Letters from Scandinavia #2: Let’s talk about s…aunas

Staying in hostels (the “youth” prefix becomes increasingly redundant, as a growing number of guests is well into the second half of their lifespan) is never a uniform experience. A convenient location and fares below the $20/bed/night benchmark are often outweighed by inordinately cramped rooms and owners’ surprisingly little regard for cleanliness. The frugal traveller is usually unmoved by such decay as long as next day’s breakfast is included in the “package.” Yet even then it is worth noting that a breakfast can range from luxurious and healthy plentitude (for example the DAN hostel Copenhagen City) to none at all.

Given the sheer number of people coming in and out of hostels, an annexed sauna can safely be met with a healthy dose of suspicion. Thankfully, there are exceptions, and as luck would have it, I ended up in just such a place of exceptional service, cleanliness, and a sauna – all inclusive –, surrounded by pristine meadows, majestic rivers, and birch forests well beyond the Arctic Circle. Admittedly, all this sounds a little biased, but it couldn’t be otherwise: After a Canadian student couple and I had been trapped in a hut (aka tältlägeret) in Abisko National Park I suddenly rediscovered my primordial pleasure for the simple things in life. I have been paying regular visits to the new hostel sauna ever since.

Less adventurous, but all the more beautiful, was my short stop on the Lofoten, a chain of islands stretching over 300 km  from Norrland into the Norwegian Sea. It was total bliss: The pictures tell it all.

Picture above: When an Australian tent meets Lofoten’s highest peaks (recommended reading: Jonathan Franzen’s collected essays in How to Be Alone).

Water from above, water from below, water coming from the side in Abisko National Park.

Floral beauty in the tundra of Swedish Lapland.