So in traditional fashion this
post is about to be an unreasonable length, but maybe you have too much time on
your hands or you think these are really fun to read. At any rate, to pick
things up from where I left off at the end of my last post (where we got a
train cancelled and had to flounder our way back home from Brussels), I woke up
very early on Monday morning to head to the train station and go to Hannover.
This of course means I didn’t see my host family at all over the weekend, and I
wouldn’t be back again until the next Sunday night after Paris. A little
awkward, and I felt pretty bad about the fact that I was just stopping in for
the night essentially, but I just hoped they would understand. I got to the
train station on time (a miracle really) and got on the train to Hannover. After
arriving, we made our way to the hotel we would be staying for the night and
dropped off all of our stuff. We grabbed a quick lunch, consisting of some
doner in my case (I can’t find the o with an umlaut so that’ll have to do) and
grabbed the tram to the axolotl research facility. We split ourselves into two
groups, and I made my way into the facility with the first group, excited to
see these rather adorable little creatures. After a lecture by one of the
faculty members of the facility covering the curiosity that is an axolotl, how
it regenerates, what all it’s capable of, and what they’re working on now, we
made our way into the axolotl room. All around us were relatively small
aquarium looking tanks with around 5 or so axolotl (axolotls?) each, and they
are definitely as cute as advertised. Admittedly they also look kind of weird
with their strange gill things sticking out to the side, but they do also grin
at all times which is a sight to behold. After making our way around the room
for a bit, taking a bunch of photos of smiling axolotls, and asking some
questions about how they live, we switched with the second group as we went
outside. On a side note, I’m slightly disappointed that we didn’t get to see
the spider room that had been so talked up because I was pretty pumped for some
spiders, but oh well. We spent our time out in the field hanging out on some
chairs, talking to Jane (Dr. Wasser’s wife who is super cool by the way), and
making flower crowns for Carter. After about an hour the other group had
finished and we all met up again to go to the Hannover Medical School hospital.
We met up with a cardio resident (the doctor was in surgery but it’s not like
that’s really a surprise) who spent at least an hour talking over various
aspects of cardiothoracic surgery, including what kind of surgeries they do the
most there, what the craziest things he’d done were, etc. He also brought along
a little collection of old ventricular assist devices (VADs) so we could see the
evolution of the device over the years from these contraptions that were
anything but mobile all the way to rather modern systems that have a battery
that allows the patient to live a relatively normal life. Following his
explanations and a short Q&A with all of us about random facts we wanted to
know, we got to go talk to a patient who was currently in the hospital with his
VAD. The man spoke no English but was still incredibly nice, telling us
(through Dr. Wasser’s translations) all about how he had been a reporter all
his life and how he had gotten to the point of needing the VAD. He was really
jovial throughout the whole process, even showing us his machine and the wires
leading into his stomach without hesitation. After we had pestered him for some
time about living with his VAD, we finally left the hospital to head back to
the hotel. From there, we left to go get some dinner, and ended up at an
Italian restaurant where I had some pretty freaking good pizza for not a lot of
Euros (always a plus) despite the fact that the waitress couldn’t speak any
English, making things interesting. After the dinner we grabbed some gelato at
the local grocery store to take back to the rooms since we all decided we
wanted ice cream, and we all gathered in one room to work on our blogs and eat
some ice cream. This of course turned into us all talking instead, and so not
much blogging got done until the very end when we all decided we might want to
do some actual work at some point. After working for a short period to complete
my last blog post (of course about a week behind where we actually were), I
submitted it and made my way to bed to get some sleep for our early start to
Norderney the next day.
We
woke up early and enjoyed a good breakfast made early specifically for us, but
it didn’t change the fact that we were late as usual. After hurrying to catch
the tram, we made our way to the Hauptbanhof and grabbed our train to
Nordreich-Mole. I, of course, went to sleep on the train because what else are
you supposed to do for four or so hours when you could be trying to catch up on
the sleep that you never get enough of? After arriving to Nordreich we crossed
the street to catch our hour long ferry ride to the actual island of Norderney.
