Happy Halfway

Week 3 is done which means we are halfway through. Time is flying by. 

Things I have learned so far:

• Expect things to go wrong, because they will. Pretty much on every single trip we’ve made something has gone awry. At this point, I’m unfazed by things like trains catching on fire or getting cancelled. I’m also getting really good at running through the train station like a mad man in order to catch a connection. The most important thing I have learned through this is how important it is to be adaptable and flexible. Luckily, missing trains and flights don’t stress me out which is probably thanks to being raised in a family that is always running late. The way I see it is, in this day and age, I can always find a way to get to where I need to be, even if it isn’t on the original route. Also, I have found that the moments I cherish and remember the most are the times when things may have gone “wrong” or when we strayed from the original plan. 
• In Europe people walk fast.I will freely and easily admit I am a stroller. I like to take things in and usually I bumble around from place to place. When google maps says something is a 5-minute walk, I might take 10. Okay… that is an over exaggeration, but you get the point. Here though, everyone is walking like they are a car on the autobahn. They zoom. Now I know I probably won’t ever get to that point of fastness, but I am trying. I think the key is taking long strides. I haven’t cracked the formula yet, but once I do I’ll let you know. Alexa, if you’re reading this know that I am trying for you. I won’t be at the back of the pack anymore. 
• I like being outdoors? I have never really thought of myself as an outdoorsy kind of person, but maybe things are changing. Living here in Germany, surrounded by hills perfect for hiking and beautiful scenery, I love being outside. We walk pretty much everywhere, and I really enjoy it. We also biked all around Norderney and it was one of my favorite things. There are so many green places here where people do things like read books or toss frisbees. Times where I have just sat outside or laid in a field and watched the sky are the best. Maybe next semester you’ll catch me biking around college station. Might even mess around and go to a park.
• I really like pistachio gelato. I kind of already knew that though. 
• German’s eat a lot of bread, meat, cheese, and potatoes. And more bread. 
• This trip has made me grateful for a lot of things we have back in Texas (the biggest one is the culinary diversity), but it also made me realize that there are a lot of things we are missing out on. One of the biggest things is the immense history here in Europe that is noticeable just as you walk down the street. We walk on the ruins of whole civilizations here and America is a baby in comparison to how old the cities and countries are here. Munich just celebrated its 861^st birthday. That is crazy. 

How week 3 went:

Day 15 (June 10): Today we went to NORDERNEY!!!! In the morning, I quickly packed my suitcase (threw random clothes into it) and then ran to the tram to get to Bonn Central Station by 7:15 am. From there we were off. I slept through most of the train ride. On our last connection, I went to the restroom and when I got out, I noticed that the train had stopped, and everyone was off. I grabbed my stuff and dashed off. It was a close call. Luckily, our last stop was the Nordeich Mole station which is where we got on a ferry to the island of Norderney. The ferry was nice, super windy since we sat at the top, but I was into it. After the ferry ride, we were on Norderney. We got our bikes and then biked to our hostel. On the bike ride over, I was in awe. I don’t know what I expected Norderney to be, but the island was picturesque. Serious beach town vibes. Blue skies, green grass stretched for miles intermingled with hilly sand dunes. I was in love. It was super windy, which was expected since it was an island, but the wind made it cold. I probably wore 5 layers. After arriving at our hostel, Dr. Wasser took us on a walk tour of the beach. He told us about some of the wild life and vegetation there. The beach was beautiful. It reminded me a lot of the east coast. I was super surprised that a place like that existed in Germany. For some reason, I never thought about a beach town existing there. After the walking tour, we ate dinner which was a kind of chili that was pretty tasty. Then we had free time, so we hopped back on the bikes and went into town. The town was so cute. It had cobblestone streets with small shops crammed next to each other. We biked all the way to the beach right next to the city center and found a place called Milch Bar. The milch bar had people sitting outside enjoying drinks and watching the ocean and sunset. We saw this and figured might as well. I got a cappuccino and enjoyed it next to the beach. It was so serene. We walked down to the beach, where a stone path extended into the ocean. We walked out on the path and it was beautiful. The sun hit the ocean just right, making it light up as waves calmly washed up. 

