June 14 — Forssa, Finland to Helsinki, Finland, by bus
Exploring Finland’s capital, and a sauna
It takes about two hours to travel the 120 kilometers by bus from Forssa southeast to Helsinki. Over the next couple of days, I walked all over town, did my laundry, and ate local food. The picture above is what the menu at Ravintola Kannas calls Finnish Way of Living. It’s “fillets of Baltic herring filled with onion and dill, mashed potatoes, beetroot, pickles and aioli.” It’s excellent.
My hotel had a sauna. I had never been to a sauna before. So I went. I had read about what to do. You shower. You go into a hot room. You sit. You don’t talk. You sit some more. There was one guy who arrived at about the same time I did who looked like he knew what he was doing. He sat on one side of the sauna. I sat on the other. Both of us were naked, each sitting on a towel on our wood benches. Then, another guy came in. He looked uncomfortable. He kept a towel wrapped around him. After a while, the first guy left. There’s a bucket with water and a ladle for putting some water on the fire to create steam. I had read that you’re supposed to ask others before adding water. So I gestured to the water, and the guy gave a non-commital response that I read as an “I’d rather you didn’t.” So I didn’t. The heat in the sauna was somewhat soothing and relaxing, but I didn’t feel anything special. About 15 minutes after I entered, I exited, showered again, and got dressed.