Top to bottom: Kunsthistorisches (art) Museum. The Irish Elk at the Natural History Museum. David admiring art in the Vienna History Museum. St. Stephen's Cathedral.
Thursday in Vienna: I went back to the general hospital again...but this time as part of the program. We learned about the medical education system in Austria, which in a nutshell has a more focused curriculum as you begin medical school when you graduate from high school. After 6 years, you then have another 6 years of education in what would be called a residency here. They have an integrated course approach with participatory learning, and pay very little (or none) - a stark contrast to the American med school system. I don't intend on applying for medical school, but I still found the comparison interesting. I remember looking at one slide of the presentation where it detailed the courses that you'd take, and I realized how much information there is to learn as a med student - no wonder it takes so long, and you must keep learning throughout your career.
We headed to the Josephinum, a medical museum, where we saw a large collection of anatomical wax models. Not all of the models were completely correct, with some liberties afforded to the artist, but they were realistic enough for us to imagine their usefulness to a medical student.
For lunch, we hit up a serve-yourself place full of students and young people, complete with multiple levels and a carpeted area we dubbed "the hippie corner". We eventually found enough spots for the group after attracting a lot of attention for being a giant group of American students. The food was good, though, and we finally got to have some free water. During my conversation with the young Austrians accompanying us, I learned more about Austria and added "Achterbahn" to my vocabulary: rollercoaster.
After lunch, we toured the anatomy museum. Like most of our other tours, it was long - but this time I noticed less because the museum is horribly fascinating. Some of the diseases displayed manifest themselves quite graphically (skin diseases, syphilis, cancer, and ichthyosis are disturbing). Also, interestingly enough, we began in a room with a lot of preserved lung specimens, which was a little disturbing given my current poor lung function.
That night, we went to the operetta, "The Count of Luxembourg". I was excited about going to experience something new, although the word "opera" put me off. However, it turned out to be more like a musical than anything I would conceive as an operetta, which I thought would be a mini-version of an opera. The set was fantastic and would rotate so that the stage could change with a character's movement: as someone went from one room to another, the set could rotate so that you felt as though you'd followed the character to the new location without having to wait for a scene change. I couldn't understand too much, but I'd pick up words here and there, and Rainer's briefing on the plot allowed me to be on the lookout for certain events. We got rewarded for our diligent German studies when we recognized "stinktier" in the final minutes. Giddy, we trailed Rainer for drinks and dessert to the Austrian place across the street. I'd heard that Vienna was famous for its apple strudel, and of the three or four that I had while I was in Austria, the one there was to die for.
On Friday morning, we went to the Spanish Hofreitschule (Riding School) to observe the famous Lipizzaner horses put through their morning exercises. They're beautiful horses, somehow regal - they just seem to know what they're doing. Admittedly, I couldn't tell what they were supposed to be doing or how the exercises were helping them. A selection of classical music played in the background. It was all in the same time, most of it the same key...it could have looped and we wouldn't have noticed. Sitting and observing was a nice change in pace from the hectic schedule we usually have in the morning. The building itself is spectacular. Unfortunately, they asked that photos not be taken, so I have none from that day. Only memories.
We enjoyed lunch at a cafe close to Josephsplatz. I have a confession to make: I'm not overly fond of schnitzel. I think it's good, but almost bland. Maybe I just have bad taste.
After lunch, we paid a visit to the Freud museum, located in what was formerly his house. I keep a dream journal myself - I wonder what Freud would think it says? Our tour guide did an excellent job of finding new information to share with us and humanized the famous Freud, somehow allowing him to become excusably imperfect. There's something special about standing in the rooms where science or history made notable steps. We shouldn't become numb to that feeling, but sometimes I think it takes extra effort to acknowledge it.
And finally, we toured the Vienna History Museum. It was a brief tour, but probably all we could have handled at that point. The Lego table, by the way, should be equipped with real-person sized chairs - not just kiddie chairs.
