This YouTube travel-vlog transcript follows Kara and Nate Buchanan during a stay in Lapland, Finland, where they sample multiple sauna experiences (an ice sauna that risks melting, a traditional wood-burning sauna, and an electric sauna), practice the Finnish custom of alternating heat with cold (rolling in snow), and attempt to view the northern lights. The transcript includes cultural notes (many Finnish homes have saunas; social norms around nudity in saunas), visceral sensory descriptions (heat, steam, icy snow), and a night spent in a wooden teepee stargazing and doing night photography.
Questions this video answers
May 25, 2019.
Over 3 million saunas.
Up to 6 Kp ("up to 6Kp tonight").
Chapters
We have stayed in so many cool accommodations this week, and this one has to be the most unique. It is a wooden teepee with a glass roof.
No way.
This is nuts.
We are about to go dog sledding, and they are letting us drive today.
My body temperature has plummeted. We're going to the sound.
Now. We are about to do one thing that everybody told us we had to do while we were in Finland. We are about to sauna. I've done, like, a sauna in, like, a nice hotel before, but apparently it's part of the culture here. Like, it's ingrained in the culture. Okay, we gotta get it.
Down to number one.
So I need you to wait first here. I will take the stove in and.
You make into it.
So the first sauna we're going in kind of doesn't make sense when you hear is an ice sauna. This building is made of ice. Like the cabin we slept in last night. He puts in the heat, and then we get in for, like, 10 minutes, and then we leave and go to the next one.
But he actually, like, has to take the stove out after 10 minutes or the entire building will just melt and.
Collapse all the way to the top.
Just keep on pouring.
Okay.
As ever, you watch as you feel like, okay, I will shut the door and I will say once the time is up or this is melted.
Okay.
Yeah.
All right.
Whichever one comes first.
Yeah.
Enjoy.
This is crazy. I can hardly see you.
Wow.
That didn't take long.
So if you're.
Whoa.
There's, like, pockets of steam. So if you get up high enough, it starts to. Oh, we're losing all of it.
More steam.
We must have more steam.
It feels so weird being warm when the ground is snow and the walls are ice. I don't even know if you can see us right now.
Insane.
I can kind of hear it, like, crackling, melting, falling. Kind of freaky.
Okay, we're getting out of that one.
Before it falls down.
Now it's time for a more traditional sauna.
Come on.
This one's much warmer.
This is a wood burning sauna. We learned that these are much more traditional than the ice one. And we also learned that there are more saunas in Finland than cars. Apparently, most Finnish people have one in their house. It's a very normal thing. Kind of like Americans have hot tubs. Finnish people have saunas.
We also learned that it's traditional not to wear any clothes, but so Kara doesn't have to spend hours blurring things that you don't want to See, in post, we're leaving our Mason suits on.
Sorry.
Wow, it's warm.
Okay, so we have been told. It is not a proper finished sauna session if you're not doing something cold in between. You can either jump in a frozen lake or go roll in the snow. And Kara told me to come get her when we're ready.
Is it time?
I think it's time.
Are you sure?
Okay.
I hate this.
I don't like this at all. Oh, it's cold. Oh, I.
Snow's cold.
I feel cold. You gotta roll over. You gotta roll over. You gotta get your stomach. Stomach backwards to Nigel. I have to go, guys. I lost my slippers. My slippers are gone. They're gone in the snow. Quickly.
Oh, the snow's really hard.
Oh.
Oh, it's so cold. Oh, it's so cold. Oh. Oh, it scratches. My toes are broken.
Leave the slippers behind.
Leave the slippers. Leave the slipp.
Oh, it hurts.
Ow.
Everything hurts.
That was not pleasant. How did the Finnish people do that? It left it open.
Sorry.
I'm sorry. I was stressed.
My feet are in pain.
They're in pain.
That was a rush.
Wow.
I think I understand. I was immediately cold. I thought maybe my body heat was up enough. It was not.
It was fine.
My heart's beating so fast.
Oh, I think, like, nice, powdery snow would have been good, but that was, like, hard, icy snow, so I feel like it just scratched my whole body. It was very exfoliating.
I'm so proud of us, Nate.
We can say we did it.
I'm proud of you.
Thanks.
That was the best.
Camera's gonna melt it.
And last but not least, there is an electric sauna, which we're gonna do.
The tradition.
It burnt me.
I totally see the draw to the sauna.
That was the best. The guy who set it up for us told us that the Finnish people, if they're at a bus stop and there's only two of you, they're gonna stand on opposite sides, and they're probably not gonna talk to each other, but as soon as they get in the sauna together with no clothes on, it's like, chat it up, social hour. That just cracked me up.
I just feel like I could fall asleep standing there.
I know.
I'm so relaxed.
We have been in Lapland for a week now, and we have yet to go hunting for the northern lights until tonight.
And we may have gotten extremely lucky because we were talking to one of the girls that worked here, and she said it's supposed to be up to 6Kp tonight.
We don't know what that means, but she said she's worked here for two seasons and it hasn't gotten to a six yet.
I hope they show up. This could be the perfect day. Here we go.
So we've just driven out into the middle of nowhere. We were pulled in this glass sleigh that was heated and it's completely dark out here, which should give us the best chance to see the northern lights.
And now it's dark and you won't be able to see me anymore. And I feel like I should be.
Whispering, wow.
There'S so many stars.
Even though we were super optimistic to see them, the northern lights never appeared. So we spent most of the evening inside of the warm teepee cooking marshmallows, warming up pancakes, and drinking hot chocolate.
Every once in a while, we would venture out of our teepee and lay on a big reindeer fur and look up at the stars.
We practiced some night photography, and then around midnight, we jumped back in the glass sleigh and headed back to our tv. So even though the night didn't go perfectly as planned, it's hard to complain when you're ending your night in a place like this.
Sam, a rope tie.
More saunas in Finland than people or. No, not than people. There are over 3 million saunas and.
This one is burning my leg. Ow. She actually told us this is a prototype. Never been used before. How many hats do you have on?
I have on two hats and a hood. Do you know this song is called Snow?
