Chapter 4

I'm in Vienna! We had to wake up incredibly early to travel there and the entire time I was half awake. It was a weird and quirky feeling to see Dr. Wasser dress up as a plague doctor Dr. Schnobel talk to us about the history of Vienna, from the plague to the medical campus to the "correct" history of Austria's involvement during the mid 1900s. He knew quite a lot of subtle monuments scattered throughout the street and that's when I noticed that Dr. Schnobel had similar shoes to Dr. Wasser...

We later went to the catacombs, and I kept getting chills up my spine during the tour. There was a wall of femurs, and it’s wild thinking that some person’s job was to stack up the femurs along the wall, and another person’s job to stack the other bones elsewhere. One room was designed for a family, but the owner, a man, ended up not marrying or having children so the large room was just him alone. This made me quite gloomy.

Later, we ate at the Goulash museum and I got the dish recommended by my TA. It did not come in a copper pot, but that's probably because we were such a large group that ordered many of the same things. I even tried chocolate goulash, which was tasty and not overwhelmingly sweet!

The next day we went to The Narrenturm, which was built as a hospital for mental patients in 1784. We had a tour of the floor that contained many preservations and replications of human diseases, as The Narrenturm is also the Federal Pathologic-Anatomical Museum. The building is structured like a cylinder, with 28 windows all around. The cylinder, I suppose, was designed so that if patients left their room they'd walk in a circle and end up back inside of their room. The meaning of 28 was due to the moon having a lunar cycle of 28 days, and back then aligning the cosmos and moon was thought to help the patients. 

During my free time, I went to the Albertina with my friends. My favorite part was actually not the Picassos or Monet pieces, but the exhibit with Apollo’s nine muses. They each protect a different art and have a symbolic item. I also tried Natsu Sushi, which was a fast food corner shop underground in the train station. Considering the price and the customer audience, it was delicious, convenient, and cheap. They even had roasted duck for the noodles! I also visited the Schoenbrunn Palace and Gardens. The maze was not quite appealing as it was winter, so the area was basically dead, but the "hike" up and around was fun and lively.

Schoenbrunn Palace and Gardens

The beginning of February started with a visit to the Josephine, which was initially built for the medical-surgery academy. We were able to see the famous collection of obstetrical and anatomical wax models that were designed not only anatomically correct but also as aesthetically pleasing as they possibly could be. What was interesting was that the lymph nodes were exaggerated, as during the time the wax models were made, lymph nodes and the lymph system were supposedly being discovered! The room with the babies disturbed me the most, as a few models had clamps attached to the head of the baby. Since I have the privilege of having a more modern knowledge of science, I know that clamping an infants head out of the mother would not be okay, as the head is still quite soft and fragile! Additionally, the birth defects and loss of mother during childbirth irked me — maybe because I also have a uterus and that giving birth is practically a miracle both back then and today. 

I also got to visit the Freud House!! It was wild to have a psychoanalysis lecture inside of Freuds own home and to view the very place where he did his work. I did not bring my laptop with me, so I had to type all of my notes using the Notes app on my iPhone, which was kind of difficult if there were important diagrams in the powerpoint for some reason. I know it was supposed to be a quick overview of Freuds life and an introduction of psychoanalysis, but it was interesting that Carl Jung was not mentioned more than he was, or that the difference between Freudian and Jungian philosophies was not mentioned a whole ton. Even more so, as I was circling Freuds house I heard and chatted with a few of my classmates about Freud’s position on dreams being a look into the unconscious mind and that almost everything was sexual, which they were building an aversion to. Interestingly, a few of my peers were leaning towards Jungian philosophy (where everything is not sexually motivated) without even knowing. Additionally, despite being a STEM major, I think it is important to study philosophy as studying philosophy is essentially studying logic, and studying logic teaches you how to think. I hope my peers (and myself!) know how to think, for the sake of ourselves and society as a whole.

Late that night, we went to go see a classical concert at the St. Anna church. I had never played a string instrument (although I did try to when I was younger but could not due to financial and convenience reasons) but hearing live music play creates a wonderful experience — especially when you hear the ring throughout the room, the sound the music makes during the end of a song. Hearing it in Vienna, the city with Mozart’s and Beethoven’s legacy, was just the cherry on top.

Friday was our last day in Vienna. We went to see the Spanish Horse Riding School practice in the morning, and it made me wonder about the economics behind the whole practice — owning and raising horses is not cheap! Additionally, there was a sort of exercise wheel for the horses that did not allow the horse to stop or rest, unlike a hamster wheel. I do not know how to feel about that, as I do not know the full workings of the Spanish Horse Riding School. Despite it not being a performance, it was almost quite relaxing watching them practice due to the chilly weather, hypnotic galloping of the horses, and the classical music being played. We also went to the Natural History Museum, and I will not lie, I was prepared to be disappointed as I have been to many Natural History Museums in my life. However! The “stuffed animals,” as the tour guide called them, were so fascinating! I felt like I was in a zoo, except better, because the animals were not subjugated to a prison like life! The museum had kiwi birds, weird marsupials, and many other animals such as several different owls! There was even a room that made it look like you were in outer space viewing planet Earth, which stimulated the Overview Effect to anyone in the room. Needless to say, the stuff animal room and being in outer space really turned my opinion around. 

Friday night I traveled to Prague and spent the weekend there. The Prazsky orloj was under construction, which I was looking forward to (despite being warned that it would be underwhelming) but I was not expecting the clock to be under construction!! That really killed the mood for me and I was low-key sad and mad about it. We did go up to the Pražský hrad, and from there we had a gorgeous view of the town. I also got to try a chimney cake, and maybe it is because of my own personal tastes, but I preferred the ice cream topping instead of the actual treat. I also wanted to visit The Museum of Communism, as I do live in America, the land of capitalism, so I thought it was important for me to be educated in such a topic without a potential American filter through it. And indeed, I did learn quite a few things there that I would not have learned in any of my past history classes. 

A postcard from The Museum of Communism

 Prazsky orlop under construction

View near the Prague Castle