Week Three: Rome in Vienna (part 1)

 On a personal aside, I'd like to briefly mention that I am shocked by the vast number of European people who speak English. Furthermore, I've made it a habit to instantly speak English rather than practice my German (oops).

My long weekend in Holland seemingly ran over into the entire week I spent in Austria. The Monday before we departed, I had less than 12 hours to finish homework assignments, pack for the excursion, and catch up on much needed sleep. Despite the time crunch, we boarded the plane to Vienna to embark upon the longest and coldest day of my life.

Once we arrived, we dropped our luggage off at the hotel, ate a hearty breakfast, and began our tour of central Vienna with our guide "Dr. Schnabel". I made the mistake of taking "pack light" too literally and stood outside in wet freezing weather wearing three layers of wet socks and Nike sneakers. It definitely made the tour of the beautiful city less enjoyable, but nevertheless I was still impressed by the gold trimmed buildings. Once the snow fell, the rest of the evening was more bearable. The most exciting portion was exploring the catacombs beneath St. Stephen's Cathedral to see hundreds of bones piled neatly and perfectly preserved corpses.

The Wednesday in Vienna was by far the most wonderful. The biosciences group toured Fool's Tower, the first mental asylum in the world. On the tour we got to look at hundreds of preparations of skeletons, bones, specimens, replicas, and photos of various diseases and disabilities suffered by the patients. To me this was one of the most impressive parts of the entire excursion. Afterward, we gathered outside the Narrenturm to have a rather exhausting snowball fight before being turned loose to explore Vienna.

One of my proudest moments was purchasing a well fitted suit from a second hand shop. Additionally, I went out of city centre to Donau Zentrum, one of the largest shopping malls I've ever experienced- where I bought some desperately needed boots. Afterward, my roommate and I visited the Schoenbrunn Palace. The scenery and architecture were incredible in spite of the lack of greenery or blooming flowers. A steep hike up an icy hill revealed a glorious Romanesque building and a magnificent view.  The more I saw, the more the city reminded me of Italy.