The Hills are Alive

Day 1
How do I even begin to start on the activities that have occurred over the past two weeks. Well first I'll start with my excitement leading up to Vienna.
My favorite movie of all time is "The Sound of Music" and being such a fan, I was super pumped to visit the country where this film was set. I thought for sure it took place in Vienna but I was wrong. :( I soon realized that the movie was actually filmed in Salzburg, Austria which is in West Austria and Vienna is clear on the other side of the country in the East. But I was still extremely excited to visit this country and get to see something different than Bonn for an entire week.

The trip began on Monday and we had to wake up bright and early to head to the Koln airport. I had never been to this airport before but I really liked it. It wasn't too big or too small. Anyways we boarded the plane shortly after arriving and getting some airport breakfast. I had a window seat so I got to see as we took off. I must have passed out pretty hard because I woke up an hour later and we had landed at the Vienna Airport. We took the CAT train which stands for City Airport Train and it took us to a stop on the underground metro called Stephansplatz. This was the stop for the city center which was the location of St. Stephan's Cathedral and all of the inner city shopping.
Everyone in the underground was moving at such a fast pace it was a miracle that there were no collisions! I almost got run over by several people, on foot might I add, that seemed to be in a hurry.
We arrived that afternoon at our hotel which was called the Deutschmeister. After dropping off our bags and getting mildly acquainted with the layout of the hotel, we headed to the city center. From here we got out of the subway to see beautiful architecture everywhere (as seen in the picture below).

It was time for the city tour of Vienna which took us past St. Stephan's Cathedral, to the apartment where Mozart passed away and also a memorial for all the Austrian Jews that were killed in the Holocaust. Even though the wind chill there had to be in the negative numbers, I really enjoyed seeing all of these sights and snapping pictures of all of the small side streets. 

After the city tour, we headed back to the center to St. Stephan's cathedral. We got a special tour of the catacombs which were filled with the organs and ashes of the previous cardinals of the cathedral. As we descended deeper into the catacombs, it got darker and darker. The walls were stacked with bones upon bones and our tour guide told us that they were the remains of people who suffered from the Bubonic plague.   It was crazy to see this kind of thing and a little bit creepy. Being able to see the actual bones of deceased people from the 14th century really put into perspective about how terrible this disease ravaged the population of Europe.
Finishing up the night we headed to a traditional Viennese restaurant and indulged ourselves with plenty of Weiner schnitzel and beer. After stuffing our faces with this food it was time to head back to the hotel and rest up for the next day.

Day 2

This day started out pretty early but once waking up after a delicious breakfast provided by the hotel we made our way to the city. We were supposed to go on a medical history tour headed by Dr. Wasser but everyone realized he was nowhere to be found. I became confused right away as we were waiting on our tour guide to get there and not knowing what to expect. All of a sudden, a person dressed in a floor length black robe equipped with a traditional Bubonic plague doctor mask greeted our group. The mask is a little hard to describe so here is a picture of what I'm talking about.

After recognizing the voice we all figured out it was Dr. Wasser. With the mask on he was Dr. Schnabel and it was so perfect because he actually fit the part of a doctor back in the 14th century. After this tour we headed to the Josefinum which housed life-size wax models of all the different body systems. It is used for the medical students so they can understand the anatomy and physiology of the human body. After this tour I was exhausted from all the walking and headed to a Starbucks in the subway station with Justin and Robert. We chilled here for a while and then headed back to the hotel. For dinner we went to this awesome falafel place called Muschu Muschu which claimed to have the best falafel in town. I haven't tried falafel that many times but I had to agree with their statement. My falafel was great and it was even smiling.

After this we went to this place called Wein & Co which was a wine bar equipped with a store attached. You would buy a few bottles of wine in the store and then take it over to the bar to drink. Myself and about 8 others enjoyed the night here chatting before we headed back to the hotel to get some rest.

Day 3
I slept in on day 3 and opted out of the Spanish Riding School. I started the day late and went to this awesome restaurant with Justin where we enjoyed some of the best tomato soup I've ever had. As we sat there and enjoyed our meal, it started snowing pretty heavily outside. It was a pretty good start to the long day that was ahead. Later in the day we listened to a lecture on homeopathy by a man named Dr. Frass. This was held in the huge general hospital in Vienna overlooking the mountainous regions and old intricate architecture that defines the city. I didn't know too much about homeopathy before this lecture but it's a form of alternative medicine that essentially involves treating the patient with highly diluted substances. Later that night we got all fancy and went to a classical concert with violins, a piano, clarinet and two opera singers. As the the opera singers belted out what seemed to be a love story, the string instruments accompanied and made for a complementary sound. I enjoyed it a lot. After this concert we went back to our favorite wine bar and then to a karaoke place afterwards with a majority of the group. All in all this was probably my favorite day in Vienna.

The next two days involved going to the Narrenturm which used to be the old psychiatric hospital in Vienna. It was the first in all of Europe but nowadays it is used as part of the medical school. It was filled with all kinds of disturbing wax models that suffered from all sorts of diseases. It was pretty neat to see all of it and be told the stories of what happened to everyone. For dinner we had traditional Goulasch which was quite good followed by some delicious dessert.
Friday was the last day we were there and we got all packed to head back home. Before we left for the airport we went to the Sigmund Freud house where Dr. Wasser gave us a lecture on psychoanalysis and all of Freud's research and life. Once this was finished we toured his home and saw his waiting room office which was filled with original furniture that he used for his patients.

It was off to the airport after this and once we got there Paco, Justin and I enjoyed a wheat beer before we took off. Vienna was such an amazing city filled with so many amazing sites and I'll definitely be back when I'm older.