Week Three: Sea breeze and our daily dose of ice cream

HELLO!! Wow I cannot believe that it is week three already! After a fun weekend In Munich, we had a day in Bonn before heading to Norderney for the week. First we took an early tram to get to the train. At first I was extremely fond of our quaint little village of Oberdollendorf where we are staying, and I am still so glad that this is the village outside of Bonn that I get to live in, the only thing is it is SO inconvenient to only have access to one tram line (shout out to line 66 for always taking me where I need to go). The worst words in German that I have learned are Später, which is always followed by a time, meaning your train/tram will arrive that many minutes past its predicted arrival, and my absolute least favorite word is Einjfalt? (looked this word up on the internet and nothing is coming up but every time the tram is not going to show up) . Despite the late trams and canceled trams, I've always gotten where I've needed to go on time (for the most part) and the public transportation is growing on me. SO after a morning of some of these unfortunate tram situations that I just described, we made it to connect with the group at Bonn Hbf and embarked on our trip to Norderney. My expectations for Norderny were that it was going to be a small island with maybe one or two restaurants and shops (also the badahaus) and mainly beaches. When stepping off of the ferry, I realized that this place was nothing like I had pictured. I quickly fell in love with the slow pace of the sleepy little beach town where bikes were the main form of transportation. I bike three miles to class everyday in College Station, so I absolutely loved having a bike for the week and hoping on it to ride into town or to our planned event.

Our first night there were were introduced to the best ice cream place on the island and oriented around the town so we wouldn't get lost. Mistake number one: showing us the ice cream place on the very first night in Norderney. Everyday there we went out of our way to make sure we tried multiple flavors and every different compote topping. I justified it by saying that I was biking everywhere and the calories don't count in Europe anyways. The next morning, since I am a morning person, I decided to wake up for the "Wasser workout" on the beach and was very glad I did. Even though Norderney was a bit chilly that early in the morning, I was grateful for the fresh air and to get moving that early. I did wimp out when it came to the Thalasso though, I couldn't bring myself to go in past my legs because the North sea was just so dang cold. After wimping out I was determined to go back later in the day during some free time for a swim. We also visited the badahaus, and after all of the talk and hype (aka lectures by Dr.Wasser which were the definition of hype) I was excited to finally be getting the full mud treatment and sauna (pronounced sauuuuuna) experience. The lecture given first helped refresh a few of the historical parts about sauna and when the time actually came to go in, I was pumped. First we got to check out the different temperature pools which were nice but honestly not as hot as I expected, but the best part was the mud treatment. Let's just say after this experience I feel way closer to all of the girls and Dr. Fajt. They are my sisters in steam (and mud). After rinsing off all of the mud, we got to go into the saunas. I honestly don't know if I have what it takes to participate in the sauna culture that frequently. I lasted for a solid five minutes before I started to really burn, specifically my ears and butt that was sitting on the hot wood bench. I forced myself to stay at least another five minutes, and immediately booked it out of there for a rinse in a cold shower. After that, I picked one more cooler sauna which was still very hot but nicer which was on the roof of the Badahaus. Overall it was a unique experience and I wish  was German just so I could receive a prescription to come back to this spa for a week.

After the spa, a group and I explored the town for a little while and I purchased some sandorn jam for my mom to try, and then we made our way to get our ice cream (got two scoops this time and was the very best decision). We then biked back to the hostel for the barbecue. I honestly loved the barbecue, because it was the first casual event that we have had on this trip where all of us in the program hung out, talked, and had a good time. After dinner, Rachel, Sydney, and I volunteered to be the s'more makers of the evening and due to the lack of roasting sticks, we invented a great system of simply roasting the marshmallows directly on the grates and turning them with forks. It was so much fun and there was only one complaint about the s'mores tasting like the sausages that we had for dinner. Later that night there was a group of people going swimming and I promised myself I wouldn't wimp out this time, so I joined them. It truly wasn't too cold when you went all the way in and got your head wet. I'm a big beach person so I loved playing in the waves and swimming once I got over the initial cold shock.

Some one told us we looked like the local pizza delivery service

Tour de Wasser

The next morning we had the bike tour across the island, or as I like to call it the Tour de Wasser. I bike six miles everyday (granted it is in College Station which is about the flattest town that has ever existed) but even still when we had to bike up some of those hills on the way back, my legs were burning. The bike tour was beautiful though and was one of my favorite parts of our trip to Norderney. I loved seeing the island and exploring the dunes by bike and hearing about the different wildlife that inhabits the island, which was continued during the mud flat hike later that evening. More than once I thought I was going to wipe out and return covered in mud, but somehow I managed to stay on my feet. It was amazing to see how different sea life inhabited different distances from shore and digging in the mud to see the different wildlife was pretty cool too. I have always heard how mud flats were such diverse ecosystems but to see it first hand and get to hike out to the shore line with stops along the way, with the marine biologist (who was probably the coolest human ever), was unreal. We also went to the badahaus museum and learned even more about the history of sauna and the historical evolution of the culture surrounding not only Norderney but German beaches and beachwear. My favorite part about the museum was the passion that our tour guide (who also founded the museum) had. She clearly loved what she did and it was displayed with how she talked about her museum and her expensive knowledge of her collection, which was so well put together. The next day after breakfast we left our little island. For a place I have never heard of, I liked it way more than I expected to and it was such a wonderful week.

Peace out Norderney

Day at the Cali Pi Coves

While I was sad to leave Norderney, we had a more tropical beach destination that we were headed to for the weekend. Before we even got to the Cologne airport, Rachel said that she felt like something was going to go very wrong this weekend, I think her exact words were "I am expecting one big catastrophe but I think this will still be a fun weekend". As soon as we got onto the plane for our departing flight, we discovered that our return flight had been canceled. We learned that our flight cancellations were due to the flight companies employees going on strike in France. When I was calling my mom to tell her I was extending the hotel for a night I accidentally told her it was due to air strikes in France and I think I mistakenly gave her a heart attack. OOPS sorry mom. We also quickly told Henning because when we went to reschedule our flights there were no more flights available Sunday night and we were going to have to come back Monday morning. Since Dr.Fajt's class didn't start until later it wasn't an issue for those of us in group B for the hospital visit, however a few people on the plane with me were in group A and didn't want to miss a day of observing surgeries. Henning (our hero) got it all figured out so we could enjoy our weekend without stressing too much. Mallorca was beautiful and I loved the mix of mountains and beaches. The first morning in Mallorca, we found a little cove in Cala Pi to swim and relax for the day. This cove where we were had the bluest water I've ever seen and it was a peaceful day. My biggest mistake was falling asleep with no sunscreen on, and even though I have a naturally tan/olive skinned complexion, I was a lobster and when we ventured off the beach for dinner and I took a shower it felt like my skin was on fire.

Other highlights of Mallorca:

Just a couple of burnt chicken nugs

-My first paella experience
-sunscreen for day two on the beach (thanks Nancy)
-sangria and tapas
-fitting six people into a two person hotel room (thanks canceled flight)

Mallorca was beautiful and a big vacation destination for Germans, so it was like we never left Germany for the weekend in a sense. Other things I am starting to learn from my time in Europe is that Europeans
are so much more comfortable with nudity and their bodies and I personally think America needs a little more of that. First in Munich a the park, then at the Badahaus, and finally in Mallorca, it is just seen as so much more acceptable here and is part of their culture and that is something to be appreciated, maybe not copied in America but the comfortable atmosphere is cool.