A Week in Vienna, Austria

Day 1
We took a plane from Cologne to Vienna. All the safety instructions were in German. Thank goodness I have flown before. But other than that the flight was uneventful. When we arrived, we soon realized that Austria is just as cold if not colder than Germany. By the time we reached the city center, it was already getting dark and our night was full of outdoor activities. First we toured the catacombs of St. Stephens Cathedral where they bury all of the dead Austrian cardinals and the internal organs of some of the monarchs that have ruled in Vienna. Just the internal organs: liver, kidney, stomach, intestines; that sort of thing. The body and the heart are taken to two other churches so that the rulers didn't have to choose which church they were buried in. Deeper down in the catacombs is where the mass graves of those who died of the black plague were kept. There are still a lot of bones. We then went up onto the cathedrals bell tower which has the largest bell that is able to be rung inside of it. It weighs 22 tons. It was pretty big. There was also a beautiful view of the city lights all around us. One of the most interesting things was actually the roof of the cathedral. The tiles were all different colors that made nice looking patterns and the coat of arms of Vienna.

Once we got down we took a walking city tour of the inner ring of Vienna (that is the area that used to be inside the first walls that were around the city). Our tour guide wasn't a very loud speaker so I mostly just took in the sights and tried to keep warm by huddling with my classmates like we were penguins in the arctic circle (we are from Texas, we ain't used to the cold).

After our city tour, we went to have dinner with our whole group, all 30 of us. We all had a starter, most of us had schnitzel, and then dessert and drinks. You know this place was pretty fancy because I believe the bill was around 1100 Euro when all was said and done... At least now I know where all my money is going.

Day 2
Another tour. This one about the medical school and the medical history of Vienna. The tour was to be lead by one of our doctorate professors who knows everything about anything, the kind of guy who would win Jeopardy without even breaking a sweat. But as we waited for him to arrive, a different kind of doctor showed up. His name was Dr. Schnabel (Dr. Beak in German). It was a man dressed the way that the doctors would have dressed in the time of the black plague. He was wearing a full black cloak, black wide rimmed hat, black gloves, black shoes, and ... a black beak mask. It was believed that this outfit would keep the plague off of the doctors, the beak was filled with herbs soaked in vinegar to try and kill the bad from getting in (they didn't know about germs at this point in history) but it also helped to ward off the smell of the dead and dying that lined the streets of practically every city in Europe.

After the tour we went to a medical museum called the Josefinum. The first few rooms were filled with old medical instruments and pictures of people who created the place. But the real treasure was on the other side of the building. 6 rooms were full of wax models of every physiological system in the human body. From the circulatory system showing all of the veins and arteries and where they go all over the body to pregnancy and all the different stages that go along with it. There were so many different models that it was an anatomists dream come true. Even me, the guy who fainted in the surgery room, could appreciate the beauty of our bodies different systems and how much our bodies regulate and control to keep us alive.

We then went from the art of the human body to the art of paintings. The Albertina had Monet, Picaso, and Ernst. I still don't understand what people see in Picaso's work but all of Monet's work and Ernst at the end were masterpieces that I was so happy to have seen. That night we met up with some locals that knew one of the girls in our group through a foreign exchange program that they did in Texas when they were in High School. Her name was Lena. She took us out to dinner at a Turkish oriental restaurant and then her boyfriend Wolfgang met us at the wine bar where we sat and talked for 3 hours.  They were both in massage school and we had plenty to talk about. They were very friendly people and that was one of my favorite nights in Vienna.

Day 3
Day was full of tours but that night we dressed up and went to a concert at the Schonbrunn Castle. I was expecting a normal classical concert where I read my book while the music plays and enjoy it as background music. This concert was different. The band consisted of 5 players: a viola, a violin, a cello, a piano, and a clarinet. They played Mozart and every other song had either two opera singers or two ballet dancers. It was a very interesting and fun concert even though I couldn't understand the words and have never studied ballet.

Day 4
We went to the medical school to check out the old insane asylum from the medieval ages called the Narrenturm. The Narrenturm had since been closed as an insane asylum and was now being used as a museum to show people wax models of diseases. There were some very strange and interesting disorders that we luckily now have treatment for them before they get as bad as what was on display in there. They also had some organs stored in formaldehyde and bones of conjoined twins. There was an interesting comparison of two different lungs, one that belonged to a smoker, and one to a coal miner. The coal miner lung was completely black (normal lungs are pinkish tan) where the smokers lung was only a little grey in some spots. We were then informed by our tour guide that it is better to work in a coal mine every day than it is to smoke. With smoking you will die sooner and faster due to cancerous tissue forming in your lungs. Hopefully that puts things into perspective for anyone thinking about smoking.

Day 5
Our final day included a lecture at the Freud museum which was just up the street from our hotel. There we learned about Freud and all of his ideas and how he started psychology as a medical practice. He was a very interesting man who would use his own psychological techniques to think about his own life and would write about himself as if he was his patient as well. A very interesting man.


Overall Vienna had some amazing sights and museums. I will have to go back just to see more. 5 days just wasn't enough time to see all Vienna has to offer.