Day 8 - Wieliczka Salt Mines

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I went to the Salt Mines today! Very cool.

I had to walk to the train station to catch a bus to Wieliczka; from there it was about 45min to town I believe. The bus was packed - mostly tourists, none of which seemed to really know where we were going haha. Usually the bus stops right in front of the Mine, but because of construction, we had to get off elsewhere in town and find out way down.

Nice touch though, they had a guy sitting at the bus stop in Wielickzka with little maps to tell us how to get there.

The group of us set down, unsure where exactly to go haha. I befriended an American family from California, and a German family along the way. Both very nice.

The tour starts with a loooooooong descent by stairs... 54 platforms I believe it was, x7 steps per platform. You could hear people commenting in the group that there better be an elevator to come back up haha. (There was)
It was nice to be underground - today was actually quite warm, and in the Mine it's only 14-15 degrees to preserve the salt statues. Love it.

The tour lasted just over 2 and a half hours - all walking undergound. It's truly remarkable what salt actually looks like... both in the statues, the walls, even the floors and stairs are made of salt in most cases. And you have salt cauliflowers (from where it's humid) and salt spaghetti hanging from the ceiling. It's all quite the sight!

The Mine is so large, that they even have chapels underground (which were all simply gorgeous), and they used to have underground stables for the horses that worked there. The great thing with Salt Mines is that the air is quite pure - so even to this day they have this rehab/clinic thing for people with different respiratory problems.

Despite the long walk, you only see 1% of the mine... that's how huge it is!!

Oh, another thing they have in the Mine is rooms you can rent for parties or conferences... how cool is that? I wonder how much that would cost though lol. Apparently they even have a soccer match down there once a year.

Getting back to the real world was a little problematic lol. The line-up for the mine shaft was rediculously long... I waited at least an hour. The shaft was pretty cool though, have to admit it. You're squished in there just like the real deal!
After that, it was a long bus ride back to Krakow. Same old, same old... fearing for my life as the bus driver weaves in and out of traffic.

Back in Krakow, I spent the afternoon/evening roaming around the shopping mall and buying a few knick-knacks. Day well spent =)

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Photos

Salt lake
Saltire than the Dead Sea