The Polar Plunge!

Yesterday, myself and some mates from class made a mission to Kallbadhuset (literally translated to Cold Bath House). I was a little nervous about the whole thing....one, you had to be naked while relaxing in the sauna and two it involved jumping into icy cold water.


I probably shouldn't be disguising either of those as 'have to' dos...If I had preferred I could have worn a swim suit and skipped jumping into the cold water all together but that wouldn't be getting the real experience now would it? Not to mention that I recently got enough courage to shower naked at gym and was markedly less concerned about the nakedness than I was the freezing cold water.

Anyways, moving right along. We took a bus to the Kallbadhuset (in Malmo) and almost immediately I was hopping with excitement.....when we were on the boardwalk I found myself flabbergasted that the water in the sea had actual frozen. It wasn't just cold, it was frozen! I kept saying to the others, "WOW! I never knew seawater could freeze like this" which in retrospect was a stupid thing to say...I mean we have all seem documentaries set in the Arctic and Antarctic right? But in the moment I was amazed by the frozen water and pleasantly surprised to see wild swans and ducks frolicking in the open pools of water.

So, we walked into the Bath House paid our modest 55SEK got a weird little towel, cloth thing to sit on in the sauna and off we went. After a brief rinse all three of us went straight to the sauna. It was smaller than I had imagined, probably being able to fix a maximun of 15-20 people per sauna. Instead of a square sauna it was styled as steps facing the ocean. So you could sweat it out while looking over the big blue!

Once we had had our fare share of heat we quickly dashed outside, down the stairs (of which there was a choice), and into the icy cold water below! It wasn't as much of a shock as I thought because your body actually seems to be relieved from all the heat. Then you stand in the breeze for a few minutes until it's time to go back into the sauna.

We did this a good couple of times hot, cold, hot, cold, etc until eventually all of started to get hungry. Who would have thought naked polar plunging could be so hunger inducing?

And what better thing to eat after an experience like this than curry!

All in all it was a fantastic day and something I highly recommend to anyone who has the chance...forget about the nakedness and the giant blocks of ice at your feet and just do it!