⛰️"Ser consciente significa abandonar los juicios durante un tiempo, dejar de lado nuestros objetivos inmediatos para el futuro, y tomar el momento presente como es y no como nos gustaría que fuera" 🧘🏽♂️✨#nature #naturelovers #water #hot #river #meditation #freedom #explore #discover #disconnect #mountain #mountainlife #mountainlovers #travel #lovetravel #instatravel #fontpedrouse #france #photography
Despite the lead picture, we'll be first looking at the European sauna scene.
And for starters, the seemingly never ending culture shock of the European sauna experience.
First up, Italian sauna culture by World of Sauna. A post (Oct. 11) mostly summarizing the past, even though that past was non-sauna involved. Apparently, the Italian sauna culture is very much what they learned not from the past but from Germany / German visitors. An exception:
'In Italy, they are shy about nudity. For example, signs in the shower rooms state that you are not allowed to wash naked in the open showers. Washing must take place in a shower cubicle with a door.
Clothes must also be changed in a changing room with a door.
However, men’s and women’s changing rooms and washrooms are separate.However, Italian television shows often include nude scenes. The bodies are often as beautiful and trained as possible in these scenes. It’s no wonder young people get body dysmorphia, and many people have self-image problems'.
Similar sauna culture, from the Netherlands. Dutchnews (Jul. 12):
'Internationals in the Netherlands are often aghast when they discover many of the country’s saunas are nude and mixed-gender. But Our regular columnist Molly Quell survived the experience and even enjoyed herself....I expected it to be weird. It was not weird.People kept their eyes to themselves and, with the exception of the one lady, mostly covered up while moving around.After a few hours, I pretty much forgot that it was supposed to be weird.I relaxed. I read my book. I napped a bit. I tried out everything the sauna had to offer. I had a fancy smoothie'.
On the largest island off the Archipelago coast of Finland, explore the unique offering of Storfinnhova Gård, a sauna produced entirely with smoke....This special place offers the ability to listen to gentle sounds of the stream crossing the pine forest into the underground sauna located along the stream. In this magical smoke sauna you can relax in the freshwater pool flowing from the stream inside the sauna. It provides a place to cool down between sweat sessions. It’s massive sauna stove has to be heated for three days to fill up the natural granite rock built sauna with heat and smoke and is lit by candles later for guests to sweat bathe in. There are farmhouse villas that can accommodate up to 22 people, as well as Metsäkylä cottages built into treetops that can accommodate 15 people.
shenaztreasury on instagram, in Germany:
'I was terrified taking my clothes off but I was determined to try this spa. Afterall it’s a UNESCO world heritage site and the oldest spa in Baden Baden. Even Mark Twain has been to this spa.For Germans it’s a very regular thing to walk around naked without batting an eyelid. However for me as an Indian woman it was daunting and I have to admit I wasn’t able to stay there for very long after the people started pouring in :) but at least I got to see it, it was sooo beautiful 😍I did try to wear that towel but got scolded a couple of times by women - “it’s a nude spa and you have to be naked.”Why? I asked. I was told - The reason to be naked in a Baden Baden Germany spa is one of hygiene. Sweat is the body’s way of cooling itself down. When in a sauna or a steam room any clothing slows that process down.Friedrichsbad Baden Baden is the oldest and most traditional of the Baden-Baden Thermal Spa options. These thermal hot springs were discovered 2000 years ago by the Romans who built a spa under this very place where I am today.This place is in the top 5 spa destinations in the world!The city has so much on offer but in this post, I decided to focus on this spa experience! Stay tuned for more.I am going to try a spa which allows a bikini 👙- tomorrow!!!
Sydney Morning Herald (Oct. 4) notes that Europe is presumably a cultural minestrone: quaint customs and differing cuisines. On Germany:
'Germany An enthralling country, but be prepared to be naked. A lot. Don’t worry if your birthday suit needs a little ironing; nobody’s looking. Germans only look if you dare not to bare. Saunas actually have signs decreeing: “Clothing Forbidden.”
Then, to confuse matters, Westfalen Post (Oct. 4, pay article, use archive.ph) reports on changes for the sauna in Plettenberg (Sauerland). Once construction work will finish at the end of November, their sauna's will be textile only!
