The taste of salt on the tongue, sand beneath the feet that swallows all sounds, flat lands with only sparsely covered dunes as far as the eye can see and wind rushing through the hair. Up until this point Sylt shows no difference from any other island in the Northern Sea. But there is a reason why I never had any ambition to explore Sylt up until now. The beauty of the biggest North Frisian island is obviously not a secret and attracts masses of tourists each year. Eventually wealthy visitors acquired a taste for the island and with the demand for holiday homes and property came rising prices and a market for luxury holiday apartments and fancy restaurants. The islanders become fewer and flee from rising prices to the mainland. In the meantime expensive cars are paraded on the island and at dinnertables you find pretentious people showing off freshly made nose jobs.
So much for theory. In practice we enjoyed the time in our holiday apartment with a cozy fireplace and tasteful interior design and all that Sylt had to offer inbetween long strolls at the beach with dramatic skies and visits to tasty restaurants. Now I understand why so many people want to make Sylt their second home and gentrification is the obvious result of high demand.
What led us to Sylt in the first place was an invitation to the marriage of two dear friends. Thanks to their wedding planning we got to see all kinds of attractions on the island. Like a scavenger hunt the marriage led us around Sylt to several famous spots like café Kupferkanne, Gosch, Gogärtchen and of course the church Friesenkapelle. Between the church wedding and the party in the evening we were driven around the island in a sightseeing bus while we sipped champagne and stopped for shrimp sandwiches. The morning after the wedding we sat at Sansibar to cure our hangovers with an opulent breakfast and after we finished we simply took our chairs with us to sit outside in the sand and appreciate the sunrays. Did I just enjoy that Sylt lifestyle after all?
One peculiarity about Sylt is the approach by motorail. Travelling by train is not only convenient it is also a great experience to sit in your car as the landscape flies by and you don’t have to do anything while you slowly move closer to your destination.
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