The boat was actually a fairly decent size and clearly a number of people
travel to the island on a regular basis. We grabbed a quick snack in the lower
deck before moving up top to try to get a view of the water as we made the
short trip across the North Sea. This was made slightly more difficult by the
fact that it was extremely windy on the day we needed to get across, so the
ship was tossing quite a bit and causing everyone to sort of slide across the
deck of the ship and stumble all over the place. We drunkenly made our way to
the side of the ship, snapped some photos, and before we knew it we were on the
island. We grabbed our stuff and managed to get a hundred yards away from the
ferry before we stopped again to wait for the bikes we were going to rent for
the time we were there. I managed to get mine first somehow, an awkward little
thing with the basket on back and a bell to complete the whole picture. Of
course we all started riding them around as soon as we got them (some with more
success than others) and pretty soon everyone was feeling pretty good on the
bikes. After we all had one, we rode to our hostel for the week and our stuff
was transferred in a van from the bike shop. We had just a minute at the hostel
to unload everything and go grab a (very) quick lunch before we needed to meet
up again to go on our bike tour of the island. I had some schnitzel that was
delicious, not to mention it was actually enough food for once, and it wasn’t
horribly expensive. Dr. Wasser then started our bike tour, a disaster waiting
to happen really when you have 25 kids all trying to ride a bike together at
the same time. This is particularly true when we all set off, since moving
slowly is of course the hardest part and nobody is farther than 4 feet away
while we’re standing. We all got off without too many problems, and even
managed to get some distance before the first person fell *cough Carter*. We
made some pit stops along the way so Dr. Wasser could tell us what we were
looking at, and it was the first time we actually got to get a good look at the
island. It truly is a beautiful place that isn’t like anywhere else I’ve been
in my life. Sure, it’s really just an island on a sea that isn’t particularly
pretty, but there’s something special about it. It’s relatively untouched in
most areas as it is now a world heritage site, and wildlife roams everywhere.
Hundreds of birds from a number of species were flying around constantly, and
the whole atmosphere was one I can’t say I’ve been in often. We made our way to
a lighthouse at the end of one stretch of the island before finally turning
back to start home. When we got back to the hostel, besides being pretty worn
out, we had a number of hours to do what we wanted until our group BBQ at
around 6:30. The weather was perfect, and so we ended up playing some
basketball at first in a grass area behind the hostel. Turns out the whole
place is commonly used by school kids, especially toward the end of the year,
so the backside was a lot like a playground at a school. Soon enough, everyone
was outside, and after basketball we played a great game of soccer on the same
field. The sun was setting, it was cool with a breeze without being cold, and I
was having one of the best days I’ve had in a long time. After soccer we
decided we should probably get the BBQ going, so we grabbed the bear, sausages
and side dishes and got started. Everyone gathered around the fire pit for a
toast, and it felt like we were just having a backyard BBQ with close friends,
but on a beautiful island in the North Sea in Germany. We sat on swings, played
with ziplines (sorry Hailey), told stories, talked, and ate. To make things
better, some in the group went out and got s’mores stuff on their own and so we
all made s’mores over the coals from the BBQ as a desert. The dinner must have
gone on for at least 3 hours, and I don’t think I stopped smiling for more than
a few minutes during the span. As the sun really started to sit low, we decided
we needed to swim in the North Sea, because how often in your life would you
get the chance to say that you had done that? We donned swimsuits and made our
way to the beach all under a sunset that was getting more beautiful by the
second. It was cold at this point, especially in swim trunks, but it was so
worth it. We all ran into the water, and while it was freezing (something like
15 degrees Celsius), we stayed out in the water for probably 15 minutes. We
splashed around, dove through waves, and at least in my case, simply stared at
the beautiful and spectacular place I had somehow found myself in. Eventually
we came in, took some great photos of the group as a whole on the beach, and
everyone tried to soak up as much of the sunset as they could. Finally I made
my way back (pretty freezing at this point) to the room to shower and go to
bed. I don’t really know how to articulate why it was that this day was so
great. The things we did were not particularly spectacular, but the feeling was
indescribable. It truly was bliss, and many of us (myself included) chalked it
up as one of the best days in our life. I can only try to explain what was
going through my head. I think it was a mix of everything in the moment for me:
great people, a beautiful place, perfect weather, happiness all around, and not
a care in the world. I was with friends that I hadn’t known for the most part
just 5 weeks earlier, and yet we were already become best friends in a place
that seemed like it was separate from the rest of the world or its problems.
