Many years back early in my career when I was working in Southern Asia on a fairly low salary, I was always looking for cheap ways to go on leave back to the UK.

One of these methods involved the fact that my Company had 'extended the life' of my old University Students Union card. This enabled them, up to the age of twenty-six, to send me on business-related flights at student rates but claim full fare rates from clients. How honest is a business...

Now it was my turn to get a cheap student flight back to the UK via Moscow and then Helsinki. The saving on a round trip was about two hundred pounds, a lot of money at the time. I bought an el cheapo ticket. The drawback was the trip took forty-eight hours both ways instead of a day.

I was on my way back to the UK in the middle of the summer and I had made it as far as Helsinki where I had to stay overnight. I was booked by the airline into a fairly cheap part hostel hotel about ten kilometres from the airport. I arrived at about nine thirty PM, tired and thirsty.

I got quite drunk in the bar and in the morning I missed my onward flight.

I was suffering from a thoroughly deserved hangover. I eventually made my way downstairs to find a very attractive blonde lady at the reception desk. She told me that the airline had an office only about one kilometre from the hotel, gave me directions and I walked down there.

I had the choice of coughing up more money and taking a flight later that day or staying another night and flying the following day. I called back to the hotel and decided to stay another night; it was much cheaper than the alternative. Back at the hotel, I checked with the receptionist and paid for another night.

The lady, who I thought was probably a bit older than me, was most friendly. She mentioned that the hotel was not very full as it was mid-week and they tended to cater to the weekend vacation crowd or student travellers like me. I looked discretely and saw no signs of a wedding ring.

I was still feeling pretty dreadful. I went to my room; showered, got out my boots, found a long-sleeved bush shirt and a sun hat and applied mosquito repellent I had been bitten just walking around town.

It was early afternoon by now and I decided to take a long walk through the forests surrounding the lakes and try to blow away the cobwebs.

During my walk, I saw several nude people swimming in the lakes or just sunbathing. I had heard about this being common in Finland, but it was still a surprise to me.

Whilst I was walking, I thought about how to approach the blonde receptionist. Hotel staff like her must be very used to young guys trying it on but it was worth a try. There were other female students around if it came to nothing.

I walked back to the hotel and decided to try to engage her in a conversation of the “What is there to do around here?” variety.

It must have been about five pm when I walked back through the hotel door, a little sun and wind burnt despite working outside most of the time in Asia – and there she was! I walked up to the desk and she smiled at me.

“You look better, you must have gone for a long walk?” she said.

“That’s right,” I replied and talked about some of the things I had seen!

She said, “Now what you need is a sauna after the exercise, it will be good for you.”

“Do you have a sauna here at the hotel?” I asked.

“No,” she replied with a bit of a mischievous grin, “But there is one attached to my small apartment that is part of the hotel staff accommodation, would you like to use it?”

What an amazing breakthrough with no effort on my part!

“I certainly would if it’s not too much trouble,” I replied.

“Not at all,” was the charming reply, “I go off duty in half an hour. I can take you over there and show you how it all works if you have never used one before.”

I replied, “That’s very kind of you, where shall I wait for you?”

She said, “Go out to the front of the bar area in half an hour and when you see me leave, watch me walk over to the accommodation and follow me after about ten minutes. Ring the bell for flat six (or whatever it was)."

“Thank you very much,” I think I replied (my memory of exactly what I said was never too clear), “I will be there.”

She was as good as her word and about half an hour later she walked out of the hotel and over to the staff accommodation.

I gave her the full ten minutes that she requested, then went over and found the bell, giving it two short rings. She answered over the intercom, unlocked the security door and I went in, following signs to flat six.

She opened the door, standing there in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt.

“By the way, my name is Liv,” she began. “We don’t get many like you here – most of our student travellers are a bit younger than you and not many British come through at all. You are a rarity here.”

“I hope no one minded me getting a bit drunk last night?” I replied with a grin “I’ve been ‘dry’ for the last sixteen weeks on that project in Asia and it hit me pretty hard.”

“Oh no,” Liv replied, “No one minds as long as you behave yourself and that you stop before you vomit all over the place.”

