More on the Banya by blaird
Okay, here was my experience in the Banya. We all stripped down and found a comfortable spot on the benches in the Banya as the guy that owned the Dacha (bald guy in picture) threw water on the stones. After hanging around talking for a while, we took turns laying on our bellies on a wooden bench. I had the opportunity to wack Ruslan with branches on the back and legs. He kept telling me I wasn?t hitting him hard enough, but as this was my first time I didn?t want to hurt him.Then it was my turn to lay down. I remember thinking how odd it was, but that I felt comfortable, even though I had no clothes on and a guy was hitting me on the back with branches. Maybe it was the vodka? maybe it was the friendliness of the people?but I think it was probably both.
While the branch wacking thing was still going on, one of the guys told me to throw on my shorts to hit the shower. So we went into the changing room, threw on our shorts and ran out of the banya to an outdoor shower. The water was freezing, but oddly refreshing. After this, we ran back into the banya to hang around and talk some more. We ended with a quick cold outdoor shower, and then went back to drinking vodka and eating watermelon (The picture is our first post banya drink).