However you want to define the moment or try to explain why it was so great,
the best way to put it was that it was simply the best day I have had on this
trip, and I’m not sure how many days you get in life to be as perfectly happy
and content as I was for that whole afternoon. It was a day I was sad to see
end, but considering it had been so good, I figured the rest of Norderney would
probably be pretty excellent (spoiler: it was).
The
second day in Norderney was our day at the spa, and so we all rode our bikes
back into town to the Badehaus. We received a lecture from the staff covering
all of the actual science behind the spa and sauna, ranging from vasodilation
studies to asthma research and more. This went on for maybe an hour before we
made our way to the changing rooms to enter the spa for ourselves. The Badehaus
(bath house for those non-german speakers) is hard to place in an American
setting. It is a spa, but it also has two pools, one large warm one that is for
adults, but also one that includes a water slide and wave pool for kids and
their families. They were separated well such that it wasn’t loud in the quiet,
calm side of the spa, but it also makes it harder to define what the place
really was without just going there (which I would recommend). At any rate, we
changed into swimsuits again and set up our groups for the mud treatment before
getting let loose in the place. We (again Hailey, Jules, Carter, Kathryn,
Alana, Emily, and I) of course made our way straight to the kids pool to try
the water slide, and stayed on that side for maybe 30 minutes, enjoying a round
in the wave pool to close things. We then went back across and got in the
heated pool for a brief period before deciding to try the extremely hot hot
tub. From there you were supposed to go straight into a standing pool that was
the same temperature as the North Sea, an interesting experience since it was
cold initially, but after you got in and stood still it really did feel good.
Plus, after I got out, my legs felt strangely good, and tingled everywhere that
had been exposed to the drastic temperature change. From here we moved to the
high salinity pool, which sat at around 20% saline (I think?) and allowed you
to simply float. It was covered in slate on the inside and barely lit, truly
creating a cave-like place that was relatively easy to fall asleep in. So I
did. Of course, this presents challenges since as I started to fall asleep I
kept trying to let my eyes open a little bit, which would end up with me
getting salt water in my eyes and waking up fully. Anyways, it was unbelievably
peaceful and we spent at least 20 or 30 minutes in there before it was time for
the guy’s mud treatment. To be honest, I was slightly apprehensive since
everyone has to be nude to do it, and you never know how well that’s going to
go when you get a bunch of guys together, but it ended up being an incredible
experience with no problems. After getting undressed, you showered in a large
room outside the steam room to clean yourself off before applying the mud. The
mud comes from the Wattenwerd (hopefully I spelled that right), the mudflats that
are created when the tide drops around Norderney, and a critical piece of its
ecological diversity. More on that later though. So, you took the mud and put
it all over your face before mixing in the salt and applying the mixture over
your entire body, and I mean everywhere. I was fully coated (back excluded) in
the dark paste before I was done. We then went into the steam room, where you
sat on slate benches with a few other guys in one of three little stall areas.
Again, everything was made of slate and the room is dim, creating a calming
atmosphere. Steam is pumped in rather quickly, and soon enough you really could
barely see the person across the stall area from you, even though they weren’t
more than 6 feet away. The mud slowly began to thin out too, but it felt really
amazing. Finally, a hot shower turned on to start the processes of cleaning all
the mud off. It started out extremely hot, slowly cooling to a comfortable heat
as you attempted to scrub all of the mud off of yourself. After getting most of
it off, we went back into the large shower room to finish getting the rest of
the mud off before redressing and leaving the treatment. It really was a unique
experience, and I came out feeling both extremely refreshed and baby smooth. From
the mud treatment, I went with Carter to some of the different saunas, thinking
that would be a good thing to do with just a guy so someone could watch the
halls when we needed to shower after each sauna. We started with the 90 Celsius
sauna, thinking we might as well start hot and cool down. It was definitely
warm, but it actually wasn’t too bad. I couldn’t breathe through my nose though
to be fair, since it burned to try. Still, we lasted around 10 minutes in there
before deciding that was plenty of scalding temperatures. We moved from that
sauna to a sauna at 65 degrees that was also scented. It was actually rather
pleasant to sit in, and we would end up spending most of our time there. After
this, we decided to meet Dr. Wasser in the sauna on the roof of the building
for a session with the sauna meister. He added scented water to the rocks and
used various fans and towels to move and blast the air in our direction. It
really was a cool experience, and you could tell it was the real way to
experience the sauna. We stayed the full 15 minutes in that sauna, capped off
by a near disaster when Alana, Hailey, Jules and Kathryn tried to come into the
sauna since they didn’t see the sign saying not to come in. With a nude Dr.
