Moria

Miner fourty-niner. Nina, who is from Russia, and her Swedish boyfriend Pontis took me to these 12th century silver mines just outside the city today. It was crazy...we all had to put helmets, boots, and ponchos on. We went about 65 meters down into the earth and through the old mine shafts where workers had mined dirty silver from the ground for hundreds of years. Pretty cool. It was really cold, though, and really quiet and really wet. And dark---especially when the guide made us turn off all of our flashlights. The walls were sparkly with all of the silver and other minerals in them still. You can clearly see from the picture what the mine looked like. Ha. But it completely reminded me of Lord of the Rings when they go to the mines...you could see down shafts that looked like bottomless pits. There were tons of dead ends where they had mined in but hadn't found any silver so they went to another spot. Let's all be thankful that we aren't mine workers...it's tough stuff. Even crazier...in one of the shafts on a ledge, there were little candles in the shape of a heart. The guide told us that they had a WEDDING that day in the mine. Who would get married in a mine? Swedes are crazy. Now, a wedding in an X-Wing Fighter, THAT, I could see.