Without a permit.

May 2016, Sørenga. A rowboat waits by the quay, and the sauna bobs twenty metres out. The year before, it could tie up at the quay. Then the permit was not renewed. "We couldn't get permission, so we went for forgiveness," builder Hans Jørgen Hamre told NRK. Neighbours complained about the smoke. In April alone, more than 260 people rowed out.

Two of the regulars swam there all year. One of them, Ragna Fjeld, had worked at Norway's Foreign Ministry on the country's bid for a seat on the UN Security Council. The ministry's ice bathing club did the anarchists' paperwork. That December they founded an association together, with the anarchist as chairman and a former diplomat as his deputy. Today Oslo Badstuforening has more than 20,000 members, and Ragna Fjeld runs it.

In Helsinki, Sompasauna was built without a permit too. The city tore it down. The locals built it again.

Permission or forgiveness: which would you ask for?

Sources: NRK 19.05.2016 (Sørenga, the rowboat, Hamre and Fjeld); Aftenposten 26.02.2015 and 20.01.2022; Oslo Badstuforening, Om oss; Oslo kommune 29.01.2019; Brønnøysundregistrene, founding notice 07.12.2016; Journalen 13.03.2026; Sompasauna (Helsingin Sanomat 2021, Yle 2017).
Sounds: Freesound (CC0): ivolipa, I.fekry, brunoboselli, laughatlantic, vero.marengere, LiezelDippenaar, Sadiquecat, RichieMcMullen, bruno.auzet, Vrymaa, HenKonen; the löyly: TRP. Water and wind: Yle Arkisto, CC BY 4.0.