There had been a bit of bother the previous night with one lad having to be restrained and eventually taken out by his mates.

“How about that sauna now?” said Liv.

“OK, what do I do, please?” I asked.

Liv threw me a clean towel and said, “Strip right off in the room next to the sauna, put the towel around you. I have warmed up the sauna already. I will show you what to do.”

Up went my blood pressure several notches. I did as I was bidden, making a point of hanging things up neatly. I went into the sauna room to find Liv in there, stark naked, the temperature was like something out of Frankenstein and the Sulphur pit and clouds of steam filled the air.

Liv looked at me and laughed, “Now get rid of that towel, you won’t need it in here, but you will need it afterwards.”

I opened the door and threw the towel onto the bench in the changing room. There was sufficient visibility despite the steam to see most of Liv. I did notice immediately across her buttocks and upper thighs a thin white tracery of small scars that looked like an old whip or birch marks. I was amazed.

Liv said, “You can sit on the bench over the 'coals' (in fact electrically heated), throw water over yourself from the tank, let it drip onto the coals and the steam will come up and open up your pores.”

I did as I was told and in no time, I was sweating hard. I took a good look around and noticed that there were several of the famed birch bundles hanging on hooks on the far wall.

Liv must have seen me looking, as she went over and picked one up. “This is what you must use on each other once you are warm enough; the skin stimulation is good for you. Stand up now and turn round.”

A certain part of my anatomy was already beginning to stand up, and I’m sure Liv noticed. Liv went to work on me with the birch, fairly gently at first but soon with some vigour across my shoulders, but with real force across my buttocks and upper thighs, to the point where it was painful and would leave marks.

Liv said, “You are a bad boy, drinking like a beast, now take your punishment like a man, bend over and hold on to the bench.”

I was too amazed to complain. She must have given me about twenty strokes across the buttocks and upper thighs and it stung like hell, it was close to agonising. I hadn’t been in pain like that since being caned at school when I was sixteen, if anything this was worse.

Eventually, she stopped and looked at me saying, “I was sure being British that you would not complain. I think I have broken the skin in several places; we need to put some cream on it. After we have done that, it is your turn.”

She led me out of the sauna and into the little changing room, we dried off and I followed her into what turned out to be the bathroom. She found some antiseptic cream and some clean tissue paper and wiped the bleeding places. My buttocks burned and stung, the worst of the pain slowly subsiding into a dull ache.

“Now we need a little talk,” she said, resting her arms on my shoulders and looking me straight in the eye. She had a lovely figure as well as being quite pretty, was a natural blonde and was not inhibited about nudity!

So saying she grabbed my hand and marched me into her bedroom, lying down provocatively on the bed. She said, “There’s another towel on the chair, please lie on it so we don’t get blood on the bedclothes.”

She handed me another new birch bundle. It must have been twenty or thirty twigs securely tied at the handle end that were about a total of three feet in length – a fearsome instrument. It was fairly heavy.

I was stunned and stared at her. She smiled.

“Now, don’t worry, I chose you for this because you are not a local and you may never come back. I looked at the guest list last night; you were the only English person in the hotel. I had two of our staff girls watch you last night and report to me about you.

"I’m one of the owners of this hotel in our family business but I’m the manageress here – the two hotels we own don’t make enough money to let me do nothing all day.

"You British understand this little kink, which is not so common here in Finland. I dare not let any of the local men near me because they could talk and it might harm the business.”

I stared at her in amazement. My pains were steadily decreasing, and I had a raging erection.

She grabbed my hair and pulled my head between her breasts, “Now come on, let’s make a mixture of love and birching!”

We writhed about on the bed at first kissing and cuddling, with plenty of oral from me, then finally she grabbed me and said, “Stick it in me now before I die of frustration.”

I had trouble not climaxing instantly but performing as requested. After a couple of minutes of vigorous activity, she pulled herself away and stuck her rump in the air.

I asked, “Are those old birch marks?”

