Week 26! - Sylt!

Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a fabulous week! I had such an amazing week on my class trip in Sylt, Germany. Before I start, I’ll tell you all a little bit about what a class trip is. In Germany, the school system is very different. It’s quite complicated but to make a long story short, there are different levels in the school system and each student gets placed in one at the end of 4th grade based on the teacher’s recommendation and a test the student takes. I’ve been going to a “Gymnasium” which is the highest level. In my school the girls all have their own class of 30 girls in total and they’ve been together since 5th grade. Because of this they are very close, and part of the reason why is because of class trips. The class teachers are expected to plan a class trip for the class every few years or so. I was lucky enough to be at the school for one of those trips and we went to Sylt for 6 days. 

The trip started on Monday morning. Rahel and I woke up early to pack food and finish up overall packing. Then we headed to the main train station and met up with the rest of the class. There were a couple of times that we had to switch trains but it wasn’t bad. Fortunately we had reservations and we had a whole cabin to ourselves. It was good like this because we were very loud and we kept moving around. We also got to play music which was nice. We were on the train the whole day so I wrote some letters, watched a few movies, and I braided a lot of people’s hair. We arrived in Sylt around 7. So all in all we had been traveling for about 12 hours. We were all very tired, but first things first was dinner. We were also very hungry. I am vegetarian and my option was this weird cauliflower patty burger thing. It was very weird but I was hungry so I ate it anyways. After dinner we got to get settled into our rooms. The rooms were so bad that it was funny. There were 3 sets of bunk beds so there were 6 people per room. The beds were so tiny. Clearly made for kids. Infact, in order to sleep I had to curl up in a ball, I couldn’t actually straighten my legs all the way. They were also very tiny in the fact that I couldn’t even sit up in my bed. My head wouldn’t fit unless I tilted my chin to my chest. The mattresses were also paper thin. And to top things off the bunk beds rocked around so much. If you shoke the bed frame the whole bunk bed would make noise and move around. The room itself was also very small. We couldn’t fit 6 people and our luggage in the room. There was this table in the middle of the room that took up all the space. Another issue with the rooms is that there was only one key, and we weren’t allowed to have it. Only our teacher were. So every time we wanted to go into our room we had to wait for our teacher to come with the ring of keys to unlock our room. We kept comparing our room to prison because it really was like that. But honestly it didn’t really matter that the rooms weren’t very nice. We didn’t spend much time in them anyways. After we got a little settled in, the whole class went to the beach. It was late, but we all wanted to see the sunset. Because we were very north, the sun didn’t set until around 10 PM. We didn’t bring our bathing suits with us, so we were only able to wade in the water but I was pleasantly surprised about how warm it was. So we watched the sunset, listened to music, played games, and our teacher brought his guitar so we sang songs too. It really was picture perfect. We didn’t get back until around 11:30 but it was worth it because it was so beautiful.

This is a photo of our rooms. There was a very pretty view!

The beach sunset, so pretty!

Me, Leonie, and Larissa on the beach!

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast. Breakfast was the same everyday. We ate a classic German breakfast of rolls with different cheeses, jams, Nutella, or for some people meats. After breakfast we went back to the beach and took a long walk with a professional who taught us all about the different species that live in the sand, how the changing tides work, sand dunes, and the North Sea in general. It was very informative and also very interesting. This took up the whole morning so when we were done we ate the lunches that we packed at breakfast and then we had a short break before going swimming! We went to the beach right next to where we were staying, and because of that there were a lot of rules. For example, only 20 people were allowed in at a time, and we were only allowed to swim for 20 minutes at a time. And even though it was a tiny section we were allowed to swim in, there were 5 life guards standing on the beach watching our every move. And we weren’t allowed to have anything on our wrists, not even a hair tie or a watch. and for some reason everyone swimming had to put their towel in a pile on the beach. I think that was so they could see everyone got out. It was a little crazy but we still had fun. The water was the perfect temperature and the sand wasn’t rocky at all. It was super soft. The time went by really fast, and before we knew it, it was already dinner time. We had a barbecue and it was just our class which was very nice. I didn’t like the vegetarian hot dogs, but there was also potatoes and salad which were yummy. After dinner we went to the beach again, but this time we didn’t go swimming, we just played music, games, sat in a big circle to hang out together. 

Walking on the beach looking at all the different creatures!

There were so many muscles and clams, I thought I'd take a photo of one!

There were also so many of these purple flowers, but I don't know their name

On Wednesday, after breakfast, we took a little walk to the pier for a boat ride. We were going on a boat ride to another island named Föhr. It was a much longer boat ride than I thought it was going to be. It was about 3 hours each way and it was also bumpy. A lot of people got sea sick, but thankfully I didn’t. I spent the time on my phone because everyone who wasn’t sick was either sleeping, or also on their phone. When we finally arrived at the island, we were allowed to split up into groups so we could explore around for a little bit. It was cool to look around at all the different shops, and also look at all the different souvenir shops. After we explored for a while, the class met back up again and we went for a walk to a windmill. There was a playground there that some of the people in my class played on for a little bit before we had to head back to the pier. When we got back to Sylt, we went directly to dinner, and then we had a short break. We were all exhausted, but the day wasn’t even close to over. We still had a night hike! It was a long walk. We were with a guide who took us all around. The “theme” was our 5 senses so we slowly worked through each sense (except for taste). The walk back was very long. I walked with a girl named Jule and we just talked and talked and talked. I was very proud of myself for basically speaking german for an hour straight. What a way I have come since I first arrived in Germany. When we got back to our rooms, it was well past midnight so I went to bed right away. 

