“How long have you lived here?” someone asked me on my first night in Moscow. I loved it. It meant that I had managed to get to the heart of things right away. I ended up at the top floor bar of a fancy 19th century building on my first night in town by having …
At a 3-star lodge in the western hills of Eswatini, the receptionist pushed back my haphazardly filled out check-in form. She pointed at the boxes next to the titles all of which I had left unchecked. I’m a patient traveler except when it comes to hotel check-ins. After all, do they really need my zip …
A vivacious, middle-aged woman in a swim cap is just finishing a Farsi song with her mother, cousin and our guide Miriam. The small room is filled with their proud, strong voices, which echo in the tiled dome above us. I’m immersed in the moment, marveling at my luck for being there, when Miriam suddenly …
One of my favorite things to do in a new city is to get naked with strange women and bathe. Well, that’s how some people have described it to me, but in my mind it’s the most normal thing. This probably has to do with me being from Finland, where nudity and going to sauna …
The white towel, heavy on my shoulders, gets cold too fast again. But the steaming water is so close that I cannot get too annoyed, and besides, I’m far too relaxed for impatient thoughts. So I embrace the task at hand and once again wring the towel dry and dip it in the steaming hot …
Sweating in a tiny sauna, by the Baltic Sea in Southwestern Finland the other night, I was thinking about the meaning of home. I used to use the word to describe New York City, where I lived about as long as I ever lived in Finland, until moving to Shanghai. Traveling the world, I often …
How many capitals in the world are named after hot springs or something to do with bathing? I should know the answer, being the bathhouse traveler I am, but only one name pops immediately to mind: Tbilisi, Georgia. The ancient capital was named after and built around its sulfur baths, at least according to a …