i'm hanging out in an empty hostel. well, other than staff girl and the girl who started drinking vodka at 11 this morning and has been passed out since 2. it's 5 now. we planned on having a quiet last night, but things escalated real fast, and long story short, i'm in struggle town
at 10:20pm st. petersburg time i fly to moscow, then a 7 hour layover, then fly to dusseldorf, then a 2 hour layover, then fly to vancouver and arrive at 10:10am vancouver time; a very long trip, bookended by daytime, worst case scenario for jet-lag. by the end of this i expect to be not only the mayor of struggle city, but the elected leader of the majority of the municipalities in the metro struggle area.
for now i will write about banya. banya is a russian sauna. it is very hot, and very steamy; usually they are fancy, like a turkish bath, with marble and stuff. but we went to a tiny portable banya on the shore of lake baikal, and it was awesome.
it was a cold, overcast day, and the lake was dark and a bit kicked up by the wind. just before we get in, an englishman runs across the sandy beach and dives into the lake. he was happy when we told him the unlikely function of the little hut we were about to enter. so he joined us, along with our german friend
we alternated between lake and banya, the lake being quite tolerable for a minute or two after being warmed to the core. when you use a lot of water on the rocks it gets extremely hot, it can be hard to breathe
you also beat each other and yourself with bunches of birch branches. and you really give'er too. this is a unique sensation, and it is extremely refreshing somehow. the smell of birch permeates everything. an hour later i could still taste it
when researching this post, i came accross a description of the banya by saint andrew in the 12th century:
I saw the land of the Slavs, and while I was among them, I noticed their wooden bathhouses. They warm them to extreme heat, then undress, and after anointing themselves with tallow, they take young reeds and lash their bodies. They actually lash themselves so violently that they barely escape alive. Then they drench themselves with cold water, and thus are revived. They think nothing of doing this every day, and actually inflict such voluntary torture on themselves. They make of the act not a mere washing but a veritable torment.
what do the proprietors do if you misbehave in a russian sauna? they banya!
but now i pack up to go; Andrew left 5 hours ago; it's been a heck of a trip; i'd probably be a bit more sad if i weren't so darned tired, and the struggle-plane beckons
at 10:20pm st. petersburg time i fly to moscow, then a 7 hour layover, then fly to dusseldorf, then a 2 hour layover, then fly to vancouver and arrive at 10:10am vancouver time; a very long trip, bookended by daytime, worst case scenario for jet-lag. by the end of this i expect to be not only the mayor of struggle city, but the elected leader of the majority of the municipalities in the metro struggle area.
for now i will write about banya. banya is a russian sauna. it is very hot, and very steamy; usually they are fancy, like a turkish bath, with marble and stuff. but we went to a tiny portable banya on the shore of lake baikal, and it was awesome.
it was a cold, overcast day, and the lake was dark and a bit kicked up by the wind. just before we get in, an englishman runs across the sandy beach and dives into the lake. he was happy when we told him the unlikely function of the little hut we were about to enter. so he joined us, along with our german friend
we alternated between lake and banya, the lake being quite tolerable for a minute or two after being warmed to the core. when you use a lot of water on the rocks it gets extremely hot, it can be hard to breathe
you also beat each other and yourself with bunches of birch branches. and you really give'er too. this is a unique sensation, and it is extremely refreshing somehow. the smell of birch permeates everything. an hour later i could still taste it
when researching this post, i came accross a description of the banya by saint andrew in the 12th century:
I saw the land of the Slavs, and while I was among them, I noticed their wooden bathhouses. They warm them to extreme heat, then undress, and after anointing themselves with tallow, they take young reeds and lash their bodies. They actually lash themselves so violently that they barely escape alive. Then they drench themselves with cold water, and thus are revived. They think nothing of doing this every day, and actually inflict such voluntary torture on themselves. They make of the act not a mere washing but a veritable torment.
what do the proprietors do if you misbehave in a russian sauna? they banya!
but now i pack up to go; Andrew left 5 hours ago; it's been a heck of a trip; i'd probably be a bit more sad if i weren't so darned tired, and the struggle-plane beckons
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