"The Chicago of Germany"

For the third weekend, I traveled to Hamburg with Meredith, Sarah, Caleb, and Mario. This was the first weekend of complete adventure for me… there were no guided tours and no Sir Toby’s welcome staff with every bit of information you ever dreamed of. Hamburg was completely on our own with no guidance. Except, we were lucky to have Meredith and Sarah to take on the planning part of our trip. They suggested some great places to visit in Hamburg.

We spent Saturday walking around what felt like the whole city of Hamburg. There was a lot of the shopping to do! It reminded all of us of Chicago. We also walked through the Reeperbahn during the day, which we later named the “creeperbahn.” But it was a good experience to have at least walked through, plus it had a Beatles monument, which was really cool. There are some beautiful lakes and canals throughout Hamburg that we were able to see. It gives the city a unique touch. After shopping in the city center near the Rat House, we had lunch at a nice café along the canal. The pizza was delicious!

On our way to the harbor, we walked through a festival full of people drinking, singing, and dancing. We decided to find the park, which we ended up spending most of the day there. When we finally made it to the park, it was beautiful! We took our time to stroll through and take in all the beauty. It reminded me of the English gardens we visited in Munich.

Sunday morning, we visited St. Michael’s Church. It has been really interesting to compare all of the churches we visited. This one was smaller than the others and had a different style. There was gold and white detailing on the inside, while the outside seemed more modern because of the bricks. Because we are so adventurous, we decided to climb to the tower. There were definitely more stairs than I anticipated. But it was worth it to have a great view of the whole city!

Norderney: New Retirement Home

It seems like the program has gone by too fast. I am just now getting comfortable with everything, so comfortable I feel like I could stay another 5 weeks! But unfortunately, there are only 2 weeks left. The third week was a very busy week and filled with a lot of traveling.

On Monday, we traveled within Bonn to the Museum of Anesthesiology with Dr. Stoeckel. We were informed that Dr. Stoeckel himself is just as important as the museum… he is an exhibit himself! He was a very intelligent, cute old man. It was a memorable experience to be guided around his museum by someone that has accomplished so much in the anesthesiology department. Before he established the museum in 1995, Dr. Stoeckel worked at the University of Bonn, as a physician in Berlin, and even developed the closed loop anesthesia feed back system. I enjoyed walking around the museum examining the evolution of the equipment and learning about the history. I was the most intrigued by the fact that the city of Boston played a large part in the history of anesthesiology. The first use of anesthesia in surgery was done at Massachusetts General Hospital to extract a tooth. Because I was born in Boston and most of my family lives there, I have always wanted to go back for a while. My Aunt has even worked in Mass General and other hospitals. It is a great city for the medical field.

In fact, Dr. Schmitto from the Hannover Medical School, Germany’s youngest cardiovascular surgeon, spent time in Boston for research during his fellowship. I really enjoyed Dr. Schmitto’s lecture about artificial hearts (LVADs).  Technology has been such a significant tool in the medical field. We were even able to see the progress of devices by comparing an older model to a newer, up and coming model. Dr. Schmitto informed us that there is a strong need for artificial hearts because of the rise in amount of heart failures in people. Germany performs 350-400 cardiac transplants per year. This is only a fraction of what the U.S. performs each year. Dr. Schmitto explained the disadvantages and advantages of the artificial hearts, as well as compared it to a heart transplant. For instance, the human body is sensitive to the artificial device, which can cause the blood to coagulate, which results in malfunctions in the device. However, there can also be some sensitivity in heart transplant patients because the body may not respond positively with the match, or depending on the new heart’s age, it may not last long. I believe an artificial heart provides a great opportunity for patients because there are many different situations and few hearts available for transplant. Dr. Schmitto left us with great advice, “always think what is best for the patient.”

On the second day of visiting Hannover Medical School, we had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Reimers. She studies molecular biology in amphibian limb regeneration, as well as, research on spider silk. For the amphibian limb regeneration research, Dr. Reimers uses Axolotl. These are salamanders with gills, lidless eyes, and caudal fin. They possess the unique ability to regenerate limbs. Her hope is to find the tie between their ability and helping human patients that suffer from severe tissue loss. She uses several methods for identifying the genes used for regeneration, such as, the two-hybrid system, serial analysis, and RACE cloning. I loved seeing the Axolotl. They are much cuter than I imagined! 

Dr. Reimers and her team suggested having two together if you were to have them as pets because they get very depressed if they are alone. The spider room was more difficult to enter, but I was not going to pass up the chance. It is amazing what they can use the spider silk for! One of Dr. Reimers colleagues even used it on her wound. They even suggested using it for suture material.

One of my favorite parts of the week was spent on the island of Norderney. We were able to go mudflat hiking and visit the Klinik Norderney. Mudflat hiking was so much fun and such a great experience! I did not realize all of the species of plants and animals on the island that contributed so much to the environment. We saw crabs, muscles, oysters, and even ate some salty plants.

Alexis and Michelle were brave enough to eat an oyster, too. The mud felt great on your feet, until you stepped on some muscle shells, or realized you were walking in worm feces. But it was a great time! 

After mudflat hiking, we learned about how the environment of Norderney can improve a patient’s health. At Klinik Norderney, Dr. Raschke gave a presentation on the climate therapy offered in Norderney, The klinik specifically works in the following areas of health: pulmonary, dermatology, sleep, and orthopedics. However, no surgeries are performed for orthopedics, just the pain associated with orthopedics. The seawater, air, wind, and sun on the island all positively affect people who are ill in some way. For instance, there is barely any pollen on the island and lower UV radiation exposure. This type of climate provides a great living place for patients with asthma or dermatitis. Walking on the beach can also help people improve their fitness. The sand creates a greater energy consumption when you walk, compared to exercising in grass or concrete. Also, the seawater can help diabetic people because it lowers blood glucose when they take baths. Overall, the Klinik is accomplishing some great therapy. It was a beautiful facility, so much that it seemed like a great place to retire. I really enjoyed doing some of the sports therapy activities with everyone!

Though there was a lot of traveling in a short amount of time, it was a very enjoyable trip. Norderney was one of my favorite places to visit so far. It amazes me how much a natural environment can contribute to keeping people healthy. It coincides with some of the lectures Dr. Wasser has been giving because many of the concepts in history had medicine relying on nature. Some things don’t change throughout history. 

Revival

Renewal. Regeneration. That seemed to be the theme for the past week. From Axolotls to rest, rejuvenation was certainly welcome.

The first weeks of the program were incredible and fast-paced, but by the half-way point of our trip, I was definitely getting worn out. Then came the third week. We still traveled, but with more experience now. Managing train switches is becoming old news, I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that I’m in another country, and, honestly, this past week was wonderful.

It was very nice to have a few days in Bonn to start the week and recover from our whirlwind tour through Munich, Vienna, and Prague. Having class at the AIB felt more like the normal school routine I’m used to, and what better to relax you than anesthesiology? Really though, meeting Dr. Stoeckel was a complete honor, and being giving a tour of his mostly personal collection? It was unimaginably spectacular. Of course the sugar high from Haribo later that day re-energized us all.

Our visit the Hannover Medical School certainly brought to light current medical techniques used to give new life as well as plans for future revival. Artificial rotors that relieve stress on the heart muscle by pushing blood throughout the body and external filters that remove toxins from the blood when the kidneys are incapable certainly bring about new life, not to mention the actual physical replacement of those malfunctioning organs with transplants.Our glance into the potential future of medicine at the MHH showed us that new life can start anywhere, whether it be in the form of new skin cells encouraged to grow more quickly by spider silk, or the regeneration of entire limbs by Axolotls.

