A Journey into the Past: Vienna

It’s funny how somewhere that is so far from home becomes “home-like” as you travel to new places. We just returned from Vienna, our first excursion, and while the city was beautiful and historical I’m glad to be sitting in my little room and waiting for Karl and Gitti, my host parents, to cook me dinner!

My overall impression of Vienna: I have to go back. I loved the time that we spent in the city, but I didn’t get to do all the things I would want to do in a city so rich in culture and history. It’s the type of place that you feel like you need to take a whole course in “History of Vienna” before you go and then just spend some time walking around, drinking in the fact that millions of people—famous and obscure, rich and poor—have trod on the same cobblestones as you. And it probably STILL would not be enough.

While there was a lot that I didn’t get to do, there was also SO much that I did get to do! Our first day consisted mainly of a tour through the city from the perspective of Dr. Schnabel—a very wise man that was so knowledgable of the history of medicine in Vienna! However, Dr. Schnabel failed to warn me that Vienna is really cold, even on a sunny day! My main recollections from the tour were that there’s some really interesting history in Vienna--including the Jesus that you pray to when you have a toothache, the old medical university where the lecture hall is as ornate as a cathedral, and a spooky crypt with a winged skull on the outside--and that my feet were freezing. 

After Dr. Schnabel’s tour, we visited the catacombs of Michaelerkirche. If you’re looking for a place to ride out the zombie apocalypse, this place would be a 0/10. The crypt hosted approximately 4,000 deceased, with many of those people gracing the dust underneath our feet (completely decomposed), some lining the walls in the form of stacked or piled femurs and skulls, or a select few presenting themselves in mummified glory. Yes, the catacombs had mummies in the open air. I personally considered that a bit risky with decomposition and people coming in and introducing bacteria and changes in the air composition, but who am I to judge people for how they are preserving their mummies? We saw three: a tall man, a teenage girl with a cleft palate, and an old lady. The detail on the mummies was extraordinary, with each still possessing distinct facial features and toenails and crumbling shoes. Another interesting detail about corpses--when you die your muscles relax. When your muscles relax, your mouth opens. When your mouth is open and you're dead, it looks like you're doing the creepy mummy scream that I imagine all mummies do. Way spooky, but I guess it's just a part of life. 

The next day started with something very exciting: the Spanish Riding School! We got to watch several of the Lipizzaner stallions run through some of their dressage moves. The horses were all extraordinarily trained (you can expect that) but it was funny to watch one of the younger ones getting really sassy with his rider at one point. It’s nice to know that your horse can still be dumb even if you’re the elite of the elite. After the riding school, we all had a day full of free time to do whatever we wanted. My group decided to go to the Vienna Zoo and the Palace Gardens, which was basically animals and gardens. Although I had a lot of fun at the zoo and saw a unique variety of animals, I kind of wish I had gone somewhere more historical or unique. Note to future self: it's impossible to see everything you want to see, so being disappointed at the end of trip is normal and just means you need to go back! Despite my feelings of missing out, it was fun getting to spend time with friends at the zoo.

Day Three consisted of visiting the Freud house, the Josefinum, and a string quartet at St. Anne’s cathedral. The Freud house was a struggle for me at the beginning of the tour because I got hit by the sleep bug (it happens to everyone at some point I guess) so I was just trying to stay awake. Fortunately, I’m kind of familiar with the principles of psychoanalysis from intro psychology (s/o to Dr. Hull and her awesome class!). We then toured the anatomical wax museum, the Josefinum. Basically, an anatomy book come to life! There were many stand-up “dissections”—one body would display muscles, another would show vasculature, another the lymphatic system. There were also more detailed designs of eyes, brains, hearts, genitalia, and even pregnancies. I can honestly say that I learned new things about the human body by being in this museum for even an hour—seeing three-dimensional models of human anatomy really helped put everything in its place. Wish I had wax models for anatomy next semester!

The string quartet concert in St. Anne's Cathedral was probably the highlight of my trip to Vienna. I felt like I truly understood some of the rich musical culture of the city as I heard the strings echo through the ornate cathedral. The musicians were true masters of their instruments and the first violinist and the cellist kept looking at each other and smiling, as if sharing some special moments through the music (although some of it might have just been giggling about something silly too, cause I totally did that when I was in orchestra!). Each note reverberated richly through the painted walls and gilded figures of the church walls, adding new dimensions to the music. I've only experienced such a rich and moving sound when we heard the beautiful Latin song "Panis Angelicus" in a similarly ancient cathedral in Israel. When the quartet did an encore of “Aire” by Bach, it brought tears to my eyes hearing the peaceful music soar through the air and serenade the heart of Vienna. It was a dream come true to experience the music of this city, and I can only hope that one day I can go back and hear it again! 

Our final day involved seeing the pathological wax and specimen museum at the Narrenturm, or Madhouse Tower. It sounds like a really spooky place (and it was a little gross) but the tour guide said nothing scary had ever really happened there so we were okay in terms of not living out a horror movie! The Narrenturm was the first mental hospital in Europe, built in 1784. Patients could check themselves in and out of rooms, and apparently it was quite nice to stay at the facility and chill out and do your crazy thing until you felt better. But the interesting part was the preserved specimens and wax models. Did you know how nasty smallpox was if you weren’t vaccinated? I didn’t either, until we saw the wax model of a guy’s arm with smallpox. It was awful. There were a ton of wax illustrations of STD’s, skin leisions, tumors, cancer, etc., since historically, medicine was often based off of visual diagnosis. I thought the models of pathologic baby poop was especially useful (“oh your baby is sick? Let me go consult my wax models of baby poop to diagnose him!”). There were also skeletal specimen of conjoined twins, hydracepholophy, and a BEAUTIFUL head-in-a-jar specimen of a guy with tons of skull tumors. Crazy stuff!

We also went to the Museum of Natural History, which was really cool, but pretty much a museum so I won’t write about it as much. It was in an old palace though, so it was super ornate! I kind of feel like everything in Vienna was an old palace.

Oh ALSO, there was this chocolate store called Demel, and it was one of those professional-we-hold-the-secret-to-chocolate type of chocolate places. I wish I could bring back a bunch of Demel chocolate to America because it really was fantastic! And they made little chocolate roses, or painted hearts, or faces, or I saw one lady making a chocolate lamb in a field of chocolate flowers (you think I’m kidding but I’m not). They had amazing hot chocolate there too! At 5.50 a cup, I was expecting something legendary (it probably wasn’t worth 5.50 Euros, but hey I was paying for the experience too!).

Favorite moments in Vienna? Bonding with my roomies (Hazel and Jane) with our late night conversations. Breakfast at the hotel because the only interaction you had with the waitress was “Would you like coffee?” “YES” and she would bring you a whole pot. Wandering through the city with Dr. Schnabel and his authentic Black Plague apparel. That one “American” restaurant where Ryan got a whole rack of ribs for like twelve Euro and just being with friends and having fun together.

Overall, a fantastic trip. But I NEED TO GO BACK.