Naturally, even Germans are confused.'Amüsiert wird auch der Umstand aufgegriffen, dass es zuletzt größere Diskussionen darum gab, in Schwimmbädern auch „oben ohne“ baden zu dürfen. Einige Kommunen hatten die Vorschriften entsprechend geändert. „Nackt in den Schwimmbädern, aber angezogen in einer Sauna? Was stimmt denn hier nicht?“, schreibt Bianca Klappert....Martin Niederstein, der Geschäftsführer des Deutschen Sauna-Bundes, sieht trotzdem kein generelles Ende der Nacktheit: „Textilsaunen nehmen in Deutschland nur einen geringen Anteil im Angebot öffentlicher Saunaanlagen ein und sind noch eine Randerscheinung.“ Sie würden häufiger von Gästen „anderer Kulturkreise oder anderer Religionszugehörigkeit“ genutzt und auch von Frauen. Aber auch in vielen textilfreien Saunabetrieben gebe es bereits seit vielen Jahren auf Frauen zugeschnittene Angebote: „spezielle Damensaunatage, die dem Wunsch nach einem geschützten Raum Rechnung tragen“....Dennoch bricht Sauna-Bund-Geschäftsführer Niederstein eine Lanze für das textilfreie Saunieren. Dafür sprächen nicht nur die Tradition, sondern auch funktionale Gründe: Die Wärmestrahlung in der Saunakabine solle die Haut ungehindert erreichen. Und die Schweißverdunstung solle nicht beeinträchtigt werden. „Zudem ist es weder angenehm noch hygienisch, in einem Badeanzug zu schwitzen, der möglicherweise auch noch aus synthetischen Materialien hergestellt ist.“
Synopsis: Sure, by going textil you create your own niche, profitable too. But textile sauna's are not a trend, Germany remains naked; it's more hygienic according to the sauna officials.
My own 5p on the subject: there's only one way to go.
But seriously: experiences are that textile sauna culture is way too loud for me. Culture concerns traditions. Sauna's are not amusement parks.
Баню больше 4 лет. Переживал разные форматы и погружения в процесс парения. Индивидуальные парения, совместные - маленькие группы, большие и очень большие. Парение как работа с запросом или просто чтобы расслабиться, отдохнуть, получить удовольствие.Пережил на этих выходных новые ощущения.В '19ом чуть чуть коснулся Огонька (и это было трогательно, ощущалось, как касание с чем то живым, большим и светлым) , а в этот раз погрузился полностью в атмосферу Холодка с банным лагерем Баня Будит!Большая баня (36 гостей точно помещаются). За два дня пар окутал, обнял, погрел и позволил совершить тёплое погружение/путешествие более 350 человек.Большая команда (36 участников!) Это люди, которые построили, подготовили пространства - где встречать гостей, где непосредственно парить, где можно было провести время после (которое важно также, как и само парение). Это люди, которые были радикально включённые в сам процесс парения, заботы о гостях до и после.Все 36 были для гостей и самих же себя проводниками тепла, заботы и любви. Для более 350 гостей! Созерцать это в моменте - счастье. Радуюсь каждому участнику. И с благодарностью к каждому.Нахожусь в процессе осмысления всего того, что протекло, увиделись, почувствовалось и смогло поместиться в моё сознание за эти дни.Фото Julia Vlasova
Choke
Away from the sauna shock, but still relating to the Euro sauna scene.
On Saunatalk (Aug. 10), the talk is with Mikkel Aaland and Ukraine:
From BBC(Travel) an item (Sep. 4) on Sebastiaan Kneipp. And Slovenia:'But this Sauna Talk with Mikkel Aaland episode isn’t a downer. I promise you. You will hear about the wonderfulness of what sauna is bringing to the people of Ukraine. And we sauna enthusiasts can put two and two together to get an idea what sauna can do for people in distress. I get choked up during this interview, and that’s what sauna can do for us. Like many of us, we can take a lot of good löyly, but our edges can be soft....Yes, Sauna-Aid! Mikkel is quick to compliment many others, yet he is leading the charge on behalf of Sauna Aid, a multinational initiative sponsored by the International Sauna Association.This is a beautiful story of the magic of sauna. The power of sauna as community, therapy, healing, comradeship, wellness, mindfulness, peace. So many great attributes, let’s hear it from the words of Mikkel Aaland'.
