Russian Roadtrippin'

Hours before sunrise on Sunday morning, my Russian mum and I got on the metro along with drunkards on their way home from da club to begin our four and a half hour journey to the dacha. The dictionary definition of a dacha is "a Russian country-house or villa" but I believe this definition somewhat glamourises the average dacha. I would describe it as a cross between glamping and a trip to the allotments.

The highlight of the trip was by far my fast ever trip to a Russian bathhouse. Sergei and Lyuda (my hosts) have their own bathhouse across the road from the dacha. Prior to the experience I was aware of two things about the banya experience: the complete nudity, and the practice of "massaging" yourself with bunches of dried birch leaves. What I did not know was that it is also traditional to wear a hat, ideally one made of felt. A visit to Google has informed me that this is to maintain a constant temperature throughout your body, so that you aren't rapidly overwhelmed by the 93 degree heat. Lyuda did explain this when she handed me a hat but I was too busy trying to work out where to put my eyes to be able to understand much Russian at the beginning of the experience.

Da dacha!

So there I was butt naked, with a red woolly hat on, in the middle of nowhere in a Russian forest. After a brief adjustment period, I took some time to meditate and then taught Lyuda some meditation techniques before getting dressed and heading back to the house to watch hours of crappy Russian TV.

Never a dull day in Russia!