View from the stone path. 

We biked by the ocean and then headed back to the hostel. There, we joined Dr. Wasser on the beach for some Taichi. It was so relaxing, feeling the sand between my toes, breathing in the ocean air, and hearing the waves crash on shore. After this, we all passed out. 

 

Bike gang. 

Day 16 (June 11): We woke up early this day and joined Dr. Wasser at 6:30 am for some Sunrise training. We ran to a spot on the beach and then Dr. Wasser lead us through some exercises. They were lowkey hard, not gonna lie. I laid out in the sand for half of them. After the exercises, we ran out into the North Sea. It was cold, but so refreshing. I truly felt alive. That is some serious Thalasso treatment. After this, we showered, ate breakfast, and then hopped on the bikes and headed to the badehaus. In the badehaus, we received a tour through the facilities and it was really cool to see the basement where all the mechanics of the place are. One thing I was surprised by is just how nice the badehaus is. It is a public bath house, but it is so much nicer than any of the public pools we have in Texas. We also received a lecture on how Thalasso therapy works and learned how people are sent to Norderney to get better by using this treatment. It was really interesting to learn how atopic dermatitis and allergies get better on the island through weeks of these treatments, because I have both. After the lecture, we were allowed to go use the badehaus facilities. There are about 20 ish pools. I tried the main salt water pool first. It was warm, and I slightly floated around in it.  Next, we tried out the waterfall shower. Water comes out of a shower head right above you about 6 meters up. It felt so nice, like a water massage, I loved it. Then we went to the Japanese bath pool, which is a super-hot (113 degrees F) pool with an open roof, so you can look up and see the sky. It initially burned going in, but as soon as I got adjusted, it felt so nice. After this, we floated in the dead sea pool which is 20% salt and the rest water. The room was dark, and I just closed my eyes and felt weightless. It was such a cool experience. We tried out some other pools like a cold-water plunge pool and an indoor/outdoor pool with jets. There was also a family pool with a water slide and wave generator. Of course, we tried out both of those things. We also sat in a steam room and an outdoor and rooftop sauna. One very cool thing we did was a schlick mud treatment. We received bowls of schlick, which is mud made from worms in Norderney and rubbed it on our faces, kind of like a facial. Then we added salt to the mud and rubbed this combination on the rest of our bodies. The mud was warm and felt nice. Then we sat in a steam room for 10 to 15 minutes with the mud all over us. After the time was up, showers automatically started up and we washed off the mud. I felt so rejuvenated after the schlick treatment. My skin felt so soft. Everyone seemed to be glowing. I highly recommend, I even bought some schlick to take home. We spent around 2 to 3 hours in the badehaus and then got hungry.

Badehaus>>>>>>

            We got some food in a café nearby and then went to a really good ice cream place called Frieseneis. The ice cream was so good there 10/10 recommend. After ice cream, we biked back to the hostel and walked on the beach and collected sea shells. There are a bunch of jellyfish washed up on the shore. Then it was time for the barbeque. Alexa and Brian manned the grills and did an awesome job. The chicken was so good and we also ate some dank smores. After the barbeque, we went out to the beach at night and watched the sun fully set. 

Beach at night.

Day 17 (June 12): This day, I slept through sunrise training and instead woke up later. We went to the badehaus museum and half of us got a tour around town from Dr. Wasser and Jane, his wife. They showed us a church and explained some history of Norderney. Then we went to the badehaus museum and learned more about Norderney’s history and the 222 years. After this, we biked back to the hostel and ate lunch and then headed to the mud flats. Once we got to the mud flats it started raining. Luckily, most of us were prepared for this. Our guide lead us to the dyke where we took off our shoes and descended on to the mud flats. The mud initially was so squishy and my foot went deep into the mud everytime I stepped. As we walked though the mud consistency changed and it started to get more stable. Every now and then Frau Finkennest stopped us and showed us cool animals like molluscs, worms, and crabs that hid in the mud. The mud flats are a world heritage site thanks to their high amounts of biodiversity.

