Now I should start off by talking about the stupid dare I did the morning before I went. To make a long story short, some of the girls dared me and two other guys to paint our fingernails like Polish flags for the whole day. So for the entire trip to the salt mine I was mostly complaining that my fingernails were bright red and white. But true to my word I didn't get that stuff off until the end of the night. And yes, Polish people did look at me like I was crazy periodically, especially my host sister.
After we got the the salt mines we had to wait until our group was allowed to go down in them so we had some free time. This was basically spent as souvenir shops where I looked at things and eventually got a pin for my blazer. Later we got some Polish popsicles and sat around in a very pretty park until it was time to go down.
Then we got to enter the mine. We had to go in two separate groups, with about 20 people each. I was in the first group. The first thing we had to do is go down about fifty flights of stairs. It was actually amazing to look at because there was a little hole between them where you could look straight down. At the end of it there was a little black dot which I found out at the bottom was just another fifty flights of stairs with the lights turned off. Then we started into the salt mine.
I'm not really sure how to describe what it looked like. It was a big tunnel with dark rocks, wooden beams supporting it, and what looked like glass in some of the rocks, but that was actually salt. Honestly if you really want to understand just what it looks like though the only way is to come to Krakow and go yourself. Anyway we went through various tunnels, at several points we made out with walls to taste the salt, and got to see magnificent carvings of salt that told a bunch of different stories. We saw a lot of really old methods of moving salt through the mine and learn a lot about the history of the mine. But I still have two more blogs to do until I've caught up to where I am at now so you will just have to look it up or just be content that I know and when I get back to the US you'll have to beat me with a shovel to get me to shut up about it.
We got to see two churches while in the mine, the churches were actually places where people cut a big room out of the rock and carved statues of Jesus into the walls. That might make it sound like a cave, but the first one was pretty, and the larger one was one of the nicest churches I have ever seen, all about a hundred yards beneath the ground and carved out of salt hundreds of years ago. We were even told that rarely proms are held in the church, which caused my group to talk for about ten minutes about how cool it would be if our Polish proms were in the salt mine.
Some other things we saw were underground lakes where the water is so dense that it is impossible to drown in it without specifically trying to kill yourself. Because there is so much minerals in the water, instead of sinking your body would float so well that you couldn't even swim under the water. But sadly we weren't allowed to swim in them, though I did throw of couple coins into it like a giant wishing well.
There was a lot more things that we saw, but most were just different ways to move salt, more history, more stories and legends about the mine, and more salt and lakes. Since I don't have time to tell you about all of that, and I already explained what those things were I'll just move on to exiting the mine.
At the end of the mine there were of course big gift shops for souvenirs and as we kept going through the tunnels that led to the exit (which is all several hundred feet underground) we saw a buffet, a fine dining restaurant, and even a bank, all in this mine. It was actually really funny. Sadly we only went to the third of 9 levels, the rest either being too dangerous or, as in the case of the 9th and last level, flooded with water. Instead of going back up several hundred flights of stairs to leave the mine, they shoved us into these little three story elevators and told us to scream so that our ears will pop. Then the elevator shot us up really fast and before we knew it we were back on the surface. After that me and two of my new friends here got these really tall ice cream cones and we all went to see one of those 3D sidewalk paintings. It was really cool, but I also thought that they look better in pictures.
From there we went back to the camp. Now I'll show you some pictures the other exchange students took.
The Tunnels of the Mines
Statues Carved of Salt
They tell a story that has to do with the mine.
The First Underground Church
(The tiles on the floor are just carved out of salt)
The Second Underground Church
The chandeliers are carved out of salt.
The chandeliers are carved out of salt.
The 3D Painting
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