Sharing'Kneipp is not especially well known outside central Europe. But this 19th-Century priest-turned-wellness guru is one of the godfathers of some of today's hottest wellness trends. Born in 1821 and trained as a Catholic priest in Germany, he was driven to investigate "water cures" through personal experience. He had contracted tuberculosis when he was 26, which was often a death sentence at that time. However, Kneipp cured himself through experimenting with hydrotherapy, including regular plunges in the chilly Danube river, and thereafter evangelised cold-water immersion to strengthen the immune system. He also advocated a diet of mainly plant-based and locally sourced food and extolled the power of nature, daily exercise and a balanced way of life....Kneipp began to treat people from his monastery and eventually set up a health spa, Bad Wörishofen, near Munich.....Jasna Paladin, an ethnologist who wrote her thesis on the origins of the Kamnik spa, showed me where the elegant spa buildings stood on the bank where the chilly Kamniška Bistrica river (fed by mountain water) meets the warmer Nevljica river (fed by thermal springs)."This was the perfect location for Kneipp therapy, which alternates warm and cold water in some treatments," she said. I asked her why Kneipp became so popular. "He wasn't the first person that was healing with water, but I think it was because he made these methods understandable to common people," she said. "Also, medicine at that time was often painful and expensive and people were afraid of it, so they were looking for alternatives."Kneipp's core tenets are certainly not radical today. Indeed, much of what he taught has become mainstream. But that's the power of simple ideas: they endure. As Plesnik [Nina Plesnik's family have lived here for more than 700 years and she manages the family's eponymous hotel and spa]said: "It's simple and effective, everyone can do it every day; walking barefoot on the grass is free of charge."On #worldmentalhealthday it’s nice to remember that the simplest of things can bring the greatest meaning and relief.A bit of hot , a bit of cold and a bit of a laugh can have a big impact on how you feel.
Over then to our hot springs.
Robierobes interviews Rust to Roadtrip (Sep. 8):
'Where did your love of hot springs spark from?Our love affair with hot springs began around early 2017, when we bathed in our first ever hot spring in Italy. I remember saying: “It’s like sitting in a river, but hot!” We spent at least a week there, bathing up to 5 times a day! On our second trip we made a point of visiting as many hot springs as we could, way-marking our routes around them. When you’ve been travelling in a van for days or weeks without a shower, your muscles are aching from sitting in uncomfortable seats, getting into a hot spring is pure bliss. Around this time we realised how little documented these were online, and began compiling a resource on our blog*. We got increasingly nerdy with it, researching for hours, photographing them and even probing the temperature and reading up about the different mineral compositions (this is why different hot springs are reported to treat different ailments). It was in 2021 that we began working with a Japanese TV company to produce and present a documentary series about hot springs in Europe, and this was when our passion bloomed into a full-blown obsession. We’ve bathed in over 70 hot springs across Eurasia so far, and probably have another 300 or so marked on a map of ones to visit eventually, in places as remote as the far East of Russia and Greenland!...*We’ve since learned how sharing locations freely online can be damaging to both the eco-system and local populations around hot springs, with some even being closed due to neglect or the impact of huge numbers of visitors. These days we’re very careful about sharing exact locations in the hope that we can aid in preserving these wonderful natural places by not over-popularising them'.
A French post (Aug. 2022) on the hot soaks of Tiermas (Spain):Who knew there were hot springs in Slovenia?These are some moments from a little while back, two thirds into the longest single journey we'd undertaken in our lives so far. Morale and energy were running low by the time we reached the Alps, but a stopover at a thermal spring, albeit a cold one, was a well-deserved pick-me-up.The sweet sounds of early birdsong harmonised with the roar of the waterfall, and the water was beautifully clear and blue in a way we knew we would not see back in the UK for some time.Hot springs are a pilgrimage for us, a place to relax and ease tense muscles and minds, but in a pool that offers a cool thrill down the spine we found ourselves more prone to play. We swam and danced, and jumped and twirled, unleashing our playful souls safely alone, shielded beneath a canopy of trees.With the distractions and obligations we allow into our lives, rarely do we give ourselves time to play. We assume it's something for children, an idea you leave behind in your childish past. But it's as important for building bonds as it is giving your mind a break; and after unleashing our inner child even just a little, we wonder why we were ever so serious in the first place.
'Arrivés sur place, nous pensions seulement observer ces belles ruines qui viennent flirter avec la surface de l'eau. Le cadre est idéal pour une séance photo: peu de monde, eau bleue céleste et bâtiments partiellement détruits. Les pieds dans l'eau du lac, nous nous rendons vite compte qu'elle est anormalement chaude. Puis nous remarquons, à un endroit précis, de petites bulles qui remontent du fond. C'est alors qu'une vieille dame arrive à ce moment même et se jette à l'eau sans réfléchir (et sans maillot non plus)'.Tierrassinfronteras (Aug. 23) heads off to Granada's
'Baños de Dúrcal, a constant though lukewarm spring (24C) with thermal origins'.
Holyandhealingwells had a vacation and visited Caldes de Montbui in Catalonia (Aug. 18):
'The water is indeed remarkably hot, flowing at great speed at a temperature of 74º C and is so hot that it steams considerably. The water being so hot that it is conveyed to “safareigs públics” which are 19th century, communal washing houses which are still used although on my visit I did not witness it as apparently it happens early in the morning'.
