Russian Banya of Dallas

There is a traditional Russian Bathhouse in Dallas. Who knew??? 3 of us found the Banya yesterday. We intended to only stay about 3 hours. It ended up stretching to about 4. Who noticed??? http://russianbanyaofdallas.com/

There are three types of saunas at The Banya, Turkish, Finnish and Russian. I had never really thought about “wet” saunas as being “Turkish” and “dry” saunas being “Finnish”, but that is how I will think of them from here on out. Turkish saunas are relatively cooler with higher humidity. Finnish saunas are all about heat, with no humidity at all. Russian saunas have less heat than the Finnish saunas with more humidity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banya_(sauna)

One of the things that makes the Dallas Banya unusual is that it uses a traditional wood-fired stove to heat the banya. There is this wonderful, vaguely smoky smell to the place that made me think about being in the mountains in winter.

Everything in the Russian sauna is hot. You have to wear flip-flops or your feet will be uncomfortable. The wooden seats are hot enough that you have to bring in a plank from outside to sit on. I made the mistake of wearing a bathing suit that had a metal ornament on it. That metal heated up. I kept waiting for the underwires in the suit to become a problem. They might have eventually, but I shucked off the suit before that happened. The Banya is better in the buff.

We bought a Venik, a bundle of oak branches, with the leaves intact. The management soaked the Venik for us. Using it in the Banya added another layer of sensations to the experience.

The Banya has a Rosemeade address but it fronts on Marsh. I spent an extra 10 minutes or so trying to locate the place. Rosemeade is the dividing line between Dallas and Carrolton, so the street numbers on the south side of the road don’t match up with the numbers on the north side.

I had a massage. The guy is good. Next time, I will schedule the massage ahead of time and set it up toward the end of the process.

The vast majority of the time at the banya is spent sitting outside, waiting to go back in. You have to cool off a little before you can take more heat. Bring a book. Bring your knitting. Bring a friend. Order a snack and some tea. It is all good…