The irony of late (...or, с легким паром)

I set out in search of bathhouses -- whether Russian-style banyas or Finnish saunas -- to get sweating and to get the chill out. Turns out there are plenty of saunas about, but there doesn't seem to be much in the way of drop-in public, i.e. affordable, steam. One woman told me that any public wash-houses there used to be had disappeared of late -- and what remained of the saunas was too expensive for the "regular" folks who just wanting a washing-up.

The bulk of the saunas I did find are in hotels, are to be booked in advanced and rented by the hour -- serving more as occasional entertainment than healthful routine (especially considering that most advertise bar services, refrigerators, beds, boom-boxes and the like -- even one (the "Russian House") offering free beer). Some are tucked into forests on the outskirts of town -- entire cabins for hire, many encouraging 24-hour bookings. This arrangement likely suits if you have 10-15 people in your party (the hourly charge starts at about 300 EEK ($30 CAD) -- but a bit much if you're only two.

I did discover that Kalma Saun, the oldest sauna in Tallinn, still works as a public bath. They also offer a small private sauna -- accommodating "up to 2 people".

(By my calculations, that would mean either exactly 1 or exactly 2 persons. Though this recalls another encounter we had suggesting local acceptance of the fractionalized person. When our landlord was arranging the delivery of mattresses to our apartment, he asked us whether a mattress with a width of 120 cm "for 1.5 people" would be ok for us... we suggested that since we were 2.0 persons, it would not quite do).

We rented the sauna for an hour, and gratefully ridded ourselves of all the salt, toxic beer residue and varied Nordic grimes we'd accumulated in our first week. Two hours would be ideal, as we were definitely rushed (the damp body always ungainly in its response to hurried encasement in longjohns/tights, fuzzy thick socks, T-shirts and turtlenecks). Next week, we may have to book it for 2 hours, perhaps in the future finding more people (or demi-persons) to keep costs down. I'll eventually hit the public area and send J over to the men's side, to find out whether the goings-on over there are like those portrayed in the Russian classic "The Irony of Fate".