Vienna part 1

Here's the first part of my reminiscing from the Vienna excursion. Above is a fountain we just happened to be walking by. We weren't told of any real significance for it, but it looked marvelous. This was pretty commonplace throughout the duration of the excursion. The elegance of this city was breathtaking. Everywhere you look, magnificent statues cover buildings and dance around in fountains. The whole time I kept thinking to myself, "normally, people pay to see this kind of work." In hindsight, one definitely pays a little extra for the everyday view of Vienna. The streets were surprisingly clean and free of litter, and the people all dressed and presented themselves in a very classy manner. We visited a catholic church on the first day near one of the old university buildings. The entire worship room was gilded and covered with paintings (see photo). The sophistication motif of this city even meandered its way into the religious realm. The first night we ate at Goulash Museum. I had a beef fillet goulash served from a cauldron suspended over a candle. It was so good that I forgot to take a picture of it until I finished. Our table also had quite possibly one of the oddest beers ever. It was a dark beer, so I was expecting it to be fairly bitter, but it was just as sweet as a root beer float. Afterwards, a few of us went to a local cafe/bar called Excelsior (talk about a classy name). We hung out for a while, and the bar tender liked us enough to give us a few bags of chips for free. All in all, it was a good first day.

Day two highlights were the Vienna Medical School trip, anatomical museum and the Symphony. It still appalls me that tuition is free in some European countries, while in the US tuition and fees for college continuously rise. Personally, I wouldn't mind going to school in Europe. Sure the cost of living might be higher, but you can save with the tremendous decrease in payment for classes. Not to mention, during your free time you can travel Europe. I also liked the smaller class sizes they had at this school. Albeit, it was founded in the 90's, there's only 2-3000 students total - really puts into perspective how big Texas A&M is with 47,000 students. We weren't allowed to take picture in the anatomical museum or of the wax models we saw. However, I was amazed at the attention to detail some of these artists had in creating models of diseases. I was thinking how awkward it might have been for the diseased patient to be sitting there posing for an artist while they sketch and sculpt replications of their condition. There were some really strange physiological anomalies in the anatomy museum. The preservation that shocked me the most was the coal miners lung: it was literally, black. Later that night, we all got dressed up to go to the symphony. Although we all looked classy, I knew it was only mask to hide our truly child-like disposition; for some of us anyway, myself included. I'd have to include myself, because like a teenage kid getting dropped off at the movie theater by his parents, I sneaked in some candy to snack on. But, I definitely wasn't the only college kid in this theater dressed nicely and eating Haribo sour straws, followed by a champagne toast. Afterwards, a few of us went out to another cafe/bar to get some late night foods. They had BBQ burgers there, so naturally a few of a us Texans had to try it. Although, I'm obligated to say I've had better, these Viennese folk knew what they were doing when it came to burgers and BBQ sauce - and the fries were amazing! I don't know what they do to the food in that city, but I could easily get used to it. Another great day in Vienna.