Underground In A Salt Mine For MarketFriday

Today I'm going to take you to the salt mine of Praid, Romania, which is something very unusual for MarketFriday but don't worry, there will be amazing products as well. And make sure to scroll down to see photos of the world's first underground adventure park, in a salt mine, the coolest adventure for children and adults. Adrenaline and fun for everybody :)

This amazing place is not just a tourist attraction. About 400 000 people come here annually for treatment. The air is the best treatment for the respiratory system, asthmatic, bronchial and allergic diseases. Many, many kids are brought here during school vacation, they stay in the mine from morning to evening so no wonder this place is practically a huge playground for kids.

However the air down there is not good for everyone, there are some contraindications (pulmonary tuberculosis, acute respiratory diseases, hypertension (3rd phase), Ischemic Cardiomyopathy, Basedow-Graves disease, fainting neurological disorders, neurological disorders with fainting, claustrophobia, advanced pregnancy etc.).

You can't enter the mine on foot, there is a bus every half an hour that takes you down to the entrance. After getting off the bus, we were going down the stairs (250 steps!!! :D) towards the entrance of the visiting place called "Level 50”, which is 120 m deep down from the surface. I have low blood pressure and after getting off the bus I got dizzy and had a headache, so the adventure park for me was not an option, unfortunately. Maybe next time :)

Two miners having a conversation. This is a salt statue next to the entrance, named Thoughts In The Salt, as you can see on the second photo.

Next to the entrance there's a photo gallery with photos featuring the local swimming pool with salty water (of course), different types of salt crystals etc.

Everything you see here is salt. It looks like stone but it's not, it's salt! The floor is made of salt and it's shiny, looks like glass because people walking on it over the years made it shiny.

This is one of the halls full of people. The average annually underground temperature is 16°C. So we went from 3°C to 16°C :D

There are wood tables and benches all over the mine, you can sit down, play cards or board games, or you can have lunch.

A close up photo of the mine's wall. Can you see the carves?

This is another hall, people are playing badminton, kids are playing with balls, rollerskating etc. At some point I saw a trainer having an aerobic class, which is a really amazing thing to do.

There are show-windows carved in the wall of the mine with different things. Here you can see boxes with sulfuric, iodine bath salt with refreshing effect for medical use.

You can read about the mine's history in Romanian, Hungarian and English.

These are old tools and equipment miners used in the 20th century.

More tools.

There are a few souvenir shops offering a large variety of products. There's also Coffee Shop, a 3D Cinema and a naturist drugstore inside the mine.

Handmade chocolate :)

Fruit jams, canned mushroom and vegetables. I have to tell you, these and the chocolates and everything in general down in the mine cost at least twice as much as on the outside world.

Juices made of different kind of fruits.

People are playing ping pong and you can see the playground in the background.

There is a large ecumenical chapel in one of the halls.

This is the old part of the mine where salt was mined once. This is off limits to visitors, you can have a look through the glass window.

There is a diner in the other end of this hall. You can sit down to the wood tables and serve lunch.

And let the fun begin! This is the entrance of the adventure park.

Once you payed the entrance fee, you get the necessary equipment and these amazing guys give you a training.

Look at these kids, having fun here while healing from some kind of respiratory disease. If you are a parent you know how hard it is to entertain kids for a whole day. Here there is no problem, there are plenty to do for them.

These are "bigger kids" on a higher level :D

I hope you had fun reading my presentation :) This is my entry to Market Friday run by our lovely friend Denise @dswigle