Monday was an easy day of classes, thankfully, and I only really had physiology to be concerned about. The other things going on were the pre-departure meeting for our excursion and then an intercultural workshop. Physiology wasn't too bad but all of the groups had to present their problems for the enmodes project we're all working on. I'm not necessarily bad at presentations but I can't say that I enjoy them. Either way, it went well and some of the other groups came up with some interesting problems that could be addressed.
In the intercultural workshop, we had to divide ourselves into two groups: Peaches and Coconuts. The idea was that coconuts are hard on the outside but soft and sweet on the inside while peaches are the opposite and we were to arrange ourselves based on our own personalities. I was, obviously, a coconut. It was fun to try and describe ourselves compared to the peaches of the group and we even got to air some of our pet peeves about peaches in general. It was hilarious to hear what everyone had to say about each other because, even though we all had legitimate issues with each other, it was all brought up good-naturedly and no one was sensitive about it or got overly emotional. It was a good communication exercise and got me thinking about how I adjust my natural tendencies when communicating with peach-like people.
Getting to Vienna, I encountered some trouble. My phone's battery is on its last leg, so it dies quite frequently and unexpectedly. On a few occasions, it has gone from about 54% battery straight to 5%. Monday night, I stayed up late packing and didn't get to sleep until midnight. Since I had to be up at 0300 anyway to get ready (the cab came at 0420), I just packed my chargers so I didn't forget them. My phone was at 79% when I set my alarm but it died in the three hours I was asleep and I missed my cab. AIB called Astrid around 0440 and she woke me up. I got ready in exactly 6 minutes and almost had a panic attack because I couldn't find my glasses.
When I made it outside, the second cab AIB sent for me was just pulling up outside the curb. But the gate was locked and, in my frazzled state, I couldn't remember where I put my key. So I threw my bag over the fence between our house and the neighbor's house, which was shorter, and hopped over it myself. Then I ran around to the entrance of the neighbor's yard and back up the block to the cab. Even when I was finally on my way to the airport, I was still so worried that I would miss the flight. Unfortunately, when my cab driver dropped me off, it wasn't where Mats or Reagan were waiting for me. They had money from AIB to pay for the cab. I ended up having to give the driver 57.10€, which was all of my cash, save for 3.80€- which I used to buy a cinnamon roll-type thing for breakfast when we got to the hotel in Vienna. It's just the Hero's Journey, I guess.
Anyway, I made it on the plane and completely passed out once we took off. We checked in at the hotel and had some free time to get breakfast before we all met up again for a city tour. This might have been my favorite thing in Vienna because our tour was led by Dr. Schnabel. He was dressed as a plague doctor- mask, bag, cloak and all- the entire tour, which was about two hours. For lunch, a group of us went for sweets at Demel, the shop that used to be responsible for making sweets for the Kaiser. Their hot chocolate (the drink, not literal hot chocolate, like in Spain) was the best I've had in my life. I got it with vanilla, so it had an extra bit of flavor but was the perfect balance of sweet and bitter. The whipped cream was different because it didn't have any sweetness, but that seems to be a local thing. The carrot cake and apple strudel were also very good but my favorite was the hot chocolate.
After lunch, we all took turns touring Michaelkirche (St. Michael's Church) and the catacombs underneath the church. Apparently, in Vienna, most of the churches have catacombs where people would pay to be buried. It was thought that the closer you were buried to the alter of the church, the closer you would be to heaven and you'd be more likely to ascend. Or something like that. The catacombs are much more extensive than I thought and not all of the chambers have even been accessed. There were even mummies! We only saw three but they used to have more. There was a flood some years ago that caused a lot of damage and I guess the church is still in the process of recovering from that event. People were also buried in these beautifully painted wood coffins. Richer families had their wood coffins placed inside metal ones, which sometimes had a few designs, but the wood coffins definitely had more character.
Dinner was at the Goulashmuseum and a lot of us, unsurprisingly, ordered the goulash. In fact, so many of us at my table ordered it, that it was easier for the staff to serve it in a giant pot instead of individual ones. I ate a lot of bread, a lot of goulash, dumplings, and some good wine. It was nice to eat with everyone again and try another traditional dish for the region.
On Wednesday, we first visited the Drogistenmuseum, which was super interesting. My favorite part of the visit was seeing the books of pressed flowers that they had and seeing the pressed bat. Apparently, it's a comprehensive herbarium that dates to the 19th century. Plants used to be pressed quite differently, with metal plates and five tons of pressure and were apparently quite expensive. They had so many specimens of herbs, rocks, and drugs that they completely lined all of the walls. There was even a collection of cameras and poisons in one of the back rooms. I also learned this week that poison in German is "gift," so that if someone here tries to give me a gift, I shouldn't take it.