Mudflats.

 It was super cool to be able to walk out there and learn about this site that has such high productivity levels. The weather conditions were rough and a couple times the mud had sharp shells that hurt, but overall I enjoyed the mud flat hike. It was such a cool and once in a lifetime expericne and opportunity that even though it felt miserable outside, I liked it. I especially thought it was so cool to walk to the ocean. Once second we were on the mud flats and the next we were wading through the sea. There were a bunch of jellyfish and our guide showed us some of them. It was such a surreal thing, seing how calm the sea was and how it stretched for miles. After the mudflat hike, we biked back to the hostel in the rain which I enjoyed a lot. I took a hot shower and then we ate. We biked into town and got some gelato and then went back to the milch bar to sit and enjoy the view. That night, I slept very soundly. 

Made it to the ocean after miles of mud flats.

Day 18 (June 13): This day was our last day in Norderney. We started the day by going on a bike tour of the island led by Dr. Wasser. 

Aesthetic bike tour picture.

We went to the light house and Dr. Wasser told us all about the different birds on the island. The bike tour on the way back was hard because we were going up a slight hill with the wind pushing on us. Not going to lie it was rough. At the end, I wasn’t cold anymore, instead I was sweating. Then we ate lunch and walked around the town. I took a nap in the conversation haus and then it was time to go back to Bonn. We made it back alright, although it was kind of late. Maddie and I had 2 minutes to catch our tram back to Oberdollendorf, so we ran like crazy to our platform and somehow made it. That was the absolute best considering if we missed it we’d have had to wait 30 minutes for the next tram. We made it home and I packed my suitcase for the long weekend and then passed out. 

Freshwater lake on Norderney.

Day 19 (June 14): We woke up early today and took a train from Bonn to Cologne. In Cologne, we caught our train to Munich. While on our train we realized it passed through and stopped at Bonn to pick people up and we were so dead. We could have just stayed in Bonn, but oh well all that matters is that we caught our train. Our train ride was supposed to be 5-ish hours and we slept through most of it. Half way through I woke up and realized we were stopped. I saw police officers walk by and a firefighter but for some reason it didn’t register, and I went back to sleep for a few minutes. Then I noticed people getting up and figured it was time to wake Maddie up and see what the heck was going on. I woke her up and got her up to speed on what I had seen and then we asked someone what was happening. Apparently, someone had been smoking in the train bathroom and then it caught on fire. So our train was on fire… and Maddie and I had slept through it. We were so flabbergasted (I wanted to use the phrase “we were so ded” but it isn’t proper, so I tried this word. I don’t really know how to put the feeling of “ded” into words, if you can please let me know). The train has probably been sitting on the track for about an hour until we realized something was up. Soon everyone was leaving the train, so we got off too and luckily a nice lady started talking to us and took us under her wing. She was going to Munich too, so we followed her and got on a train headed in the right direction. 

Stuck at Goppingen because our train was on fire.

After 2 ish hours we finally made it to Munich. Luckily our hostel was a 2-minute walk so we checked, got settled, and then headed off to explore. First, we walked to Marienplatz and saw the rathaus. Right off the bat, I could tell Munich was a lot different than Bonn. First it is in Bavaria, which is a different region. It is also the third biggest city in Germany, so there were so many people there. It had a serious city feel. From Marienplatz we walked to the outdoor food markt and then headed to the Hofbrauhaus. The Hofbrauhaus is a huge old beer hall. It is also where Hitler gave one of his famous speeches. Munich was a center of where Hitler gained his popularity. Maddie and I had a beer and a pretzel there and soaked in the atmosphere. They played traditional music and people wearing lederhosen and other traditional German outfits surrounded us. This was the Germany I thought of before visiting. After the beer hall, we walked to the English Garden, which is a massive park in the Munich. It was beautiful and serene. So many people were out sitting and swimming in the streams running through. Maddie and I sat down and enjoyed the park for a while. Then we walked some more through the city and headed back to the hostel. Munich was really cool because there are so many big modern, city buildings but then they also have random old, beautiful structures with so much history. 

