A Finnish dip

So I was talked into going to the Spa Le Finlandais last night. My resistances were as follows:

• The group was mostly composed of hard bodies and skinny girls.
• It involves cold.
• It's in Laval.

The experience was mostly positive, but I spent a lot of time smirking and musing (all the hot steam in the world could not wash me of my sarcasm, what did you expect?) I made four observations worth noting.

SCARY MOMENT #1

Hanging out at the Spa - on a Friday night at least -  is no different than hanging out at Bar Fuzzy (I would have said Thursdays, but we were in Laval after all). It's obviously more damp, but the people are hardly any more dressed and by closing time, every tongue in the place is probing someone else's throat. Except the obese teenage boy with the curious stares and the man-boobs, but I'm thinking he had a pretty sound sleep last night anyway.

On a side note, the staff were instructed to walk around the hot baths and ask people to respect the silence. Luckily, most people were too busy sucking face to cause any disruptions.

SCARY MOMENT #2

There are a lot of really ugly tattoos in the world. And most of them are located in the small of a woman's back, around a man's upper arm, or behind a woman's shoulder. Horrors spotted last night: an iguana, three dragons, two barbed wire motifs, and one 'PEACE' in a gothic script. Yikes. One of the dragon girls was even wearing a gold chain around her waist. Classy!

AMAZAZZING MOMENT #1

While in the steam bath (wow, did I love the steam bath), I was staring at my thigh and actually saw a bubble of steam percolate twice from one of my pores. My own tiny volcano.

AMAZAZZING MOMENT #2

While in the steam bath - and shortly after a very large woman (who obviously does not understand the concept of letting your eyes adjust to the steam before sitting) nearly sat on me - I managed to meditate for the first time in weeks. My mind was actually able to stop racing for the first time in ages. Whoo-hoo me!

HELPFUL TIP

Don't wear contact lenses at a scandinavian spa. Your eyes dry up and the lenses *pop* off your eyeballs and then you can't blink and have to be driven home. Good times.

And for the record, I walked under the cold waterfalls twice. It was very cold, but my skin feels fabbo.