My Vienna Day Post...Finally....

So this blog post is a little delayed since I decided to finish the Vienna trip by leaving my iPhone on the bus. I am so thankful it was left there rather than the plane or lost on the street so I was finally able to get it back six days later before my Amsterdam trip!

So when we had the opportunity to spend the afternoon the way we wanted in Vienna my main priority was the "Wiener Riesenrad" or Ferris Wheel!! I have always loved Ferris Wheels as far back as I can remember. It is also something I have always done with my children. Anytime we are at a fair or amusement park as mom I don't ride a lot or rides but the one thing I always, always do is ride the Ferris Wheel with them. So given the opportunity to see and ride such a historic Ferris Wheel was one I was not about to pass up. Most of the other students had other things they wanted to go do and it was not great interest to them over other things so I did something I usually would not do...I went alone.


Wiener Riesenrad was built in 1897 standing 64.75m and after the destruction of the Grande Roue de Paris in 1920 became the world's tallest for the next 65 years. Going to see the Ferris Wheel they have a small, one-room museum of the history of the Ferris Wheel.

The museum was set up with displays through the years from before the Ferris wheel.

Including one showing what was remaining after a fire near the end of World War II burned the park in 1944. The Ferris Wheel along with St. Stephen's Cathedral were among the first things reconstruction began on after the war.

A view right before beginning my ride of the other cars. The original had 30 operational cars but only half were re-built after World War II.

The inside of the Ferris Wheel car.

  
 Views from the ride of Vienna... 

The view from above the city was just as breathtaking as the city itself.

I was so glad I went to see and ride the Ferris Wheel. It was something I would have regretted if I had not done so because who knows when or if I would have the opportunity to again. As I said earlier I don't usually do things alone. Abroad or at home. It's much easier to have someone with you. I did get a bit lost at first making my way to the Ferris Wheel and learned that I do still know how to read a map!! Haha! I think we've all become too GPS reliant and being abroad without always having data service has really helped me learn to not be so reliant on my phone.

I spent part of the rest of my day wondering around and just taking the city in and finally decided to get some dinner. I really wanted to go to Cafe Korb but didn't know for sure that anyone else would want to join me and even though it made me a bit nervous. I went and had dinner alone at Cafe Korb.

Yet another first for me. I do not dine alone in restaurants. Never. Ever. Ever. Until now. Guess what? I had a nice quiet dinner, which was excellent, in a great atmosphere and the world didn't end!!

Until several years ago I had horrible problems social anxiety and something I became reliant on was always someone familiar with me in crowds of strange people. There was a time that I would only go outside of the house with someone I knew well and even then outings sometimes ended early because of my panic attacks when we were around a lot of people. I've come a long ways since those days but still have never gone and done anything entertainment wise or gone dining without another person until Vienna. This truly was MY Vienna day for me.

Langos!!!!

SO in the last week I have been caught up with experiencing new cultures/countries/foods/people and my first exam, that I have completely forgotten to complete my riveting and much anticipated blog! Last week we traveled as a program to Vienna which was an amazing experience. The first day there, we took a medical city walk with Dr. Schnabel (who is Dr. Wasser's very good look a like friend), and went to St. Michael's church, and toured the catacombs which were incredible, and finally had an awesome dinner at Gosser Bierklinik. The next day was "My Vienna Day." We started the day with visiting the Spanish Horse Riding School, and watching the daily practice of the horses and their riders. After that some of us went to the Tiergarten Zoo which was one of the best zoos I have ever visited. The animals were very cool to see but one of the main highlights of the zoo was langos, which was a type of street food that is a fried tortilla covered in butter and garlic and was delicious. After the zoo, we walked around the gardens at and around Schonnbrun palace and ended the day with visiting the city hall of Vienna. The other highlights included visiting Sigmund Freud's house and the Josephinum, which housed numerous 18th century wax models designed to educate the medical students of the day. These models were so intricate and detailed, and made me wish that we still used them because they would be very beneficial to me. Finally we visited the Natural History museum and left Vienna. A few of us decided to go to Budapest as well over the weekend, because we were so close and this was another unforgettable experience. The first day in Budapest we woke up and went to a pretty sketchy flea market which was definitely interesting. After staying there for about an hour or two, we made our way to the Szechenyi Thermal Baths which was the highlight of Budapest for me. The thermal baths are supplied by two natural springs and each pool has a temperature between 28-37 Celsius which was very relaxing. After the baths I learned that langos is traditional Hungarian food and proceeded to buy some more of the delicious bread. Next we went to a free walking tour around Budapest and learned about the history and language (which is extremely hard by the way) and ended the tour at Mathias Church, who was one of the first rulers of the Budapest area. The last day in Budapest we visited an art museum which had many amazing Rembrandt paintings, visited St. Stephens cathedral (and saw the hand of St. Stephen in a box after some other tourist foolishly paid 2 euros to illuminate it) and saw the Hungarian Parliament building which was breathtaking. Last week was definitely one of the most fun times I have ever had and now I am looking forward to what else this trip has to offer (...Karneval!!!!)

