We all know that sauna came from Finland. I’ve tried out assorted saunas, in Finland and outside, at spas, pools and on beaches. I’ve even been to Helsinki’s big flagship public sauna. But this time, I sauna’d the way the Finns sauna, which isn’t at spas or flagship venues or even in small sheds on … More Sauna & aquajogging: what Finns actually do at the pool
Quite a bold statement, especially for someone who has a Finnish train-related chaos story and lived in Switzerland. I do like Swiss trains – somehow they’re almost invariably timed so that you can quickly get comfortably interchange everywhere, they’re clean, quiet, efficient and the tickets are easy – any given ticket is for a journey … More Why Finnish trains are the best
This was my third trip to Helsinki (if you don’t count the one evening I spent there before getting the train to the Arctic Circle via the train wash…) and I’ve already been over to Suomenlinna three times. The “castle of Finland” (or “of Sweden” if you use Finland’s other official language) is a more … More Taking the icebreaker to Suomenlinna – or is it?
The Rebel Badge Club’s February challenge badge was fairytale-themed and one of the clauses was to go skinny dipping, in brackets, legally. That clause caught my eye. I’ve spent enough time in Icelandic showers and German saunas that I can probably do that. But where? Go down to the sea on my own after dark? … More Skinny dipping in Helsinki: women’s day at Yrjönkatu
Two weeks in advance, a sunrise swim in a geothermal pool floating in the Baltic seemed like a beautiful idea. The night before, while ill with something unpleasant brought home from Brownies, the idea of setting an alarm for 7am while on holiday and walking the kilometre and a half through Helsinki at somewhere around … More A sunrise swim at Allas Sea Pool at -12⁰
For the time being, that’s everything I have to say about what I did in Romania but as I’m trying to get into the habit of doing an itinerary for as many trips as possible, I’m going to do that as my final post. I was in Romania for about five days – I arrived … More My five day Romania itinerary
I had three reasons for going to Romania last month. One was Therme București, the second was seeing Bucharest a bit further on from its communist day and the third was to correct all the mistakes I made on my trip there in 2009. So this us everything I did wrong back then and how … More The 7 mistakes I made in Romania in 2009 and how I did it right in 2025
I’ve seen a lot of people go all the way to Bucharest to go to the Therme but very few – actually, none at all come to mind – spend any time in the big city a few kilometres south of it. But although Europe’s biggest spa was a lovely bonus, I actually was in … More How to spend two days in Bucharest after your Therme trip
“Are you going to the spa in Bucharest sometime?” It was just a comment on someone else’s Instagram, left over a year ago, on a post I shouldn’t even have been stalking but it set it all into motion. From the moment Therme București shoved its way into my consciousness, the biggest spa in Europe, … More Is the biggest spa in Europe overrated? My day at Therme București
Well, this wasn’t something that was in my initial plan for things to do while I was in Bucharest. I was quite contented with the massive spa, getting to know the city and succeeding in getting the train to Brașov. In the course of figuring out how to get to know the city, by reading … More I visited the grave of Vlad the Impaler
I Am A Polar Bear 