That afternoon we did a short walking tour through the city with Nils where we saw the Spanish Riding School, the St. Augustin Church, a lot of statues, and several gorgeous buildings. So far, Vienna has been the prettiest city I've seen. The streets are just lined with gorgeous, old buildings yet it still feels really "clean".
That night we were treated to a really nice dinner at a traditional Viennese restaraunt where I had chicken stuffed with spinach, rice, and vegetables all in a delicious cream sauce. Walking back to the hotel we passed a store full of penguin stuff! Thats all it sold. Unfortunately for me, it is closed in July and August.
Tuesday the first thing we did was what my professor called a "medical history walk" through Vienna. This consisted of him leading us around the city and telling us facts about certain buildings and statues and such using an app he has on his ipad. It was interesting and informative. We visited the Franziskaner Church, which was gorgeous. Vienna was where Mozart died so we also visited a memorial for him. Also, we went to a really cool imperial crypt. The Imperial Crypt (German: Kaisergruft, but usually called Kapuzinergruft, "Capuchins' Crypt") in Vienna, Austria lies below the Capuchin Church and monastery founded in 1618 and dedicated in 1632. Since 1633 it has been the principal place of entombment for members of the Habsburg dynasty. The bodies of 145 Habsburg royalty, plus urns containing the hearts or cremated remains of four others, are deposited here, including 12 emperors and 18 empresses. The most recent entombment150 was in 2011. The crypts were really cool to look at and impeccably detailed in their design.
For lunch some us went to a popular bakery / coffee house in Vienna. Vienna is famous for its coffee and for its citizens to sit in coffee shops for hours conversing or reading. I had a coffee and a "Schwarzwalder Torte", or black forest cake. SO good.
Next we went to the Sigmund Freud Museum and got a tour. The Sigmund Freud Museum is located in Freud's former practice and apartment in Vienna, and covers his life story and the history of psychoanalysis. It was really interesting. We went back to the hostel after that to hear a more detailed lecture of his life and studies by Dr. Wasser.
After this we had some free time to get ready for the Opera that we went to later that night! Although it was all in German, I could still pick up the basic plot based on the acting. It was really fun, and we were treated to champagne by our teachers.
Wednesday morning we got a tour of the Wien (Vienna) Museum. The permanent exhibit of art and the historical collection on the history of Vienna include exhibits dating from the Neolithic to the mid-20th century. The emphasis is on the 19th century, for example works by Gustav Klimt. In addition, the Vienna Museum hosts a variety of special exhibitions. Next we went to the St. Stephen's Cathedral and visited the catacombs there. When the charnel house and eight cemeteries against St. Stephen's Cathedral's side and back walls were closed due to an outbreak of bubonic plague in 1735, the bones within them were moved to the catacombs below the church. Burials directly in the catacombs occurred until 1783, when a new law forbade most burials within the city. The remains of over 11,000 persons are in the catacombs (which may be toured). The basement of the cathedral also hosts the Bishops, Provosts and Ducal crypts. The most recent interment in the Bishop's crypt completed in 1952 under the south choir was that of 98-year-old Cardinal Franz König in 2004. It was crazy to be so close to piles upon piles of bones buried in mass grave. We could see them, and were separated by only a few metal bars and 6 inches. Next a small group of us had lunch at a cute cafe - I had wine and a chicken salad. After that we had free time so some of us went to the Salvador Dahli art exhibit and walked around. It was interesting. I'm not really one for having especially interesting outlooks on art work but it was cool. After dinner, we met up with our teachers at a wine garden and spent the evening drinking wine and enjoying our company.
Thursday we spent most of the day at the University of Vienna. First we had a lecture by Dr. Richard Marz on the medical education in Austria and how it differs from ours. It is interesting how they go straight to medical school out of high school, although theirs is for six years. Also, it is completely free! I found it interesting that family practitioners are considered the "gatekeepers" of their socialized medical system. Next we got a tour of an old insane asylum turned pathological museum. The Narrenturm (Fool's Tower) in Vienna is Europe's oldest building for the accommodation of mental patients. Built in 1784, it is next to the site of the old Vienna General Hospital (today a university campus), and is now home to the Federal Pathologic-Anatomical Museum Vienna. We got to see wax molds made of different patient's body parts with different illnesses. The molds were then painted to look like the real thing. It was grotesque but very, very cool.
We also went to an extremely old library on our tour of the university. We were allowed to look through books dating back to the 1400's! They were very large. The last education visit of the day was to the Museum of Pharmakognesy. Pharmacognosy is the study of medicines derived from natural sources. The American Society of Pharmacognosy defines pharmacognosy as "the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical and biological properties of drugs, drug substances or potential drugs or drug substances of natural origin as well as the search for new drugs from natural sources." Another shout-out to my dad because I saw a couple things he uses at work (well, the much, much older versions) - a hand operated centrifuge and a hand operated test tube shaker. Lastly that day, we had a "farewell Vienna" dinner at the 7 Stern Brauhaus. I had the best schnitzel so far and some potato salad.
Friday morning we went to the Natural History museum. We saw a lot of cool animals and a special parasite exhibit. After that we were free and I boarded a train for a five hour ride to Prague!
No comments:
Post a Comment