Turku Local Customs

You simply have to try it !
I was not really keen on trying it myself, I doubted that sitting in a hot place could do me any good, I was affraid I would suffocate... But then I thought, "oh well, lets do it once at least". There was a sauna in our friend Alain's building, so we just had to write our names on the list, and let's go ! Well, I liked it a lot !!!! It is amazing how good you feel afterwards ! The room seemed so cute to me, with the little wooden benches, and so clean !! I really enjoyed it.
We didn't dare to take our camera with us, so this picture was taken right after the sauna.

In Scandinavia door locks or keys often have to be turned contrary to how you are used to turning them to open or close a door. For example, in Germany a door with a door handle on the right side is usually locked by turning the key clockwise, whereas in Scandinavia you might have to turn it anti-clockwise.

You go away on holiday and you think , yeah i'm going to try everything , live like a local and all that rubbish , then you get lured down the pitch and stumped by something totally random like salt on porridge.
Porridge in the U.K has sugar , syrup and jam on it but not normally salt . Therefore you get confronted by salty porridge , while suffering from a 40 cigarette hangover and you chew a bit while trying not to gag , and your host notices your discomfort and exclaims " not enough salt eh? " and loads more on. Longest half hour of my life.

Everyone wears their white hats and the students wear their overalls and it's definately the day for dressing up , streamers are popular , as are wigs , wizard hats and all kinds of other fancy dress gear.
All of which falls off , gets lost , or stolen by drunk Finnish girls.

Finns love licquorice , even apparently harmless looking sweets will either be filled with it or coated in it. The little boiled sweets that are crushed up to make Salmiakki are supposed to be eaten while drinking beer which apparently makes it taste nicer.

Lottes parents let us use their sauna, which was in a small wooden outhouse in their front garden.
Theres the hot room with wooden platforms and a wood burning stove and a kind of lounge for relaxing , drinking beer and watching the ice hockey.
Sauna's in the U.K people just sit there ocaasionally asking permission to put half a spoon of water on , Finnish ones tend to be short and hot , whole buckets of water get chucked on the stones , along with sinus clearing oil , which prepares you for a good thrashing with the birch branches.
Come out grab a beer and you feel like a new man , standing in the fresh air with that weird tingly feeling.
Even better if they have a lake , so you can go straight out and hit the freezing water.

The white hats are put on the 30th at 6pm , every person has their own and you can tell the old ones because they've turned yellow. They symbolise freedom and wisdom or something and its not the done thing to wear one without permission ( or say they look sea scout hats )

For special events the students have their own sets of brightly coloured overalls , different colours depending on the school and subject with patches sponsored by local companies.
These overalls are not only warm but keep the inevitable spilt beer , vomit , tomato sauce off your decent strides.