Wasser and Drake (me too at one point but I thought I saw Jules’ bun and
immediately toweled back up just 30 seconds before they tried to come in),
things certainly would have been awkward, but alas. We then laid out on the
rooftop in the cool air for a bit before making our way back down to try a
darkened room that was filled with chairs and swings that you could lounge in.
Unfortunately, almost the entire group had almost the same plan, so it was full
of our peers when we tried. We sat outside instead, and the chairs were
probably equally comfortable. After nearly falling asleep, we decided to have
one more go in the 65 degree scented sauna followed by a dunk in the dipping
pool, also set at North Sea temperatures. This too was a very refreshing event,
although it required slightly more watching out for the girls since it really
was a little square shaped pool that you had to dunk in naked. Following this
we were essentially out of time, so we made our way back to the changing rooms
to get back into normal clothes and head out. It was an incredible experience
and really reasons enough to make a trip to Norderney if you ever get the
chance. We ate a fairly American lunch afterwards (strange considering there
are really almost no Americans that visit the island – 99.9% of the visitors
come from Northern Germany) before going back to the hostel. We had most of the
afternoon off after this, and we all went down to the beach to play some
volleyball. Again, I had an incredible time filled with some decent volleyball
and even some good matches before we all had to meet up to head out to the
mudflats with our guide. We ventured out into the mud, a fine material that was
extremely soft under your feet. Our guide stopped every hundred meters or so in
order to tell us a little bit of information about the life that lived both in
the mud and off of it. She talked to us about the birds (millions of them) that
use the island as a stopover on the way to Africa in order to feast for two
weeks. They have to nearly double their normal bodyweight in order to make it
the rest of the flight and the mud is so full of food that they essentially
sleep and eat for two weeks (what a life right). From the flats we witnessed
yet another beautiful sunsets as Jules snapped about 80346923975023 photos
while we all yelled “golden hour!” at her. To be fair the pictures are also
incredible, so I guess I should shut it. Once we finished on the flats, we went
back to the hostel and made our way back out to the beach to enjoy the last of
the sunset and the start of the night. We ended up staying on the beach just
chatting, taking pictures, doing massage trains (Carter doesn’t like those),
and goofing around until around 1:00. Most of the group had also made their way
to the beach along with Henning (program director) and we finished things
around a fire just talking some more. Finally around 1:30 I called it a night,
and went back to go to bed.
Our
last day in Norderney was a rather short one, and was really just a visit to a
museum about the bath house on Norderney and the island itself. The tour was
actually really interesting and then woman was thoroughly ecstatic about the
topic and a chance to give it in English. After the tour we rode our bikes back
to the bike shop to drop them off and said goodbye to Dr. Wasser and Jane who
were staying on the island for the weekend. We were officially free for our
long weekend, and after using the ferry to cross again to Norddreich-Mole we
grabbed some lunch before our train. Jules wasn’t continuing to Paris with us,
so we also said bye to her before getting on our train. Luckily, these train
rides were rather uneventful, and we simply connected in Cologne to our Thalys
train to Paris. Finally, by around 11 we made it to our hostel in Paris, The
Generator. The place was really like a hotel for young people, and even had a
bar/restaurant on the bottom floor. We didn’t check it out, instead just going
to the rooms and calling it a night since we had a lot to do in Paris.
