I'm a True Viking Now!

Ah man! For the sake of having my blog be the first for seeing photos rather than berlooody Facebook - I better skip ahead and talk about the Viking Sauna Tour! But later on, I do want to talk about Stockholm Nation - My new Nation and our Orientation event cause it was really quite the experience! Nevertheless, the Sauna tour in the Baltic Sea takes priority as that really was an experience of a lifetime.

It started with yet another very early and painful morning heading to Stockholm, this time, on the train and some breakfast in a cafe where we all had Vanilla Lattes that tasted great. Oh - One thing I wanted to note was that here in Sweden, I found it strange that cafes, bars and restaurants never fill your cup to full as we do in Australia when it comes to coffee. A Cappacino does not have a head here. All drinks including beers are filled to like half a centimetre under the brim. I find that a strange concept as it seems like it's been drunk or something! Still, they this place had actual real Barista coffee which is hard to find here in Sweden so I was impressed. My first coffee since coming to Sweden! I've also had an expresso coffee that Angela made for me with her fancy pants coffee machine in Amsterdam too. Gosh I'm so good at drinking coffee haha!

Now, we had planned to go on this Viking Sauna Tour for quite a while... a few weeks and each day the event got closer we became even more terrified! The idea of jumping into frozen water was really not something that seemed smart. Especially when it is so cold already....it begs the questions, WHY? Still, we had agreed to get out there and experience genuine Swedish culture. But honestly, we were so scared. All week, we had been taking turns chickening out and backing out and being pushed back in and alas... it was all about to happen!

For good reason to, because this is what the Ice looked like! (just as a teaser)

As we arrived at the hostel where the tour was leaving, we wondered if anyone else was going to join us on the tour. We hoped to meet some people.

The tour guide, whom I had already met last time when I tried to do it, was super nice and still remembered me from last time which was cool! I was amazed to find out that there was actually a lot of people signed up to do it. It was also a super cold day - I'd say about -12 degrees. Perfect weather for a dip, right? In total, there was about 12 people doing the tour - a real mix of students!

The tour guide led us through the streets of Stockholm in an area we had never been where we then caught a bus and then down to the underground for a train. Exciting! Our first subway ride to the north of Stockholm.

As we arrived at the station, we then walked down to the water, a lake which the Baltic Sea runs into I assume. This was where we would be taking a dip. It was amazing cause it was a really big and pretty lake with nice houses around it and it was all frozen! It was also very cold.

Something kind of cool was the snow here. It was really different, not powdery but flakey. It was hard to get a picture of it but even my friend Mina who is used to the snow was amazed by it and demanded a photo!

This is a photo to show the frozen lake even near the jetty. We kicked some snow onto it! WOAH

So, anyway, as you can see, the sauna was on the frozen lake and the tour guide set about using an axe to break a hole in the ice.

It actually was quite thick ice. I was surprised. Here is a photo of us preparing for the shock of our lives! Otherwise known as a "before" shot.

Before going down here... ARGH!!!!

In the sauna itself, we all sat in there, and prepared to get quite hot and sweaty together. It is such a strange idea and quite a good bonding experience doing these saunas. I took a few photos of the sauna afterwards. There was no way to get photos while we were in there seeing as it was so hot the camera fogged up instantly.

So anyway, the heat and steam was about 90 degrees for quite a while and the tour guide kept wanting it to get hotter. She would keep pouring water on there and oh boy, the steam was so mindblowingly hot. It was impossible to breathe and I would sit there being like HOLY MOLY... breathing this stuff can't be good for you. Some of the guys in there looked like a waterfall. It was pretty hilarious, but after a while everyone was looking about the same. Eventually a few people felt like they couldn't stand it anymore and they ran out of the sauna to go into the ice water.

I managed to last a while longer, mainly because I was on the bottom runk of the sauna which is slightly less hot but still very hot. Eventually Kelsey and I decided to go out together and "hold hands and scream together" but in reality we went in one by one seeing as the whole was not that big. For me, going in, I didn't really think about it too much. I just was like - yep go in - and I did. I climbed down the ladder and dropped myself into the water but was not game to put my head in! It was definitely cold but not horrible! In fact - it was quite refreshing. I believe it is cause your body is so hot that it doesn't feel the cold as much.

The tour guide recommended that after a few goes going in and out of the sauna and ice.. after the ice we should just sit outside the cabin on the bench and chill out with a beer. Like just chill wearing close to nothing in the snow and ice because apparently it will feel really good because you won't feel cold or hot. Just perfect and apparently relaxed with the clearest mind ever. It was an interesting idea - I tried it. My feet were freezing like in pain freezing. So we took cushions out from the sauna and rested our feet on that as well as our butts. But otherwise, she was right. You could get away with sitting outside for maybe up to 15 minutes without really feeling that cold!

Here is a photo of my friend Mina dunking her head for the first time fully under water! GO MINA

We ate our lunch and relaxed for quite a few hours just going in and out and everyone had an amazing time. Before we knew it, it was time to go and at least for me, I was actually feeling quite like I wanted to stop being super hot and super cold and just be the normal here which is cold. It was awesome though. We hit a record high of 102 degrees in the sauna and -2 degrees in the water. Our tour guide told us that apparently this is very rare seeing as water freezes at 0 degrees. However, due to the fact it's salty sea water and it is moving, the water did not freeze and it was genuinely -2 degrees! Not many people are meant to have taken a dip in such cold waters. GO US. Here are some "after" photos! Don't we look happy and vibrant!

And to finish this awesome post - here is a photo from the Subway!