If I were to say I spent a week on a spa island biking around the beach, eating ice-cream once a day, and enjoying a mud bath and saunas most people would question whether or not I’m actually studying abroad. However, that’s exactly what I did week 3 when I went to Norderney. On Tuesday the class met at the train station and boarded a 5 hour direct train to Norddeich Mole where we caught the ferry to the island. Despite knowing it would be colder than Bonn due to the Baltic Sea wind and location further north, the majority of us wildly underestimated the weather. As soon as we stepped off of the train to head for the ferry we were hit with a cold wind and I immediately regretted not bringing warmer clothes. Luckily the ferry gave me time to break into my suitcase and pull out a sweatshirt and replace my Birkenstocks with tennis shoes because when we got to the island we shoved our luggage into a van and rented bikes to ride to the hostel. The rest of the day was then spent following Dr. Wasser on a bike tour around the town, which ended at Frieseneis - aka the best ice cream place. Ever.
Day two at Norderney started fairly early with a 6:00am workout with Dr. Wasser. We jogged to the beach, did various body weight exercises and then jumped in the freezing cold ocean to practice thalassotherapy. Since we had stayed up late the night before talking in our room I went straight back to the room, showered, and crawled back in bed, only waking up when it was time to leave for the badehaus. Jumping on our bikes we went to the Convesationhaus to pay the air tax (a fee all visitors to the island have to pay to basically breathe in Norderney) and then walked to the badehaus where we got the behind the scenes tour of the spa, a lecture about the badehaus itself, and then got to spend the entire afternoon enjoying the spa. Despite Dr. Wasser’s wonderful lecture the week prior, my inexperience with mud baths and saunas had me imagining tubs of mud that we would sit in and rooms so hot you felt you were being burned alive, but the badehaus was nothing like that. For starters, the mud bath involved stripping down naked, coating yourself in the cured mud from the island, and then sitting in a steam room and “zenning out”. Secondly, the sauna was hot but the warmth was a welcome break from the cold and dreary weather outside and the smell of the burning wood was so relaxing that I find myself thinking back to it every time I get cold now. Following the sauna I spent some time in the steam room which was significantly cooler but still warm and relaxing with comforting aromatherapy. Finally, I found a chair/bed swing and lied down for what must have at least been 30 minutes, becoming so relaxed that I fell asleep and woke up to leave feeling the most rested I had felt this entire trip. 
After the badehaus a few of us grabbed a late lunch, walked around and shopped, and then stopped by Frieseneis yet again before biking back to the hostel. For the rest of the afternoon I just hungout with my roommates and continued to relax, before joining the entire program for a BBQ outside the hostel. There was so much food, from sausage to veggies and potato salad to s’mores. Someone even brought a speaker so we were able to listen to music (including the sauna theme song - Baby Break a Sweat) and enjoy our time together. After dinner a few of us went to the restaurant down the street and got slushies and brought them to the beach, but when we couldn’t handle the cold any longer we came inside and all sat in a room and talked until we were ready to go to sleep. 
Our last full day in Norderney was an intense day that might have been better placed before the spa instead of after. The day started with a beautiful bike ride around the island, except the wind was so strong that it felt like we were going uphill and against the wind every way we turned. By the time we stopped for our picnic lunch I was exhausted and longing to be back in the spa. After a short break we biked to the Badehaus Museum where we got to learn about the history of Norderney, which started as a place for royals and celebrities and has since become open to many tourists. We even discussed the German healthcare system and how some people can get prescribed weeks on the island in cases of severe stress, while also experiencing an interesting exhibit that showed the progression of swimsuit styles over the years. While we were in the museum it started to rain, making it even colder outside, but the girls and I still went to Frieseneis before heading back to the hostel. Around 7:00 that night we had a walking tour through he mud flats. It had stopped raining but the wind was strong and it was very cold, but we went out in shorts and sandals ready to walk through the mud used in our mud baths the day before and that had been underwater just hours earlier when we passed it on our bike tour. Lead by a biologist we walked out a small bit at a time, stopping to examine the different signs of life and textures of the mud at each point. We learned about how the mood effects the tides and how dangerous it can be to go out in the mud flats alone and inexperienced - particularly when we had made it to the edge of the water and looked back to see where we came from and the water that was rising up between those two points. Despite being physically exhausted from the wind and the cold, we once again spent the rest of the night hanging out until we could barely keep our eyes open. 
On Friday we ate breakfast at the hostel and then packed up our bags to turn in our bikes and head out for the ferry. The weather had warmed up a little so we sat outside and got to watch the waves, as well as a little girl get her granola bar stolen by a seagull. The few of us that were heading back with the group, or at least part of the way back, waited at the train station for some time before boarding. Henning, our program coordinator, had reserved seats so that it would be easier to sit together and when we found them they were in a private room much like those on the Hogwarts Express. Having just taken the Pottermore quiz earlier that day (I’m a Ravenclaw by the way), I was very excited and we all couldn’t stop talking about Harry Potter until we decided we needed to get some sleep so we could be rested for our next weekend trip!
Sarah Bohac
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