Hannover, Norderney, & Paris OH MY!

My first traveling slip up happened last weekend when heading to Hannover. We got a cab to take us to hotel Marijani, which turns out there's two. We kept calling the owner to let us in and causing all kinds of commotion. There was a strong language barrier between the owner and I. He asked me probably a good seven times which city the hotel I booked at was in. I repeatedly told him that it was in Hannover. Turns out he meant which street was I on the whole time. Some nice people staying at the wrong hotel were helping us and let us into the lobby to figure out crap out. We finally got the address of the correct hotel and called a cab. Rebecca was trying to tell them where to pick us up and they could not understand the street name she was saying. She said it about four times! She ended up having to spell it out in German for them to understand and they repeated it and to us it sounds the same! Haha

Norderney was a great experience! My favorite part was of course the mud bath. It was very relaxing and mostly just something I've never done or even thought I would do in my life. I was very surprised that they charge you for their air. I'm not sure I quite believe it was that pure gold of air that it needed to be paid for, but the island is definitely worth the small price. I absolutely loved the Badehaus! I can't believe they pampered us so much! The mudbath was quite an experience, and I actually loved it. At first the heat kind of overwhelmed me, but I adjusted pretty quickly. I could tell my skin was softer as well, if only the effects would last longer! I sort of regret not buying some schlick to take home with me but thats okay. My favorite part of Norderney was definitely the mudflucking. It was so fun goofing off and running around getting dirty in the mud. Our guide kept it interesting too, dying my hand from the acid a worm gives off.

I just got home from Paris!  I loved it! I heard some kind of bad reports that Paris would be a let down, but for me it really wasn't. It was all I expected and I had a really great time. I liked the Museum D'Orsay better than the Louvre which I thought odd because all you hear about is how wonderful and grand the Louvre is. I found its hugeness a little overwhelming actually and much preferred the smaller crowd at Orsay. The subway system didn't bother us. In fact it was quite nice that anywhere you wanted to go you could find a route and if you missed one subway you could wait 2 minutes for the next. Very useful. Of course we got lost some but not too bad, and the French were pretty kind and willing to help. That's another thing. I've grown up hearing how the French are rude and force you to speak French even if they know English perfectly well. I found the opposite to be true. They would answer any question we had and I didn't run into one person who didn't speak English. It's possible that outside of the tourism parts things are different, but I really thought everyone was kind.