Wien!

Today was amazing.

The morning wasn't exactly my favorite, but who likes waking up at 7:15 anyway? After a quick (and delicious) breakfast, we made our way to hear a lecture on Medical School in Austria from Richard Marz, an Austrian Professor. Then we went to the Austrian Pathology Museum. The museum was located in what used to be one of the first insane asylums that was actually used properly (as opposed to just prisons). There were over 50,000 different pieces there, mostly a mixture of preserved body parts or wax models of diseased people. The level of detail in each wax model was incredible. The name of the technique is called moulage and was commonly used for displaying dissections and teaching anatomy. While I didn't really have the stomach for it I thought everything we saw was fascinating.

Next we had lunch. I got the Pork Cordon Bleu. It was fantastic :) The fries weren't really all that great but I didn't save room to eat much of them anyhow.

After lunch we went to the Josephinum. There we saw even more wax models of body parts, though almost all of these were of healthy body parts. Again, I can not even begin to describe how realistic each of these pieces were. I would love to post a picture of one on here, but cameras weren't allowed to be used at either location.

Finally, we got a break for a few hours to relax and get ready before heading to hear the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. I absolutely love going to concerts and was not disappointed this evening. The program included Igor Strawinsky, Henri Tomal=si and Peter Tschaikowskij. I enjoyed each piece more and more as the concert went on. While Tschaikowskij's 6th Symphony was my favorite, I thoroughly enjoyed the trumpet solo during Henry Tomasi's piece.

After the concert a few of us decided to grab a quick slice of pizza. What was just intended as a quick bite turned out to be a beautiful Italian restaurant to relax and enjoy dinner in. To top it all off one of my favorite composers, Glenn Miller, ended up playing in the back ground. If every night we were out of the states ended like this one I would never come home.