Chelyabinsk is surrounded by several lakes. One of them – Smolino lake – is a favorite vacation spot of townpeople at any time of year.
In the middle of the lake there is a floating sauna which is used from early spring to late autumn. You can go out of the sauna and immediately start swimming in the lake.
In winter time sauna is pulled closer to the beach and next to it the big ice-holes are cut. In the Russian sauna (‘banya’) it is normal first to use birch twigs and then jump into the cold water. When the pictures were took, the temperature was -28C, so instead of jumping into the ice-hole we prefered to take cold bucket shower. Wonderful!
