A-flat Miner!

DAY THREE (Monday, July 17)

Bright and early, we hopped out of bed, smiles on our faces and ready to greet the world with a happy, peppy welcome. Or not. 5:15 saw me questioning whether or not I was still interested in living. Eventually I decided I was, but it took me an hour or two to wake up. As I mentioned earlier, Justin talks incessantly, and when he decided he wanted to sit next to me on the bus ride to the salt mine, I inwardly groaned. Somehow, he manages to never be tired when you’re about to die. The entire way in he asked if I thought it would be ok if they stopped the bus so he could buy a coke, or go to McDonalds, or buy a coke, or go to McDonalds… No Justin, there are other people on this bus and they don’t want to stop for a coke or McDonalds.

At the mine, we ate breakfast outside (bread, ham, cheese, cucumber, tomatoes, jam, butter) then found out that we couldn’t get into the mine for another hour. We all considered killing ourselves, thought better of it, and plunked down on the benches for naps.

We got into the mine and were greeted by this HUGE Crucifix on the wall. It was 5 or 6 feet, just sitting there on the wall of the main room above the mine. I love Poland. I think every room that I went into had a Crucifix on the wall. Then we got loaded onto the miners elevator, which was four tiny boxes into which they crammed us. The elevator was operated from some unseen place, but deafeningly loud bells signaled that one of the boxes was full, or the whole thing was ready to go down, or whatever. Deafening they were though.

It was frigid in the mines. Fortunately I had been warned of the low temperatures and was appropriately attired. The mine was incredible. The chapel, which was the highlight of the tour, was a huge room carved out of the salt. The miners did all the carving, and had statues, an altar and altar rail, relief carvings, nativity sets, JPII… you name it. Even the chandeliers were salt instead of glass or crystal. The floor was carved salt. Those miners! There was also an underground lake which was a fully saturated salt solution (chemistry!). If it hadn’t been quite so cold, one could swim in it and float like a cork.

Our tour ended, we waited patiently for probably 45 minutes for the elevator to be freed of people, then came back up to the lovely light of day. Remind me not to be a miner. I like sunshine too much. Then we looked at the various little shops outside the mine, ate lunch (canned ham!), I tried to take a nap on a couple of chairs, and then we went home. This time I ignored Justin, and got a little bit of a nap, although he would shake me and ask for my opinion on something every 10 minutes or so. *groan.* Back at camp, I skipped (really, I did!) happily back to my room with Raquel, where I enjoyed a heavenly three-hour nap. The Spanish know what they’re talking about with siestas and everything. It’s great- you stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning, then make up for the sleep you didn’t get in the afternoon!

I missed the fencing show, but made it to Mass. Raquel came to, as it was supposed to be in Italian and Spanish, but the Italian and Spanish priests were still on their busses coming back from their trips. So it was in another slurry of languages. My favorite combination was German, English and Latin. They fit very well together. Anyway, dinner was the usual, with potatoes and pork and some sort of vegetable. And tea. We had jugs of hot tea at most meals, which I enjoyed greatly. (Ha ha, I didn’t split the infinitive!)

I wandered towards the disco after dinner, to be greeted by the sight of two huge hot air balloons on the soccer field. They made a great picture, silhouetted against the setting sun. Raquel and I got to go up in one, which was more or less the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me. It’s a little bit unsettling for ones stomach, actually. My stomach is kind of pathetic though. I mean, Ferris wheels do me in and they’re just turning slowly round and round… It was quite thrilling to be up in a basket in midair.

Each evening had a different country. Or each country had a different evening. Whichever you prefer. Actually, only 12 of the countries got evenings. We didn’t get to bring in McDonalds for a nutritious meal. This evening was Sweden and Belgium. I must say the Belgian table was more attractive- first of all, they had chocolate and waffles and weird gummy candy things. The Swedish had fish… and crackers… and some sort of dip… It was frightening looking, and I didn’t get up the courage to try it. But the Belgian chocolate was oh-so-tasty. And the Belgian men are all such good dancers, and deliciously good looking too. And the Belgian booze was good too. All around, it was a good evening. Lots of dancing with the Belgians. Ahh, Rock and Roll! It bears a strong resemblance to swing dancing, except you can do it to basically any and all music. It has a different basic step, but there is a LOT of overlap. By the way, did you know that in Belgium, a six-year-old could go to the store and buy alcohol? I find that… amusing?

Tune in next time for “THE WORLD CUP- MALTA STYLE”.