That night, we went for pizza at a trendy place near the Hotel Lenas. We were fortunately not in a hurry, because the service was impressively slow. That didn't stop us from having a "who can eat a slice of pizza the fastest" contest. (I wrecked Luis.)
We hung out and tried to get our things packed away for Saturday. I stepped outside to take a phone call from home, then came back in and forgot to lock the door. I'd generally say it was a mistake, but I'm kind of glad that it happened, because the little nighttime visitor who came looking for his mom in our room at least found supervision. Kelli and I were both asleep, lights off and room dark, and I heard someone padding across the floor. I assumed it was Kelli coming back from using our bathroom, but then it stopped and turned back around. I heard the person cough or gasp for a breath, and I kicked myself for having gotten Kelli sick as well (I thought I wasn't contagious!) - but then it came over to my bedside and tried to climb in. At that point, I shot out of bed and probably accidentally cussed (in English), but I realized that it was the little boy from down the hall. I'd seen him and his mother, and I knew that room wasn't ours. It became apparent that he was upset, and I swear that he spoke to me in English first. He did at least say "Mom", but then figured out that I was the wrong person. He started to cry again, so I took his hand and went out to the hallway, afraid of what it'd look like to find a kid crying in our room. I calmed him down, but he didn't speak enough English to tell me what was happening. He was very small, too. I had no idea what time it was. I ran through the worst scenarios in my head: maybe someone had taken her from the room forcibly and left him, maybe she hadn't come back from the night before, maybe she just stepped outside and he didn't know she was gone. As he trailed me holding my hand, I peeked in the room, but decided I couldn't do much there. I didn't want to leave him alone, but I needed to see if she was in the hotel or find someone who knew. We started down the stairs - he got down about five before he wanted to turn around - then tried the elevator (no good). I froze in the hallway. I was somehow stuck in Vienna with a child looking for his mother who didn't speak my language, and chances were that she wouldn't either. I realized that I had a perfectly competent female roommate, so Kelli started to watch him while I started down the stairs to Dr. Wasser's room. I ran into the mother on the staircase, who looked like she was coming back from the store of some kind. Needless to say, we locked our door after that.
On our last day in Vienna, we went to the natural history museum. The building itself is way cool - it had a giant lobby or foyer, with rooms branching off of it, as well as a stairs leading to other levels. I got the feeling that you simply couldn't see everything there. We were like kids in a candy store, running around taking silly pictures with all the exhibits (except I guess we were nerds in a museum). Then we spent a good deal of time in the gift shop upstairs before we finally left to take pictures with the elephant statue outside.
With the afternoon to ourselves, most of us chose to find lunch first, then track down some last-minute souvenirs and try to spend the last of our money. At Cafe Englander, I had a small sausage plate and some juice. I got really tired of having to spend so much money on drinks - it was usually just as cheap to order something other than water. We saw our second mops, stopped in a tea shop, browsed a clothing store, found a hat for Kelli, and a got a bottle opener for Luis.
We had our farewell dinner that evening at the 7-Stern Brau and decided not to hold anything back by way of food and drinks. I got the house specialty, a rich cheese, gnocchi, and meat dish, as well as some fried potatoes (my favorite!) and beer. I had to stop myself from getting the same old plate of schnitzel or sausages. Many of my pictures tell this story, but we definitely enjoyed ourselves, particularly as the evening went on.
As sad as it is that school is starting, I was ready to leave Europe and come home. I wish I could have stayed, and I hope that I can return, but I wasn't ready at that time to extend my visit. There's some business back here that I have to tend to, some growing that I need to do, some German that I need to learn, before I want to return.
And I really miss getting to pee, free of charge.
"When the road looks rough ahead,
And you're miles and miles from your nice warm bed
You just remember what your old pal said,
Boy, you've got a friend in me
Yeah, you've got a friend in me"
- "You've Got a Friend In Me", Toy Story
To all the boys that had to carry my pack around while I was hurt
No comments:
Post a Comment