Fun Times in Prague

       Prague was an adventure to say the least. We arrived in Prague Friday night and went to check into our hostel. I have never met such helpful and welcoming people. The front desk gave us maps, discounted tours, water and was extremely helpful. If you ever go to prague stay at Charles Bridge Economic, they were awesome! Then we went around the city and ate at this amazing Italian restaurant. We then went and had our first Prague beer at a local bar.

        On Saturday we went and saw the Prague castle and the monastery. After a hike up a huge hill we finally made it to the castle. There was the best view of Prague on top of the hill where the castle was. It was breathtaking! Enclosed inside the castle were a lot of little shops and restaurants. Also there was a beautiful church in the middle of the castle. We then went to the monastery where they brewed there own beer. Inside the monastery was closed so we could only look at the outside but it was still very pretty. Later that night we went and did a pub crawl! It was really fun until a guy shattered a glass in the bar and a piece of glass cut my toe open, needless to say our night was over. 

       Sunday we went and checked out all of the shops in old town before we had to leave  to catch our train. Prague was really fun and we definitely made some lifelong memories from the trip but I am glad to be back in Bonn!

The Spires ans Stars of Prague

This weekend, some of us traveled to Prague. Friends from back home and new friend that I have met in Germany all told me that it was a beautiful city, like something out of a fairy tale. Even with their testimonies and the proof of the pictures I looked up on Google, I did not competely believe that it was possibly as beautiful as both told. Well, I was wrong. The pictures are not enhanced lies. There are spires everywhere, beautiful colored buildings with red roofs or green copper domes, and old cobble stones are the only pavement for the streets. Then there is Chares Bridge which is massive and impressively lined with statues and lamps. With each step, you have a new georgeous view of the river, the towers, the castle, boats and so much color. I must admit, though, that my fondness for the Geman language far exeeds that which I could have for Czech. Hearing Czech spoken in the train station and in the streets sounds so confusing and foreign. Now, both English and German sound comfortingly like home. The street musicians were wonderful and there were even more in Prague than there were in Vienna. One street band had bagpipes, a small trumpet like instrument and a drum. Another had brass instrumets very similar to the traditional small German group that played at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich. They sounded a little more professional and played from one of the towers of Charles Bridge. There were several violin soloists playing throughout the city too. My favoite group by far was a band of three young guys somewhere around our age. One payed bass (the kind from an orchesta) and the other two played violin. The three stood in a triangle with the lead violinist at the front. At parts of their songs, the lead violinist and the bass player would sing a duet in harmony with the accompanyment of the bass and the other violin. They were amazing. The music they played and sang was a folk style and reminded me a bit of American bluegrass. However, my favorite experience with a street musician was not with that group. Late one night on my way back to the hostel, we saw one lone girl playing a fast paced waltz tune on the accordian. She had couples dancing in the steet that night in the lamplight under the Charles Bridge tower. My favorite couple was a young set of girl twins maybe nine years old who were dressed identically in dark pink flowered dresses. Since they had no other partners they danced with each other, and of course, each girl got to spin. Occasionally they wound up in small quick arguments when a consensus could not be made as to who was supposed to be leading. It was adorabe and they had everyone who walked around them laughing and aweing at how cute they were. It reminded me a lot of when my own twin sister and I used to do the exact same thing when we were young. The accordian player loved how much the girls loved her song and was smiling at them just as much as the rest of her audience was. Traveling for ten straight days was exhausting, but the train ride home was relaxing. It finally rained, cooling everything off so it was not so miserably hot. I was also extremely happy to be back with my host family in Bonn. They had some of their own family visiting too so when I woke up this morning I got to play a little bit with a four, six, and an eleven year old. It was a lot of fun. The little ones did not know much English, but we were still abel to talk by using gestures, drawings, and my phone's dictionary. The little ones are not at all judgemental about how my German sounds so trying to converse was like playing a stress-free game.