Then of course we experienced the rejuvenating properties of the entire climate of the island of Norderney, including its air, water, and mud. The tour of the clinic showed us how psychological as well as physical renewal can be possible.

Taking day trips over the weekend sounds exhausting at first, but in reality, this weekend was the most relaxing one so far because once in the city-of-the-day, we could walk where we pleased and just enjoy ourselves. Spending Sunday strolling along the Rhine in Cologne was the perfect close to a relaxing and renewing week three.

~Daily Blogs Posted Below Break~

36 hours in Hamburg.

Departing from Norddeich Mole on Friday afternoon, Meredith, Mikaela, Caleb, Mario, and me were all headed to Hamburg for the weekend. It’s second only to Berlin in size and population, making it a little foreboding to approach in just a day and a half, but we went about it and succeeded if you ask me. Our hostel was right next to the hauptbahnhof, so we set down our bags immediately and took advantage of the free wifi after being away from major civilization for a couple of days, while we waited to get checked in. When we saw the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games playing in the bar of the hostel, we decided to sit down and cheer of Team USA as they marched into the arena in London. Finally we got to bed and in what seemed like 5 minutes, we were up again, mapping out our attack plan of Hamburg over breakfast. We set off walking in the rain, toughing it out in hopes that we would see some sunshine at some point throughout the day. We strolled through the Rathaus area, and naturally Caleb and Mario did a little shoe shopping, followed by my hunt for a green Longchamp LePliage tote, which was a success! We knew it was time to look for lunch when we found ourselves hypnotized by all of the high end headphones in the apple store. We ate at Café Melange’ which was settled on one of the canals through the Rathaus area and we enjoyed the slow service as a chance to regain our strength for the rest of the day. We stopped into the Reeperbahn, now affectionaley referred to as the “creeperbahn”. We got some pictures at the Beatles-platz and then made a B-line for the harbor, where we stumbled across a beer festival of some sort. Then we strolled through the Botanical gardens, taking our time to stop for some jumping pics and for a quick lesson from Caleb about bees. I learned that there are three kinds of bees. Slowly but surely we made it through the rest of the gardens, stopping lastly at the rose garden before heading back to the hostel to change for dinner. We enjoyed some German fare at Paulaners and then strolled around Hamburg some more and enjoyed the evening. On Sunday morning we found a café to sit and relax in before heading over to St. Michaelis church where we found ourselves trekking all the way up to the observation area in the clock tower of the church. It was a bit of a foggy day, but the view of Hamburg from the top was still stunning. It was the perfect way to end our weekend in Hamburg. Lastly, I have a knack for losing things and I’ve been surprisingly good at not doing that thus far on the program. Just when I think I’ve escaped the risk of losing something important, I can’t find the train reservation with our seat numbers and the number of the wagon that our seats were in. After frantically looking through all of my belongings, I had to admit that it had gotten away from me at some point and that it was nowhere to be found. This isn’t surprising when something like this happens to me, but I felt terrible that the rest of the group was feeling the stress of the situation as well. I tried my best to remember the numbers of the wagon and our seats, and by sheer grace I was somewhere in the right ballpark. I say all of this to say, keep track of your train tickets, passports, and eurail passes, people. No fatalities. 

Hannover, Emden and beyond

Last week we took one of the best excursions yet. We spent a day and a half in Hannover and the "Harvard of Germany"- The Medizinische Hochschule Hannover. The first day we got to talk to the cheif cardiovascular surgeon. He is one of the best in his feild. He talked to us about LVAD's - Left Ventricular Assist Devices. LVAD's are used when patients have dilated cardiomyopathy or heart failure. They take over the pumping of blood when the heart cannot do it any longer. The LVAD's serve 3 purposes, they can be a bridge to transplant (which would be a fix while the patient waits for a heart transplant), a destination therapy (meaning it is the solution), or bridge to bridge (it is put in to wait for the next pump). There are 2 types of LVAD pumps- pulsatile pumps, which pump the blood with a rhythm like the heart or centrifugal pumps, which pump the blood in a constant flow. He also talked to us about a ground breaking surgery that he just performed. The surgery would not have been possible in the US because of the way our legal system works and for things like that, insurance would not cover so it would be out of pocket for the patient. It was inspiring to hear about such a story and it's a really strange thought that money was not part of the equation used to make the decision about what to do. The government covers it. That is such a foreign thought for Americans. It's hard to fathom. We also got to talk to another patient with an LVAD and he told us his story. He was really awesome. He was so in tune and aware of his device it was awesome to see a patient who cared so much. He was also an electric engineer so of course he had thought of ways to make it better. We were very lucky to get to talk to him. I really enjoy seeing patients who care about their health so much and are willing to follow the doctors instructions. It makes the doctors life easier, and honestly helps the patient stay healthier longer. The next day we got to learn about research being done with axolotls and spiders at the MHH. The axolotls were really cute and fun to watch. The research they are doing involves limb regeneration. They are trying to isolate the genes and their products that allow the axolotls to regenerate limbs so well, and working on how to apply that to human medicine. I think it's really fascinating research and it would be really cool to work on something like that. The axolotls just seem like really interesting animals to work with. Plus, limb regeneration will be a huge deal as soon as they figure out how to apply it to humans. They explained that they do have some problems because they have not sequenced the whole genome of the axolotls, so there are gaps. They use a RACE PCR to analyze the genetic samples. They have found that lypoxygenase (LOX) when it is present then human tissue heals faster and causes faster wound healing in mice. The LOX is transfected into the human or mouse cells and works transiently so the concentration decreases over time. They are definitly making progress and I think it's really exciting. The same people working with the axolotls were also working with spiders and their silk. They harvest the spider silk from the spiders, sterilize it, and then they can make strong cords with it or if it is placed in a wound then the wound heals faster. I really want to harvest some spider silk, sterilize it and then put it in a cut next time I get one. I want to see how it works. I think that we should start using that as a regular wound treatment. I guess a lot of people would probably be bothered by that, but I think it's really neat and it doesn't freak me out. They kept the spiders in a big room and they let them roam free. That was kind of a creepy feeling, walking into a room and realizing you're surrounded by spiders. I was afraid one was going to fall on my head or something. I'm not really bothered by spiders, but I don't want them on me. None of them really moved, and we were told they don't like to come down so we were perfectly safe. Plus, they were not known to bite people and weren't poisonous. After we finished with the spiders and axolotls we went and talked to a nephrologist and internist. He talked to us about the downsides of the German healthcare system and then talked about dialysis. It was interesting to hear about the downsides of the healthcare system. It can be costly to the people in the form of the amount of taxes they pay and the limits on what the doctors can and cannot do and how many of each procedure they can do results in corruption in the system. I'll save the healthcare discussion for another blog. We talked about dialysis down in the dialysis wing of the hospital and first he described the 2 different types of dialysis. I was not aware that there was 2 different types, I just thought that dialysis meant you had to go get hooked up to the dialysis machine multiple times a week. There is another type of dialysis called peritoneal dialysis that uses the peritoneum as the membrane to filter the blood. A tube is inserted into the peritoneal cavity and dialysis fluid is used to fill up the space. The tube is plugged and it is allowed to sit to allow the transfer of toxins across the membrane, then the tube is opened and the dialysis fluid is drained. This seems like a much more natural less traumatic way to clean out the blood when the kidneys loose function. It is not a good option if you like to swim or things like that because you can't with a tube that opens to your insides because of the risk of infection. We also got to see a patient on the dialysis machine and he explained to us how it worked. It was really interesting, but it did not look like something that was fun to be on. After we finished at the MHH we took a train to the cute little town of Emden. We went out and got fresh fish for dinner and tried the real Schnapps. It is used as something to help your digestion and it was not very nice to drink. You sip on it and it was funny to watch everyone cringe everytime they took a sip. Friday was one of the funnest days we've had on the program. We took a ferry to the island of Norderney and took a hike on the mud flats of the Waden sea. The Waden sea is home to the adorable seals and it is very important in the migration routes of birds, because several stop there to refuel before continuing their migration. We got to try this catus like grass, it was interesting, more salty than anything. We got to walk the flats bare-foot, which I was happy about because the shoes I had were not very comfortable and slightly too big. The first mud we walked on had a clay like consistenty then it changed to sandy and then it got really thick and deep, that part was my favorite. The guide showed us the little crabs that burrow into the sand and dug up a mussle. We also dug up some blut worms that burrow down into the sand. The guide also showed us that the top layer of the sand was a redish brown color because the iron reacted with the air forming a rust color and then the lower layer was black because it reacted with the sulfur and it was anaerobic. The worms burrowed down to the anaerobic layers so their blood has a special hemoglobin that has a very high affinity for oxygen to allow them to do that. We had a worm race to see who's worm could bury itself the fastest. The weather was perfect for the walk and at one point the wind died down which was abnormal for the area. On the way back in from the walk we stopped and the guide found some fresh oysters. Only 2 of us from the group were brave enough to try them. I was one of them. Until that point I had never had an oyster before, so this was my first experience. It was one of those experiences that happens maybe once in a lifetime. The oyster was ok, it was more salty than anything. It was crunchy so I didn't really chew it because that kind of freaked me out. I think it was just pieces of shell and sand. It didn't turn my off from oysters but now I'm curious to try them at a restaurant. Oh yes, we also tried a piece of seaweed that we found on the flats. It wasn't bad, I would cook with it. It was the bright green, pretty seaweed. One of the things I've learned about myself on this trip, I'm am not by any stretch of the imagination a picky eater. I am really open to eating different things, and I've been able to just order things without much fuss. That was the end of the mud walk and afterwards we visited the rehab clinic on the island. The rehab clinic was so much fun, the research they were doing was also really interesting. They had evidence showing that staying on the island had a healing effect and that the air was really healthy. I thought that was awesome. I really wish I could have stayed there longer. Their research facilities were very high tech and that has some really neat equipment. They did all sorts of different research. All the patients were monitored and they tracked the results from their stay on the island. It seems like a really awesome place to work. We also got to tour their physical therapy facilities and they let us try out a balance machine which was much harder than it appeared. We also got to try the medicine balls. They were awesome, I'm totally investing in one when I get home. They seem like a great, fun work out. I really enjoyed the island and I wish we could have stayed longer, especially after seeing their massage rooms. They had a warm salt water pool, a mud wrap, massages, hydrotherapy, a sauna, it would have taken no persuasion for me to stay. But, alas, we could not and that evening we took a ferry back to Nordeich Mole and caught a train to Bonn. Our trains got delayed and we caught all our connections by pure luck. It was a pretty exciting trip.