After lunch, we had the entire afternoons to ourselves. I went to the Albertina and saw some works from Monet and Picasso. Honestly, though, I was most excited to go to the Belvedere to see "The Kiss" by Klempt. So after the Albertina, I walked half an hour to the Upper Belvedere. It would have been the same amount of time by bus, so I figured I would walk so I could enjoy the city a bit more and not have to worry about making the connections. I will first say that the Belvedere is a much larger and more impressive complex than I expected and it was probably the most beautiful place that I got to see in Vienna. Even without going into any of the museum buildings, just the gardens are incredible and worth the trip. I wish that it was summer because then the flowers would be in bloom and it would all just be that much more impressive. "The Kiss," I found out, is much larger than I thought it was and much more valuable than I thought it was from just a physical standpoint. Obviously, it is a great work of art and priceless because of that, but even if it wasn't appreciated as an art piece, there's gold and jewels all over it! It was so beautiful to see in person and the experience is just one more reason I'm so thankful to be part of this program.
Thursday was interesting because we started the day with a tour of Narrenturm (Fool's Tower). It was Europe's first mental hospital but is now the Federal Pathologic-Anatomical Museum. They have a lot of models and some real specimens of pretty incredible and (incredibly) gross medical conditions in both animals and humans. Stuff like wax models of patients with smallpox, skeletons of conjoined twins, a nine-legged kitten, and the abdomen of a person with complete situs inversus. Situs inversus is when the organs of the body are mirrored on the opposite side of the body from where they usually are, which would cause problems when diagnosing certain conditions. There are actually some celebrities who have situs inversus, such as Donny Osmond and Enrique Iglesias.
Dr. Wasser also gave us a lecture about Freud when we were actually at the Freud House, which was pretty cool. Freud, no matter how one regards his ideas, had an undeniable impact on psychology that continues today. Personally, I don't agree with much of what he said but I admire that he was so self-analytical and admitted that he wasn't sure psychoanalysis did much for patients. Being able to admit that you're not sure of something- especially something you devote part of your life to- is really hard for people (especially professionals) to do, so it's impressive that he publicly questioned himself and his practices. But he also probably had an affair with his sister-in-law, so my admiration only goes so far.
Thursday night was fun because first, we all got to go to a classical concert at St. Anna Church. The string quartet played beautifully and the cello player explained after the first piece that they played on period instruments, which was pretty cool. Afterward, a group of us went to a place where some people had found cheap Weiner Schnitzel. It was better than I expected and super filling since the order came with two big pieces. One of the guys actually got three pieces because our server was nice and gave him an extra one, probably for his attempts at speaking German.
Friday was our last day in Vienna and it began with a trip to the Spanish Riding School. The horses that they have there, Lipizzans, are such gorgeous creatures. We got to see a few of the riders and horses go through their morning practice. I can't say that it was super exciting but it was interesting to watch. Dr. Wasser told us a lot about the school too. The horses are born brown and then turn white as they mature and the school is very selective about the riders it accepts. About 600 people apply every year and only a few spaces are available. All the riders are of similar build and girls have only been accepted for the past five or six years. Once a person is accepted, they can live in the school, are paid by the school, and could theoretically spend their whole life at the riding school.
Afterward, we had some free time, which I spent just walking around. I saw the National Library, the Hofburg Palace and Burggarten, Liechtenstein, Hero's Monument and the Theseus Temple and Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) Memorial in Volksgarten. It sounds like a lot but the only place that I could actually go into was the National Library, which was breathtaking. A real dream-come-true for me, especially when I was younger. The other monuments and buildings were amazing from an architectural standpoint and quite beautiful. I will say the Empress Elisabeth Memorial was smaller than I thought and not as pretty as I am sure it would be in the summer. There were a lot of empty flower beds set up but, unfortunately, empty at this time of year.
The last event organized for Vienna was a tour of the Natural History Museum. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would because, even though I love history, I prefer more recent human history over evolutionary history and fossils or animal specimens. But the museum in Vienna had the Venus of Willendorf. The Venus statues were carved by pre-historic humans and feature women with exaggerated breasts, hips, and abdomens (so, chubby). They are the oldest known representations of females and it isn't known for sure what they were meant to represent. Almost none of them have faces though so it would make sense if they were something along the lines of fertility symbols or, as some believe, symbols of hope for survival and longevity during an ice age. The Venus of Willendorf is apparently one of the oldest specimens at 29,500 years old, so it was a treat to be able to see the small statue.
