I think I need to give up work and just write this blog full time. 🙂

Why? The more immersive the SL experience, the more satisfying it becomes. The more time you get in SL, the greater the sense of fun. As if my weekend hasn’t been action-packed enough -let’s blame the Irish for their capacity to drag us along to their party, yes? There have been many well-attended St. Patrick’s Day parties this weekend which have certainly manifested themselves as well-attended clothing optional events). May I raise a glass of stout to St. Patrick for that – I tp’ed into Blue Lagoon (again!) this afternoon. More pix of this afternoon’s dance coming up…

Their St. Patrick’s Day party was still going on. From Friday night????? While there Brenda, co-owner of Eden Naturist Estate, IM’ed me. We spoke about a range of topics (yes, I’ll be sharing some of the other matters we discussed here on SL Naturist in due course) but Brenda and I were focussed on one thing in particular: a post she’d received from Swedish avatar Kynlif.

Kynlif had hoped that she could share her words, her experiences and her photographs on the Eden Naturist web page, but Brenda thought that Kynlif’s contribution fell more into SL Naturist’s domain, and that it might realise a greater, wider audience here. It’s a beautiful story of a young girl’s first experiences of nude bathing due to her Mother’s sensible, logical conclusion that swimming naked at a bathhouse on their doorstep made more sense than a 40 minute round trip to swim at a textile swimming baths. 

Swedish avatar Kynlif, author of the experiences recounted below

That resonates with me. I keep arguing that if naturist facilities are provided, people will overcome any fears, shame or embarrassment to readily embrace the naturist lifestyle. The only thing that prevents the availability of such readily available facilities are our legislators. Those of us in Europe, in particular, may argue we live in a secular continent, but the reality is that far too many of our politicians nail their colours to the mast of their religious faith, their Christianity. And the main Christian denominations, based in Europe, still hold power and influence over our politicians and legislators to ensure that the act of going naked or being naked is still being outlawed or limited because of a couple of verses at the beginning of the Bible.

Ella

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When I refer to my ‘first’ experience of nude bathing it was not my first experience of swimming nude, but rather the first nude bathing I had done in the presence of an ‘audience’.
The summer I turned thirteen we lived in a small town 30 kilometers northeast of Gothenburg.
When we were out in the boat there were hidden coves along the river, so we had swum naked as long as I can remember.

When I was a child we swam naked in hidden coves

But the summer I turned thirteen we moved to the coastline near Gothenburg.
Five minutes walk from our new home was a nude beach, Saltholmen Bathhouse. (website in Swedish)
The nearest textiles bathing was twenty minutes drive away.

The entrance through the fence looked exciting. I fantasised about what it looked like on the other side of the entrance.

A sunny warm weekend my dad was out of town on business. My mom and I walked past the entrance to the cold baths: the Kallbadhus (Ella adds: from what I can find, there are numerous Kallbadhus in Sweden, and it appears these refer to organised cold water swimming areas, complete with facilities, and would be differentiated from what might be classified as ‘warm’ bathhouses such as Turkish Baths.)

‘I wonder how it looks in there’,  I said.
‘We’ll find out’, responded mom.
‘Do we dare?’, I said with a thirteen year old’s inbuilt cowardice.
‘Of course we dare’, replied mother. ‘Everyone is naked in there, it’s not (as if we’re going naked in the) town square. Now, let’s go and buy some sleeping mats, towels and coffee, and then we’ll go in there. It’s silly to travel twenty minutes to another bath when this one is so close’.

When we went into the Bathhouse on a beautiful day there were naked people bathing everywhere, young and old.

These older people told us that they had swum here since they were small and could not imagine going anywhere else

For the first few minutes it felt a little strange. Both Mom and I had swum topless before, but now the panties had to go too!
The older ladies were very curious about who we were. But in a nice way. They sat down next to us and we talked and drank some very nice coffee. And had many lovely swims.

We were also told that the beach was divided into three parts; Ladies, Men and Families with children.
So the next time we bathed we got Dad to accompany us too.

My three children have followed this tradition to go to the nude beach since they were little, so for them it is completely natural to bathe naked.

Moreover, they now have, aged 10,12 and 14 years, a very relaxed attitude to nudity. They know that nude is one thing and sex is another matter.

I perceive a nudist beach as a a place to reduce segregation (and division), which otherwise is very evident in Gothenburg. Being nude we lack “insignia”. Everyone is equal and can interact in a nonthreatening manner.

Anyone can hang out on equal terms on a nude beach

Kynlif

Credits: Words, RL & SL photography and photo captions provided by Kynlif. Many thanks to Brenda Hoisin for providing me with Kynlif”s article.

An English language page about Saltholmen is available here.