Week Three: A quick summary.

This third week of the was one that strengthened my existing interests in and genuine passion for  medicine, while simultaneously opening my mind up to new specialties and areas that I wasn’t well versed in before. I have always respected anesthesiology as a prestigious vocation and admired it and its practitioners, but hearing from a man who himself is a legend in the world of anesthesiology did me in and now I’m a hopeless fan of the art and science of anesthesia. When Dr. Wasser talked to us about the museum of the history of anesthesiology, noting that professor Horst Stoeckel created it with his own collections; I expected a room filled with old and impressive pieces of history related to anesthesiology. What I didn’t expect was shelves of drugs(cocaine included), a massive array of tools dating from the days of the first successful anesthetized operations to our modern day technologies, all of which Professor Stroekel is able to elaborate on in immense detail, oh and he has an Iron lung and the contents of an entire 1930’s French operating theater. In his age, you can still clearly observe his passion for his speciatialy and you can literally see the progression of anesthesiology as we know it today, and be able to understand when he jumped into the timeline himself, being a part of the progression of anesthesiology with his extensive research on the closed loop feedback system, and hearing his astounding stories of manually ventilating a patient for 36 hours. The opportunity for me, a measly undergraduate student, to be able to hear from such a world class pioneer in this field is what I take to be both a huge rarity and an honor. Tuesday saw us diving into lectures on all of the details that construct the history of medicine. Sitting in my seat, having a wealth of knowledge on a powerpoint before me, I felt like my mind was going a thousand miles a minute making connections and forming my understanding just in time to move onto the next century of medical history, with discoveries all it’s own. There is so much that I’ve learned in the few lectures we’ve had from Dr. Wasser, but I know that we are only just scratching the surface, leaving me with a lot to learn in the way of relating the history of medicine to medicine today throughout the rest of my education and my career. The second half of the week took us to Hannover, Emden, and Norderney. We spent a lot of time at the MHH in Hannover, for good reason. Learning about ventricular assistance devices from Dr. Jan Schmitto, a prominent cardiovascular surgeon was a first for me, and it deepened my interest in the wonder of the human heart. Getting to meet one of his patients and hear his case was a priceless opportunity that I will always remember like it was yesterday. The next day at the MHH, we met with researcher, Dr. K. Reimers, who is working in Bio-regeneration with Axolotl’s and spiders. At first glance to the program schedule, I didn’t fall out of my seat with excitement at the thought of a morning talking about research. Don’t get me wrong, I understand it’s instrumental importance in the very existence of modern medicine, but I have never before been exposed to it in high enough amounts to have an accurate impression of a life in research medicine. I was floored by the brevity of her research, the dedication she and her team have, and the motivation of betterment and progress for medicine. In the afternoon we met with Nephrologist Dr. Kielstein, who spoke with us about the weak spots and strong points in the German healthcare system. The way in which healthcare is swayed and carried out will always in some degree be determined by the systems in place that provide the funding for healthcare. Because of this, there will always be places in the system that are lacking, be that system German, American, or otherwise. The high point of meeting with Dr. Kielstein was hearing about Dialysis from him. It was not something that I had a particularly great interest in, but in hearing the physiological processes involved to take on the stress of filtration, osmoregulation, and so many other functions of the kidney, I was amazed. I was honored to play a part in our small dialysis theatrical production right there in the unit. It was my first theater performance and most likely my last one too, but I enjoyed my short career. Lastly, we travelled to Emden, our stop before Norderney. Emden is one of the most beautiful places that I’ve encountered throughout this program. I loved the character and personality of this friendly town, and if(more like when) I return to Germany I would like to stay there for a little while longer and enjoy it but Emden was just our stop on the way to our main attraction, Norderney. It was a bit of trip to get there, but sink your legs in that heavenly mud and tell me it’s not worth it. Hiking the mud flats of the Wadden Sea was something that you only get to do once in your lifetime, (with the exception of Dr. Wasser and our tour guide) and so I enjoyed the opportunity to sink my bare feet in an important and beautiful piece of Germany’s Geography. To my dismay, my camera ended up in the gully that we were washing our feet in, and this little hick-up has reminded me how important flexibility is, and that even somewhat of a rough day in Norderney is still a great day in the big scheme of things. After the mud flat hike, we were able to tour the clinic there, which was an entirely new type of medical facility to me. I’m sure that having a clinic that caters to chronic lung and skin illnesses, using climatology and Thalassotherapy is a great benefit to Germans and I enjoyed getting to see it up close and personal. I can’t believe that this wraps up the third week of the program. I could easily stay an additional five weeks if it weren’t for the pesky fall semester that’s looming ahead. While I’m excited to get back to school, see my friends and loved ones, and get back my daily routine, I suppose that I will have Germany withdrawals on a regular basis. Nevermind all of that, there’s still 12 days of the program left and I’m eager to see what is left to be learned, seen, and laughed about. 

