Holy cow!! I cannot believe that I have been here less than a month. I have already experienced SO much. This week I got super sick (got better in a couple days), had my first exam, and then went to Vienna (out here known as Wien) for the week. The whole expedition was jam-packed and was overall a crazy cool experience. I woke up Tuesday morning around four to get picked up by a taxi to take me to the bus with my classmates. The bus took us to the airport and we flew put around seven. We then landed in Wien around eight thirty. When we got there, it was absolutely freezing. I was so thankful that I packed all warm clothes. First thing we did once out of the airport was head straight to the hotel. I headed to my room with Nathan and Kyle and we unpacked our stuff then went straight downstairs to meet back with the group. We headed into the city for a medical tour of Wien by a mysterious tour guide, "Dr. Schnabel." Once at the meeting point for our guide, we waited for a while until he showed up. He was dressed in Black Plague-era doctor's attire complete with bird mask and doctor's bag, which was pretty cool. As soon as he started talking, though, we all realized it was Dr. Wasser and had a good laugh. The tour was super cool (both figuratively and literally)! After the tour we dispersed and had lunch on our own. As we started to disperse the weather took a turn for the best and it actually started snowing. I'm not talking about little flakes or even just enough to cover the ground. No, I'm talking like we got several inches. It was freaking great. anyways, we met back up around four to tour Michaelekirche and the catacombs. The catacombs were absolutely astonishing with so many well-preserved coffins and mummies, but I am sad to admit that I did not enjoy it nearly as much as I normally would have. At this point in the day, I was exhausted, cold, and still pretty sick. After the tour, we regrouped and headed to the Goulashmuseum and enjoyed a warm and hearty dinner. That was just the first day.
The second day in Wien (Wednesday) began around 9:20 AM. The group met in the lobby and we went to tour the Narrentum, also known as the Madhouse Tower. To my surprise, we went outside to about 4-5" of snow! Anyways, I severely underestimated the tour. We arrived around ten, and I will admit that not a whole lot stood out about the place from the outside, but maybe I just wasn't paying that much attention due to the constant snowball fights on the way there. When we got inside, there were some cool wax representations of skin diseases that were kind of neat to look at. The tour started with our guide (a local med student) teaching us about old diseases and outcomes, which was, of course, pretty intriguing. After this, he took us out of the room and what I saw next was absolutely astonishing. There were hundreds or thousands of wax casts and skeletal models of things from skin diseases to skeletal diseases to birth defects and everything in between. The collection was too much to take in at once. I could spend two weeks in there and still not see everything. There was so much amazing stuff packed into one floor! I so wish I could have taken pictures of that place to show you. I'd love to go back some day. After the tour, they gave us free roam in the city. I spent the next 10-12 hours doing differential equations homework while my friends were out enjoying the city (I did this so I could enjoy the rest of my trip). Unfortunately, it was about this time when Alexa fell while ice skating and broke her ankle.
The third day began around 9:30 AM when we met to go tour the Josephinium. There was still an abundance of snow on the ground and snowballs whizzing through the air, with a few caught in the crossfire. The Josephinium was pretty neat. We learned about an old medical center built there and viewed some astonishing wax medical models based on the originals (They weren't that far apart in age at all) that are in Florence, Italy. From here we had lunch at Unibräu. After lunch we went straight to the Freud House where we toured around (it was freaking enormous!!) and got a lecture from Dr. Wasser. From here we had free time until 6:30 when we had a concert at St. Anne's Church. The concert consisted of all strings and the acoustics of the church were absolutely awesome. I am a bit of an audiophile so this was honestly one of the biggest highlights of my trip. After the concert a couple friends and I went out to a 60's-themed bar that was a huge let down. Drinks were like $10 and I just was not about that. We ended up heading back to the hotel, but getting to chill and have fun together was worth the extra excursion deeper into Wien. When I got back to my hotel, I ended up getting into some intellectually-stimulating conversation with a couple other friends for a couple more hours.
Friday was our last day in Wien. We packed up and put our bags in the lobby around 9:15 AM and had breakfast. After we ate, we went to The Spanish Riding School to watch their morning practice. I suppose it would be interesting to those not very acquainted with horses or for those absolutely obsessed with them, but seeing as I fall somewhere in between the two, I got bored pretty quickly. The horses were beautiful, don't get me wrong, but the style was not all that different from reining (apart from the horses' heads being pulled back to an uncomfortable extent and moving their feet strangely) and they were literally just trotting the horses around. I left a bit early to grab some lunch and shop around with some friends. We ended up reconvening as a group around 2:15 for a guided tour of the Natural History Museum which was absolutely amazing! I could have spent all day in there. We saw things from martian meteorites to colossal dinosaur bones and everything in between. After the tour we went back to the hotel and grabbed our luggage, then headed back to Bonn. Once I got back to Bonn, I slept about fourteen hours (oops) and relaxed the rest of the day.
What a crazy week it was. I would do it again in a heartbeat and more. I am so thankful for this amazing opportunity.
Thanks for reading and I wish you the best in your own adventure that we collectively call "life."
MJF
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