The pier! Our boat isn't pictured, I just thought it was artsy! Haha

The windmill we walked to

After breakfast on Thursday, we took a short bike ride to another beach. We went to a place that had stand up paddle boards so we could go stand up paddling. We even got to wear wet suits. I felt so professional, like a surfer! We were out on the water for a long time. It was so much fun to just paddle around. I’ve done it before so I was able to keep my balance very well, but I jumped in a few times just for fun. We also played some games while we were out there which was also a lot of fun. By the time we were done, it was already time for lunch, but first we got ice cream. I got sea salt caramel and it was super yummy. Afterwards we biked back and ate our rolls. After lunch we got back on the bikes for a bike tour. We biked for a few hours to another beach. It was also very beautiful. I didn’t have my swimsuit, but some of the other girls went swimming. After a while we biked back and had dinner. The bike ride was really hard work because even though we weren’t going up really steep hills, it was a lot of distance and our bikes weren’t the greatest quality. Because of this we were all so exhausted after the bike ride so even though we had an activity planned, we decided to just take the evening to have a little bit of free time for ourselves. I was very happy about this and I went to bed extra early.

Sabrina, Jule, and I ready for stand up paddling!

On our last full day in Sylt, we started the day with a bus ride. It was a tour of the island so the bus driver talked the whole ride and told us all about Sylt. It was pretty hard for me to follow along, but I did understand some things. For example Sylt has a lot of Danish people living in it, so that’s why most things in Sylt are written in both Danish and Germany. Even though Sylt is technically in Germany, It’s so north that it feels more like Denmark. Looking at Sylt on a map, if you go right you will be in Denmark, not in Germany. Even my phone thought that I was in Denmark and it sent me a text message saying “Welcome to Denmark!”. We also took a short walk to a church to stretch our legs a little bit. Eventually we ended up at the most northern point on the island, which also happens to be the most northern point in all of Germany.  We got to explore in smaller groups for a bit, and then we went to a very cool museum. It was all about the environment, North Sea beaches, the wild life in Sylt, how Sylt came to be, and etc. There was a lot of listening with headphones and thankfully there were three languages available. English, German, and Danish. We stayed at that museum for hours just exploring everything it had to offer. Eventually we headed back. We went back on a different bus and there were so many people on that bus that it was not very enjoyable and there was no space. But it didn’t really matter. When we got back we ate dinner, and then went out on the beach for our last night. There were little stations that we went to. For example, one station was massages, one was a little game, one was just to sit and listen to the beach, and one was storytelling. It was very cute and I really enjoyed it. When we got through all the stations, the whole class sat in a circle and they surprised me by reading me the sweetest letter written by a girl in my class, Dina. It was so nice that it made me cry and then everyone gave me hugs. It was my last night with my class so it was a little bit emotional. Then we all went around in a circle and said our favorite part of the school year. Almost everyone said a moment from the class trip which was very sweet to hear. After we were done with being sappy and emotional, we turned on the music and had a dance party on the beach. We just played the music really loud and danced in the water and in the sand. It was so much fun because we were the only people on the beach so we could be as loud as we want. Sadly, the night had to come to an end, and so we walked back to our rooms went to bed. 

Me at one of the stops on our bus tour!

Lara, Me, Leonie, Larissa, Rahel, and Greta

The next morning we woke up very early and finished packing before breakfast. At breakfast we also packed food for our travel day. We took a bus ride to the train station where we had to wait for a long time for our train to come. Then we had a 3 hour train ride to Hamburg. Unfortunately, the air conditioning was broken so we were baking and dripping sweat the whole time. There were also so many people so even though we had seats, we couldn’t move because there were people all around us. Finally we got to Hamburg and then we rode ICE (a much nicer train) to Freiburg. Around 8 hours later we ended up in Freiburg where I had to say goodbye to my class for the last time. It was sad, but I know it won’t be the last time we see each other. When we got back to the apartment it was late so we said hello to everyone, and then went to bed. 

On Sunday I woke up and started unpacking, just so I could start packing again. I basically spent the whole day packing, but I also wrote my blog (obviously) and we all went to a concert at an agriculture festival. It was a good band. They had a bass, violin, accordion, something that I don’t know the name of but it was kinda like a clarinet but it was longer and fatter, and there was also a drum. Overall it was a cute group and they told a funny story about a pirate ship throughout the performance. 

So that was my week! I hope you enjoyed reading about my wonderful time spent in Sylt. I highly recommend if you are ever in the area. It was so beautiful, but also not very touristy. I had so much fun and I can’t believe how fast the time went. For those of you wondering, I leave on Tuesday, July, 24th. I still plan on writing one final blog reflecting overall about my time in Germany and how my travel home goes. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a wonderful week!