jamie's journey of joy: Cluj 1 Water 💦Filters/part IV ~ România 🇷🇴Mission ~

January 2021

I'm on a roll and it might be because I am procrastinating preparing my Relief Society lesson for Sunday, but who really knows 😏!

We took a short break out of our schedule

(while the Elders were having district meeting) to stop at the

~ Salina Turda Salt Mine ~

(Close to Cluj ~ but it gets to have its own page)

Before you reach the entrance of the Mine there are these little market huts that sell all kinds of wonderful items! While Billy was getting our tickets I ran to one of the little huts and was so excited to see that they had my cute little boots; I had bought the same pair a couple years ago but I had completely worn them out! After I paid for my purchase (from my secret stash) this huge dog bounded out of someone's car and almost knocked this guy over ~ I was just about to go over to help until I realized the pup and this guy were good friends. Cutest and one of the most enormous dogs ever!

I'll share what we learned and the things that were on the information boards inside the Mine! If you want to learn more your best bet is to go to the websites. I do know that the Mine shut down in 1932 😉.

As we walked through the long tunnels and then down the steep steps it took us to an underground cavern that was spectacular. I took way too many pictures (as usual) but each part was so fascinating that I wanted to capture it all! As I looked at the old pictures of these miners I can only imagine what it must have been like for the workers: excitement, eagerness, claustrophobia, fear, panic, dread, enthusiasm or just another day on the job? It must have been somewhat thrilling to discover a Salt Mine and then to be chosen to have the opportunity to work in a salt mine.

The upper left hand photo is of the old entrance to the Mine and Billy is in the extraction room.

The lower left hand corner is the trolley room. They would take 1 or 2 horses and hitch them to each arm and they'd walked in circles to make the machine work (they worked in shifts). "Before electricity was introduced in the salt mine, the only light source in the octagonal room were torches. Due to the poor illumination of the room and due to the circular motion, the horses used to go blind in about 2 weeks 😢😧😳." One would think that after the next batch went blind they would have them wear blinders outside and introduce light to them slowly. I obviously don't know the details but this just makes me so sad.

Roll and Call

An interesting note about the top left corner picture: "Since access into and out of the mine was made though this relatively confined space, the room was the perfect place to keep track of people entering and leaving the Rudolf mine. This is why it was called the "roll and call" room. The altar was sculpted in salt for religious services and prayers before the miners started their shift. Once a week a religious service conducted by a priest was held here, where leaders of the mine, but also the nobility from the area used to take part."

The stairs 😲!!! There are over 150 steps to get down to the bottom of this section of the Salt Mine. Fortunately for us, there was also an elevator! Once you get down to the bottom (which is so spectacular as you are descending) there is a ferris wheel, a little bowling lane, ping pong tables, a little souvenir counter/shop and the lake with rowing boats. It is the cutest ever!

Here are some aerial pics as we were coming down the elevator!

We skipped the boat ride. It kind of felt like the black lagoon where a creature could rise up and snatch you and no one would be the wiser 😳! I think all the fun things are for field trips to make it fun for the kids or maybe it is a hangout for teens! Pretty neat though!

The walls are so spectacular with so many different designs and unique characteristics. I just wanted to lick them to see if they all tasted like salt, but of course this was prohibited (they did 😂😂😏)!

It is just easier to insert the picture of information as it gives a much clearer explanation 😁.

This is a great overview of the Mine. It was so fascinating and it is totally remarkable how far we have come with our extraction and mining abilities. I admire these people and the inventiveness, creativity and foresight to do all that they did with what they had to work with. Amazing!