PS school has been going well, but exams have begun so.....

It's only been two weeks!

I've been in four countries in two and a half weeks. That's hard to imagine.
I flew from the States to Germany on January 27th, then a week after that I was in Austria, and then Hungary, and then finally back to Germany. I still have a hard time believing that I'm actually doing this! Needless to say, the past few weeks have been full of new experiences for me.

Vienna was a beautiful city with lots of culture and history evident in the architecture on every street. It all seemed to harken back to royalty and times when Sirs and Dukes road carriages through the streets. I got to experience things that also felt "royal" like Cafe Demel and the Spanish Horse Riding School. On the medical side of things, I never thought I'd be underground in the catacombs with bones that were hundreds of years old, or walking through a thoroughly disgusting exhibit of pathological wax models and specimens, such as a literal head in a jar. Hopefully, that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Budapest was ruled by Austria for a while, so many of its buildings also feel fit for royalty, but Budapest's culture and even architecture have a bit of grit to them. Budapest has a very unique history and I thought that it was almost obvious by the feel and look of the city that it is a bit different than any other European city I've ever seen. The views of the city from the Buda (hilly) side of the Danube River were incredible, but another highlight for me was sitting in a coffee shop for a few hours enjoying delicious food and drink and watching the city go by. I liked Budapest because I was intrigued by its culture and people, but I could not quite figure them out.

I'm tired from all my traveling, but I'm excited to see where I go next!

3 countries, 1 week

It's been an incredible week full of adventure, train rides, bad wifi, and good food. When I was sitting the plane, on my way back from Budapest, I realized that I was in three different countries in the past week (Germany, Vienna, and Hungary). It's crazy how easy that is over here in Europe.

Vienna
 Vienna was one of my favorite places I've visited. The rich history and the beautiful city made it such a great place to spend the week. I loved the food, the people, and the architecture. On my Vienna Day, a group of about 7 of us went to the Vienna Zoo, which is the oldest zoo in the world. The zoo had a great exhibit on Arctic animals and the arctic environment. My favorite animal, by far, were the polar bears. I had never gotten to see a polar bear up close, so I was ecstatic to see one. They also had  a great exhibit on penguins and sea lions. We also got to see a couple of panda bears, which was another new animal I have never seen in a zoo. They were very uneventful in the sense that they slept the whole time. Overall, the zoo was a great choice, even though it was a tad bit cold. After we left the zoo, we headed over to the palace, which was really pretty. I would have liked to see the inside but we didn't have time. On the bright side, the sunset provided for great pictures. I would have liked to see little more on the "My Vienna Day", but I was glad I made it over to the zoo.

Budapest
A quick note on Budapest. I was blown away at this city. I was not expecting myself to enjoy the weekend as much as I did. The food was so delicious, the people were interesting (different from western Europeans), and the architecture was amazing. I really enjoyed the walking tour we took around the city, where we learned a lot about the history of Hungary and the city. We also got to spend a few hours at one of the famous baths in the city. Talk about relaxing. It was the perfect end to a day full of walking and sightseeing. The currency difference was a doozy to understand (1 euro= around $270). Fun fact about Budapest (pronounced "Budapesht"), the roots of the Budapest people are the Mongolians. I am so glad I decided to go to Budapest last weekend. One of the highlights of my semester.

Bonn (airplane emoji) Vienna (train emoji) Budapest

(First thing I should note is that I have done a really poor job of keeping up with my blog posts, so this is me reminding myself to write more.)

This past week has been one of the most memorable seven days I've ever had.  Allow me to recap for all of my anxious readers.

My birthday was on February 1st where I transitioned from being a teenager into a full-blown, 20-year-old adult (at least I think that's how it works).  I missed seeing all my good friends and family from back home and in College Station, but my host family had a small celebration for me which I really appreciated.  I tried watching the Super Bowl but discovered that trying to stay awake until 3 to watch 2 teams I honestly don't care about is extremely difficult.  I instead did the European thing and resorted to reading the Twitter updates in the morning.

On Monday, I attempted to explain Groundhog's Day to my host brother.  As my birthday is on Groundhog's Day Eve, I have always felt a special connection to this sacred holiday.  However, my host brother was not impressed with the fact that Americans observe a holiday where we listen to weather predictions from an overweight groundhog in Pennsylvania.  We'll see what happens when I am prepared for six more weeks of winter and he is not.  Later on Monday, we had some Karneval prep at the AIB, learning the German cheers and drinking beer.  I'm definitely starting to get into the Karneval spirit, as were the 6 very drunk, middle-aged people on my train last night dressed up like pumpkins (?).

