Vienna/ Budapest (Whoops, meant to publish this 2 weeks ago)

Vienna

For our first of two main excursions, we woke up extremely in the morning on Tuesday (which gave me flashbacks to the Corps) to catch an early morning flight to Vienna, Austria. When we arrived at the hotel in Vienna, the program coordinator gave out room keys to everyone.  Well everyone but Corey and I- for whatever reason, our room was the only one that was not ready, so while everyone took naps in their comfy beds, we sat homeless in the lobby. At around 11, everyone took pity on us homeless and woke up from their naps to come join us on a tour of the city. In the city, we followed Dr. Schnabel (Dr. Wasser dressed up as a medieval plague doctor) around the old downtown, as he told us the history of the city.

It was an extremely windy day, but the sun was out, so that's more than I could have asked for after living for almost a month in cloudy Bonn. After grabbing gnocchi for lunch, we took a tour of St. Michael's church, where we got to tour the crypt. I can't imagine going in those crypts alone, as they were littered with skulls, other random bones, and wait for it....  mummies. And no, these mummies were not like the halloween mummies wrapped in toilet paper- these mummies were completely preserved bodies covered in the same clothes that they died in over 200 years ago. Some of them still have their teeth.  Creepy as it was, it was fascinating getting to visit such a unique trip to the past.  That night, we ate as a group at the Gulasch museum where I ate, as the name suggests, Gulasch.

The next morning, we took a tour of the Narrenturm, translated "fools tower". This was one of the first mental institutions in the world that actually attempted to research patients with mental diseases, rather than just writing them off as insane and locking them away. Today, the building serves as a museum with a variety of wax models of different health conditions. They had wax models depicting every disease imaginable, from carcinoma to ichthyosis (a skin disease).
We had the rest of the afternoon free, so we explored the Vienna National Library, got delicious Wiener Schnitzel, and then explored other parts of the city that we hadn't seen the day before. That night, we hung out at the Winter festival in front of the beautiful Rathaus, where we celebrated Camella's birthday by drinking Gluhwein and eating pastries.

On Thursday, we went to the Josephinum, the old hospital/ medical school used during the Hapsburg Dynasty. In contrast with the Narrenturm, this museum had life size wax models of humans which highlighted various body systems. Medical students back in the 18th and 19th centuries used these same wax models to learn about human anatomy, as they were not allowed to dissect actual human beings. Afterwards, we ate a traditional Austrian lunch and then headed to the Sigmund Freud house for a psychology lecture and a tour of his house. Finally that evening, we attended a classical concert in a exquisite 17th century chapel (St. Anna's), where we listened to the quartet play songs by Mozart and Beethoven, two of Vienna's most famous composers.

On our last day in Vienna, we got to observe the "Morgensarbeit mit Musik" (Morning practice with music) at the famous Spanish riding school. I sat next to Madeline who used to ride horses competitively, so I got my own private lesson on horse riding. On our way out of the riding school, we stumbled upon a large ceremony outside, which turned out to be the arrival of the Serbian president. I was surprised by the seeming lack of security, but it was an unique experience witnessing both the Austrian and Serbian presidents meet in the palace square. Afterwards, we took the subway across the city to the Schonbrunn Palace, where we hiked up the hill to overlook the entire city of Vienna.  Although it was a cloudy day, it was still a breathtaking site, looking down on the massive yellow palace with the beautiful city surrounded by hills in the background. After hiking around the hill and palace gardens for a couple of hours, we returned downtown and went to the Viennese natural history museum. During our short but interesting tour, we were told that this museum had over 30 million artifacts, making it one of the most complete natural history museums in the world. Unfortunately, we only had about an hour to explore the museum, but I definitely want to come back and explore more if I ever visit Vienna again. Finally, we returned to the hotel to collect our baggage, and then headed to the train station to catch our bus to Budapest. We very nearly missed our bus, but after running like frantic idiots throughout the train station, we finally found the bus terminal and off to Budapest we went!

Budapest

We got into Budapest at around 9 at night and walked about 2 miles from there to our Airbnb, which was right by the river. Walking across the river that night was straight out of a movie with the lit up buildings and bridges glistening off of the Danube.

The next morning, Corey and I woke up and went for a run across the river and up to Buda Castle to overlook the city below. To make things even prettier (but also freezing), it was snowing. After our run, we headed over to the Schnezki Baths, one of the famous hot baths in the city. The bath house is actually a collection of about 20 baths of varying sizes and temperatures. Over and over again, we would sit in the sauna for around 5 minutes, and then quickly hop into the cold bath (which was an icy 18 degrees Celsius). After every dip, I felt so refreshed, but the actual two seconds of standing in the water were absolute torture. After a relaxing afternoon in the baths, Corey, Katie, Emily, and I hiked up Gellért Hill as the sun was setting to look over the city.

After taking pictures and freezing our butts off, we RUSHED down the mountain to meet Alwin at a haunted house that none of us particularly cared to go to (although we were going cause we thought he had already bought the tickets). Well, long story short, after hustling across the city to make it there on time (granted he texted me multiple times to make sure we were still coming), we meet him outside and then go inside. As soon as we get inside, this man asks “So do you you guys really wanna do this thing? Cause I don’t.” BRUH- COULD YOU NOT HAVE SAID ANYTHING 2 HOURS AGO!? Then, this man took us to “the best burgers in Budapest” and lemme tell you, Budapest must not be known for its burgers, cause I couldn’t tell that burger apart from a 1 dollar cheeseburger from McDonalds. Anyways I’m over it, but I will not be using Alwin as my travel agent anytime soon.

Sunday, we woke up early to hike up Buda Hill and watch the sunrise. Unfortunately, it was cloudy in the east, but it was still beautiful watching the sky brighten over the city. We then explored the old cobble stones streets of Buda, before stopping for breakfast at a delicious omelette place. Probably my favorite part of Budapest was how cheap everything was- huge meals like this one were on average 5-6 euro! After eating, we continued exploring the pretty buildings, going inside the Buda Castle art museum and later on the Parliament building. The Hungarian Parliament Building is by far one of the prettiest buildings I’ve ever seen, with its beautiful location along the Danube River. Inside, it does not disappoint, guilded in gold with maroon carpet covering the grand hallways and staircases.

For the rest of the day, we continued to walk all around the city/ metro hop to see all the main sites in Budapest. In the evening, after walking 14 miles throughout the day, we rewarded ourselves with a traditional Hungarian meal consisting of Gulasch and dumplings from a local restaurant. Best 7 euros I spent the entire trip- it was absolutely delicious. All in all, our trip to Budapest was incredible, and I would definitely enjoy returning again in the future. I guess you can probably tell that I’m still alive since I’m writing this blog post, but I wasn’t quite sure I would make it home on my 28 euro Wizz Air (yeah Wizz who?) flight, which I kid you not boarded from a barn.