From the Spa to the Eiffel

Okay time needs to slow down. This trip is going by so fast. It feels like I just arrived in Frankfurt just the other day. Currently I’m sitting on a boiling hot train in the rain heading back from Norderney. If this is the lowest part of my hero’s journey I really don’t have too much to complain about. My lungs are full of the fresh salty air of Norderney and my skin is baby soft from the mud coating thing so I’m still feeling pretty good.

I’m pretty upset we had to leave Norderney so soon. Biking in the sun on the beach heading to our ferry made me never want to leave that little National Heritage Site island. I really enjoyed being away from all the big cities we have been visiting this trip for the creature filled dunes and mudflats, to white fine grain sand beaches of the island. It was very entertaining to watch all 30 of us on our bikes embark from the port to our new Haus. I think I witnessed about 5 or 6 wipeouts involving curbs, poles, other bikers, and sand during our stay here, and I couldn’t help but laugh every time (of course after making sure they were all okay).  Shout out to Karen for smiling through her intimate collision with a street sign. We toured the island on these bikes and were able to see tons of wildlife inches away from our bike path. So far in Europe I haven’t seen much wildlife, but here we saw rabbits, ducks, oystercatchers, and tons of other species pointed out by Dr. Wasser along the way. After adventuring around the island we came back to our hostel and played basketball/soccer in the hole-ridden fields in the backyard. It was a blast, besides the fact that I sprained my ankle within 2 minutes in a hole. The BBQ that night was also so much fun. Henning brought us all beer and we spent the evening eating sausages, bread, and potato salad. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

Continuing: I feel like I'm always writing these blogs on trains.

I am currently on a train back to the Rheinfels castle because I loved it so much. Kidding. But it’s still an unexpected adventure after my girlfriend Paisley left her purse there, thank God someone picked it up and told us.

Back to Norderney! We roasted marshmallows and played on the playground and zip line.  It really felt like summer camp, but we are all in our 20s. That night some brave souls jumped into the North Sea. I wish I had too, but with the cold temperature and winds on the beach, my body respectfully declined the plunge. Our next day in Norderney was soooo relaxing. Being History of Medicine students of course we had to experience the medical benefits of a relaxing day in a Sauna/Spa Badehaus. After hearing a lecture on this by Dr. Wasser, I was thrilled to distress in Norderney after weeks of busy travel, stressful planning, and a LOT of walking. I was a little nervous for the “mudbath” part, but I’ll get to that in a second. The whole day was so peaceful. Floating in “weightless” salt pools, going down the slide and swimming in the wave pool, and the highlight of the sauna experience; when the sauna “meister” filled the room with Loooolla (or however you’re supposed to say/spell that) and fanned us majestically with hot air. The mudbaths were very interesting. We covered ourselves in this mud, or “clean worm poop” from the Wadden Sea, and sit in the sauna with nothing but black mud on. I can tell you, my skin has never felt so soft after that; it was really refreshing even though I had doubted this “cure” at first.  After the spa, we had a mudflats walking tour through the dried Wadden Sea at low tide during sunset. The guide was so informative and taught us all about the ecosystem and creatures living there. Besides just learning a lot, the hike through the mud was also so much fun. Everyone was laughing at the farting noises made when someone would adjust their feet and the mud felt amazing in between my toes. Not to mention the sunset over the island was so beautiful. That night we got some pizza and wine and sat by the fire; singing, laughing, and telling stories (Henning told us a super scary story about the pirates lol) with our group. I’m definitely going to miss Norderney and would love to go back someday, that place was incredible. 

With a quick turn around after getting back to Bonn, Paisley and I took a train to a air tram to a plane to Paris waking up at 4:45am…. That was a very tough morning, but we made it around noon. Immediately by our Airbnb, we walked under the Arc de Triomph, which was still amazing after seeing it 15 times to and from our apartment. That day we ventured around the Champ Elysses shopping center and got some ridiculous crepes. Mine was filled with mushrooms, egg, ham, cheese, sausage and boy was it delicious. Dessert was incredible too, a crepe with ice cream on top, caramel and a bunch of other things. It was a very memorable meal. Of course our dinner that night was very memorable as well, but because of the price and interesting interaction with our server and using 10 different methods of payment to cover it all.

Maybe the highlight of the trip was after dinner, when we went to the Eiffel Tower that could be seen for miles away even from where our apartment was. During the day we spent a few minutes taking pictures and looking up at this monster of a tower, but it was nothing compared to what it was like at night. The tower was lit up a bright shining golden color and filled the night sky from where we were sitting the adjacent park. Our group took a million pictures with every combination of people and views possible, haggled and messed with the wine/souvenir dealers walking around, and laughed the night away for hours that felt like minutes with a sparkling light show at the top of every hour. Here are a couple of the thousand pictures taken that night!

The next morning after a home cooked egg, juice, and coffee breakfast, we went adventured to the Palace of Versailles. This place was nuts. The queue to get in the palace itself was only about an hour thanks to Sarah, Sarah, Joanna, Nick, Dae, and Miguel saving a spot for us towards the front. Once we made it into the grounds through the gate, it was like stepping back in time to in a real governing wealthy king’s palace. All gold everything. Famous artistic masterpieces on every ceiling. It didn’t feel real. I could see why French commoners had some animosity towards their rulers after seeing the conditions in which they lived. I wish I knew more about French history to appreciate all the culture in this place, but the architecture and beauty of the Palace was a wonder in itself.

Later that day we visited the Notre Dame Cathedral, I was told in my book that we had to see it. The cathedral itself was massive covered with gargoyles and classical gothic cathedral architecture. I’m really glad we got to witness such a historic landmark, but I gotta say that the Sacre Coeur was even cooler. Around sunset Pais and I raced through train stations and up so many stairs to try and make it to the top by sunset, and of course the sunset was on the opposite side of the hill so we didn’t even see it. But the views from up there were amazing. I’m running out of adjectives to describe all the things I’ve seen on this trip. The Basilica overlooked all of Paris and we brought up a bottle of wine and some bread, cheese, and salami to cap off the night. The best part about the Basilica was the atmosphere. There were musicians, tourists, and locals alike all singing along to classic songs along the steps of the Sacre Coeur. It was so much fun listening to the artists perform and singing along to all the classic American songs that were being played with everyone else.

Unfortunately that was my last night in the wonderful city of Paris, I wish we could have stayed for longer. There’s so much to do in that city I feel like I barely scratched the surface. Next we are in Bonn all week, and I’ll talk about my adventures in the place I can call my new home in my next blog. Merci and Gig ‘Em.