Vienna was mind blowing! Where to even begin? Well first let me say that Vienna or shall I say Wien, is quite beautiful. I don't know why, but I wasn't too excited for this particular trip, however, to my surprise, I enjoyed it so much! OH WAIT! Did you know Arnold Schwarzenegger is from Austria? How cool is that!!! :D So even he knows how to speak this complex, master-mind language called German! Mark my words, I shall master it one day!! muahahahah! Back to the point, Vienna is a quite calm and cozy city. The first day, because of my fault, Jess and I got to the bus wayyyyy to early -.-. Let me remind you that we happen to be possibly the only people in the group who do not have a small luggage! It is such a drag to carry these huge luggage especially through the bus and subway especially when it gets in the way for elderly people >.< Atleast I am getting some arm muscle! Anywho, the rest of trip was a success and once we arrive to Wien the adventure began! Our coordinators first took us in a walking tour around Stephansplatz where St. Stephan's Cathedral is located. By the time we were touring around, it was dark already, and baby wow oh wow! This particular area is breathtaking at night! :D My camera's SD card, unfortunately, does not allow me to upload my pictures however here are some google pictures of the area I so happen to venture in :)
Wien is the city of romance, music, and coffee shops or so Jessica said :p But it really is! There are so many coffee shops where one can just sit, relax, and enjoy (: Then the city as you have seen even looks romantic. Outside the St. Stephen's Cathedral, there are many horse carriages waiting upon lovely couples for a nice ride around :) The music, well did you know Mozart lived almost all his life in Vienna and composed many of his famous compositions around this city. I actually got to see where he lived, where he once performed, where he composed, where he died, and even where he got buried. For your information, his tomb is no longer there (St. Stephan's Cathedral)
So they also included a tour up in the roof of St. Stephen's. Quite the view!!! The city at night, illuminated, is so enriching. I cannot express enough how much this place is worth seeing. Before that, however, we got to experience a creepy tour under the St. Stephen's cathedral through their catacombs! St. Stephens used to have cemeteries around it, but with the bubonic plague, they place all the bodies into these catacombs! Around 11,000 people bones can be seen in there. The bubonic was something quite serious that there was a sign saying "WARNING! BUBONIC PLAGUE, ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK" Just kidding :p There is no way you could get infected by the plague. It is very safe! But back in the 1700s, it was not safe. Here are a few creepy pictures from the catacombs...
where bodies where thrown into.
Skeletons!
Also, I got to see a really old tomb from the Roman times that dates back more than a thousand years! How awesome is that! Whoo! There was many more in just the first day well evening, for that night, Dr. Wasser and the Kristin took us out to a lovely restaurant and I tried my first Schnitzel out of veal! It is a quite famous plate in Wien so when in Rome do as the Romans! That plate was delicious! It basically was like carne empanisada.
Second day: Was medically orientated. We had a medical tour with Dr. Schmabel (forgive me if I misspelled it). Dr. Schmabel was quite enlightening and knowledgeable. He was a Bubonic plague Doctor from the 17th century I believe. They were a mask with scented items to protect them from the putrid air, and from what I have an understanding their costumes were coated with pig's fat? Maybe I hate it wrong but Dr. Shmabel was a bit more simpler. He explained his role and showed us through the medical tour of Vienna.
Credits to Kirstie!
After that we went to Josephinum, the medical academy with many waxed figures of the anatomy. There I got to finally see how a lymphatic system looks like.
I will continue in my next blog :]
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