Rathaus. Pretty nice. 

Day 20 (June 15): On this day we woke up and went to a restaurant called Mr. Pancake. They had really good pancakes and eggs. After that we walked around some more (went into some cathedrals, saw some old buildings, etc.) and then met with our tour to go to Dachau.

            It took us around 20 minutes to get there and on our way our tour guide told us a little bit about the city of Dachau. We were dropped off right at the entrance of the concentration camp. It was a very surreal experience being there. Even now, after walking through the camp it is still hard to grasp that so many unspeakable tragedies and horrors were inflicted upon people just like us. Seeing the barracks that the Nazis crammed so many people into, the gas chambers disguised as showers, and the cremation ovens left me with a sickly feeling. The suffering that humanity can bring upon its own kind is a heartbreaking thing, but I think visiting the camp was a very important lesson on the history of humanity's past and it helped me put into perspective what can happen when we start to ostracize our own and see them as less than human. 

            

Dachau.
(Where the barracks would have been, 2 replicas remain today)

            After Dachau, we walked around Munich some more and listened to live music played in honor of the city's birthday.

Happy Birthday Munich.

Day 21 (June 16): On this day we woke up early and hopped on our train to Salzburg. We made it there in around 2 hours and then went exploring. We walked through the beautiful Mirabell Gartens which were gorgeous with lots of flowers, fountains, statues and a maze of bushes. Then we walked through the town and saw Mozart's house and residence from the outside. After this we decided to take a hike up to the M32 restaurant in the modern art museum. The hike had a lot of up hill, but the beautiful views of the city and the alps along the trail were worth it .The weather was also nice which was a plus. We made it up to the top and saw the fort on the other side of the mountain. The restaurant had an outdoor patio with scenic views, so we stayed for a drink and enjoyed ourselves. Then we took the elevator down. The elevator was super cool since it went down from the inside of the mountain. We walked around the town some more and found a dinner place and had some classic Austrian food. Overall, I loved Salzburg. I have been there before in the winter and it is still just as pretty in the summer. The town is kind of small, just like Bonn, but it has nice cobblestone streets to walk on and pretty buildings to look and walk into. 

Salzburg is beautiful.

Day 22 (June 17): This day we woke up and headed to a nice café next to the river and I had some scrambled eggs and yoghurt with fruit. It was a nice change from the butter and bread and the eggs were so fluffy and good. Then we crossed the lock bridge and walked around town. We went into a few shops and saw some cool stuff like egg ornaments. Then we went to the oldest bakery in Salzburg and I bought some brioche rolls. They were pretty good and it was cool to see the set-up of the bakery. We walked some more around town and then ate a sacher torte, which is a popular Austrian chocolate cake, at Café Tomaselli, a famous Café which Mozart used to go to. After this we walked around some more and then headed back to our hostel. We grabbed our stuff and started the long journey back to Bonn. We had a 8 hour train ride with three connections. One of our connections was a 9 minute train ride from Munchen Hbf to Munchen Pasing. Maddie and I didn’t hear the announcement that we had arrived at Munchen Pasing and sat there for a minute until I looked outside and saw that the sign said it was our stop. We jumped up and ran to the door and somehow we luckily were able to get off and make our next connection. Phew. Now we are on our last train with 3 hours left before we make it back to Bonn. Hopefully everything goes fine. 

Street in Salzburg.