Axolotls + mud = medicine

This week has been one of the best weeks so far! Monday and Tuesday were spent in Bonn but we traveled for the end of the week to northern Germany which was really great. On Monday we went to the Museum of Anesthesiology where Dr. Stroeckel, “an artifact himself” showed us around the museum that he helped set up after his retirement. It was really fantastic to meet someone who could be considered one of the influential people in modern anesthesiology! He was the first to use a closed loop feedback system in 1987. Dr. Stroeckel was so nice and was very enthusiastic about the history, machines, and science having to do with anesthesiology so it really helped the group get interested even though we were all pretty tired after our weekend in Prague. After lunch we went to the HARIBO STORE!! The phrase, “like kids in a candy shop” never had a better meaning than that day as we ran through the aisles trying to determine what to buy. Michelle and I both bought duffle bags there since we’re running out of room in our luggage for all of our souvenirs…. After this sugar rush we went to the Beethovenhaus! Beethoven is one of the biggest “claim-to-fames” that Bonn has so its really cool to see a big piece of their history. The house was the same one that Beethoven and his family grew up in and, even though there wasn’t much furniture, they did have the original famous portrait of him, his actual piano that he played on for a little while, and a really cool gift shop ^.^ but the floorboards were so squeaky!!

Nothing too exciting happened on Tuesday, just an interesting couple of lectures by Dr. Wasser about the Paleolithic-man and health in those times. We also discussed epidemic diseases and then the rise of health care and knowledge through Greece and then Rome. And then we were off to Hannover early in the morning on Wednesday! Hannover is most known for its Medical School (considered the “Harvard” of Germany) and its making great strides in research and technology. For everyone in the group, human or vet med, this experience for the 2 days there was really wonderful. We were able to have a great discussion with Dr. Jan Schmitto who is a cardiologist and his department deals a lot with any thoracic problems and transplants. He showed us devices that they have just recently improved with the help of American scientists that will pump blood through the heart when the muscles become too weak. Supposedly Dick Cheney had one of these while waiting on the organ donor list! We were also able to talk with a patient who has been through this processes and get his feedback on how he liked living with the LVAD (Left Ventricular Assist Device) which requires a battery belt to be worn around the waist and charged periodically. He told us his story over the past few years and was a really awesome guy!

Our second day at the MHH was one of the most fun (for me) I think because we started off talking to Dr. Reimers about Axolotl which are salamanders that have been suspended in their larval stage and have regenerative properties that can be studied! Their genes are being researched to determine if this is a trait that humans can at some point use to re-grow limbs as well! I love science like this that seems so far fetched but wonderful, and the Axolotl were so adorable! I am very highly considering getting a couple for my fish tank since its almost empty ;)

Dr. Reimers also showed us where they do research on silk spiders in which they harvest their silk and test it for how many strands will be the strongest (60 with 3 threads) and also they are learning about healing processes it contains. For example if you were to put some of the silk in a wound it would heal faster and without a scar than doing nothing! The group was joking about how this fact will one day save us on a deserted island or if we wound up in the Hunger Games haha. We then went to another part of the hospital to talk to Dr. Kielstein, a nephrologists and internist. He mainly talked again about the differences in the German health care system and our own in the US. We’ve had this discussion with Dr. Wasser and a bit the day before with Dr. Reimers and I think its always great to hear because I don’t know too much about my own health care system so it’s teaching me that as well as what is happing in politics at the moment that will soon effect my future. He then talked to us about dialysis (hemo and peritoneal). It was really interesting because I didn’t really understand what dialysis was so it really sunk in when he let us see and talk to a patient! This entire experience at the Medical School was informative for my future and really made me feel ahead of the curve as an undergraduate student.

Thursday night we took a train to Emden as a resting place outside of Norderney (since its so fancy and nice it gets booked up so fast!) Emden was the cutest little town on the canal and we found a nice restaurant where we could eat fresh fish! In the morning we made our way to the Island of Norderney on a ferry where we got to see seals!! The mudflut hiking was one of the things I was most looking forward to on this entire 5 week trip and it didn’t disappoint. Our tour guide showed us which plants you could or couldn’t eat in the wild of the mud flats and also taught us about the creatures that lived in this habitat. We dug up worms and each held one before letting them race back into the ground, we collected muscles and saw how they stuck together, and we found exoskeletons of crabs! We also had a great time just walking through the deep mud trying not to fall over and then a fun but difficult time trying not to hurt our feet as we walked over the tiny crabs, worm poop, and shells on the way back to shore. The IFR Clinic (rehab-system and thalassic therapy) was almost as equally entertaining. We learned about the types of diseases and sicknesses that they treat there and how to get prescribed to spend weeks in this wonderful place! We toured around the center and saw where people could get massages, mud wraps,  do sleep studies, workout, talk to a psycologist, etc. Almost everything there seemed to make you want to relax which I know would also make most anyone feel better! Its really cool that studies have shown how well the clinic works just being in a place as clean and nourishing as the Wadden Sea. I wish I could stay there!

And now I’m on a bus back to Bonn with half of our group (the other half went to Hamburg for the weekend!) This truly was an exciting week while also not being overwhelming. Three of us out of the five heading to Bonn are going to Strasburg, France tomorrow! I’ll post another blog about that momentarily to hang tight!

Home Alone in Bonn

Weekend three came and went and it was a beauty. The rest of the group dispersed through Europe and I stayed here in the little town of Bonn. I had an absolutely wonderful time by myself. My weekend started off by waking up in the late morning. I got out of bed and made my self and extravagant breakfast while I lounged on the couch and watched a movie. I got dressed and meet Jooyeon for a late lunch and a little shoe shopping. This elegant and laid-back morning was followed by some self-indulgence at the spa.

Let me start by describing the hotel where my treatment took place, Kameha Grand. I’m pretty sure you have to purchase Stuart Weitzman like they are one-dollar flip-flops to afford to stay there for one night. It blew my mind. I have had the privilege to stay and some pretty spectacular hotels, but nowhere I have ever been, nor ever seen, can touch the Kameha Grand. The hotel was flawless. After the initial shock at the hotel’s stunning beauty, I made it upstairs to the Spa, just to face another knock out. I literally had to pinching myself to make sure I wasn’t in a dream. The ESPA Restorative Mud Envelopment was killer. I was struggling not to go into an unconscious state of peace the whole time. 

 When it was time to go I was stumbling out the door and down the road to the tram trying not to fall asleep as I walked from pure relaxation. I made my way back to the Bonn market to see some pretty cool people. Apparently it was some sort of Anime Appreciation weekend in Germany, happening to be based out of Bonn. It was like I got dropped into the middle of Comic-Conn. It was really cool to see everyone dressed up. Some just in a wig and others in full body paint. I spent the rest of the evening strolling through the market before making it home to eat dinner with my host family.

