Melange in Wien

The week in Vienna was amazing. I didn't really know what to expect because I didn't really know much about Vienna. The culture was definitly different from Germany and the people seemed to be more proper and more refined. Vienna just seemed to give off a higher class attitude than any of the cities we visited in Germany. The cafe couture was to sit in a cafe all day and drink melange and read the newspaper. I just feel like thats on the sophisticated side, at least to me. There seemed to also be more construction going on in Vienna than any of the German cities, it looked like they were building more modern buildings. You could tell that Vienna survived the war much better than Germany did. There were a lot more original/older buildings still around. I feel like we got to do more things that were medically relevant in Vienna than we had been doing in Bonn. We had less lectures but we got to go to more places that we relevent to medicine. My favorite day so far has been the day we got to go to the Vienna medical school and then visit the Josephinum and the Federal Pathologic Anatomical museum. I loved looking at all the models of the different diseases and it just amazes me that people sat down and made the models so realistic and detailed. I thought it was a really good idea to help doctors study and I wish we could study on models like those. Though I suppose they're obsolete now since we have photographs but still I think we should bring them back. The josephinum was amazing. The wax models of the human body were just astounding. It was just mind blowing to think that someone sat down and made them, they were so exact and detailed it had to have take years to complete. Also, the collection was so vast I could have spent days in there studying all the pieces. There was also a collection of old doctors equipment that was very expansive. I really wish I could have had the time to sit and there and study it all. That day so far has been the highlight of my trip. Another thing that I thought was really cool was being able to have a lecture about Sigmund Freud in his house where he practiced. That was a once in a lifetime experience. There's a whole other dimension to learning in a place where things actually happened. The medical history walk was also really cool, just walking around the city and seeing all the places where important doctors lived and learning about the unique things that happened there. That is the type of learning I really enjoy, the interactive learning. It makes the information come alive. The natural history museum was also really awesome. It was so much cooler than the Houston natual science museum. The collections were so expansive, they seemed to have everything. I didn't realize there were so many different types of stone but the rock collection took up like 4 huge rooms. The animal collection was the same. They seemed to have every type of animal imaginable. It just kind of brings into prespective the vastness of nature and how many different types of animals inhabit the earth. Then to think that thousands of species are going extinct before they're even known is just kind of humbling. The Venus of Willendorf was cool, she was carved with such detail and seemed to have held up really well for being so old. I really love old buildings so the fact that the museum was in such a beautiful old building made it that much better. The Stephansdome was also beautiful, I really wish we still made churches that were that elaborate. The catacombs were really kind of creepy. The jars with all the royal families organs were a little weird and then the rooms full of bones really creeped me out. To be that close to peoples dead bodies that died of the plague was intense. The amount of bones in the rooms was really crazy. So many people were buried underneath the church. Oh yeah! I almost forgot to mention that Morgan and I actually managed to meet up with the lovely Ashley Bogdan! The fact that we managed to be in the same city at the same time on the other side of the world, and we found each other. Awesome! We also went to the belvedire museum. The palace was gorgeous, if I was a princess that is the castle I would want to live in. It was beautiful. I really wish I could have take pictures. The Klimt exhibit was there so we got to the famous Klimt kiss picture. I had never heard of it but I guess that's pretty cool that I've seen the original. I'm not really that big into art. I know some artists like Rembrant and Van Gogh but other than that I don't really pay attention. Especially with the whole modern art wave, I really dislike the vast majority of modern art because a lot of it I feel like takes no talent and looks like something I could do. I mean when you compare it to the artists of the romantic or impressionist period there's just such a vast difference in the quality and detail of the work. That's just my thoughts, I'm sure many artists would disagree. The concert that we got to go to was really fun, I wish we could have gone to the opera but the concert was still a cool experience. Especially since it happened in one of the gorgeous churches. I really enjoyed Vienna but I'm ready to go back to Germany.