Going to sauna

Part of the Finnish experience is when you "go to sauna". A lot of houses have their own saunas, and even some apartments will have an individual private sauna in your apartment. Those that don't have them might have one in a vacation cottage, or else might have a neighborhood sauna where they can reserve time.

The saunas are not like the ones I have seen in America (usually at gyms). Unlike most saunas here, which are "wet" (or what Finnish people call "Russian" saunas), the way a "dry" sauna works is that you poor water over heated rocks to let hot steam fill up the sauna. Modern saunas have a heater in the room which heats the rocks which rest on top of it, and you poor spoonfuls of water on top of it whenever you want more heat.

The sauna experience begins by rinsing off, then entering the sauna (naked). You sit at the top of the sauna (because heat rises), and poor water to release more and more steam, until you are good and sweaty. You might also have a beer with you inside the sauna. You also hit your body with a bouquet of freshly cut wild birch branches, which is supposed to stimulate your blood flow (and also smells kind of nice).

Once you are done with that portion, it is common to go from the extreme heat of the sauna into something very cold to shock your body. If you are a by a lake, it is common to go jump into the lake. If it's winter time, you can go roll around in the snow. If you are at home, you can rinse off in a cold shower, or just cool off outside (and maybe drink another beer). From there, you go back in the sauna, and repeat the process. You do this as many times as you want.

When you are done, you take a shower and wash off. It is common to wash other people's backs during this shower... which was quite a shock to me when I did "boy's sauna" with my uncle-in-law (luckily I was warned ahead of time that this was traditional).

After the sauna is done, it feels great to drink a beer, and I've heard that salty sausages taste great afterwords too.

I'm not sure how often people use the sauana, but I've read that during the summer, people might have sauna days (like on saturday) once a week during their vacations. During the winter, people might go every other day, because the sauna feels great in the cold weather. In the week I was there, I went 3 times.