Kraków- Wieliczka Salt Mine

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On Friday, we took the overnight train from Prague to Kraków, arriving very early on Saturday. After getting picked up and transported to our hotel, we found two of our teammates, Judy and Adam, who had arrived the previous night, and we joined them for a tour of the Wieliczka Salt Mine. After walking down 380 stairs, we entered the mine and learned many interesting things:


• it's one of the oldest salt mines in the world
• they started mining here over 700 years ago
• there are 9 levels (we only went to level 3 at about 110 m down)
• salt in the first chamber is about 95% pure salt with a few other minerals
• the mine is filled with chambers, chapels, figures and reliefs carved out of salt, and even salt rock chandeliers


The rest of our Habitat team arrived throughout the day on Saturday, and we had a chance to look around the city. We ended the day with Karolina, our Habitat host coordinator, giving an orientation about Poland and Habitat for Humanity's work here, and we then enjoyed our first team dinner, at Restauracja W Starej Kuchni, a cozy, rustic restaurant that serves traditional Polish food.

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