 Sunday I again woke up late and lounged around the house. I met Morgan, Michelle, and Katherine around one to head to Cologne. In Cologne we planned to go to the Chocolate Museum and stumbled upon an African Festival. There was a large market and tons of street performers. It’s kind of weird to know you are experiencing Africa while in Europe. We made our way through the market to Chocolate Museum. The chocolate museum was a little chunk of heaven for me. When we left we saw next door was the Sport and Olympic Museum of Bonn. Seeing that the Olympics started recently, it only seemed right to stop in. The museum was really neat and we got to sit inside and watch a little bit of the Olympics on EuroLive. Its cool to watch in Germany because you know exactly what is happening, just not what the commentator is saying.

 Overall I had a super-relaxing weekend and really got to appreciate the city and culture, which is harder for me to do when I am so busy trying to hurry and travel so many places. I know it is going to be hard for me to leave Bonn because I feel like it is my home away from home, even as much as I do about College station. Home is where the heart is, and Bonn has a little chunk of mine.

Medicine Makes the World Go Round

Another week is over. This was by far the best week I have had yet. All the hands on medical experience we had was once in a lifetime. I guess the week we did the most school work shouldn't be my favorite, but I can't help it. Something about interactive learning turns me into a giant nerd.

Let's start with the beginning of the week, Monday and Tuesday. Finally back in Bonn, it felt good to be "home." I really missed Family Wolfe and all of our trouble communicating. Dr. Wasser had some really cool lectures this week. We really did a thorough timeline of medicine rather than focusing on systems of healthcare or specific defining moments. We also got to visit the anesthesiology museum in Bonn. We got to take a tour with Dr. Stoeckel who established the museum and is honestly an exhibit himself.  Its crazy to think that the medical field and how we utilize medicine is so old and so new at the same time.

Wednesday we departed for Hannover. Both Wednesday and thursday we spent a lot of time at the Hannover Medical School (MHH). Little did I know, the MHH is the Harvard of Germany. The MHH blew my socks off. It makes me feel even more confident in my choice of pursuing a career in the medical field. We started with a visit to Dr. Jan Schmitto, the current chief over the cardiovascular surgery department, and the youngest ever board certified cardiovascular surgeon in Germany. That right there is pretty incredible. Dr. Schmitto was one of the coolest people I've ever met. He taught us so much about the use and history of LVADs and even let us talk to a patient. I couldn't stop asking him questions because I was so interested. Stop two was with Dr. K Reimers. Dr. Reimers does research with Axolotls and spiders. What's an Axolotl? Just the most adorable amphibian I've ever seen in my life. She is studying the Axolotl and their tremendous regenerative qualities to hopefully bring the trait to human medicine. Pretty crazy stuff. Dr. Reimers also works with Spiders....scary yes. I already knew some cool things about spider silk, but not the kinds of things Dr. Reimers knows. Who would have ever thought you could but spider silk into a wound to help it heal faster! Defiantly not me. I would have laughed in your face if I hadn't seen the proof myself.

Thursday evening we departed for the town of Emden. Emden is a precious little town in northern Germany, not far from the eastern islands. It was just a stopping point for us before getting to Norderney, but I am so happy we did. It is a place I could imagine vacationing. After our short stay in Emden, we headed to Norderney. The island where you pay a tax to breathe the air. Literally.  What's the first thing you do when you get to an island in Northern Germnay? Play in the mud flats! I had a blast on our Mudflut Hiking. We learned so many cool things about the little creatures living in the mud, and got to play with some. The one bad part was eating a raw oyster pulled up out of the mud. But how many chances do you get to do that....so I went for it! After the mud walk, we met Dr. Raschke at Clinic Norderney, the Germany rehab-system and Thalasso therapy clinic. It was difficult not to move in. Spa treatments and exercise as a prescriptions sounds like the main reason I need to make money in the first place. The clinic was very cool and had some really interesting ways to treat chronic illnesses. I got a work out to just trying out some of the physical rehabilitation movements patients do.

Unfortunately it was time to depart from Norderney. I'm on the train now headed back to Bonn for the weekend. It's time for some relaxation after such a physically and mentally stimulating week. Until next time! Auf Wiedersehen!

Anesthesia and Medicinal Herbs

Most of our lectures this week dealt with parts of the medicine in the past that turned out to be incorrect thinking by these ancient scientists or just lucky assumptions based on almost no cold, hard fact. I begin to see that so much of science and medicine deals with the guys (or girls) that are willing to take the risk for the hope of the greater benefit upon humans. One would hope that the motives behind all earth-shaking discoveries would be for the better of mankind, but this is simply not so. Like Dr. Wasser said, so many of these scientists, who were made famous for their discoveries, may have not been the first. Rather, their instinct and ambition to make themselves known allowed them to put their own name out there before someone else could. I did not get this feeling from the history lessons we received from Horst Stoeckel, but Paracelsus definitely seems like the type, with his two hats, to have wanted to merely get his name in bold letters in the science community or history books. This worked in a sense for Paracelsus, despite his seemingly boastful attitude, which is such the attitude of so many intellectuals. Pride is a pattern and humility is a rarity in the intellectually elite despite the fact that so many of them could never have reached such great heights without the build-up provided by others. It’s always nice to meet and interact with a man such as Horst Stoeckel who, despite having achieved such success in life, still finds joy not only in his own achievements but also in the achievements of others and the progress of his field of study.

Seeing the progression of medicine to what we have, now, there is no doubt in my mind that there are thousands upon thousands of remedies to be discovered, yet. History has proven in itself that one of man’s flaws is accepting for fact what should be questioned and tested. Of course, that doesn’t mean that one should not take chances on what is not completely proven right, because it is much easier to prove something wrong than it is to prove something right. Even our ‘knowledge’ of what man was like before written history has drastically changed recently because new information is being presented so often from geological findings. Then even with historical civilizations, information is limited to words described by the few scribes’ and historians’ writings that have survived the centuries.

In what is deemed as medical history, societies have chosen different parts of the body to glorify as the vital organ of the body based on what little knowledge they previously had. This statement assumes that we know so much about the bodies we currently live in, which is debatable from lack of eradication of disease and death. Nonetheless, I think it safe to say we now know a bit more about the organs of the human (and animal) body compared to a mere hundred years ago. The exponential rise in technology has brought about an exponential rise in ability in the field of medicine within just the last twenty-five years, alone. Thinking the blood to be the source of life, Mesopotamians deemed the liver the primary organ; French and ancient Egyptian societies also glorified the liver for different reasons. Odd reasons come from odd means of healing coming from these ancient Babylonian people. Healing was attempted in these times by people like seers using divination, priests or shamans, and butchers called physicians or surgeons. Skills of all three types were rudimentary at best even up until the 19^th century.

Men such as Galen of Pergamum may have had respectively extensive knowledge of the human skeletal system and external features, but regulations of the time on research of dead (or alive for that matter) human bodies brought progression of medicine to a plateau. Research on the bodies of mammals with similar features to that of humans can only go so far, because it should be obvious that different external features and abilities points to having different internal features and abilities. Theories such as those made about the heart by Galen came close to but never quite reached facts that we now know to be true. Lack of research of the human internal anatomy resulted in false assumptions based off of anatomy of other mammals. Leonardo Da Vinci may have opened a few doors with his doubtless illegal study of human internal anatomy. His drawings of our organs were some of the most accurate of his time.

