The Wieliczka Salt Mines and the Jewish Quarter :)

Right after Auschwitz and Birkenau, our driver took us to the Wieliczka Salt Mines. The mine is huge and the tour only takes you to about 1% of all the mine... yet, the tour takes between 2 and 3 hours! We went as far as 130 meters bellow the surface. The temperature in the mine is constantly between 14 add 16 degrees Celsius because of the ventilation system inside. What is wonderful about the mine though, is that it was open for over 800 years! And in the process, huge chambers were excavated that are now like an underground museum. On the ceilings you can see stalactites of salt and salt formations that look like cauliflowers. In addition, there are dozens of statues carved out of rock salt, which were made mostly by the miners themselves throughout the centuries, NOT by professional artists. What's more is that there are a great number of chapels inside and even a cathedral made entirely of rock salt! The floor of it is carved as if it was tile, but in reality it is a single HUUUUGE sheet of rock salt (well, not a sheet, but you know what I mean... it is solid with no divisions). The altar of the cathedral is quite beautiful, as are the statues and even the chandeliers which are ALSO made of rock salt. My camera was running low on battery, but fortunately it made it till the end of the trip. I am really glad I went, and I want to thank Chopin, his family, and Anya G for suggesting that I go there :)

After the mines we kind of had an easy night, and on Sunday we had another great day. I went to Mass in the early afternoon, which was very nice. I had already visited the church on my own before and had the chance to admire the beautiful art inside of it, so I could focus on the Mass and in prayer instead (I will post the pictures soon). After that, we decided to walk to the Jewish quarter of the town with the help of a booklet a girl lent us. However, when we got there, we were able to join a free walking tour, which was really nice because we got the chance to hear some awesome stories and legends about the cities. After the tour we tried to go into one of the Synagogues, but they charged for the entrance and the man at the door was really rude so we decided not to go inside. Instead, we went for lunch and we had a great time. We had been living basically on toast with butter and jam for the last couple of days (we were trying to save money), so it was REALLY nice to eat chicken kebab! Lol!! In the evening I worked on my schoolwork for several hours while the girls went shopping, and at night we decided to go dancing. We went to a small underground club where they were playing techno music. It was a lot of fun, especially because people were respectful (no gross grinding r=or anything of the sort), and it wasn't very full because it was Sunday, so we had a lot of room to dance and just be silly and have fun.

Today we are taking it easy, resting, etc. In a few minutes we are going to go for supper and then we are going to visit the Wawel castle, which is a 15 minute walk form our hostel. We are all packed and everything, so we are just about ready to go. After that we will take our bus to Lviv, and from there we will take either a bus or a train to Ternopil, since there are no direct trips to Ternopil from Krakow (which is weird, since there are trip here, but oh well).

I must say, I have really enjoyed this trip with Jen and Jessica very, very much. We have had a great time together and I think this has been a bit of a bonding experience for us. I feel like we have become better friends, and I am very glad about that. They tease me all the time about this or that, hahahaha, and I tease them too, lol, so we have been laughing all the time and it's just been a riot!

When we come back we are planning on preparing for the concert we are organizing at the internat, and I am planning on employing "opperation tooth brush-deodorant" lol... The internat girls really need to learn to use both. I am making a poster and everything... Amanda had already taught them how to use their toothbrushes last year, but they seem to have lost the habit since the staff do not really enforce it, so we'll see how it goes :)

So I think that's it for now. I am glad to be back up to speed with the blog. I will keep you updated, but next week is going to be busy as I need to prepare for my 2 upcoming assignments... Time is flying!! I have so much work to do, but I am so excited for the upcoming weeks :)

Thanks for taking the time to read all of this. I am sorry it took me so long to update the blog. My schedule is more hectic now, so that is why I have not been as consistent. As always, thanks for your comments and your emails. They mean the world to me! Miss you all, love you all. God bless! :D