Day
one (Friday) in Paris we started with the Louvre. While I had been before, I
still think you’d be crazy not to take the chance to see all of that art if
you’re already there. We hit all of the highlights, including a selfie with
Mona Lisa in my case. We perused the museum for a few hours before getting
hungry and deciding to head out for lunch. We got food at an excellent little
café near the Louvre with the nicest waitress in the entire world. She brought
us bread which was free, and kept bringing us more as we finished it at no
charge. She brought us all the cold tap water we could drink for free, and even
offered to refill Carter and I’s water bottles since our water might not be
fresh anymore. She then gave us some tips about Paris and told us to watch out
for pickpockets before sending us on our way. We walked over to Notre Dame at
this point and made our way inside. I got caught up reading the history of the
building for a while so I kind of missed everyone else leaving (sorry friends)
and ended up meeting them at the exit when they were all tired of looking
around. This next section was rather specific and a must for me on the trip,
but it has a backstory that I’ll try to make quick. When I was a senior in high
school I did a trip through educational foundation tours over Spring Break to
London, Paris and Madrid. It was kind of like a mini study abroad in high
school with some of my classmates, my chemistry teacher and his wife, and some
moms (mine included). Kathryn had also gone on this trip, and it was how we
actually became good friends, and so this story kind of applies to her too. During
that trip we had a guide that went with us to each city, and in Paris we had
quite the lasting memory with him. After looking at a famous fountain near
Notre Dame (the name escapes me), he asked if anyone wanted to get some of the
best coffee he had ever had during a short break we had. Kathryn and I along
with others said yes before the guide took off through people down a side
street at quite a pace. Some struggled to keep up but Kathryn, Maisen (not
related to this current trip), and I made it to the coffee shop with him, where
I had the best coffee of my life. After that visit, I had vowed that if I made
it back to Paris I would get coffee at the same place. So, back to our trip. We
were back, and Kathryn and I were deadest on finding this place again and
getting coffee. It was surprisingly easy to get back to, and soon enough we
were enjoying some more excellent coffee at the same place we had been three
and a half years prior. After enjoying our delicious coffee and the moment to
reminisce, we left to head to Saint Chappell (maybe that’s how it’s spelled).
Unfortunately that cost money and we’re poor, so that ended that idea pretty
quickly. So we moved on to the next plan, which was to gather up some bread,
meats, cheeses, and wines to go to the Eiffel tower and sit on the lawn. After
getting all of our supplies, we trekked over to the lawn, and quickly found a
perfect patch of grass in front of the tower to plop down. Once again, the
weather was beautiful, I was surrounded by friends, and I was in a state of
real happiness. We ate, drank our wine, and even got some additional food from
some Americans living abroad who needed help with data to find a restaurant
their friend was at. The few hours we were there flew by, and unfortunately (I
guess) we sat for slightly too long on the grounds in front of the tower, as we
had planned to go up that night. By the time we got to the ticket counters, all
you could do was go to the second floor. We still went up briefly, but we knew
we would have to make a return trip the next day. After our disappointing
climb, we started the return to the hostel. We got back and spent some time
trying to plan for the next weekend (to no avail) before calling it a night and
going to bed.
Saturday
we started things off by going to the Sacre-Coeur, hoping the view would be as
good as the one Kathryn and I had seen on our trip in high school.
Unfortunately, turns out this view is immensely better at night, the way we had
seen it, as in the day it kind of just looked like a big city. After this
slight let down, the girls shopped for a bit in the streets around the church
and picked up some paintings. From there we went to the Musee d’Orsay,
something I had my apprehensions about considering I’m not a huge art person.
Of course, once we were in, I realized I was wrong to be worried, because it
turns out I like impressionist art. We wandered for quite a while, looking at
some Van Gogh paintings they had along with some classic Monet works. After
spending some time there looking through all the art our brains could handle,
we left to head back to the hostel to change for dinner. The plan had been to
wear some nice clothes in order to have a nicer dinner since we were in Paris
before going back up the Eiffel tower. Of course, this didn’t go quite to plan.