Czechin out Prague

After Vienna it was time for Prague! We arrived Friday evening and as soon as we got off the train you knew we were not in western Europe anymore. The people that we saw looked rougher and everything was just a little more run down and older. A lot of people in our group were concerned but I wasn't terribly upset by it. Our hostel definitely saved the experience for us. They were incredibly welcoming and had lots of activities for us to participate in. The first night we hung around the hostel and met people from lots of different places. We decided to make a casual trip out that night with some of the people we met. The few places we went really showed the rougher culture. The smoke was so thick it stung your eyes and apparently the Czech really love fooseball because there was fooseball tables everywhere. On saturday the hostel provided a free walking tour so we got to learn a lot more about the gorgeous city. One thing that I thought was interesting was that because of its fortifications had Prague resisted the Nazi invasion the Nazi's probably would not have been able to take the city. It's something to think about. The other thing that I found amusing was during all the tensions between the protestants and the catholics it seemed that the preferred method of killing important people was to throw them out of windows. It's just like of all the ways to kill someone, throwing them out the window seems a little silly. Especially because one of the times it didn't work. The city of Prague was really gorgeous. It was much older and seemed to have a very distinct identity versus Vienna. I felt that Vienna was very similar to Germany but Prague was more unique. It was a rougher city but when you look at its history its really not surprising. I loved how much history it had and that it survived the centuries very well. The Charles bridge was really cool, I loved the towers on both sides. It looked so medieval and it was more of my style. I broke down and bought a couple of paintings of the bridge, I'm really excited to hang them in my room. I wish we had more time to look at the castle, but from what I saw I thought it was really pretty and almost incognito. It kind of blended in with the town around it, other than the fact it was up on a hill and there was a giant cathedral in the middle. I could be really ignorant describing it in that way but that was how I felt. I thought that Prague was one of the prettiest cities we had been to thus far. Now I have been to 2 of the 3 countries that my ancestors are from. I really enjoyed visiting them because there was almost a feeling of coming home. I know it sounds weird since it's a foreign country I've never been to and my family hasn't lived there for over 100 years now but I still felt a sense of identity. I am an American at heart but I feel that it's important to remember where you are from. My family history stretches beyond just the family that moved and lived in the states and I want to keep in touch with that part of me. I think that the family history that stretches deep into the past is the most interesting. Someday soon I will sit down and trace my family back as far as I can, I want to know what they were doing in the context of world history at that time. That would be the most interesting type of history for me. Our time in Prague was short but I feel that we got a little taste of the culture and it provided a breath of different air than all the western european countries we have and will visit. I wish we had more time in Prague but I was ready to go back to our host family in Bonn, but I was not looking forward to the 10 hour train ride. Especially since I was short on sleep and my allergies reacted violently to all the cigarette smoke.

Prague!

I have looked forward to travelling to Prague since I was little. Knowing that it was left untouched after the world wars has always drawn me to it and I’m happy that I’ve seen it with my own eyes and experienced it. Being an eastern European city, its charm is different than that of Vienna or Munich. It was a little rough around the edges coming into the city from the train station, but arriving at Sir Toby’s Hostel was like coming home to a warm fire and freshly baked cookies after a long day of travel. I heard about Sir Toby’s originally through a Breakaway Ministries summer Podcast, which specifically mentioned The Mosaic House, a sister hostel of Sir Toby’s. After perusing the suggested hostels that Dr. Wasser had recommended, I saw that Sir Toby’s was listed there, so I knew that I wanted to go and see what all of the rave reviews were about.  I also met a girl named Beth who is interning with Sir Toby’s for the summer  doing an evangelism program and she and I got to talking about how I heard about Sir Toby’s and it turns out that she knows Breakaway Ministries and even listens to the podcasts. This was cool for me because I love Breakaway Ministries and what they do on the Texas A&M campus, creating an environment for Aggies to come together, worship, and study the Bible together. I was also astounded because it’s not often that you find a hostel in the middle of Europe that is so welcoming to so many different kinds of people, and yet has evangelism and the gospel of Christianity set as its core. I loved stumbling upon a treasure like Sir Toby’s in a happenstance way like this and I loved staying there too.I met people from new York, California, the Netherlands, England, and Chile. Breakfast is by far my favorite meal of the day and Sir Toby’s has it all, which I greatly appreciated. I loved seeing the beauty and history of prague but I have to say that I would go back for sir toby’s.  That being said, the Charles Bridge, The steps to the castle, the old town square, and the astronomical clock were all places that we saw in Praha and though it’s a definite tourist destination, I was happy to be a tourist and see the sights of Prague for a day. On a whole, Prague is a stunning city and Sir Toby’s is the best Hostel that I’ve ever encountered, and the best that I suspect I will ever encounter, and I’ll be back someday. 

A beautiful week in Wien

Before I set foot in Vienna, I had no extreme predilections of what I would think and feel about this city in contrast to the other places that I’ve been to in Europe.  I didn’t know what to expect at all and what I found was extraordinary. Upon our arrival to Vienna from Munich, I was exhausted from a week of acclimating to the rhythm of this program and I feared that I might not be prepared to fully appreciate it’s beauty and history. Fortunately, after a good night’s sleep at the Deutchmeister , a delicious breakfast, and a spontaneous mélange and sacher torte at Café Demel, I knew that Vienna was going to be one of my favorite corners of the world.  I have had a keen interest in the history of medicine since high school and I had a wonderful teacher who instilled in me how instrumental and fulfilling it is to be educated on this section of history. I couldn’t help but think of her as Dr. Wasser guided us through the city, stopping to talk about various “fathers” of bacteriology, toxicology, physiology, and more. As a young person who grew up in such a modernized time, it’s mind boggling and awe inspiring to me when I hear about the people who first inquired, experimented, and spent their lives making progress and discoveries in medicine. I feel so grateful for their works, and challenged to not let myself become stagnant and simply accept everything I learn as concrete knowledge, because who knows what is left to be discovered in medicine? This city that is rooted so deep in the history of Europe, endured the Plague and two world wars still exists as a paradigm of music, medicine, philosophy, and culture, and history, which to me makes Vienna an absolute privilege to experience. I loved visiting the medical school there and hearing the striking differences between the medical education offered there, and the one that I’m pursuing in the states. While I envy their opportunity to streamline into medicine after high school graduation with only an entrance exam, I have to criticize the system in that it doesn’t view a student in a holistic way as American schools do. They’re certainly onto something since they’re matriculation rates are high and they only accept the highest scoring students. Nonetheless, I’m content to continue jumping through flaming hoops to build up my strength as an applicant and work towards my goal of attending medical school and becoming a physician. Walking through the old insane asylum that now holds the wax models was hands down one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. It awakened my curiosity about so many diseases and conditions that have never sparked my interest before, mostly because I haven’t seen many bad diseases right in front of me like that. The models at the Josephinum were equally as fascinating, particularly the obstetric models.  I’m floored by the age of these models and how much detail was known or suspected about the body over 200 years ago. The Freud museum surprised me, mainly because I didn’t know much more about Freud than his stranger theories which puzzle me quite a bit. I was interested to learn about his struggle with his mouth once it became diseased from years of continuous cigar smoking. The fact that he lived with such an invasive prosthesis and continued his work surprised me and made me more curious about him as a person.  Learning Vienna’s history as a civilization, alongside its history in the scope of medicine, accompanied by a daily mélange is what I’d like to call a great week, and I would love to return to Vienna and do it all over again!

