“How does that feel?” asks Siiri, as the spikes of the juniper branches relieve the itch on my back and the spicy scent surrounds my body. “Peaceful,” I respond, so relaxed that one-word answers are ...

There’s a word in Finnish which evades translation: löyly. It’s commonly used to describe the steam that rises when water is poured onto hot stones in a sauna. But it also signifies spirit or life ...

Deep underground in a disused iron mine and under the bluish glow of a flashlight, a small crowd emerges from a sauna, steam rising off their bodies as they plunge into a crystal clear turquoise lake.

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As the cab slows to a stop, I scrape some of Jack Frost’s handiwork from the window and peer into the depths of the polar night. We’re only 15 minutes from the center of Helsinki, yet dense forest ...

On a wintry day in Kallio, a bohemian neighborhood in Helsinki, a group of Finns huddle outside on wooden benches, clad only in towels, steam rising from their bodies, drinking beer, relaxed. This is ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. – Christopher and Julie Rice sat naked in the sauna, sweating in its 180-degree heat. In the crisp air outside, they then played a few hands of cribbage and noshed on pickles and ...

I'm in Helsinki, surveying the city from its fanciest rooftop restaurant as the setting sun glints off the neoclassical Lutheran Cathedral and the onion-domed Russian Orthodox Church. I should be ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Christopher and Julie Rice sat naked in the sauna, sweating in its 180-degree heat. In the crisp air outside, they then played a few hands of cribbage and noshed on pickles and ...