Turda

Yesterday Lindsay’s mentor Dr. Coman (Alex) and his adorable daughter Andra took us on a day trip to Turda, a smaller town nearby, to go inside a salt mine. Now there is absolutely no way that my pictures or explanation is going to do Turda justice, but I will try my best. Salt began to be taken from this mine in 1271, but today the mine is just for tourism. The mine goes to a depth of 1200 meters below the surface of the Earth (that is ¾ a mile). Located at the bottom is a lake with paddle boats, an amphitheater, a ferris wheel and a playground.

Salt was everywhere. It formed icicles on the ceiling and stairs, it formed a kind of sand to walk on, and it got on your clothes if you touched anything. Andra kept running her hand on the walls and licking off the salt. It made you crave a soft pretzel from Petru really badly. The high concentration of salt in the air cleared your sinuses out nicely and Alex told us that people come to Turda for respiratory therapy.



Me at the entrance to the mine





Holding some salt



Salt icicles hanging from the ceiling and a view of the creepy bridge we had to walk on



Stairs covered in salt



When I was first walking in, I felt very claustrophobic. I felt like I needed to bend down to not hit my head even though there was a good two feet between my head and the ceiling. Once you got down to the open area though there was so much open space it was hard to believe we were so far down. We saw a sign for an evacuation plan but weren’t so sure how effective it would be. To get out from 1200 meters below there were two options, an elevator that held four people at a time or two staircases that required you to go single file up twenty stories of very steep, uneven, salt coated steps.

We spent about three hours inside the mine. Getting down into it, riding the ferris wheel, watching Andra play at the playground, paddle boating, and getting back out. It was so much fun. Sure to be an experience that isn’t repeated in my life. I’m sure Lindsay, who isn’t a Harry Potter freak like me, was sick of hearing me describe how much the lake at the bottom of the mine was like the lake in the sixth Harry Potter book. But, for those of you reading my blog that are Harry Potter fanatics, look at these lake pictures and just imagine Dumbledore and Harry in one of the boats, corpses in the lake, and a fake horcrux on the island.      



Looking down to the lake




Feeling claustrophobic




Lindsay and I on the ferris wheel



Island in the lake where the horcrux would be

Thanks Alex and Andra for such a great day!