From Estonia with love: Here’s the sauna that will be at the Trump-Putin summit
The leaders won’t use it themselves. Here’s why that may be a good thing.
You can’t visit Finland and not visit a sauna.
Finnish officials have arranged for saunas to be available for the hundreds of journalists arriving in Helsinki for the big meeting on Monday between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Much to the media’s relief, the two leaders are unlikely to join them there, although Trump — who has a famous love of fast food — might prefer this local Burger King sauna anyway:
There will be two saunas available for the journalists: one that is kept heated and one — from Estonia — that can be used for media interviews.
Finnish officials have felt the heat (and not the good kind filled with löyly / leil) for choosing an Estonian sauna, but they explained to the press that it is simply the best transportable design available at short notice.
Estonia, which shares a rich sauna history with Finland, is increasingly gaining attention for its sauna industry thanks to exporters such as HUUM, Iglucraft, Stoveman and ÖÖD.
Estonia is just 90km from the meeting across the Gulf of Finland so it already has a side role in Monday’s summit because the US President’s ‘back up planes’ will be parked in Tallinn.
The sauna is made by Boat Sauna with a unique design inspired by Estonia’s strong relationship with the sea.
For any journalists reporting inside, remember that the Finns pronounce sauna like sow-na. It rhymes with ‘downer’, as in “the election of Donald Trump was a downer.”
The stove is at least Finnish.
We can recommend some other great saunas for Trump and Putin to enjoy while they are in Helsinki, ranging from the luxurious Löyly sauna to the very public Sompasauna.
Visiting a sauna is a great way for people to come together in an relaxed environment where everyone is treated as equals and there is a shared acceptance of our human nature. We don’t have to agree with each other on everything after sharing a sauna, but we can at least understand and accept differences better.
In fact, a study from the University of Turku revealed that men* who sweat together are more likely to be co-operative afterwards …er, on second thoughts then, maybe they shouldn’t visit a sauna together.
Here are some great museums in Helsinki to check out instead.
(*Women, apparently, are already fine working together.)
About ‘Estonian Saunas’
Thanks for reading. The Estonian Saunas blog is run by Anni and Adam, explorers and exporters of Estonian saunas.
Anni is a green building specialist who grew up here in Estonia immersed in sauna culture, while Adam is a väliseestlane (‘foreign Estonian’) whose family were exiled to the UK during Soviet times but he has now returned and is still trying to understand the sauna — and everything else about his Estonian heritage.
Together, we love finding weird and wonderful saunas all over Estonia and telling the world about them. Check out our plan to make 100 Estonian saunas more famous around the world.
We also offer two saunas in Tallinn that you can visit. Both are based on the best of Estonian design and technology, although in very different ways. The first is our smoke sauna, Rangi saun, which combines an ancient sauna heating technique with a contemporary Estonian design. The second is our WiFi-controlled e-sauna, Tondi Saun, which is part of our apartment that you can book through Airbnb.
In addition to reading our blog, you can follow Estonian Saunas on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. There’s also a Facebook group for fans of Estonian saunas where you can share advice and stories.
Finally, you can email us at tere@estoniansaunas.com.