Wapiti Travel (Jul. 10) looks at the 12 hot springs of the Azores. A very extensive post. This from the island of Flores:
'Aguas Quentes is a small boiling hot spring full of sulphuric water.They are too small to bathe in, in fact, they’re so small that you will only notice them if you get really close.Don’t let this stop you from going there. The scene is very dramatic and usually also very quiet which makes it worthwhile.Getting there requires a 1.6 km hike of which the last part, once you reach the oceanside, is very challenging. Even if you’re not able to get all the way down to the hot spring you won’t regret the trip. The view from the top of the cliff is impressive and will make this hike a memorable experience.Be cautious when touching the sulphuric water, it can sometimes be really hot and it may burn your skin'.
A World of Spa looks to Turkey (Aug. 10). Pity though they only look for the luxurious resorts. A missed chance.
'Greece is gradually discovering the potential tourist goldmine of its plentiful, and in most cases little-known, natural hot springs.Due to Greece’s unique geology, there are more than seven hundred natural hot springs throughout the country—and eighty-four of them are officially recognized as having healing properties.The idea of using hot springs or spas in the hope of easing certain ailments and diseases dates back to prehistoric times, and the history of thermal springs is rooted in ancient Greece'.
ThinkGeoenergy reports (Sep. 4) on some potential developments in Poland:Hot water spring (40 degree celsius) Loutra Elevtheron, Greece#loutraeleftheron #greece #minicamper #minivancamper #minivanconversion #minivanlife #camperlife #minivan #vanconversion #vanlife #minivancamper #vanconversion #campervan #camperbuild #campingbox #lowbudgetcamper #opelcombo #camping #campinglife #campingbox #camperbox #combo #combotour
'The geothermal heating project in Kolo, Poland has received an add-on investment to evaluate the feasibility of putting up geothermal-heated thermal pools'.
⭐️Life Lately - from Evening Star to Morning Star to Venus’ first Rose Gate of descent to the Crown, to the Virgo New Moon & soon Equinox, this last chapter has been filled with magick and miracles, grace, grief, gratitude, sadness and celebration… (swipe left for pics)🌹From our Magdalene Pilgrimage in France>> to the wilds of Zimbabwe with my Soul Sister @sarah.naia.soleil>> to completing our Queen Codes 10 month Training>> to family time in BC at our Lake House>> to officiating my cousins wedding>> to being home on Maui for 5 only nights & getting quite ill>> to traveling back to BC again unexpectedly as my extended family joined together in honouring the life of my beloved uncle Bob and supported him into his passing from life to death last week (more reflections coming)>> to home again on Maui over the weekend and seeing some of the effects from the catastrophic fires near our home🩵Loving and living recently has been *especially non-linear. Traveling not only around the world, but through liminal of space and time, into the realms of life and death, the depths of my heart, mind and womb, and in through portals with Mary Magdalene & the Hathors. Thank you holy waters of river, lake & sea.🌹On the priestess path, I have recently been focused as daughter, niece, aunty, sister, cousin, and friend (whilst also maintaining the roles of CEO and Biz partner), and haven’t been sharing as much here.This Equinox season, I’m prioritizing being wife, lover and beloved, and (fur baby) mama and continuing in my role as mentor, teacher, ceremonialist and guide.🩵With the Wheel turning, my Creatrix self will be deepening as oracle, artist, scholar and writer.As Equinox approaches, I am present to the infinite gifts of life, that which is ready to be released, all that is gestating and unfolding like the rose, and that which is on its way into form.🌹What roles are centered in your life right now?🌹What is shifting and changing?
🌹What do notice as the seasons begin to transition?
On Facebook, defenders of the Source Croizat are feeling upset (Jun. 24) as volunteers have created a third bassin to enjoy, though simultaneously encroaching on the protected river Dordogne.
The Common Wanderer (Mar. 1) visits Gellert baths in Budapest:
'The first thing to know before a visit to any Budapest bath is that every one of them is a bit of a maze — and Gellert is no exception!This is both a good and bad thing; you’ll definitely get lost wandering around the complex at some point... but there are always new treasures to be found tucked away in its unexpected nooks and crannies.What is guaranteed is that you’ll find a huge array of 13 pools and thermal baths, both indoor and outdoor and ranging from 26c to 40c, plus saunas, steam rooms, and massage treatment rooms to keep you busy during your time here!We won’t go through every facility or service here, just the ones you really need to know about as a tourist....if you’re worried about having to strip bare on your spa day, fear no more. While many countries in Central Europe take a strictly nude approach to their wellness areas, Budapest’s baths are quite a different story.Gellert’s various pools and baths — as with most of the thermal baths in the city — are co-ed throughout and therefore you’re required to wear something to cover up in all public spaces.The only exceptions to this rule are in the shower, or if you’re having a massage in one of the gendered treatment rooms (then you go topless). Everywhere else, you’ll need to be clothed!
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