Week 3: Vienna

Vienna is a city of famous musicians and a rich scientific and medical history. It is filled with good food, especially wiener schnitzel, quiet cafes in which to enjoy rich desserts and coffee, street musicians, and many shopping opportunities. On Monday, we got to Vienna after a nice weekend in Munich. We ate lunch and then met everyone else for a tour of the city with an extremely nice older lady whom everyone loved. We also had the opportunity to tour the catacombs at the cathedral. We saw so many bones in the dark tunnels under the church and each room had its own story. One room was filled with neatly stacked bones that lined the walls. The skulls were hung in rows as well making a pattern that was artful even if it was dark. The story behind this room was that prisoners were forced to go into the catacombes to boil the fesh off these old bones of people who had had the plague. They then cleaned the bones and stacked them into the patterns that we can now see. Unfortunately for these prisioners, working down in the catacomb was nearly the same as the death sentence because of all the rats that were carriers of the disease. Many of the prisoners did not live long after they began their work. In another room of the catacombs there was a hole in the floor where you could see piles and piles of bones that had just been thrown into the hole after other rooms in the catacombs were cleaned. That Monday night we had the best group dinner of all.  I ordered wiener schitzel which was the most wonderful decision; it was so good. One of the most exciting parts of the entire week in Vienna was seeing the Josepinium. It was hard to grasp just how long those wax figures have been around. The art and skill that would have had to been employed to make such lifelike creations was amazing. The small details that we know now are wrong make the models even more special because they preserve a time long ago. It was impressive to me to learn and see on this trip just how much art is really involved in medicine. The sculptures are also such an improvement in comparison to pictures; there is nothing that can compare to things in three dimensions. On the last day, we went to the Natural History Museum. I loved this place but I needed two full days to really look and read everything I wanted to. They had an entire room filed with meteorites! There was also room upon room of stuffed animals. It was like a zoo but you could look closely at the animals, and birds, and bugs, and fish, and even butterflies. If I get to come back to Europe, I need to go back to that museum again. It also amazed me because the beautiful building was built only for the purpose of being a museum. The story behind the emperess's husband who began the collecting made the experience even more special.

Innsbruck weekend

This weekend we went to Innsbruck and it was probably the most fun I’ve had thus far. Innsbruck is really pretty; mountains surround the city so everywhere you look is a giant peak. We arrived in Innsbruck on Friday evening and then had a delicious Austrian dinner. I had the mixed grill, which was sausage and steak and green beans, and it was very tasty. Then we went out to drink a beer but we got on the wrong tram and ended up at the garage and the tram driver was parking his tram for the night. So, we then had to trek all the way back to our hotel but at least we got to see the whole city of Innsbruck! Saturday was a lot of fun; we got up early, packed some lunches, and headed to one of the mountain for some hiking. To get to the mountain we rode a bus with a really friendly Austrian lady who was a big fan of George Bush and she helped us get off on the right stop and gave us directions. We arrived at the mountain and started hiking up. I don’t think we were on any hiking trails, we just made our own way but I think its more fun like that. Since the mountain hosted the winter Olympics in both 1964 and 1976, there were lots of Olympic bits and pieces still on the mountain. On our hike up we found the old bobsled and skeleton track, which was really cool. The banks on the turns were super steep, and watching it on TV doesn’t really do it justice as to how extreme the track is. As we hiked further up the view of Innsbruck and the surrounding mountains grew better and better. The city looked really pretty from up there and the view with the mountains behind it was stunning. After a few hours of hiking, we stopped to eat our lunch in a really pretty area surrounded by flowers with a water fountain by the trail. We met an old lady who was also hiking the mountain. She didn’t speak any English but with our limited German we were able to gather that she was from Innsbruck and that she was 82 years old, and then I felt really out of shape. After the long and peaceful lunch, we hiked a little more and started down the mountain. After hiking for around five hours, we made it to the bottom and then went to the Lanser Sea, a big swimming hole. After the long hike, the 24-degree water felt amazing. The cool water was so refreshing, I could have stayed there all day but we had to catch a bus back to Innsbruck later that afternoon. Once back in Innsbruck, we went back to the same restaurant we had been the night before because it was so good. I got the chicken cordon bleu and it was fantastic, probably the best cordon bleu I’ve ever had. Then we washed up and went out for the night. We ended up going to the casino, which was fun. It was my first gambling experience, and I came out only one euro down which is a win in my book.

    For as much fun as we had in Innsbruck, the train ride back to Bonn was equally bad. There was a wreck ahead on our route, so our train had to constantly stop and take detours and was delayed further and further each time we checked. We ended up getting back to Bonn three hours late, but the weekend was worth it. We all had a blast in Innsbruck. I really want to come back to Innsbruck in the winter and see the mountains with snow covering their peaks because I bet it is gorgeous. I also love to ski and snowboard so Innsbruck would be a paradise for me in the winter. Now I am back in Bonn for just a bit before going to Norderney later this week. 

Week 4-Part 1

It’s hard to believe that we are already jumping in to week four of our study abroad here in Germany. Last week in Vienna was full of history and museums. To finish up, on Friday we visited the Natural History Museum, which had an incredible collection of taxidermy animals that I enjoyed. The huge collection of meteorites was also very impressive. And of course my favorite was the dinosaur exhibit. The decorations of the building were also intriguing. Since it was always destined to be a museum, it had statues of people holding strange creatures and paintings of various historical phenomena. After the museum we had the opportunity to check out body worlds, which I have seen before but never find any less interesting. My favorite exhibits in body world are the specimens that show arteries. I find it amazing that it is possible to plastinate arteries and leave them suspended to show three-dimensional structure and the amazing complexity of our arteries.

