post has vanished! The blogosphere is being censored! Alert the media!
winter, make sure you have easy access from the sauna to an outside patio where you can chill out with a cold beer (or rum, if you prefer).
Comment by Freeridin' Franklin — Sat, May 26th, 2007 @ 2:50 pm
One mentally handicapped kid at a camp that I went to snuck into the girls dorm and peed on their sauna stove. That was funny.
Comment by Unit — Sat, May 26th, 2007 @ 3:49 pm
As löyly,
the occasional beer is ok and kinda sweet, but urine is perfectly objectionable.
Comment by mog — Sat, May 26th, 2007 @ 6:39 pm
the occasional beer is ok and kinda sweet, but urine is perfectly objectionable.
Can you tell the difference with Finnish beer?
Comment by Freeridin' Franklin — Sat, May 26th, 2007 @ 6:58 pm
“cold beer (or rum, if you prefer)”
plan to have a beer cooler right outside in hallway, stuck under some stairs, so its out of the way, but available. Should I put it inside?
Comment by winter “Yea, Proton Power, now in remission†— Sat, May 26th, 2007 @ 7:23 pm
i agree pissing on the stove is one of the funniest things there is.
Comment by oh the smell — Sat, May 26th, 2007 @ 7:27 pm
It’s a shame Kristian has removed his previous entry about the buses. He was right at least in part, and it started an interesting discussion. Don’t remove entries, people… I have seen some before that didn’t interest me, some of them written by Kristian, but then I just didn’t read them to the end and didn’t comment… Not everyone has to like everything, but what has been posted already could just as well stay here, don’t you think?
I agree that the public transport could and should be a lot better for example in Espoo. Even on the distance of over 20 km, I’m always faster by bike. A few times I had to get off the bus in the middle of the trip because of the stench left by some drunk who hadn’t washed in ages and/or didn’t bother to take his pants off in the toilet. Also, in the winter, when I had to take the bus to get to work, it happened at least once a week that the bus didn’t stop for me when I was the only person waiting at the stop (yes, I did wave, I wore a bright jacket and I’m not that small). I know I’m not the only person who has experienced this.
Another thing. I live 2 km from the border with Helsinki. Isn’t it crazy that I have to pay 3.50 € (or something like that) for a bus journey lasting less than 10 mins? I usually just try to walk those few stops and take the bus from the first Helsinki stop, but when I don’t have enough time, and when I’m going with my husband, of course we’d rather take the car than pay 14 € or so for the round trip.
I’m sorry I’m coming back to the obviously sensitive subject. I rarely comment here, or on any blogs, but it’s a relevant issue and I was disappointed to see the previous post gone.
Comment by A. — Sat, May 26th, 2007 @ 9:40 pm
who needs public saunas??? LOL!!! poor ppl??
Comment by Jim Z — Sat, May 26th, 2007 @ 9:58 pm
Heh, the same topic has produced letters to the editor also here in Oulu. Those löyly-maniacs used to be mainly old geezers, who probably had all their thermoreceptors frozen in the Winter War.
There were these brothers in my old neighbourhood…Their sauna trip turned into löyly-contest and usually the youngest one quit first. Once he threw a whole bucket of water to the stove and after escaping, blocked the door so that the two other guys inside couldn’t get out. In the fear of retribution, he didn’t open the door until their father came in some half an hour later. Everybody survived, but his brothers were found sitting under the benches.
Public saunas are essential part of Helsinki history. In the old days, workers apartments certainly did not have such luxury, they could even share a toilet with a neighbour, but there was a public sauna almost in every quarter. Nowadays they are more or less an extension to the public swimming pools.
As a country redneck, my most essential Helsinki-experince was probably taking bath at Arlan Sauna after workshift of driving all those harsh steelbiters back home from Kvaerner shipyards with a 1959 4-axle tram.
As Juha Vainio put it:
“Yleisessä saunassa
olin opissa
Enso-Gutzeitin aamuvuoro istui kuumassa kopissa.”
Comment by Antti rn — Sat, May 26th, 2007 @ 10:50 pm
juha vainio wtf??? who is that guy?..never heard of him before.. (i live in ND)
Comment by Jim Z — Sat, May 26th, 2007 @ 11:19 pm
I was in a hotel sauna in Tampere. There was a bachelor party taking most of the space. Then an older guy came in and started throwing water on the stove while askng what kind of ‘men’ were in there with such a cold room. He really threw it on until we were the only two left. He then laughed when he found out that I was an American and that there was no way that I was going to lose the sauna ‘game’.
Comment by Fred Fry — Sat, May 26th, 2007 @ 11:47 pm
What the fuck? No bus problemo? This is from ass… as they say ’round these parts.
Comment by Dave the Slave — Sun, May 27th, 2007 @ 5:44 am
Additionally, all this fucking bullshit about “censorship” is tripe. I was away for 24 hours, how bad could it possibly have gotten that you’re deleting your own posts.
You really missed the bus, K.
Comment by Dave the Slave — Sun, May 27th, 2007 @ 5:46 am
“who is that guy?”
No intention to puzzle people. If only Ezra Pound or someone had dropped a line or two to shed light on soul of a public sauna, I could have used that reference instead.
Juha Vainio was a finnish songmaker. This song was about public sauna, where his father took him with the rest of Enso-Gutzeit (now Stora Enso) plant morning shift workers and where he learnt a thing or two about life by listening their sauna talk.
Comment by Antti rn — Sun, May 27th, 2007 @ 2:50 pm
“Yleisessä saunassa
olin opissa
Enso-Gutzeitin aamuvuoro istui kuumassa kopissa.â€Â
So he was a big SDP fan and redneck???
Comment by Jim Z — Sun, May 27th, 2007 @ 4:40 pm
what’s wrong with you Jim Z?
Comment by Mika K. — Sun, May 27th, 2007 @ 4:48 pm
only idiots live in north dakota
Comment by Mika K. — Sun, May 27th, 2007 @ 4:56 pm
In other song he was “milked enough by the system” and fed-up with YLE news and in other one being a “forest finn”. You make the judgement.
Comment by Antti rn — Sun, May 27th, 2007 @ 6:04 pm
What has happened to the bus / public transport entry and comments? Has Kristian censored it?
Comment by JG — Mon, May 28th, 2007 @ 1:46 pm
To JG: “The Management” refuses to comment on the disappeared blog post. So much for “freedom lovin’ Libertarians.” I started a lukewarm flame fest at:
http://forum.finlandforthought.net/viewtopic.php?t=41
Comment by Dave the Slave — Mon, May 28th, 2007 @ 3:27 pm
“I started a lukewarm flame fest ”
Yes, lukewarm indeed.
You can keep flaming. But here’s the post…
http://www.finlandforthought.net/2007/05/25/finns-choosing-overpriced-cars-over-sparse-public-transit/
I explained what happened in the comments.
Comment by Kristian — Tue, May 29th, 2007 @ 8:31 pm