An Evening at the Pool...

My friend P�ivi and I decided we'd celebrate our boys' birthdays together quietly by having a trip to the local swimming pool and then a bite to eat after.  Which worked for me, as we were both too busy to attend each other's parties.  Her son Petrus, is a little over a year older than V�in� and his birthday is a few days prior - so it really worked out well.

We went to the pool on Pitk�katu and I was really amazed at the inside of it.  I've never been to Aalto Alavari (sp? It's the name of one of Finland's most famous architects and designers)'s swimming pool before and was impressed!  There was a huge wave pool with a large and tall slide, a small children's pool with warm water, a cold pool for lane swimming and another one with a small slide...oh and there was also a pool for diving in.

I think it was about 7 Euros and we went for almost two hours (we could've gone earlier of course but made it there for shortly after 4pm)  and we received a little card.  You take the card and swipe it to get into the pool area and I had brought a lock with me thinking I would need one - but I didn't.  Every lock has it's own key on a red rubber band (a thick one) and everybody just slipped it onto their ankle to keep hold of it.  How handy!
And everybody was parading around naked (in the shower rooms and change rooms)!  I had to remember that I was in Finland, because I recall in Halifax that not everybody is comfortable enough with their body to just strut their stuff between the changing room to the shower room (which was very large and spacious...) and then to the pool (WITH THEIR SUITS ON!)...Oh and you have to put your card into a slot inside the locker in order for the key to work....
One thing I really loved about the shower room is that there was a bathroom in there, a lot of cubby holes to put your things (even if they were wet as it was slotted so the water could drip straight down), lots of towel hooks and little/short showers for kids...including sturdy stools for the mom to sit with their child and help them shower before getting in the pool and after!  Obviously I did not take any photos in fear of getting in trouble and so I did not capture anybody in the background naked - sorry!
Also there was a staff member constantly hosing the floors down which was nice and regularly changing the garbage bags too!

So I got V�in� ready in his swimming diaper (I had already packed away his swim suit for the season-silly me) and was already wearing my bathing suit under my clothes, threw on a tank top and was ready to go.
My friend and everybody else took a shower (without bathing suit) before getting in the pool - I felt a little silly as in Halifax, I only rinsed prior to hopping in the pool and with my swim suit on.  So..............now I know.

After lots of swimming and bouncing around with our boys, we showered again and then there was a sauna in the shower room.  There were two saunas which was nice, and there were 3 levels to sit on.  I was a little nervous about bringing V�in� in there, not because he's a baby boy, but because of the warmth and heat.  So we sat on the bottom level and he seemed very content to sit there and play with his little plastic rings we brought with us.  Excellent!

So all in all - it was a lovely experience, despite the incredible amount of Speedos I saw on every aged man there.

(Oh yes and the key card you got at the beginning? You just put it in the machine to get out of the pool area and voil� - you've been swimming!)