I must admit, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I made a day trip from Cluj-Napoca down to Turda to see an old salt mine. Visitors will first descend the stairs into a long, salty hallway with several accessible rooms that serve as a museum explaining how the miners extracted salt throughout the centuries. While the information was interesting, the number of parked cars and people waiting in line for admission didn’t make sense given that there were only a few people in each room, until I found the room that gives visitors access to the rest of the park that is deep underground.

I made my way down the stairs and into a gigantic cave that had been converted into an underground amusement park. There were pool tables. a mini-golf course, table tennis, massaging chairs, and a two-lane bowling alley that looked like it would be operational soon. As I was wandering around in disbelief, I came to another set of stairs that went even further down! At the bottom of the cave is a small lake where people can rent rowboats for twenty minutes at a time.

The mine dates back to the year 1075 and continually produced table salt throughout the Middle Ages until the early 20th century, and was used as a bomb shelter during World War 2. This ended up being one of the more fascinating places I visited in Romania. The town itself is a short bus ride south of Cluj-Napoca and the mine is worth spending a day.