Warning: This is being written at 1:30am in Munich
For this post, it is kind of difficult to separate academics and our personal travels so I will combine the both. Having already presented the enmodes project, I felt like this week was a lot less stressful than previous ones and I also felt like I had a lot more free time. The only things I had to do was a quiz for my online English class (which I got a 100) and finish some German homework.
This week we traveled to Vienna for the week, as part of our History of Medicine in Europe course. We had to wake up at 3:30am on Tuesday which was especially hard since I had not slept for more that 4 consecutive hours since the Saturday before, but I was able to push through and actually be on time for once. We got to the airport a little over an hour early and then we were on our way to Austria. I managed to sleep for a couple minutes during the flight, but it was only an hour long flight so it was not enough for me to recharge. I had in mind that we were gonna go straight to the hotel and then we were going to either have some time to rest before starting touring, or that we were going to do some quick touring then have the rest of the day off. But neither of those things happened. As soon as we got off the plane, we went to the hotel, dropped our bags in our rooms, then we immediately left for a day packed of activities. First we walked around the city with Dr. Schnabel, which to our surprise was Dr. Wasser in disguise, as he lectured about all the medical buildings and history in the area. Then we had about an hour to get lunch. I was so exhausted that I truly do not remember where I went or what I ate. Then we toured Michaelkirche and the catacombs which was BY FAR the most incredible thing I have seen. Being face to face with the remains of people that lived centuries ago and see their mummified bodies was incredible, and the church's darkly designed altar made it my favorite church so far (from the inside, sorry Cologne). After the tour, us BMEN students had to wait 45 minutes for the BIMS students to do the tour, allowing me to get a series of sleeping pictures. When everyone got done, we went to Goulashmuseum and had some goulash (duh) and one too many wine glasses. Tuesday was probably the longest day of my life so after we were finally allowed to leave, I went straight to the hotel, took a shower, and passed out.
The rest of the week was not as activity packed as the first day, so we had more opportunities to go out and explore on our own. After the drug museum we went to on Wednesday, we had the rest of the afternoon all to ourselves so some friends and I wanted to go to the Kunsthistorisches Museum (An art museum) and to a torture museum, but it was a very far walk so instead of trying to figure out the public transportation, we decided to "Lime," which is a motorized scooter that you can find anywhere and rent it for however long. It was super fun driving on a scooter in the middle of Vienna. The torture museum was very interesting but there were a lot of artifacts that were used mostly for public humiliation, like if a baker sells bread that is slightly underweight, he gets out into a sort of bird cage, or if a musicians plays badly, he has to carry a metal flute that is strapped around his neck. The Art Museum was huge so we barely got done with one floor (out of three) before they closed. We then thought it would be fun to race back to the hotel with the Lime. Obviously, I won the race. After getting back we rested for a bit before we wanted to go out. We were planning on getting dinner at around 21:30, but instead we left the hotel at 23:30 which meant everything was closed so we ended up at a McDonalds after about an hour of going to bars that only served drinks. That night we stayed out until around 2, which was a mistake because we had to get up at 7:30
Thursday was the best day of the Vienna trip. We started the day by going to the Narrenturm (Madhouse Tower) and it was so cool seeing all the different diseases and learning so much about how medicine was performed back in the day. Then we went to get lunch at Wiener Deewan. The food there was incredible. After lunch we went to the Freud's museum where we had an actual lecture in one of the rooms. I thought this was so cool because we were learning about Freud literally in the place he had worked. I have always been very interested in psychology, so this was particularly interesting for me. The museum was also cool because we got to breathe in the smoke particles Freud left behind. After the museum we had a couple hours of free time before we were supposed to go to a concert, so I figured this was the perfect time to get a haircut because I had been wanting to get one for a couple weeks. I got my haircut with just enough time to go back to then hotel, shower, and then get dressed up. We got to the church were the concert was at and it was not what I expected but it was still very beautiful. The concert left me completely speechless after every piece they played, and I don't know if it was the cold or the music but I got chills several times through out it. The concert ended at around 8:30, leaving us with more than enough time to go get dinner and then go out. We went to a delicious Italian restaurant for dinner and then a spectacular rooftop bar.
Friday was also freaking amazing. We went to the Spanish Riding School in the morning, and we got to see how the horse riders trained and the gracefulness of the horses. We then went to the Natural History Museum. There was so much to watch and so much to learn that it was overwhelming, but it was awesome. One of my favorites museums so far. And that ended the AIB excursion to Vienna. I would've liked to see other museums in Vienna, but I had a train to catch to Prague.
Vienna was amazing and there was so much beauty everywhere I looked, so I will definitely come back at some point in the future.
Prague - or Praha - was definitely a unique experience. I imagined Praha to be somewhat similar to Vienna from the pictures that I had seen online and the little research I did over it, but I was far from right. Praha is like no other city I have been in so far, and I think it has a lot to do with the Russian influence. We got to Praha at around 22:30 on Friday, and could immediately tell it was going to be different. Since we got there so late, we immediately went to the air bnb so that we could get a good night's rest, mostly because we were all exhausted from Vienna. Walking for 20 minutes on the streets in the middle of the night was so sketchy but we made it safely to the apartment and after showering, immediately fell asleep.
The biggest difference I noticed about Praha, is that English is not a very commonly spoken language. Compared to everywhere I have been so far where every waiter or cashier at a restaurant will at least know some basic English, whereas in Praha, it was very rare to find someone that was able to speak English. Going out, I also noticed how the nightlife is a lot more different than in other European countries and the population seemed to be mostly younger people.
We were able to see some astonishing views from the Praha Castle and from some of the bridges, and we also went to a Jewish museum and a couple synagogues. Before going to Praha, I was completely ignorant in the Czech history, but now I am a lot more interested in learning about their culture, and how they came to be as a country.
