Last week was the first time since we have been on the study abroad extravaganza that we had the opportunity to all travel as a group. Vienna started off with us having to be up at 4am to make it to the bus stop to take a bus to the Koln airport. Once on the plane all seemed to be going great until of course.... nothing happened. After an hour of sitting on the plane we were instructed that there was some electrical problems and we needed to get off the plane. However you can't be mad when you have no school, your trip is paid for, and your with all o your friends. We were given a food stipend and eventually another plane came to the rescue.
Since we now arrived in Vienna much later than anticipated we had to change some scheduling round and were given time to go to our rooms, hang out, and start later in the day. Our first adventure involved a tour of the Michaelerkirche and the catacombs. The catacombs were a very interesting place and frankly it is still hard to believe that all of the people buried under the church where in fact real people. We were told stories of who was buried where and the history of the catacombs and show real bones and mummies. After this awesome experience we all participated in a group dinner at a restaurant near by. This dinner was one of the funniest and most informational dinners I have been too. We all got to socialize with each other as well as have good discussions with our professors. The greatest moment of the day though, happened after we ate and all gave our professor a hug, making him tear up a little. Seeing that expression from him was truly heart warming and started a bond between our whole group.
The second day involved getting an opportunity to see the Spanish Horse Riding School's morning practice. This was a neat experience to get to see how horse riding works and how they trained these world famous horses...one friend even got to find out that he is allergic to horses. After this, we got to experience what we had originally missed due to our delay the first day and that was Dr. Schnabel. Dr. Schnabel was a doctor from the time of the black plaque. He gave us a tour around the whole city as well as important history that we should know. He was a very smart individual and even gave us "black plague medicine" to take as we walked on our tour, and of course took pictures with us.
Thursday (Day 3) began with a visit to Sigmund Freud's house and a beginning lecture by our professor. I learned lots of things about Sigmund Freud that I had no idea about. Sigmund Freud was a very interesting man who paved the way for physiology, ego, super ego, and the ID. After this we all participated in a group lunch at a very good and interesting place. Everyone shared there different types of food involving schnitzel and chicken. After this lunch we got a tour at the Josephinum which was/is a old hospital in Vienna, we got a very good and informational talk from a leader and got to see their mold room of 4 rooms of molds of the human body and its organs. This wonderful day concluded with everyone dressing up in slacks, dresses, ties, or even suit coats and experiencing a concert at the St.Anne's Church. There they played Mozart and Beethoven and were very brilliant musicians. Lastly dinner involved again getting the opportunity to bond with the professors over a great sushi dinner.
On Friday, the final day of our trip, we began with a guided tour of the Narrenturm. The Narrenturm is an old hospital for people with disease, or who were called "insane or crazy". Here we got the opportunity to see every kind of disease imaginable and even ones that you would never believe. The trip finally ended with a tour of by far my favorite attraction which was the Natural History Museum. Here we got a tour of everything from pre-historic animals including the largest sea turtle ever, meteorites, all the animals you could see in the zoo, and even an exhibit on space.
Of course what is a real trip without the extracurricular time. Each night consisted of a new adventure and new people. One night was a nice relaxing night of a walk on the river near our hotel with only myself, and then another with a group of us who enjoyed one another company. The other night, the craziest, consisted of me making many friends and being taken to some pretty cool places. The friends I met involved a man from Ireland, his business partner and best friend from Germany who now lives in Vienna after only wanting to visit it for a year, and then a couple from Germany. We talked about everything from German health care, to Donald Trump and even gun laws. They were all so friendly and even bought us drinks at the place we were at.
All in all, Vienna was an amazing place and one that I will remember thanks to the amazing places, wonderful people and great experiences.
No comments:
Post a Comment