Our Second Excursion: Vienna

Last week our group went on our second excursion together to Vienna, Austria! We started off our trip super early Tuesday morning and meet at the University Hofgarten to take a bus to Cologne Airport for our flight. The flight was about an hour and a half long, so it was relatively short and I spent the majority of the flight sleeping since most of us didn’t get much sleep the previous night. It still amazes me that in such a short period of time we can fly to a different country whereas back home I could fly that same amount of time and still be in Texas. I guess that’s just one of the perks of living in Europe! Once we arrived and gathered all our bags, we took the subway to our hotel. The public transportation system in Vienna is very good, and we definitely took advantage of it throughout our stay. Anyways, we checked into our hotel and had an hour to rest (which I spent sleeping of course) and then we met up in the lobby to head to our first tour. We were told this tour was going to be given by Dr. Schnabel and he was going to show us the medical history of the city. As we waited for “Dr. Schnabel” to show up, this man in a black cloak and black mask came over to us and Kristin introduced him as Dr. Schnabel. We all recognized the outfit the man was wearing because we had recently learned in our History of Medicine course that it was the typical outfit of doctors during the black plague. Once we made that connection it was clear that Dr. Wasser was Dr. Schnabel. After everyone got a good laugh out of it, Dr. Wasser should us around Vienna and pointed out several historical locations. The most impressive location was the lecture hall in one of the old university buildings which had one of the most impressive ceilings I have seen yet. After the tour and lunch, we headed to Michaelerkirche to get a tour of the church and its catacomb. I have never seen a catacomb before so it was interesting to hear about the history of those who were buried there and to see so many different bones that have been found. The last thing planned for Tuesday was a group dinner at Gösser Bierklinik, which serves traditional Viennese food. I tried the wiener schnitzel which was delicious and I can definitely see why my host mom suggested I try it!

Cool ceiling in the lecture hall of the old university building

                                         

Dr. Schnabel and I

Catacomb

Wednesday didn’t have much planned as far as AIB activities go since it was mostly a free day. However, the one activity we did have was probably my favorite place that we visited in Vienna! We went to the Josephinum, which is a medical history museum, for a tour. This place showcased antique medical devices and helped show the progression of these types of medical devices over the years. Seeing those devices was definitely cool, but my favorite part of the tour was of the anatomical and obstetrical wax models. These models showed in detail basically every part and system of the body you can imagine. I loved getting to see the different parts of the body, especially the heart since we just recently learned about the cardiovascular system in physiology. I was in awe with how life-like the models were, and seeing the models reassured me that I am in the right field of study!

One of the showcases at the Josephinum

Thursday we first headed to the Vienna medical school to have a lecture over the similarities and differences between medical schools in Austria and the United States. The topic was extra interesting to me since I am writing a paper over a similar topic for one of my classes, so I made sure to pay extra attention to all that was being discussed. All of us then went to lunch at Unibräu for some more traditional Viennese food, and then headed over to the Narrenturm for another tour. This building used to house mental patients but now is a pathology museum. I couldn’t believe some of the diseases that were depicted, many of which I have never heard of before. We did get to see a couple of examples of Harlequin ichthyosis which I learned about last semester in physiology, so it was cool to actually see an example of it in person. Later on that evening we went to a concert in St. Anna’s Church. I really liked the string quartet that played plus the church was beautiful setting for the concert.

Us at the concert in St. Anna's church

Our final day in Vienna started off with us going to the Freud House to get a tour of the museum and to have a lecture over Sigmund Freud given by Dr. Wasser. I enjoyed learning about Freud’s theories in psychoanalysis and getting to see one of the places where psychoanalysis began. Afterwards we went on a tour of the Natural History Museum, which of course was very cool! We got to see the Venus of Willendorf, which is a small doll that depicts a woman with certain features that are more exaggerated than others (see picture below). We just learned about this and other similar dolls last week in our History of Medicine course, so it was great to actually see it in person!

One of the exhibits in the Natural History Museum

The Venus of Willendorf

Overall, our trip to Vienna was a great one and I really liked the city. It is a beautiful city with a ton to see and do, so hopefully I’ll get to visit it again someday in the future!