Sauna bathing is ritual believed to date back as far as 7,000 BC in Finland and is a practice that’s become a cornerstone of local culture, woven into the very seams of society. Two Finnish Proverbs about the sauna help you understand the importance of sauna in Finland.  A person without sauna is like a body without a soul. Two places are holy: church and sauna. Niko and Greg did their sauna first for about 30 minutes. You can see how happy and relaxed Greg looks after his sauna.  Then it was Siru and my turn for sauna. We undressed in the first room and took a towel. Siru showed me different kinds of skin and hair products that we could use. We then went into the sauna. Löyly is the Finnish word for the steam that is generated when water is poured over the heated rocks on top of the sauna stove. In a traditional Finnish sauna, löyly is an important part of the experience. In Finnish mythology, the spirit of the sauna is believed to reside in the hot stones. The act of pouring...

Today we left Lahti and drove about 1.5 hours to Siru & Niko's cabin. They bought the property 44 years ago - Niko said they bought it for the "sauna cabin" and then learned there was a "summer home" that went with the "sauna cabin." Before we got to the cabin, we stopped at a favorite spot to have salmon soup - it was delicious! Once we got to Kotka, we had a short 20 minute boat ride out to the island where the cabin is located.  The first building you see is the sauna cabin.  We then walked up to the summer house which is more than 120 years old.  The first order of business was to build a fire in the traditional wood-burning sauna stove. It takes about an hour for the sauna to heat up and be ready for use.  While we were waiting, Siru took us on a hike to the other side of the island. The island was covered with beautiful green moss and different kinds of lichen.  We saw lots of wild blueberries and ligonberries.  In the other side of the islan...

Siru and Niko have lived in Lahti, Finland for the last 20+ years. It is a city of about 121,000 and it known for it's beautiful lakes and nature areas, a University, as well as being a leader in Green Energy. We spent an entire day hiking around Lahti through the arboretum and around portions of one of the lakes. It is easy to see why the Finnish people who immigrated to the United States loved Minnesota!  We had a wonderful lunch at the Lahti Ski Jump Tower, the home of a number of Nordic Championships and World Cup Ski Jumping Events. Niko demonstrating the way to eat "Finnish pancakes," something I remember with great fondness that Siru would make for us when she lived with us.  But in addition to all of the beautiful access to nature, Lahti is rich in cultural arts as well. Within 5 minutes of walking from Siru and Niko's home is the Sibelius Hall named after Finland's greatest composer, Jean Sibelius. We had a wonderful opportunity to attend a symphony conce...

When I was a junior in high school, our family had an AFS student from Finland, Siru, live with us for a year. At 18 & 17 (me), Siru and I were both figuring out ourselves as well as the world. We spent hours talking about all the things that teens wrestle with, as well as endlessly listening to Cat Steven's, Tea for a Tillerman album and Simon and Garfield's Bridge Over Troubled Waters album.  When I graduated from high school, I went to visit Siru in Finland for about 5 weeks before I went off to college at St. Olaf. We each followed our own paths - back in those years we didn't have cellphones and WhatsApp to keep in touch 😀 But we did learn a little about each others' lives through occasional Christmas cards over the years . . . .  So what an amazing opportunity to come to Finland and re-connect with Siru. We just learned that we actually both got married exactly 6 weeks apart in 1978. And we've both been surprised at how many interests we share including s...