Week 3- In another life I was probably a fish

...maybe a Cate-fish (not to be confused with a catfish because my mom hates those).

If you've ever heard the phrase "living out of a suitcase" I don't know if you actually know how that feels. Exciting. Exhausting. Different. And sometimes you pack imperfectly. Note to self- if the Germans say an island will be cold, pack more than 2 light jackets. When our train neared the stop for our ferry to Norderney, you could see the locals all bundled up, and sitting there with my one jacket on, I looked down at my Birkenstocks just thought “oh crap, I’m a Texan”. 

For those of you who truly know me- you know that I am absolutely in love with water- swimming in it, floating in it, watching it, listening to it (even on spotify), and when the occasion should arise for rain- dancing in it. This place instantly stole my heart as I stood there soaking it all in.

Germans love their foam

Our first steps on the island took us to the bike rental shop to pick up our hot rides for the week. With our white bikes we looked like a flock of seagulls flying too low to the ground, and sometimes we even sounded like the seagulls from Finding Nemo (“moin”, “moin”, “moin”- the island greeting).

Seagull Bikes

Our hostel was a nice place only 3 min from the beach. However, we were at he end of the hallway, and nearest to the rooms with the pre-pubescent German boys. It was like working as a lifeguard at scout camp all over again. Except these boys not only tried to flirt with us, but also made fun of us for only knowing English. See video for the daily norm. And when we got there Henning told US we should try not to wake THEM up, mhm.

We took a bike tour of the island that first day.  It was chilly and the clouds would sporadically sprinkle rain on us. The little town center was straight out of a novel-full of little shops and cafes. There was even a beautiful grassy area of the town in front of the Badehaus and Conversationshaus. In one of the woody areas Dr. Wasser pointed out the best place to get Eis on the island: Fresieneis. What a dad Dr. Wasser is to all us 29 kiddos- “Everyone gets a scoop… don’t ruin your dinner, well oh well.” And even though it was chilly, we huddled there and all enjoyed our one scoop with drizzled syrups and toppings. It most definitely ruined my appetite for dinner. Worth it. After dinner, Mikayla and I explored the beach, and could not believe the amount of sea foam that collected along the beach. Germans just love foam I guess- on the beer and on the beaches. Of course that evening I had to see more of our enchanting island, so I went on a run through the dunes and the beaches. It was unreal.

Freisian Eis

The first morning in Norderney included waking up at 5:45 am, jogging to the beach, a combo of working out in the sand and a Wasser physiology lesson, and topping it off Thalassotherapy. For you non-Northern Europeans- Thalasso is the use of sea water for health purposes. For us this meant running into the icy North Sea. It was an extraordinary morning, 14 C, and the water was cooler. I think I stayed in long enough to call it a quick swim as I jumped around in the incoming waves. I'm convinced there is no better way to wake up.

After breakfast we rode our bikes to the Baudehaus for a lesson on the healing elements of Sauna and the medical significance of the island. The island's location provides salty air, zero allergens, and special mud. This lead to the island becoming a key therapeutic designation for those needing respiratory, mental, and skin therapies. In Germany, you can even become prescribed to spend a few weeks on Norderney. As always, the Dr. Wasser lecture included a physiological explanation of the health benefits, and then afterwards (for strictly scientific purposes) we got to experience the health benefits. The first floor of the Badehaus, the Wasserlevel, contained salt baths, jet baths, hot baths, and a large ocean water pool. The second level had the mud bath room, saunas, steam rooms, and hanging beds for you to rest on. We weren't spoiled, we were just being scientists. Such a peaceful day- dreamy and mellow. After a few hours in the sauna, the relaxation continued as Mikayla and I wandered outside, got another Eis and the largest MilchKaffee of my life, looked through some of the shops, made our way back to the grassy area (now sunny and warm), and laid there listening to the cute German toddlers counting down for hide and seek. You better bet we fell asleep there.

Listening to small Germans count down during tag "eins, zwei, drei..."

Eventually we made our way to the dunes behind the hostel for our special “BBQ” which included all sorts of wurst, s’mores, special North Sea shrimp, and dancing around. Henning, Alexa, some other brave people, and I decided to go swimming again that night, and we did. It was frigid, but that wasn’t stopping me from spending the better part of an hour diving into the incoming waves and swimming around. Glorious, glorious, glorious. After a while it gets so numb that you get used to the water temperature and don’t feel cold until you climb out of the salty ocean and get pummeled by the icy wind. 

Day two we had a long bike tour of the nature trails on the island. Seagulls, salty sea grasses, fields of green and gold, millions of bunnies, chilly wind, sand dunes, and the mud flats. After dinner we went on a biological tour of those mud flats. These are the types places where the Badehaus mud comes from. A cool thing about the island is that when it is low tide the ocean floor becomes so exposed that you can even walk to the mainland. So we hiked barefoot in the mud until we reached the water, and then rushed back when the tide started coming back in.

Our biological mud flat hike

Our final morning and Wasser workout began at 6am. For the Thalasso part, I basically had to be dragged out of the water because I didn’t want to leave it. It really made me miss my swim coaches and my teammates. Afterwards we had breakfast, showers, and packed everything up. As everyone was finishing I walked out to the beach with Carol and we just stood in awe. She left after a while and I stayed there, ankle deep, soaking it all in. There is so much beauty in way that God crafted the detail of every wave, every gust of wind, and every fragment of seashell. In the language of my heart the word “Norderney”, this small East Frisian Island, translates into the English word “enchantment”.

Did I just get in the water or am I about to?