Romania Day 4 - Good luck!

At the beginning of the day, we set off with our new guide Mr. Bergmann to explore the city center of Mediaş and withdraw some money.

He also explained to us why Mediaş is called the Pisa of Romania: the tower of the central Margareten Church is tilted by 1.6m.

In addition, the tower has a kind of lighthouse function, as the glazed roof tiles reflect sunlight and have served as an orientation aid in earlier times. In the church, we were able to admire the baroque organ and Ottoman carpets worth up to 1 million euros.

We were quite surprised when more and more of our mobile phones started sounding an alarm. However, our guide explained to us that this was a government-regulated alarm that warns of environmental disasters and is triggered as a test about every two weeks.

We took the buses towards the northwest to visit a salt mine in Turda. On the way, we were able to admire so-called Roma palaces, which, however, do not serve as residential houses for the most part. Furthermore, our tour guide informed us about the gold and silver deposits in the Western Carpathians, which we were now approaching. However, the numerous socialist residential blocks offered a rather bleak sight.

Upon arriving at the salt mine, we first had typical Romanian dishes like Langoş. Strengthened, we made our way into the mines, which were about 12°C cold. The echoing chamber in the Josefsschacht was a particular joy, which is said to have an echo up to 20 times.

After climbing many stairs, we finally reached the heart of the mine, where to our surprise, we came across a half amusement park. From table tennis to bowling, mini golf, and a ferris wheel, everything was there. However, we preferred to go one floor lower to take a rowboat ride on the underground salt lake. This special facility was funded by EU funds to make the salt mine more attractive to tourists.

Salt mining was carried out in the Turda mine until 1932. During the following wartime period, the mine was also used as a bunker and later even for cheese storage.

Once back on the surface, we went directly to a nearby restaurant for dinner before embarking on the two-hour journey home and then ending the evening individually.