Already half way over???

Our trip to Norderney was definitely one of the most interesting places that I have traveled to on this trip.  The train ride was long, but I was able to spend this time completing Dr. Waltz’s exam, so the time went by pretty quickly.  When we arrived the island was cold and windy (which is what I was expecting) but it still took me by surprise.  After riding our bikes to the hostel, we were able to walk to the beach nearby, eat dinner, have some sunset tai chi, and settle into our hostel rooms.

Our first full day on the island was spent at the Badehaus.  We went to an interesting lecture where we learned about the history of Thalasso therapy, the medical benefits that it provides, and how this Badehaus in particular runs.  We then were able to take a tour, followed by actually being able to use the amenities.  The Badehaus had a lot of different types of pools, being hot, cold, in between or full of salt, as well as wet and dry saunas.  My favorite was the large pool that wasn’t really hot or cold, but that is probably because I have trouble just sitting still.  Prior to trying out the saunas, we had our mud shower thing.  The schlick we used had a weird smell to me, probably because it came from the ocean, but I got used to it fairly quickly.  I wasn’t really looking forward to the idea of being covered in mud, but once we did it, it was actually relaxing, and made my skin super soft.  Then we went to the saunas, but I did not spend a lot of time in them since they made me pretty hot.  That evening we had our group barbeque which was a lot of fun since we were all able to just hang out and talk to each other.  Later that night we were able to walk down to the beach and watch the sunset. The next day we went to the Bademuseum and learned more about the history of the Badehaus and Norderney.  Later we went on the mud flat hike.  I don’t think I have ever been so cold in my life. 

Our last day in Norderney I had went with Brian and Alexa to get a new ferry ticket since mine flew into the ocean on the first day (lol whoops).  After this I went and ate lunch with some of the people who did not go on the bike tour and enjoyed walking around and looking in all of the shops.  At around 4 pm, we were on a train and headed to Frankfurt to catch our flight to Ireland.  The train ride took a little longer than 6 hours, and we spent the night in airport McDonalds.  Obviously I did not sleep much.  We arrived in Dublin at 7:30 and although we were all completely exhausted, we checked into our hostel and started exploring.  The day started with a traditional Irish breakfast including black and white pudding (yum?), followed by a tour at the Guinness factory.  We ended our night at a nearby pub where we were able to listen to live music. 

 On Saturday a few of us took the paddywagon to Galway, and stopped in some cute little towns along the way.  In Galway we listened to more music, eat really good seafood, and go explore other pubs.  Because Galway was on the west coast, and had not been as affected by other countries, our tour guide told us it was more “traditional Irish” in that this area.  Sunday we went and visited the Cliffs of Moher, which was probably the most beautiful place I had ever been.  After this, I was pretty checked out for the rest of the tour, and was glad to get back to the hostel in Dublin to get some sleep.