Praha, Ceska Republika

We came to see one of the more developed cities of what is known as Eastern Europe, Prague in the Czech Republic it was very noticalbe the differences between a fully Westernize city and a city that was once part of the Warsaw Pact.  We arrived around the afternoon and quickly found are way to hostel, hostel proved itself to be a very friendly environment for tourist, me personally I really liked the fact that a lot of the hostel attendants were Spanish speakers they had one Colombian, one Spaniard, and one girl who was half Czech and half Cuban, I also met quite a few Brazilians, Australians, and Japanese who were either taken a vacation from work or studying abroad it was a very nice blend of culture.  On the tour of Prague our guide was quite a good historian about history of prague and the Czech Republic from the Celtics tribes that Romans who named the region Bohemia to being a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to communism under the soviet union to finally a free republic Czech Republic has quite the history to tell.  We came into one of the princicple churches that our guide told us a very funny and creepy story about the patron saint of the church I don’t recall the name of the saint.  The story goes the church had many valuable articafts of jewelry and there was a thief who wised to steal them so the thief disguised himself as one of the priest and came into the church he hid unitl everyone left the church and it was dark.  So the thief looks around for something of high value to steal he sees the patron saint statue with beautiful necklace and decides that is the item he is going to take.  As he reaches for the necklace the statue grabs the thief by the arm in vice grip thielf fights to get free but its futile he remained in grip of the statue unitl the priest find him there in the morning.  The priest cut of his harm and cart away the thief to disposed off and they took the arm, mummified it and hanged it from the wall as a reminder to all who try to steal from church will not end well.  He told another few more stories that were both odd and funny to hear but the highlight of the tour was seeing Charles Bridge.  The bridge was on quite the scenic paronoma the sights from the bridge were just beautiful, I even purchased a painting of the bridge it was a little pricy but I thought it was definetly worth it though.  We went to top of the hill in prague where the castle is situated at we saw a small display of corvettes and the changing of the castle guard, quite the spectacle needless to say.  Lastly we finished our exploring of Prague with another sceneic picture area of the castle and souvenir shopping.  Our final part in our little adventure in Prague was guided pup crawl with hostel of Prague brining all of their tourist together to show them a good time, which they didn’t disappoint.  My one complain of Prague are the merchants and taxis everything here is exuberenlty priced to take advantage of the naiveness of the tourist, specially the taxi going back to the hostel over priced and took more money then he should of but what is done is done and we are all now on our way to our home away from home, Bonn.  

Tsiekes Wien

And so our time in Vienna has come to an end and here I am sitting on the train on the way to Prague, Czech Republic feeling very happy about the days I spend in the city of the former Hapsburg Empire.  I was rather surprise at the ease of navigation of the city of Vienna the St. Stephans Cathedral served as an excellent landmark as its based right smack in the center of the city and the fact that our hotel was so close to the subway stations that we took often.  Here in Vienna they have what is called “Kaffe Culture” as Vienna is famous for its coffee shops, and I as a fanatic of coffee drink came to appreciate the time we were in coffee shops except the prices of the drinks they were even more expensive then starbucks …. And that’s saying something oh and the Kaffe Maria Theresia, extremely bitter even for my preference of not so sweet coffee.   The two portions of the program I liked best was the tour of the history museum of Vienna and the tour of the Museum of natural history, mostly because they satisfied my two primary interest in history, military and natural history such as zoology and paleontology.  In the history museum the portion I enjoyed best was the history of Vienna in the middle ages and in the 1600 to 1800 where Vienna served as the eastern front against the powerful Ottoman Empire and turned the Turks back not once but twice.  In the Museum of Natural History we saw two famous pieces of historical value: One the Jeweled bouquet of Maria Theresa to her husband containing many pieces pieces of precious stones and diamonds as well as leaves made out of silk and the Venus of Wilcommof the stone carving of a woman with large breast, wide hips, and no face that dates back to 25,000 years ago.  From the exhibition I preferred the specimens exhitions showing a large variety of fauna and insects of the various families and orders as well as the exhibitions of enormous prehistoric sea turtle fossils.  We went to visit the Imperial Palace of the Hapsburg that now serves as an exhitions of some famous works of various style from romantism to realism it has quite a collection of master pieces and we had the chance to see the famous “kiss” painiting but me personally I preferred the simple picture of a dog resting his head on a table looking at a bowl of food.  A few tours of the city were made as well as a tour of the Medical School of Vienna, the Tower of the Collection of Anatomical and Obsteric Wax Models, Sigmund Frued Museum, and the catacombs of St. Stephans Dome.  I felt the time in Vienna was too short we did so much so fast it felt like we weren’t there for much time at all even though we were there for 5 days technically speaking.  It has  been a real eye opener the difference between the States and Europe both culturally and the academic system but we will continue to see the rest of Europe and see what it has to unfold.  

Our Second Weekend in Praha

The group!

        Prague was a beautiful city.  Coming from Vienna it was a bit of a shock, but it definitely made for a great weekend.  When we first arrived to the train station, I was shocked by all of the Czech words.  To think that German was a confusing language! I missed my German.  I also missed the Euro and the friendliness of the Germans and Austrians.
        We made it to Prague around 7:00pm on Friday.  We were worn out from all of the travelling so getting to Sir Toby’s was an instant relief.  I loved Sir Toby’s.  We were greeted with a warm welcome and the Columbian guy at the front desk began listing all of the different things that the hotel was offering that weekend.  They had everything covered.  We even got free barbecue that night.  Another thing that I loved about the hostel was the diversity of the people living there.  There were people from Spain, Melbourne, Amsterdam, New York, California, and many others.  It was fun to hang out in the pub in the basement and to talk to everyone and find out what brought them to Prague.  The breakfast at Sir Toby’s was spectacular.  I was able to make scrambled eggs and pancakes and I had delicious coffee and fruit and cereal.  It was so wonderful.

The astronomical clock

Charles Bridge

        On Saturday we started the day off with a walking tour through the city.  The Czech Republic has such a different background than most of the western European countries, and it was very interesting.  We then walked over the Charles Bridge and walked up to the castle, where we witnessed a terrific view of the city.  Prague was gorgeous.  Sunday was basically a travel day.  The ten-hour journey back home to Bonn was brutal but we got through it and were ready to be back.
        I absolutely loved Prague.  I thought it was beautiful but I also recognize that it was not a true eastern European city.  In the future I would like to come back to see more of what I only got a glimpse of during our weekend, but I would also like to experience cities like Budapest.

A Week in Wien

By the time we all made it to Vienna for the second week, we gained experience getting around Europe on our own.  It was definitely a struggle and I wished I had some more arm muscle, but the reward of making it to Hotel Deutschland safely Monday morning made it all worth it.

Vienna is the best city in the world.  I fell madly in love with it from the beginning and my love for it grew more and more each day.  One of the highlights of the week was all of the amazing food.  The wienerschnitzel, apfelstrudel, sachertorte, goulash, chocolate soufflé, and mélange all made my taste buds tingle.  I wanted to eat five meals a day because one week was hardly enough to experience it all.  Another thing I found enchanting about the city was the café couture.  If I had an extra afternoon in Vienna, I would want to spend it in a café with a good book and a mélange. The café couture reminded me of some of the coffee shops in College Station but there really isn’t a comparison.  Sweet Eugene’s has nothing on Café Demel.

