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.