“Yes,” Liv replied, “They are, from about two months back. Another young Englishman gave them to me, my, how I enjoyed that, now get on with it please, don’t be worried about doing it hard, I can take it.”

I swished the birch in the air and noticed her gluteal muscles tense.

“Now relax, it will be better for you,” I warned, giving her a first stinging swipe with the birch.

It cracked across her rump with the twigs biting into her before springing back. She jerked her head up and let out a gasp. I counted up to about twenty as Liv slowly lowered her head, stopped shaking her bum from side to side and prepared herself for the next stroke.

I gave her another if anything more vigorous stroke. This time she yelped out loud and clutched at her bum. This was repeated three or four more times but I could see her struggling with the pain. One brave lady.

Each time I gave her time to compose herself, but after about the fifth or sixth stroke, she looked around at me through slightly moist eyes and said, “Screw me again to help me with the pain.”

Percy slid into this now very moist and quite loose lady and we screwed away doggy fashion for several minutes before Liv said “OK, a few more strokes please, but no harder than before please, I’ve never been birched so hard.”

I disengaged (just in time) and took careful aim, landing another stinger that crossed the first two at a bit of an angle. Another convulsive jerk and yelps of pain from Liv and I could see her involuntary muscles in her clitoral area going to work!

Her labia were engorged with blood and I could see her clitoris standing to attention. Again I waited for her to relax, and the Devil made me give the birch a rather harder swing than before. A couple of the twigs snapped and flew across the room.

Her skin was showing a few little beads of blood where the sharp ends of twigs had nicked her or where the stripes crossed over each other. Liv howled in pain, turned around again and grabbed at Percy. It was clear what she wanted and I obliged.

“You wicked boy, my arse is on fire,” Liv said, a little shakily. “Now I need an orgasm to make up for it.”

We screwed away frantically and rapidly we were rewarded with simultaneous orgasms of the ‘earth-moving’ variety, Liv hung on to me like a leach and fortunately I was able to keep pumped up long enough to put her in heaven again!

Eventually, we uncoupled and lay there, Liv clutching at her bum. She said, “God, I have never been birched like that before, I couldn’t have taken any more – was it seven or eight strokes?”

“Liv, I think it was eight,” I said, “You are so brave.”

She smiled and squeezed my arm. “I only trust you Brits to do this, it's part of your culture. You did it beautifully if a bit hard. Now let’s go back in the sauna and the steam can clean us up but I need a pee first.”

Liv went into the little en-suite that opened off her room and as she sat down she grinned at me, clearly not embarrassed.

She opened her legs and let me watch. “You suave Brits are all so kinky!” she said.

Back in the sauna, I asked her about how she had picked me out of the crowd.

She said that my booking, which was on a student ticket and hotel rate, contained details of my University course (through my old Students Union card).

If I had done a course like that, in the day it almost certainly meant that in the UK I would have been either to a Public School or in my day, one of the old Grammar Schools. The cane was in use at both establishments until the mid-80s.

She had two girlfriends amongst the staff and they had kept a surreptitious eye on me the previous night. My convivial but slightly solitary nature when in drink had been noted and was taken as evidence of good character.

Liv thought that I probably would have understood the kink and hoped that I would make a move on her, which I had done as she had given me such clear indications of affection.

She had noticed my erection whilst I looked at the birches in the sauna and that had made her mind up for her. By allowing her to birch me first, I showed that I was no stranger to it.

“Don’t you worry about the noise?” I asked.

"No, here in Finland we are very liberated. The girls will have guessed I am up here being screwed by you and I don’t care – we are more liberated than the English and these things are natural!”

I could hardly believe it.

Liv said, “Do you have to fly tomorrow, why not stay another day? I couldn’t take another birching but there’s everything else on offer!”

Wicked girl! The next day, I rushed down to the airline office and, for a small fee, put my flight off for another twenty-four hours. I was young and single, so what the hell? I won’t go into detail about the next day, but I went back to see her a few months later, and there was more birching action.

I wanted to marry Liv, but she did not want to leave her family business and Finland, and there was very little work for someone of my speciality in her country. Liv was very liberated, and I think she enjoyed her freedom to the full.