The Banya

The Russian banya is a true cultural experience. The Russian banya is a sauna and bath house. When I studied in Russia 9 years ago I had the “privilege” of going to a public banya with my Russian grandma. For those of you who have heard the story get ready for another one. For those who are new to the banya scene sit back and enjoy yourself.
My friends Masha and Natasha go to the public banya every week and they have tried to get me to go with them for months. Now that my time in Krasnodar is coming to an end their requests became a little stronger. They told me they wanted me to have a true Russian experience.
Last night Masha and I met Natasha at the banya. We paid our four dollars at the kassa and then walked up the stairs. The first thing I noticed was men half dressed sitting on benches outside of the women’s dressing room. That was a little alarming. Masha being a regular wasn’t alarmed and she walked straight into the dressing room and started to strip right in front of the windows. We were on the second floor and the windows didn’t have any coverings and we were facing another building! I stripped a little more discreetly, grabbed my toiletry bag, and followed Masha into the wash room. She grabbed a shallow pail for water and we placed our things down on a big cement slab. The wash room had about six large cement slabs to place your toiletries and wash pails. The room also had three shower heads, two sinks, and windows with coverings. Of course it also had many naked women. Oh, I forgot to tell you the proper banya attire. You need shower shoes and a head covering, my head covering was my grandpa’s old bandana and I was very pleased to see that I wasn’t the only one using a bandana as a head covering.
Back to my story, we walked through the wash room and into the sauna. Natasha was already in there working up a sweat. The sauna had maybe 7 different benches set up as steps and the farther up you go the hotter it gets. I stayed on the second bench. After we worked up a sufficient sweat we rinsed off under the shower head in cool water and then headed back in for more sweat. One of the ladies in the sauna asked me where I was from and she asked if we had banyas in America. When I told her no she became very proud of her culture. She comes to the banya every week and shared a lot of advice with me. When I could no longer breathe I headed back to the showers. I cooled myself off and then our new friend handed me an orange exfoliator. She was rubbing it all over her body. It turned out to be a mixture of mango with other things I didn’t understand. I rubbed it all over my body while Natasha rubbed it on the ladies back for her and then scrubbed her back under very specific instructions. Once I finally turned a mango color I rubbed salt all over my body. We stood around in our rub for awhile before rinsing off and heading into the oven again.
After the oven I opted for a massage. It was a 40 minute massage for only 6 dollars. It was the most painful massage of my life. Afterwards I felt amazing. The masseuse thought that I was English. He said Americans are arrogant and I didn’t act arrogant, I acted dignified like an English woman. I’m glad I gave him a good view of an American.
After the massage I headed back into the bath room to rinse off all the exfoliates that were rubbed on me. Then of course there was more to be added. I had to rub myself in coffee and rinse. Then I had to work up a significant sweat again before rubbing myself in honey and oatmeal. It was a lot of rubbing. Finally I was done and I could shower and get dressed!
In the dressing room everyone was asking me if I liked it. Honestly I really did like it. I felt so good afterwards and my skin is very smooth. Then they all had other advice for me. I lost about 3 pounds in the sauna, I’m sure it was all water and skin. They said to keep the weight loss going I needed to go home and drink lots of vodka!
Well there is my banya experience. Afterwards we went to Natasha’s and met up with some others for an evening of prayer and fellowship. All in all it wasn’t a bad way to spend a Friday night.