Of course, on Tuesday we left for Vienna very early in the morning.  After checking into our hotel, Dr. Schnabel, who looked conspicuously like Dr. Wasser, gave us a tour of the city, followed by a tour of some nifty catacombs.  I also ate schnitzel for the first time and overall had a very Austrian day.  Wednesday began with a visit to the Spanish Horse Riding School, and then we got to go wherever we wanted.  A group of us went to the Vienna zoo which might have been the best zoo I've ever visited, and I would consider myself something of a zoo connoisseur.  Although a bit pricey, I took lots of great pictures (follow @harry_emery for examples), smelled lots of smells, and observed lots of animals in their semi-natural habitat.  We also stopped by the large palace near the zoo which was really massive and neat.  For dinner, I had another very Austrian meal at a pub in the Naschmarkt, followed by a visit to the Vienna City Hall for some gluhwein.  On Thursday, we saw some extremely realistic/interesting/creepy wax models at the medical school in Vienna and went to a great string quartet concert in the evening.  We wrapped everything up on Friday by seeing some even creepier wax models of various diseases and by visiting the large natural history museum.  All in all, Vienna is a beautiful city with so much to do, and I would love to come back one day and see everything I missed this time around.

After Vienna, many of us took a train to Budapest for the weekend.  We stayed at an awesome hostel right in the middle of town, although getting to it was a bit of a struggle.  On Saturday, we walked around Budapest a bit seeing Heroes Square and shopping in a seedy flea market.  We of course stopped at one of the famous thermal baths which was probably my favorite part of the whole trip.  In the afternoon, we took a free walking tour of the city where I took some great pictures (follow @harry_emery for examples).  On Sunday, we visited the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts which had a couple of excellent temporary exhibits.  One was a massive (and crowded) exhibit of Rembrandt and other famous Dutch artists.  The other was for the modern German artist Immendorff of whom I had never heard before.  His paintings were honestly quite strange, but I enjoyed them very much (I don't have any of Immendorff's art on my Instagram, but follow @harry_emery for other great works of art).  In the afternoon we visited St. Stephen's Basilica and the Hungarian Parliament Building lit up at night.  Some takeaways from Budapest:  Hungarian is an incomprehensible language to English speakers, Budapest is cold in the winter, and Budapest is probably the prettiest city I have even visited.

To wrap things up with a bit of introspection, on Sunday night when we returned to Bonn, I felt a sense of coming home to a place that I am familiar with.  After traveling all week, it was nice to return to a city where I know the bus routes and can find a cheap place to eat.  I am really starting to settle in to life here in Germany, and I am hoping that I can begin to understand and speak the language a bit better.  Looking ahead, I am super excited about Karneval this weekend here in the Rhineland and super not excited about our signals test on Wednesday.

exploring the exotic

I had an incredible time this last week! I enjoyed traveling with the whole group to Vienna immensely and all of the museums we went to were awesome. I loved learning about anatomy and physiology with graphic and realistic models. Vienna is a wonderful, clean, bright city. I cannot wait to return at a time in my life where I can afford to go to fancy meals and stay for longer. I enjoyed the crypt tour immensely and was impressed with the preservations of the bodies. On our free day in Vienna, I got to go to a zoo for the first time! It was super awesome and I loved interacting with the orangoutangs because they were incredibly human-like. I learned a massive amount about animals, history, psychology, and anatomy in Vienna.

Budapest was equally wonderful and a stark contrast to Vienna. It was startling to me how evident the remnants of the Soviet Union era was in the condition of the public transportation. It was cool though because it made everything feel very "exotic". The currency exchange rate was also a struggle, but a struggle that I learned from. I am so thrilled that I am learning more about art and developing an appreciation and ability to discern my preferences for art. The hostel we stayed in was also trendy and an interesting experience.

I think I am really making progress on proving to myself that I am independent. Unfortunately, my sense of direction is still lacking, but perhaps I should take that as motivation to make friends with people who have a superior sense of location.

Vienna

The trip to Vienna was awesome. I am already missing it. We saw a lot of things, visited a lot of places, and ate a lot of food(schnitzel). The amount of food we ate the first night was more than I should have eaten for the whole day. On the second day of the trip, we had a my Vienna day. A small group of us visited a renovated aquarium. It was a WWII tower that was converted. Each level multiple non mammals are displayed in awesome cases. There were two open and interaction areas, the birds and the monkeys were free roaming in the greenhouse.  At the top of the tower it was a 360 open space to a view of the city.

  That night we went to ice skating near the city hall. The city hall was alight with pretty lights.

My favorite location for the rest of the trip was in the natural history museum. Passing through the arch of the palace we face the natural history museum. Although I passed the dinosaur phase of my life, I was still fascinated with the motorized dinosaur. I can't wait to go back someday!