Another thing I found intriguing about the city was the artistic influence.  As I walked through the city, I would just stumble upon statues of great composers.  I took pictures next to Chopin and Brahms and tried to picture myself in Vienna in the time of all of the great composers.   It would be a lovely experience.  Going to the concert of Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony in a cathedral was so wonderful.  The music was great and it was so fun to take in all of the interesting details of the cathedral as the musicians played.  The art at the Belvedere was also breathtaking.  I especially enjoyed the Klimt exhibit.  It was cool to see how he developed as an artist throughout his life and The Kiss was such a beautiful piece of art.

I also obviously enjoyed the medical aspect of the trip.  The medical walk through Vienna was so informative and it was interesting that so much medical history occurred in such a short walking distance.  I just wish I wrote down all of the names of the physicians.  Visiting the Freud house was very interesting to me.  Freud was an incredibly influential psychologist and although so many of his theories seem far-fetched and strange, there is much merit to many of them.  I enjoyed sitting on the couch in his psychoanalysis room and breathing in his air.  The next day at the Vienna Medical School was also great.  I found myself completely jealous about how medical students go through medical school and how they don’t have to first get their bachelor’s degree.  Touring the round asylum with the pathological wax models and the other preparations was one of the coolest things I have ever done.  I wished I knew more about the diseases but I tried to imagine myself as a medical student learning from those models in another era.  The models were so lifelike.  I felt the same way about the Josephinum wax models.  The obstetrics room was my favorite because I found the different positions of the baby in the uterus to be interesting and the different models with the twins.  I was completely impressed with the detail in each of the models and was stunned that it was all so accurate until Dr. Wasser pointed out the lymph node man.  They weren’t perfect.

Vienna was amazing.  I definitely want to go back someday.

München

I am writing the first weekend blog while on the train to get back to Bonn after our second weekend in Prague, and this makes me feel like a terrible student.  I am having such a great time studying abroad and though I am learning so much, it feels like I am on vacation.  I love Europe.

We spent our first weekend in Munich.  All ten of us stayed together like a cute little family and we all had a great time.  The hard part was getting around and having to be responsible for everything we were doing.  Olivia was missed.  We took a train leaving Bonn at 3:30 Saturday morning and although it was nice to get there right at breakfast, that early train ride threw me off and I had trouble staying awake and fully enjoying the Saturday in Munich.  When we got there, we dropped our luggage off at the hostel and then wandered around to find Mike’s Bike Tour.  Half of the group did a walking tour and the other half did the bike tour.  I was in the bike group and absolutely loved it.  We biked to some of the more famous historical sites but my favorite part was biking through the English Garden.  The English garden in Munich is about 1.25 times the size of Central Park in NYC and the wonderful weather made that bike through the greenery a beautiful site.  We stopped at the surfing spot and I fully enjoyed watching.  After the tour was over, we met the rest of the group at St. Augustiner and ate dinner and then headed over to Hofbrauhaus.  Hofbrauhaus was definitely fun to go but it was way overpriced and there were too many tourists.  There was a band playing and that was a lot of fun to listen to.

On Sunday I went to Neuschwanstein Castle with part of the group.  We took a train to Fussen early in the morning and walked around the town before taking a bus up to Hohenschwangau.  The town was absolutely beautiful.  I could have stayed there for an entire weekend to just take it all in.  The Bavarian mountains were breathtaking.  The only downside was that the proximity to the castles made Fussen populated with too many tourists.  Once we got to the castles, we visited Hohenschwangau before Neuschwanstein.  The major letdown of the day was that the beautiful picturesque side of Neuschwanstein that looks just like Cinderella’s castle in Disney World was covered in scaffolding.  I was definitely upset.  The other bummer was walking up an incredibly steep mountain to get to Neuschwanstein.  No wonder Europeans are so fit even after so much beer.  It was so exhausting.  The insides of the castles were pretty and it was interesting to learn about the strange life of King Ludwig but I thought it was unnecessarily overpriced.  When we went back to Fussen, we played in a playground for a good hour while we waited for our train to take us back to Munich and that was a definite highlight of the weekend.  It was a great playground.

The next day we took a train to Vienna prepared for an awesome week!

Czechs and Crowns

Hello from somewhere between Berlin and Bonn! We are currently on our train ride back to Bonn from our second free weekend in Prague. After every week I always wish that we had spent more time in the cities that we visited. There is simply too much to see and too little time in the five weeks we have in Europe.

Being unknowledgeable like I always, I was a little shocked to find out about the change in currency and language. Nevertheless, as soon as we arrived at Sir Toby’s I fell in love with Prague. The people at the hostel were so incredibly welcoming, there were plenty of English speakers—from Canadians to Australians, and the downstairs pub not only was very comfortable and “homey-feeling,” but also had some of the best drinks I have ever had. And as always, free Wifi and BBQ dinner is something were very pleased about after a long train ride. Then some American guys that we met at the basement pub invited us to go out with them. Even though most of our group was tired, I really wanted to go with them because they had been in Prague for the past few days and knew how to get to the legitimate “night-life” places around the area. Morgan, Michelle, Mario, and I surprisingly ended up going out with our new friends. Our first stop was a labyrinth of underground bars and pubs that had multiple bars connected to each other by a small hallway or flight of stairs. Then we went to Cross Club, a multiple-story club that was bombarded by smoke, all sorts of drugs, and zombie-like intoxicated people. It was a scene I have never witnessed anywhere in the States. The rapid techno music reminded me of being in a rave, except a million times sped up. The walls were covered with moving automobile parts, with wheels over wheels spinning each other. This night was a good experience overall, and I feel like I got a taste of what the real night life of Czech was like—not just a night from a “tourist’s” point of view.

On our second day in Prague, we woke up early to go on the free tour. We walked through Old Town, passed by a couple of the churches, and ended the tour on the Charles Bridge. The city is really beautiful, and I am sad that I was not able to take any pictures after my camera battery died. Walking across the bridge was an awesome experience though. It was particularly windy on the bridge, and both sides across the entire bridge were lined up with booths and mini-markets where localists would try to sell their photography or art work. It reminded me a lot of the markets and booths in downtown Austin. We then climbed up a hill that felt like we were hiking up a mountain, and went to the Castle of Prague. The view from the top of the hill was beautiful, and looked exactly like how it did on the Bachelorette. Afterwards, we all came back to the hostel and ate dinner before going to the bar-hopping event with Sir Toby’s. The event was 400 Crowns/16 Euros, which included unlimited beer/wine for an hour and two free shots, and we ended the night at the infamous five-story disco. It was a successful night and we all got home from the cab at around 4:30 in the morning.

The only thing that I did not like about our experience in Prague was getting thrown off by the currency change. When we were withdrawing cash from an ATM, a guy told Caleb that “he needed” change and snatched a 1000 Crown bill from his hand and quickly ran off after giving him two fake bills. It was frustrating because none of us had realized that the two 500 bills were not in Crowns and we had waited so long to chase after the guy. When we were coming back to the hostel in the cab, we ran out of Crowns and offered the cab driver to pay in Euros and he incorrectly made us pay much more than we were supposed to. Aside from some bad luck, I thoroughly enjoyed my first time in the Czech Republic. From the way people dress to the crazy night life, Prague as a whole is very attractive to me. I definitely plan to visit Prague and come back to Sir Toby’s with my friends in the near future.