The past two weekends have been spent by visiting places I have already been at. I was re-living some of the highlights from last year… from a different perspective. This weekend we have visited another great thing in the neighborhood: the salt mine from Turda. The last time I have been there, I was so amazed by what I saw, that I totally forgot about all the activities that can be done there. For this reason, this second time was dedicated to the details.
I was really amazed about how different the place looked like at second glance. Immediately when we arrived in the first chamber, the “Echo Chamber”, I understood where its name comes from. Last time I was there I did not really hear echoes… well, I was doing it entirely wrong. Luckily for me, I did not have to struggle this time, a kid was there who was already having a good time shouting into the darkness and enjoying the echo… The kids sharp voice really got the thing going: the echo lasted for quite a few seconds and it was very, very clear. Cool chamber 😉
Afterwards, when we arrived to the main chamber, we decided to try out the Ferris Wheel: it costs 5 RON (€1.20) per person and it does a slow turn inside the big chamber giving a better view of the surroundings… totally worth it.
Another thing we did, was that we rented a boat, for 10 RON (€2.40). One boat can be rented at most by 3 persons, but I have seen some families with 4 persons (parents + children) also renting a boat. It has been a while since I last rowed in a boat so it took a while until I got the hang of it. There are some places where the water is quite shallow and the way is too tight, but it was not a big deal. Make sure you have some clothes which can be washed easily: the salty water falls in small drops from time to time from the ceiling above in quite random places.
All in all it was a quite interesting new perspective. This time there were not so many people as before, so the visit was much more enjoyable than before.
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So: after sitting down to a nice and clean table, we looked at the menu. No surprise there: spices, spices, spices and then some strange names about which we did not know what they were. Well, the obvious decision in such impossible cases is to go for the house specialty (or ask the waiter, we did not do that). In this case the house specialty is the Indigo Platter which is basically a platter of spicy meat with spicy meat for two persons. For me it had a bit too much pepper, I could not feel the rest of the spices. But then again, I am not really a pepper person: I like spicy stuff, except pepper 🙂 . The best thing however, and this was a huge surprise, is the prompt serving of the meal. I think we did not wait 10 minutes and it was ready.
Getting our food out that fast meant that in approximately 30 minutes after sitting down, we have already finished with it. Well, I guess this is a good way to make people order desert: you just have to eat something else, otherwise it feels like fast food 😛 . So we ordered some Gulab Jamun, which again continuing the line of strong tastes was a very, very sweet dessert. Now that one I liked :).