This was the final act of SteemFest 3 in Krakow: a visit to the Wieliczka Salt Mines. In the late afternoon, all the festival's attendees were transported from the city center to the mines. Having inspected the schedule, I knew there was a surprise in store... because there was no mention of a closing dinner after visiting the mines. So, it had to be inside them!
When we arrived at the salt mines, it was already dark. We left the bus and walked toward the elevator shaft. And I think we were all shocked to learn that we wouldn't be taking the elevator, but walking down the stairs! This was a serious hike to the center of the earth; looking down the staircase was enough to cause serious vertigo, and it took us at least ten minutes to even reach the first set of tunnels. Here, we found some photos from when the mine was in operation. Back then, they'd lower down horses, to help pull the carriages filled with salt blocks!
Interestingly, the salt in this mine isn't white, as you might expect, but gray -- like unpolished granite. Our guide encouraged us to lick the walls, to confirm that everything around us was really salt. And it really was everything. There were some columns I had thought were wood: nope, salt! Statues, altars, and even the chandeliers were made of the stuff. But the best might have been the paintings chiseled out of salt blocks. The replica of the Last Supper inside the Salt Cathedral, with its beautiful 3D effect, really impressed me.
If you were paying attention to that last paragraph, you must now surely be wondering... a Salt Cathedral? Underground, in a mine? Yep, that's right! 100 meters deep is a cathedral with walls, icons and altar made of salt. This underground place of worship was definitely the highlight of the tour. But the best was yet to come: we ascended another long set of stairs to reach a large banquet hall... all set up for the closing dinner of SteemFest! The sight of it was awesome, and the atmosphere among the attendees was really festive, but a certain sadness was starting to set in. It was almost time to say goodbye to everyone.
Since this is my last post about SteemFest 3, I'd like to include some final shout-outs. First, a huge thank you to @roelandp and everyone involved in organizing the conference. It was flawlessly arranged, with great venues, and held some amazing surprises.
The following Steemians were on my flight from Krakow to Frankfurt, so I had a final chance to chat with them. Thank you to @yabapmatt for the super-special @steemmonsters promo cards. Also, it was such a pleasure to run into @liliana.duarte and @rmach again. And then there was @coruscate, whose path I hadn't crossed during the five days of the conference... but we finally had a chance to hang out while waiting for our flight. We instantly connected, and had a lot of fun things to talk about -- mostly SteemFest 3!
I had such an amazing time at SteemFest, and it was definitely worth the effort of attending. I'm already looking forward to next year's event! Are you going?