Praha has definitely been the most foreign country I have been in, and I loved being able to experience it.
And now we got to the present. I am currently in the fourth train that I have taken in order to get back to Bonn. My train was supposed to leave from Praha hbf at 17:45, get to Munchen at 23:21, get on a different train that left at 00:01, and get to Koln safe and sound at 7:05 with just enough time to get to class by 8:15. Well, after about an hour in the first train, we were told we had to get off and get on a different train. We were confused, but everyone did the same, so we just followed the crowd. Everyone got on a different train that took us to a tiny station in the middle of nowhere. From there we were told that we had to take a bus from there to another tiny station and from there we were going to be able to take a train straight to Munich. Since we had no idea what was going on, we decided to follow what everyone was doing and hope for the best. We had a 90 minute bus ride to the other station and from there we took a two story train to Munich. By this point we were nervous because our layover train left at midnight and it was already 23:00. Since there was nothing we could do, we tried not to stress out and just figure things out one at a time. We got to Munich at 00:30, so our train was far gone. We went to the information booth where they told us that the train we had just taken did not exist, so after about 10 minutes of trying to figure out what happened, they finally gave us a ticket that took us to Cologne, the only problem was that this train left at 03:24, meaning we were definitely not going to make it to class. It is currently 4:15, I had about two hours of sleep the night before, and I have gotten zero hours of sleep today, so I will conclude this post and will proceed to pass out for the rest of this train ride.
Thursday was the best day of the Vienna trip. We started the day by going to the Narrenturm (Madhouse Tower) and it was so cool seeing all the different diseases and learning so much about how medicine was performed back in the day. Then we went to get lunch at Wiener Deewan. The food there was incredible. After lunch we went to the Freud's museum where we had an actual lecture in one of the rooms. I thought this was so cool because we were learning about Freud literally in the place he had worked. I have always been very interested in psychology, so this was particularly interesting for me. The museum was also cool because we got to breathe in the smoke particles Freud left behind. After the museum we had a couple hours of free time before we were supposed to go to a concert, so I figured this was the perfect time to get a haircut because I had been wanting to get one for a couple weeks. I got my haircut with just enough time to go back to then hotel, shower, and then get dressed up. We got to the church were the concert was at and it was not what I expected but it was still very beautiful. The concert left me completely speechless after every piece they played, and I don't know if it was the cold or the music but I got chills several times through out it. The concert ended at around 8:30, leaving us with more than enough time to go get dinner and then go out. We went to a delicious Italian restaurant for dinner and then a spectacular rooftop bar.
Friday was also freaking amazing. We went to the Spanish Riding School in the morning, and we got to see how the horse riders trained and the gracefulness of the horses. We then went to the Natural History Museum. There was so much to watch and so much to learn that it was overwhelming, but it was awesome. One of my favorites museums so far. And that ended the AIB excursion to Vienna. I would've liked to see other museums in Vienna, but I had a train to catch to Prague.
Vienna was amazing and there was so much beauty everywhere I looked, so I will definitely come back at some point in the future.
Prague - or Praha - was definitely a unique experience. I imagined Praha to be somewhat similar to Vienna from the pictures that I had seen online and the little research I did over it, but I was far from right. Praha is like no other city I have been in so far, and I think it has a lot to do with the Russian influence. We got to Praha at around 22:30 on Friday, and could immediately tell it was going to be different. Since we got there so late, we immediately went to the air bnb so that we could get a good night's rest, mostly because we were all exhausted from Vienna. Walking for 20 minutes on the streets in the middle of the night was so sketchy but we made it safely to the apartment and after showering, immediately fell asleep.
The biggest difference I noticed about Praha, is that English is not a very commonly spoken language. Compared to everywhere I have been so far where every waiter or cashier at a restaurant will at least know some basic English, whereas in Praha, it was very rare to find someone that was able to speak English. Going out, I also noticed how the nightlife is a lot more different than in other European countries and the population seemed to be mostly younger people.
We were able to see some astonishing views from the Praha Castle and from some of the bridges, and we also went to a Jewish museum and a couple synagogues. Before going to Praha, I was completely ignorant in the Czech history, but now I am a lot more interested in learning about their culture, and how they came to be as a country.
Praha has definitely been the most foreign country I have been in, and I loved being able to experience it.
And now we got to the present. I am currently in the fourth train that I have taken in order to get back to Bonn. My train was supposed to leave from Praha hbf at 17:45, get to Munchen at 23:21, get on a different train that left at 00:01, and get to Koln safe and sound at 7:05 with just enough time to get to class by 8:15. Well, after about an hour in the first train, we were told we had to get off and get on a different train. We were confused, but everyone did the same, so we just followed the crowd. Everyone got on a different train that took us to a tiny station in the middle of nowhere. From there we were told that we had to take a bus from there to another tiny station and from there we were going to be able to take a train straight to Munich. Since we had no idea what was going on, we decided to follow what everyone was doing and hope for the best. We had a 90 minute bus ride to the other station and from there we took a two story train to Munich. By this point we were nervous because our layover train left at midnight and it was already 23:00. Since there was nothing we could do, we tried not to stress out and just figure things out one at a time. We got to Munich at 00:30, so our train was far gone. We went to the information booth where they told us that the train we had just taken did not exist, so after about 10 minutes of trying to figure out what happened, they finally gave us a ticket that took us to Cologne, the only problem was that this train left at 03:24, meaning we were definitely not going to make it to class. It is currently 4:15, I had about two hours of sleep the night before, and I have gotten zero hours of sleep today, so I will conclude this post and will proceed to pass out for the rest of this train ride.
No sleep is you worst kind of kryptonite, but I’m sure the experience was well worth it!
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