Winter in Saint Petersburg: 'Like Stepping Into a Russian Novel'

by Stanley Stewart (The Telegraph) On the edge of a frozen lake, somewhere outside St Petersburg, I am stretched out on the wooden racks of a rickety banya, or sauna. Clouds of steam part to reveal several lobster-pink Russians on the racks below. Some maniac has just thrown a bucket of water on to the hot stones in the corner, and the temperature – already somewhere between gas mark 8 and Dante’s Inferno – rises dramatically. I feel my bone marrow is melting. https://russia-insider.com/en/culture/winter-saint-petersburg-stepping-russian-novel/ri12066