A very interesting article. It made me look up some facts, actually. In Finland, there are 218 public swimming halls. There are 313 administrative districts (co

A very interesting article. It made me look up some facts, actually. In Finland, there are 218 public swimming halls. There are 313 administrative districts (communes, towns or cities) in the country. Thus, practically even the smallest of the communes with population of only a few thousand have a swimming hall; big cities have several. Lacking geothermal heat, the pools are indoors and explicitly heated obviously. This isn't generally talked about much. I didn't realize it myself before reading this article: Finland probably isn't famous for its swimming and swimming hall culture, but it's everywhere. Except for people who don't specifically like water practically grow into a culture of swimming at halls. Nobody really thinks much about it. Everyone knows how to behave there. Old people gather at swimming halls for bathing, swimming and aquajogging. Physical education classes at school swim at the local hall, kids are brought to swimming halls in the first year, regular people go to swimming halls to exercise... There's nothing much special about it. We swim outdoors, in lakes and the sea, mostly for fun but swimming halls are the place for a more focused physical exercise. I would assume Sweden and Denmark are similar, roughly. I've had subpar experiences trying to find an abundance of swimming options when travelling abroad. My culture might not be that common after all.