 Traditional banya and its proud owner |
by Philip Game
Some time after midnight. Three naked males - myself and two virtual strangers - are sweating profusely in the 80-degree heat of a banya or bath house attached to a dacha, a weekender, in the countryside outside Moscow. One companion grabs a swatch of aromatic birch branches and starts systematically beating another.
Meet the Muscovites who really know how to unwind… This is male bonding, Russian-style; and little wonder that Russians share the great European dream of a little house in the country.
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