With
our ten day trip coming to an end within the next couple days Professor Roth
planned for us to visit the Wieliczka Salt Mine, which is about thirty minutes
outside of Krakow. After a rough night
of sleep, we set out for the salt mines around 9:15 in the morning to try and
catch one of the earlier tours. Needless
to say, after the rough night of sleep I passed out on the bus ride over to the
mines so I would have enough energy to walk around the corridors that lie
beneath the surface. The tour was going
to be about two hours long and in the process we would be walking a little over
two miles, which only makes up a miniscule percentage of the total amount of
miles worth of corridors that are included in the mine. The deepest part of the mine is a little over
a thousand feet below the surface, but the tour only took us a little over 200
feet down.
We
began our tour by walking down sixty five flights of stairs where we reached
the first room on the tour. Our tour
guide was and older gentlemen, who seemed to like he had been doing tours for a
while. He was very knowledgeable and he
had a very dry sense of humor that was pretty tough for me to pick up at
first. However, as the tour kept going I
began to realize that he was making little jokes here and there to spark a
laugh out of the group. The first room
contained a monument in honor of Mikolaj Kopernik, an astronomer who was very
fond of the mine. From
there the tour guide took us down many corridors that were supported by wooden
beams and on the walls you could see the salt beginning to form all over
again. At the end of the corridor we
came to a cavern that had stairs leading another fifty or so feet down. As we began to walk down the wooden stairs
the guide pointed out a set of stairs that were from the fifteenth
century. These stairs were carved into
the floor of the cavern and you could see that over the time they had began to
erode. I was astonished that even over
the last couple hundred years they were still visible and seemed as though they
were still somewhat able to walk on.
As we made our way
through the mine the tour guide pointed out salt that was growing on the walls
that they call, cauliflower salt. After contemplating whether or not I should
lick it I decided to go for it and try the salt. I didn’t know what to expect. Would it taste exactly like the salt that I
put on my food back home or would it have a weird taste to it? It tasted exactly like salt. The salty bitter taste took over my mouth for
the next thirty or so minutes of the tour.
I tried to wash it down with water, but after a little I just accepted
it and decided to just wait till it left my mouth.
Trying not to think of the taste I made my way down
the corridors and at the end was a huge room.
Inside was a chapel that was at least sixty feet from ceiling to floor,
another eighty feet in length and forty in width. The walls the lined the chapel were made
entirely out of salt statues and carved murals.
Hanging from the ceilings were three crystalline salt chandeliers that
radiated light throughout the entire chapel.
Unlike the rest of the mine the floor of the chapel was made of salt
that was carved out to look as if tiles had been laid down. One of the murals on the wall that stood out
the most was the one of the last supper.
This mural was a three dimensional hand carving that portrayed one of
the most influential paintings from the Christian faith. As we walked out of the chapel a statue of
Pope John Paul II, yet again made of salt, stood to commemorate his visit to
the salt mines during his time in the Papal office.
Throughout the rest of
the mine there were many other chapels and rooms that were used yearly for
weddings or other types of gatherings.
There were also many underground lakes that were used by miners to
transport the giant salt blocks easier.
There was one area in the mine where a small canal connected two medium
size lakes. Our tour guide told us of a
story from World War II of ten or twelve Nazi’s who capsized the boat while on
the canal. A few of the soldiers
perished and shortly after that the administrators of the mine decided to lower
the depth of the water in that area to one meter to prevent any fatalities from
happening again. The rest of the tour
consisted of going to the museum, which was down in the caverns as well. There were bits and pieces that I found
interesting, like this blue salt crystal that was the same color as tanzanite,
my mother’s birthstone. The crystal
itself was about the size of a football and it got its color due to certain
chemicals that naturally made their way into the crystal during the growing
process. The rest of the museum was
interesting, but I was absolutely exhausted from all the walking and was
excited to be able to rest in the bus on the short ride back to the hotel.
When we returned from the
salt mines we all went to BagelMama to grab some lunch then we were going to
see two synagogues that Rich thought would be good for us to see. The first one was the oldest standing
synagogue in the city of Krakow. Now a
day it isn’t a functioning synagogue, but a museum that covered the basic
overview of the Jewish religion itself.
The second synagogue we visited was fully functioning and carried a lot
of World War II history with it. During
the Second World War the Nazi’s converted the synagogue into a horse
stable. Instead of destroying it flat
out this was one of Hitler’s many ways of humiliating the Jewish community,
instead of just destroying it flat out.
Much like many Catholic churches the synagogue was filled with stained
glass windows that were donated or put in as a memorial to some Jewish families
within the Kashmir district, also known as the Jewish Corridor of Krakow. The ceiling of the synagogue was filled with
gold furnishings of Corinthian like flowers and stars. There were both the traditional five point
stars and littered throughout them were many six point stars, also known as the
Star of David. With the light from the
stained glass windows coming in the gold furnishings glimmered like the stars
in the midnight sky. Out of the two
synagogues this one was probably my most favorite because I am a big fan of
stained glass. Especially seeing how I am planning on getting a stained glass
portrait of St. Patrick as my next tattoo.
It was interesting to see what another religion portrays in their
stained glass window murals.
For dinner we went out to
a Milk Bar near the main square of Krakow.
A milk bar is a restaurant that originated in the twentieth century for
those who couldn’t afford to go out to a regular restaurant and get a
meal. This was a cheap way for those who
were having money troubles to get a good meal.
I got an order of meat and cabbage pierogis and a chicken and ham
Panini. Needless to say I was full by
the end of the meal and my stomach was hard as a rock. After dinner we all went out as a group to
celebrate Katie’s 21st birthday and have a few beers. We went to a place called the Beer Gallery
that had over a hundred of different beers in any kind of flavor you can think
of. Due to the fact that I was full I
decided to only have one beer and I bought Katie one as well. I got pilsner that reminded me of a micro
brewery beer that I tried while in Ireland, which was made by Guinness. It was a dark beer that had a very rich and
thick flavor to it. When I finished my
beer I made my way back to the hotel and quickly went to bed with much
anticipation for our next day’s trip to Auschwitz and Birkenau.
Patrick Malone
Monday, April 3, 2013
Ascent of Wieliczka
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