Banya!

Below are some pictures from the banya!! Below is the whole group feeling very relaxed after our "3 hour spa"... Oscar, Sarah, Bri, myself, John, Helen and Flo!

The steam room (the banya)
Our own private pool!
On Saturday a group of other volunteers and myself decided to partake in the Russian tradition of the banya. The banya is basically a Russian steam room... where you sit in the steam room and (traditionally) jump into a cold river or the snow when you can't take the heat of the steam anymore. However, I of course wasn't exactly roughing it and we went to a banya that was in a hotel, with our own private pool and banya room :)

The group I was with consisted of myself, two other volunteers Bri and Sarah and the British family (John, Helen, Flo and Oscar). After searching for the location for about 30 min, we found our destination and were promptly lead into our own little "banya room" - with a main room with a large table to hang out/eat our snacks at (apparently you get hungry when you're banya-ing), the steam room off to one side and our own little pool in the corner.

The basic jist of the banya is that you go into the steam room for "as long as you can stand it" and then jump in the cold water (the poool). It's supposed to be exfoliating and very cleansing. You basically do a rotation... steam room, pool, sit at the table and drink tea, repeat. We were in there for 3 hours, which I thought would be too much time but in actuality 3 hours was just about enough time.

I could only spend about 10 minutes in the banya until I was dying from the heat (I couldn't breath through my mouth it was so hot!) but once you jump in the cold water of the pool it feels SO good! Sitting at the table drinking tea, I felt like I would fall asleep! It is supposed to be a very relaxing and cleansing process.
While it wasn't exactly the "traditional" way Russians do the banya - in a wooden hut behind the dacha - I have to say it was a very interesting cultural experience and one that I will always remember from my time in Russia!