12/06/07

JPN

Takanobu has this guide book, a famous guide book that almost every Japanese tourist carries.

And looking at this guide book, Takanobu leanrnt about this small village called Hallstatt,

which was yet another World Heritage site.

It looked really nice, so I decided to join him in his day trip to this village.

The journey was longer than I thought, taking us two and half hours from Salzburg to Hallstatt, having to change the train once.

We arrived just before noon.

To get to the village, we had to wait for a boat that brings us to the other side of the lake.

It comes only once an hour (but is tied to the train times so we didn't have to wait that much).

As the boat drew near to the shore, I was impressed how beautiful the town looked.

So that's what you can fish around here.

Although it was raining in the morning, the sky gradually opened up after lunch time.

Suddenly, the houses gave reflections on the lake.

It was like a revelation of the town's true beauty.

After lunch, we decided to go on a tour in the salt mines.

The Hallstatt salt mine is the oldest in the world, which began to be used 7000 years ago, and it's still in use today.

With the student discount, we paid 12.60 for the tour.

It was a good deal for what we've experienced.

Well, first we had to change our clothes.

The guide was saying that although coal mines have danger of collapsing,

salt mines are much safer as the compound of salt sticks tightly together.

Personally, I had in mind that salt comes from drying sea weeds in the sea,

and didn't even know that there is such thing as a salt mine.

Salt mines are formed through a gradual recession of sea water, as a result of which a highly condensed salt turns into a solid rock.

The guide explained that the rocks in this mine have the salt density of more than 96%.

Takanobu, who likes risking his health, licked the surface of the wall and said,

'Maki, it's salty!'

I was like, what do you expect?

We had the chance to slide down wooden sliders, which the miners use for moving around places.

We slid twice, the second one was 70 meters long and got up to quite a speed.

They had a speedometer to measure your speed (a very touristy idea).

Takanobu measured 37km/h, which was amongst the fastest in the group (but only after the tour guide...).

He said, to decrease friction, he slid with only his butt, lifting his leg and back.

Well, after all, Waseda students are intelligent, sometimes in a very pragmatic way.

At the end of the tour, they offered us to buy the photos while you're sliding (again, very touristy idea).

Takanobu, who is extremely careful with his money, surprised me by buying it.

He seems to have a strict budget allocation system, focusing on the things that gives him good memories.

It was raining when we got out.

I might not have succeeded in describing in this journal how greatly I enjoyed this place.

Well, I did.

Hallstatt was a beautiful town and I wholeheartedly enjoyed it .


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