Week 4: Vienna and Krakow

This week was one of the busiest we've had yet. I landed in Cologne Monday morning from Madrid, had a day of classes, and then turned around and flew to Vienna the next day. Vienna is a great city, definitely one of my favorite places I've been so far. The city is an amazing mix of modern and old buildings, and the older buildings from the Austro-Hungarian empire are extremely ornate and in incredible condition. The middle of the city was always bustling with tourists and locals. Some highlights from our program there included a city tour from "Dr. Schnabel" (Dr. Wasser in a plague doctor outfit), eating horse goulash, going into a church crypt, and hearing Mozart and Haydn on authentic Classical instruments. It was nice to be able to take a bit of a break from classes to explore the city.

We got plenty of free time to explore Vienna on our own as well. I got to go to the Albertina, an art museum that featured Monet, Picasso, and many interesting modern pieces, which ranged from beautiful to terrifying.



We then wandered around the city for a while, finding a Wienerschnitzel place a bit out of the way that was absolutely fantastic and, more importantly, massive. We then went to the Hausdermusik where we explored some of the history of Viennese music, learned some of the science of sound, and then enjoyed an intimate concert from the American singer-songwriter Petal, who I'd never heard of until that day but was awesome.

The last day I was in Vienna I got to meet up with my cousin Rachel! She is teaching English to international students in Bratislava, and I hadn't seen her in a while so it was really great to catch up with her. After saying goodbye at the train station, I caught my overnight train to Krakow.



Krakow was very different from any place I've been to yet. As our train rolled into the station the next morning, the air outside was foggy and the place looked very bleak. Most of the country that I saw there was very similar to this. Although I've been spending my time in countries where English isn't the primary language, Polish is much more unfamiliar to me than German. Once I got there, I caught my bus to Auschwitz. My time there was very humbling, and I didn't take any pictures because I was busy taking in everything the tour guide was saying, all the terrible things that happened in that camp in the middle of Poland. The next day was more lighthearted as we explored the old town in the center of Krakow, which is preserved from medieval times. Although I didn't spend a very long time in Poland, I was ready to come back to Germany by the time we were done. After travelling almost constantly for the past week and a half, I need a bit of a break from hardcore travelling for a bit.