Into the mines

On the Sunday I was at language camp, the 19^th, Rotary paid for us to take a trip to Hallstatt. We got packed lunches from the kitchen, and piled into two busses. The drive from Altmunster to Hallstatt was about an hour long. We were driven along the Traunsee so we had some beautiful views out of the bus. At hallstat we got to go into the oldest salt mines in the world. They were absolutely fascinating. One of my friends, Fabi, is a huge nerd was freaking out the whole time. “Your nerd is showing, “Kaley was always saying.

We got to ride a tram up mountain, then there was a short hike to the entrance. We received some lovely miners’ uniforms to wear into the mines; the color selection consisted of red, green, blue, and brown. I looked super G. Actually they looked like old pajamas, but we had a good time posing and taking photos in them.

Inside the mines was super cold; I think it got down to 8° Celsius. But we walked down this long tunnel for a while, I tasted the walls they were salty. The tunnel finally opened into this cavern an there where two slides. Not slides like you imagine at a park it was a narrow, smooth plank that you kinda straddle, not sit inside and go down. We could go down it in pairs so I went with kaley, she took a video of our decent into the mines. We were screaming the whole way.

Down in the mines we watched a couple videos about how the salt mines formed and how they mine it and refine it, or whatever you do with salt, I couldn’t really understand the videos since they were in German. But we got to go down another slide and I think I got some air the second time. We got to this larger cavern that looked like a big cave but really it was a lake that was so still it perfectly reflected the ceiling of the cave. Here we saw an awesome light show that was projected onto the wall of the cave with music. It was an artistic representation of the history of the mine and it really reminded me of Disney’s World of Color show.

That was pretty much the end of the tour. We headed back down the mountain I totally expected that we were going to take a tram down as well but no. We hiked down the mountain. To the Austrians a small walk means they’re going to hike a mountain so nobody ever bothers to tell us to wear suitable shoes. But once we made it down almost in one piece, kaley took an awesome fall, we had free time to explore Hallstatt.

It’s an adorable little town built at the base of the mountain. All the houses look like they go together and they’re white with wood roofs or red roofs and flower boxes in the windows. It’s definitely a tourist town. There were a TON of Asians walking around taking pictures, I fit right in! Apparently the Chinese liked the town so much they built a replica of it somewhere in China. I walked through the city, looking through all the shops and even jumped into the lake in my underwear with a friend. It was really hot and don’t worry we asked a local if we could swim there.

Finally at 4:00 we loaded back onto the busses and headed to our home in Altmunster. It was a wonderful day trip, I learned a lot got to see more of Austrian and had a lot of fun. So of course I was exhausted and slept during the bus ride back.

clock tower in Hallstatt