I threw away the 250 ml bottle of body wash I bought the day before because the security at the Helsinki airport only let you take 100 ml containers. Lame.
I had to fly first to Stockholm and immediately my Stockholm Syndrome flared back up with a vengeance! Too bad I had to go! But no, it was fine. The inflight magazine was actually really interesting. It had articles about free divers and Norwegian music and films.
I actually beat Emil to our arranged meet up because my flight was a bit early, and I just straight walked out of customs. Every time I was amazed at how lax the incoming international flights are! Probably because it's all in the EU. Still, could not freaking imagine that for the States. Paranoid US.
It was great to see Emil. It was so nice to actually talk to someone on the fairly time consuming public transportation trips we took. We first took a train back to the Krakow main train station. The countryside was absolutely beautiful. The weather was great, and the sun calmly shined down on the corn and recently harvested wheat fields. The houses were not close together, and I saw many clothes being dried naturally. It really has a rustic, classic "countryside" look that you expect. I wish I took a few pictures. Next, we took the tram quite awhile away from the town center. Then we had to walk maybe 400 m to our hotel. It was a nice place. It was funny when we got there because only two 12 year old looking boys were in the "courtyard" behind the small gate. It's fun to hear Emil speak Polish because I really cannot understand anything other than "hello", "thank you", and "good". I'm toooootally in the dark. Anyway, the one kid with a broken wrist or arm let us in. He was making small talk waiting for his mom while his friend sat on the original bench. His friend decided it was time to come over and be polite or acknowledge us or something, so he came over but didn't say anything. He just stood there looking sheepishly. Finally, Emil nodded and quickly said, "dobre" (a shortened form of good day or hello) and the kid shyly said hello. It was a small event but we laughed about it a few times later in the week for whatever reason.
The
owner was a (for all I could tell!) very nice woman who was very
helpful. The room was kinda funny. It had an empty foyer with only
one small wardrobe in the corner as the first room. At the back of
that room was the bathroom with the freaking funky shower. It had
about 4 settings. One was shooting water at your junk from low
sprayers. One was shooting water on your shoulders I think. Both of
these were horizontal. When I first used it, I hadn't fully stepped
in the shower yet when I first switched it to the junk-sprayers. The
door was open and it sprayed water all over the floor, hahah.
Then there is a shower head on a hose that you can move around your
body. Then there is a sprayer from the very top of the shower that
must have been clogged or something. It was spraying in all
directions. Anyway, the point is, it was a super complicated shower
that had me always guessing. The bedroom was to the right of the
foyer and had plenty of space for two guys. The windows were neat,
too. On one setting, they kind of tipped open a few inches from the
top. On the other setting, they swung open like a door.
We
put our stuff down, got changed and ventured out for lunch. We
stayed right next to the Sisters of Divine Mercy including the
Basilica of Saint Faustina. We went to their cafeteria for lunch. I
wanted to order like 6 things, but Emil talked me down to 4. I had
an excellent barley soup with hard boiled eggs in it, a fried chicken
breast, french fries (paid extra for the ketchup), and some really
good, sweetened carrot salad. It was probably less than $10. It was
beautiful, and I knew I would enjoy eating in Poland! Emil made sure
my steady diet of kebab was cut short on his Polish watch, hahah.
On
Monday, we had time to go to the Wielickzka Salt
Mine. I'm not sure if this is Europe's biggest salt mine, but holy
crap it should be. It goes down 330 meters below the surface and
stretches for 5 km in some directions! It is freaking HUGE. The
tickets were pretty expensive, but the tour was worth it. To get
down to the first section, we descended I think 50 flights of stairs.
It was suuuuuper weird
looking down and only seeing stairs and stairs and stairs and stairs
and stairs and a tiny black rectangle between them. Super creepy. I
got dizzy going down so many stairs. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a
decent picture of this part.
Our
tour guide was a tiny Polish woman with a sweet short haircut. She
gave a brief few introductory points and then asked if we had any
questions at this point. I joked to Emil that I would say, "Uh
yes, I have a question. You have cute hair." To which she would
reply, "That's not a question, sir." To which we made up
that I would reply, "Ah, yes, OK, let me rephrase that... Would
you agree that I think you have cute hair?" and we laughed about
that the rest of the tour.
Everywhere
you walk is salt. It looks like granite, but the tour guide shines a
flashlight through it, and you can see it lets some light through.
She told us we can try it, lick the walls! So as we were leaving a
room, I straight up tongued the wall and whoa, it was hella strong.
I should have expected that and not just acted like a horse on a
salt lick, but there you go. It was gross but I was glad I did it.
Here
again it was hard to believe my eyes. All of these caverns and rooms
were man and horse made and were not natural formations. The mine
dates back to the 13th century (as wikipedia reminded
me) and it's just hard to believe you are walking the same paths as
these miners. The air is apparently very healthy and there is a spa
down there that helps people who suffer respiratory troubles. Every
new room is amazing and there are some displays with tons and tons of
statues carved of course from salt. There are chandeliers made from
salt and I think like 6 chapels carved with many, many Catholic
statues. There is a huge, beautiful chapel that still holds mass
every Sunday. It was breathtaking. Here are a few pictures of the
room and the religious statues that adorn the walls.
There are underground lakes that the tour guide assured us we would float in because they are saturated with salt. In this picture, people would take boats down this little passage way until one flipped over. The riders were trapped under the boat and unable to dive under the water due to their extreme buoyancy. They suffocated, and no boats were taken down there again.
It was unbelievable and a tiny bit creepy to be in this giant underground almost town! The temperature was fairly cool and it was quiet and fairly dim. We took an additional tour (just Emil and I, it was a much better pace) of some more details about mining and the adjacent museums. It wasn't air conditioned I guess in this part and it was much cooler. It was nice, though. The mine was closed to regular mining a few years back due to general safety concerns. I believe they still harvest something like 15,000 kg of salt every day just from the salt water pumped out of the mine, though. Whoa! That's a lot.
At the end of our extra tour, we were in a tiny room with a bunch of people waiting to go on the elevator up. Thank God we didn't have to climb the stairs back up, but this room was creepy. Pretty dim and packed tighter than an airplane. It made it hot. I didn't like it, but fortunately, we got out to the elevator room quickly. We didn't have to wait for all these people because the tour guide said when they have small groups, they like to talk to the elevator operators to get them up and out fast. Hey, works for slightly claustrophobic me. Emil said the elevator had four compartments that each fit six people. Well, we jammed 9 people into our compartment and I couldn't even stand up straight it was so short! The ride was fast and kinda fun because it was so crazy going up after being so deep underground... probably the deepest I had been in my life. Frankly, that's as deep as I need to go. I'm not wild about dark small spaces and/or getting crushed to death.
Topside, Emil and I had some tall, swirly ice cream. Yum. Too bad it started raining. We walked to the train station and realized we had missed our train. We had about an hour and a half until the next one. No problem, it was prime time for my second Polish meal. We were the only ones in this "pizzeria" close to the train station. It was actually a nice sit down restaurant with the mood ruined by the Polish equivalent of MTV. Anyway, I got chicken noodle soup and a freaking MONSTROUS miner's serving of breaded and fried pork on top of potatoes and veggies. Here is the picture, it was a beauty!
I was so ashamed that I couldn't finish it all! It was topped with cheese and man, it was good. I probably paid around $10 American for the MASSIVE amount of food I couldn't finish there. I reeeeeally like eating in Poland.
We caught the last train back and I had been up since 5:30 that morning so I could barely stay awake to chat with Emil. I rudely snored but had previously provided him with superior ear plugs. An excellent start to the Polish excursion.
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