Adventures in Vienna - Germany Week 3

              This past week we took a group excursion to Vienna, Austria. Other than a few bumps in the road, Vienna is definitely my favorite place that we have visited so far.

              The day started by waking up before the sun (which isn’t very hard cause the sun comes up around 8am) around 3:30am. I thought I was going to left by the taxi when it came because the doors and locks here are weird and I was locked in the house struggling to find my key. What a start to this adventure. Once we were in Vienna, we had a city tour with Dr. Schnabel. It was quite interesting because he emerged from he subway in a full Plague doctor costume. As we walked around Vienna, many people stopped to take pictures and videos of him, especially when he made us sing a strange song in the square. Later that day we went to the Michaelerkirche and toured their crypt, which contained 4 mummies, a ton of old coffins, a wall of femurs, and multiple piles of bones. I wouldn’t say that this experience was fun, but it was morbidly intriguing.

             Day 2 was probably my favorite day. We started with a group tour at the Narrenturm, which is a building that was built in 1784 as an institute for the mentally ill. It now houses a collection of models, including waxes, jars, and bones, displaying all kinds of medical diseases and tumors and such. This was definitely my favorite place, which may be kind of strange, but keep in mind that I am interested in epidemiology and studying diseases is my life. We had the rest of the day to ourselves, so we had a lunch of Käsekrainer, which is sausage with cheese in it, and it was soooo good. Then we took a short (and free!) tour of the Rathaus, or city hall. After that, we traveled to the Schönbrunn Palace, which is a huge palace with vast gardens. We probably wondered the gardens for hours. We found Neptune’s Fountain, which is so ornate and intricate. There is a large hill behind the fountain where we got a great view of the city of Vienna.

             On day 3, we had a tour of the Josephinum, which has a large collection of anatomical wax models used for studying medicine in the 1700s. These models were so intricate and there were so many of them. There was basically a model for anything you could ever wish to study in anatomy, which was really cool. After lunch, we went to the Freud House, where we had a lecture about Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis. Freud was a very interesting man and it was cool to see where he lived and worked. That evening, we all dressed up and attended a classical concert at St. Anna church. The church was gorgeous and the music was really good. I don’t usually listen to classical, but I did really enjoy the concert.

             On our last day in Vienna, we went to the Spanish Horse Riding School morning practice and the Natural History Museum. It was cool to see the horses, but I definitely enjoyed the museum more. I probably could’ve spent the entire day in there! Camella, Lois, Darby, and I then left that evening for Prague. I love Prague and I was so glad I got to see and stay with my friend there. We did the touristy things and pretty much got every high view of Prague possible. We also ate some Svíčková and Trdelník, which are easily some of my favorite foods. All of this traveling has left me so happy but also exhausted. I am looking forward to this chill week in Bonn, especially because Karnival is fast approaching! Tschüss!