Week 6: Vienna!!!

Hands down one of my favorite cities I’ve ever been to/I kind of really want to live here forever (aka this post is gonna be super long).

This week started out rough with our first physiology test on Monday. I only got maybe 3-4 hours of sleep both the night before the test as well as the night after because we had to meet at 5am that Tuesday to leave for Vienna! The plane had some technical difficulties, which delayed us quite a bit. We got a food voucher from the airport so it was all good. 

First off, the architecture in Vienna is absolutely stunning. I probably kept running into people or tripping over things because I couldn’t stop looking up at everything. I wonder if people who live in this city are constantly amazed by the beautiful architecture or if it’s just not even a big deal to them because they’re so used to seeing it every day.  Anyways, after arriving in Vienna, we started off with a tour of Michaelerkirche and the crypt underneath it. Seeing the piles and piles of bones (and also the mummies), it’s crazy to know that these were once real, living people. After that, we ended the night with a group dinner!

The next day, we saw the Spanish Horse Riding School’s morning practice. Then we had a medical tour of the city given by Dr. Schnabel during which we got to try various cures used to treat the bubonic plague. My favorite part of the tour was definitely the main lecture hall in the Austrian Academy of Sciences. With its carved marble walls and vibrant painted ceilings, I definitely wouldn’t be able to pay attention to a lecture if it was in this room! I laid on the ground to take in all the details on the ceiling. We had free time after that so some friends and I visited the Austrian National Library, which was equally breathtaking with its endless ornate wooden bookshelves, paintings covering the whole the ceiling, and gigantic marble columns and statues standing all around the room. We also went to the Albertina Museum where I spent way too much time looking at the Impressionist paintings and didn't have enough time to see anything else.

Then on Thursday, Dr. Wasser gave us a lecture and tour of Freud’s House. After, we visited the Josephinum, a medical history museum. As someone who wants to go into medical illustration, this museum was definitely one of my favorites! It contained various anatomical wax models, all of which had a crazy amount of detail. These models were not only used for educational purposes, they were also incredible works of art. That night, we all got to dress up to go to a classical concert at St. Anne’s Church. Listening to beautiful music in a beautiful church wasn’t too bad, I guess. After that, Ashleigh and I decided it was a good idea to go ice skating even though it was raining. As someone who’s generally clumsy and not very graceful even just walking on flat ground, I’m actually pretty good at ice skating! Although I hadn't ice skated in years before this. Despite the rain, it was still so much fun and I only fell once! The rink was also right in front of the city hall, so the view wasn’t too bad either!

Then on Friday, we toured the Narrenturm, a former mental hospital but now a museum containing pathological specimens and models. We ended the day with a tour of the Natural History Museum. 

I was so sad to leave and wish that I had stayed in Vienna that weekend. The only reason I hadn’t was because I thought I had a lab exam early that Monday, but the exam ended up being moved to later that week! So I was really bummed about that. But overall it was an amazing and unforgettable experience and I hope to be back soon!