Well as week 3 comes to an end I am shocked to learn that my German Adventure is in fact more than halfway over. As usual I’ll go through day by day and summarize what all I did.
Sunday pt 2 (6/9): We left Brussels and came back on the bus, got back in Bonn in the evening. Ate some spaghetti Leon made then went to sleep after an eventful week.
Monday: Early train ride then ferry to Norderney. Took most of the day, but train rides with friends are not bad. Settled in to our room and was given an introduction to Nordeney’s history and fauna by Dr Wasser at which point we were turned loose. I biked almost the length of the island along the inward dyke and oh boy did that suck. Blasted by heavy winds coming in off the sea in my crappy little rental bike was brutal. However the end view from the lighthouse on the other end of the island was great. Day was finished up by drinking some locally brewed beer and having a couple of Friesland Island liquor shots (very good) with some friends and our resident AIB cohorts, Brian and Alexa.
Tuesday: 6am workout on the beach followed by dip in the North Sea. This was our day at the bath house. Lava pool preceded by cold pool was dope. Dead Sea spa was just awesome and the sauna while nice was not as fun as I thought it’d be. Highlight was the mud bath tho (mud is piped in from the North Sea). Sitting with the dudes buck ass naked covered from head to toe in mud was a bonding experience. After this, alcohol was acquired and a BBQ was thrown. It was a grand ole time and very fun.
Wednesday: No early workout, toured the mud flats with a German biologist. Very informative, but also super cold, wind and rainy the whole time. I have a feeling I would have enjoyed it far more in the sunshine. That night some of us threw a little shin dig on the beach and it was fun
Spider crap in natural habitat
Thursday: Tour of the island with Wasser was super dope although I must admit the bikes by this point were getting on my nerves as they simply don’t compare with my beloved mountain bike back home. Long ass overnight train back to Frankfurt followed which was terrible although I did meet and talk to a friendly German college student. I napped in a McDonald’s for an hour, but otherwise didn’t sleep. I slept the whole way on the flight to Dublin though.
Friday: Arrived in Dublin at about 7am to a deserted airport then dropped stuff off at the hostel. Afternoon consisted of a tour of the ever awesome Guinness plant, followed by my first Guinness. Later we went to my now favorite pub, Malloy’s, and enjoyed fish n chips, live Irish music and of course, beer.
Saturday: Busy day, visited the Jeanie Johnston (Irish famine ship), St Patrick’s cathedral and went to Temple Bar district at night
Sunday: Basically we just wandered around Dublin all day and explored and that was it. I don’t want to bog down this post with too many pictures, but needless to say it was awesome and I really like Dublin.
Monday: Another long day, flew back to Germany. Main highlight was the visit to Trinity College which is a historic and very cool looking university.
As far as what I’ve learned this week, I’ve learned about the health benefits from Norderney (for example my skin and allergies cleared up in the 4 days we were there) and even though not in the official tour I actually learned quite a bit about the Irish famine and about the Irish in general. The Irish in my experience are very friendly, down to earth people who like nothing more than to hang out and have a good time. I’ve been exposed to so many new and interesting things in these 3 short weeks it’s hard to write them all down. However, the one thing I can write down is how grateful I am to be on this trip and how thankful I am to everyone who help made that possible.
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