We had asked the front desk where we could go for a good dinner in the area,
but the place he sent us ended up being in a less than nice part of town. We
gave up on his suggestion almost immediately and decided we’d just see what we
could get closer to the Eiffel tower. Unfortunately, by the time we got there
we really needed to head up or face the same problems from the night before,
and we couldn’t miss it again. So dinner was pushed back to after the Eiffel
tower (RIP stomach) so we could get up in time. It ended up being a good idea
since it took an hour to get to the ticket window and we didn’t get up to the
top until around 9. We took tons and tons of photos, made a little cooler by
the fact that Paris has up all of its promotional material for its bid for the
2024 summer Olympics. The Eiffel tower is always incredible, and I really
believe it’s something everyone should try to do in their life. I was worried
that it wouldn’t be as good a view in the day time either, but luckily I was wrong.
We had a clear view of the city at the perfect time of sunset, and yet again I
was surrounded by unbelievable beauty. I couldn’t help think what a lucky life
I (and really all of us there) have, that this was the second time I was at the
top of the Eiffel tower. It’s a site that most people will probably go their
whole life without seeing, and here I was on top of it for the second time and
I’m still pretty much a kid. It was both a moment of appreciation and
reflection for sure. Because of this, I essentially never wanted to come down
from the top and instead just wanted to stare at the city forever. I couldn’t
help but ask myself “how many times do you really get to do this in one life?”
I was already at two, and at some point you have to wonder how many more
chances in your life you’ll have to stand at the top of the Eiffel tower and
look out over Paris. Never mind the fact that the chances of me getting to do
it under the same circumstances with such a great group of friends are
incredibly low. Enough sappy introspection though. With these thoughts in mind,
I did stay up on top of the tower with Hailey and Alana for an extra 15 minutes
or so after the others had gone down to soak up as much of the view as I could,
and finally we took the elevator down to meet them at the bottom. We went back
out on to the lawn so that we could watch the sparkling lights, another site we
had missed the night before. We also happened to run into the rest of our group
in Paris, so we all sat together and watched as the Eiffel tower glittered like
a giant jewel. We didn’t stay long though considering we were starving and
unsure how long things would stay open since it was already 11 or so.
Surprisingly, we quickly found a place that looked good and was still very
open, so we sat down to eat. The meal was really incredible, and everyone even
tried some escargot, which was excellent, since we were in France. We all
laughed and talked through another incredible dinner and eventually started the
long trek home. We finally got back to the hostel at around 1 and called it a
night pretty quickly after that, knowing we had to leave in the morning.
Sunday
we ate breakfast at the hostel before making our way out to the bus stop we
needed to get to in order to catch our BUS
back to Cologne. We made it with plenty of time and Hailey and Alana ended up
surprising us all with drinks, including a Dr. Pepper for me (bless up). We
then got on the bus, which was going to Brussels funnily enough, and settled in
for the ride. The ride to Brussels was rather uneventful, as was the one from
there back to Cologne, and I managed to make it home at a semi reasonable hour
for once. It was a whirlwind of a week, and as a whole it definitely took the
cake as the best time during this program, including some individual days and
moments I think I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
So, if you made it this far and
through all of that, I congratulate you. I would say this is my longest post
but frankly I’m not sure I can actually promise that. It should be though,
since the last week in Bonn is one with a few excursions but nothing quite like
Norderney or Paris. Crazy to think that I’m already to the point where I can
talk about my last full week in Bonn. People weren’t kidding when they tried to
warn us that this all goes by faster than you can explain. Just have to hold on
tight to the last bit of time we have.
Friday we had class as usual, but then we went to
the Cologne zoo. The only other zoo that I have been to is the Houston Zoo, and
so I don’t really know how to compare the two. I personally thought that
Houston has more types of animals, but not high numbers of each animal, whereas
Cologne has a smaller variety of animals but in higher quantity. I don’t really
know how accurate that is since we didn’t look at everything in the Cologne
zoo, but that was my first impression. Of course, and I am sure everyone else agrees,
the best part of the tour was going “behind the scenes” of the elephant house
and LITERALLY FEEDING AN ELEPHANT OMG. It was probably one of the most exciting
things about the trip. From the zoo I grabbed some gelato (gelato runs are
essential, I think I’m about to take one before I finish this blog) and then
headed home for the night. 
