For the last weekend in May, we went on a trip to the North Sea. First, we made a short stop in Husum and visited the North Sea Museum. It was mostly kinda boring, unfortunately, but they did have some neat models of farm houses and and mills and things. I think that the Freilichtmuseum Molfsee (see last post) was more interestingly done.
After visiting the musuem and taking a quick walk downtown, we took a bus to get to where our ferry was going to take us to the hallig. A hallig is basically an island, but this type of island only occurs in the north sea where the tide is so extreme. Because of the tides, the ferries run at different times every day. Nature decides. That was one of the main things that made an impression on me throughout the trip. When you live in this type of landscape, you are fully subject to nature. Weather and moon cycles rule your life and make decisions for you. It’s quite humbling.
As we stepped off of the ferry onto Hooge, we arrived in a different world. There are only 80 people that live there. All the buildings on the island are clustered into little groups on top of little hills, this is called a warft. They have to create these hills because when there is a big storm, the island will very quickly be covered with water.
a larger warft in the distance
The people on the island own lots of animals. We saw big sturdy horses like the ones above, lots of sheep and cows. The largest animal population, however, is the geese. We were told that for a few months there are 14,000 geese on the island. Humans are way outnumbered and are forced to walk through goose poop where ever they go. At the hostel where we stayed, they have a little soccer field set up. We played for a few hours, stomping through the goose droppings and bewildering the sheep surrounding us. They had to move over to the playground while we took over the field.
The people who live on the hallig also seemed to be of different stock than most northern Germans. I’m sure, though, that a big part of it’s this tough, lonely life on the island. Most of the inhabitants were red-faced, sturdy and strong-looking, probably a product of constant wind and constant farm work. They also tended to be quiet, and seemed to have a strange sense of humor. This was most evident when we ventured to another warft to watch one inhabitant’s home video of a flood. The way this guy narrated the film was strangely hilarious: monotone throughout, the lack of emotion while describing a violent act of nature was almost too much to handle. Then while on the way back, I almost got taken out by a bike. I was alone in the middle of the road and all the sudden there was a bike coming towards me. We couldn’t figure out how to get out of each other’s way and he ended up brushing past me on the right. The weirdest part was, he didn’t say a word! No “excuse me”, “I’m sorry”, or even “get out of the way!”. Everyone who witnessed it was like, yeah… the people here are different.
We made dinner that evening and had a party, being the only guests in the hostel. Here are some more pictures of the island before I get to the next part of the excursion.
water running through the hallig
After not sleeping very much, we got up in the morning and went on a three-hour walk through the wattenmeer, the north sea mudflats. The wattenmeer was just named a UNESCO world heritage site in June 2009. These mudflats are a product of the tide and flood twice a day. You actually have to be very careful about hiking through the mudflats. People are not allowed to go without a tour guide because of the flooding and the fog which can be upon you in a matter of minutes. Here is a picture of Hooge during high tide. We took our tour at low tide and walked to a sand dune. It might be one of the ones you see here on the photo, but I’m not 100% sure.
hallig hooge from above
There were lots of little living things in the mudflats: worms, crabs, snails, mussels and prawns.
our first view of the wattenmeer
walking away from the hallig
our guide showing us how far we can sink in
group picture on the sand dune
It was a really interesting trip. I am glad I got to see this unique landscape. Now I really know what Theodor Storm is talking about.