After the museum, I went with Lindsay, Adrianna and Ryan to get gelato for the last time from Castelletto (so good!) and then we went back to the hotel. We did homework for a bit and then it was time for us to go catch our bus to Budapest!
Our first morning there I had my first chai latte and it was amazing. Lindsay said it was the best she had ever had, so I was pretty spoiled with my first try. After our little café breakfast, we began walking around and trying to make our way toward Buda Castle, where all of the museums are. But the castle was on the other side of the Danube River, so it took us a while. We also made a hand-full of stops at cute stores and ran into a food market with a ton of food trucks and stalls with local, handmade goods. We each got something different for lunch just so we could try as much as possible. I think my bread cone filled with sausages, melted cheese and fried onions from Kolbice was the most local meal of the three. It was so good, too! The cheese was like a nacho sauce and the sausages were so flavorful, it was the best thing I had the whole trip. Actually, when I was at the Kolbice stand, they had people taking photos for future advertising and I got an extra sausage for saying they could use my photo. Not a bad deal, but that's about the fourth time that has happened to me. Maybe I need an agent. I could get paid to advertise food at these smaller places and then get to eat the food afterward.
Before we left the market, we grabbed a Kürtőskalác, or chimney cake. It's a spit cake that is circular and has a hole in the middle. You can have different toppings sprinkled on the outside so the three of us, of course, got cinnamon and sugar. It basically tasted like a chewy cinnamon roll without icing. After lunch, we ended up buying a Budapest pass since it allowed us to use public transportation for free and got us access to 19 museums and discounts at the thermal baths. We took the bus to Buda Castle and went through the Hungarian National Gallery, which had some gorgeous paintings and sculptures about Hungarian history.
Of course, when you're in Hungary, you have to go to a thermal bath. Hungary has the largest number of thermal baths in all of Europe, so it wasn't hard to find one, just hard to pick based on what we wanted. We ended up at the Lukács baths because we got in free with our Budapest cards and because there was a 40-minute wait at Rudas. It was so nice to just sit in the sauna and the thermal bath. Lindsay and I got a massage first thing, too, which was exactly what I needed at the moment. There weren't as many baths as I hoped available though since it was winter and it was too cold for us to use the ones outside- although that didn't stop some people.
We managed to find a place still open for a late dinner, which was, for me, a pear and chicken dish. Hungarians seem to like mixing meats and fruits but I can't say I have a problem with it. The chicken was very tender and the flavors worked well together. We then ended the night at For Sale Pub, which is one of the ruin pubs close to downtown. It was a pretty cool place, with for sale flyers and random papers covering the walls and ceilings. Adrianna and I tried a shot of the Hungarian herbal liqueur called Unicum. It was honestly the worst drink I've ever had in my life but is somehow the national drink of Hungary. There's supposedly something like 40 different herbs in it, so it has a very strong flavor that sticks around way too long, in my opinion. I only had half of the shot for my first taste and had to order a coke to drink after I finally finished the last half of the Unicum. Adrianna didn't even finish her shot, not that I blame her.
Today, Sunday, the first thing we did was go to a cooking class where the three of us learned how to make pasta and a traditional country dish. It was basically pasta with a sauce of cottage cheese and sour cream topped with a few pieces of fried ham. All of the ingredients were local though, so the cottage cheese and sour cream didn't have the same flavors as the American versions. The taste of the sauce was actually very mild. Our instructor was super helpful and made sure that we understood all of the steps throughout the mixing and flattening of the dough. We also got to keep some of the angel hair pasta that we made at the beginning of the class, which was really nice.
We then wandered back to Buda Castle to try to see the Semmelweiss museum, which was recommended by Dr. Wasser because it has a collection of medical and pharmaceutical items from prehistoric times. It would have been nice to see but the Prime Minister was apparently giving the national address that day, so the entire two block radius near the museum was closed down. Instead, we just walked around and did some souvenir shopping. All three of us actually ended up getting secret boxes, which are pretty cool local boxes with hidden compartments and a special method to open them. We did manage to stumble upon another museum, the Hospital in the Rock Nuclear Bunker Museum. It was a special WWII hospital built in a cave system running under Buda Castle Hill and was later turned into a nuclear bunker. It was interesting to learn about how strategic it was in the Seige of Budapest and more about Hungarian history in the process. So, even though we missed out on one museum, we got lucky and found another one that was definitely worth the visit.
Now that the trip is over, I can honestly say that Budapest was my favorite city that I have visited thus far. There was just a special energy to the city that made it feel super welcoming. The food was amazing and the people were so nice. The exchange rate was also very favorable, though the currency took a while to get used to. Overall, it was an amazing place and I hope that I get to go back soon.
Sounds like you are having some wonderful experiences! So happy you had this opportunity. :)
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