This weekend I visited Zurich. After a lengthy train ride from Vienna, I had a good night’s sleep at the hotel. On Saturday I walked around old town and visited the Fraumünster and Grossmünster churches. They were elegantly simple, and somewhat plain compared to the Cologne cathedral and some of the baroque style masterpieces that we visited in Vienna. One thing that I noticed was how clean Zurich was. The streets didn’t have trash laying about and the river and lake were also clean and a beautiful blue-green color. In the afternoon I hiked up Mt. Üetliberg. There I had a wonderful view of the city, the lake and the alps. On Sunday I got an early start and headed to the zoo. My favorite part of the zoo was the owls. Second to the owls my favorite experience were the goats; though not very exotic I had a blast feeding them and watching their antics. There was a large variety of different animals, but a lot of the enclosures weren’t laid out very well for the visitors too see the animals which was at times frustrating. Even just some trimming of brush could have made a huge difference. Overall the zoo was the highlight of my weekend. After the zoo I had lunch by the lake and relaxed before heading back to Bonn. I am most looking forward to the Haribo outlet tomorrow and am also excited about Hannover, Norderney, and Amsterdam fast approaching. Tschüss!

Pro-Prague

Finishing up my second free weekend needless to say, I am tired. This last weekend my group and myself decided to go and visit Prague in the Czech Republic. To be honest I was not too excited about this trip after having finishing up an unforgettable weekend in Interlaken and a life changing experience in Vienna both being polar opposites yet equally as exciting though I would have to say that I have enjoyed Interlaken the most because of the peaceful quiet escape that it provided me after having traveled to all these different bustling cities. I guess that I prefer the sedentary life style that I lead in Texas compared to the feeling of being towered in and caged up in a small apartment in the middle of the city. One thing that I will say that I miss is having a front yard and back yard with some privacy. Here it just seems as everything is on top of each other. 
Back to my trip to Prague. As I had mentioned earlier I had very little expectations going into this trip and thought I would have been bored with nothing to do, to say the least I was gravely mistaken. Prague turned out to be a bustling city with a million different sights to see and a million different winding streets to get lost in, especially in the old town district. The hostel that we stayed in could not have had better location being a hop skip and a jump away from the world renowned St. Charles Bridge. When thinking of the lay out of the city, St. Charles could be considered the apex upon which everything was located. Where ever I dinned myself I always have the urge to see as many sights I can in any particular city. Some of my favorite places were the palace upon the hill which had dozens of different displays and scores of things to keep yourself entertained doing. The palace proper surrounded what I would consider through my brief travels, my third favorite church right behind the dome of Koln and Notre Dam in Paris. The palace also offered the best rooftop view of Prague which quite literally took my breath away. From there we hiked to the local monastery where the monks who used to live there centuries ago made a brewery and drank what I considered to be my favorite beer since being in Europe and maybe ever considering I have not been 21 but for the past 4 months, two of which were spent at camp where any alcohol was breaking contract. Whilst everyone else was winding down from having walked miles upon miles I trekked on and got to experience a host of new and exciting things in the city. I saw the astronomical clock that people waited around endlessly to go off came 20:00, I visited the National Muesum, I saw the infamous Dancing house, I visited a host of theaters some of which used to host performers such as Mozart and Schumbert, and I hate to admit this but I got some really good shopping in. Im especially proud of this one thing that I bought for my room mate Ben. Ben is an english major who loves books and music, specifically the piano. While endlessly wandering the streets of Prague I came across this antique book store and was lucky enough to find music composition books with famous composers and pianist sheet music dating from the 1900's to the 1920's. And then for my less intellectual room mate Jon I bought a Czech bottle of vodka… 
Prague had a boundless number of experiences to offer that I could not hope to explore in the mere two days that I had there, but those two days were unforgettable to say the least. One experience I am glad to say I missed out on was being victim to pick pocketing like two of the people from the sports management group. I will say though that one of the most unfortunate things on the trip was having to use Czech money, whenever I use a foreign currency as such I wrongly treat it as monopoly money that had no value and is fake, especially when the conversion rate is 1:17.85. Prague is a city that I plan on visiting again some time in my future if I had my druders and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants some good ol fashioned adventure.

Chris

A Weekend in Innsbruck

After a busy week in Vienna, I was really looking forward to a laid back weekend in Innsbruck, Austria! We arrived in the city around 6pm after what was probably our least eventful train ride thus far. Innsbruck was larger than I expected, and it took us a little while to figure out our public transport system. We finally made it to our hotel, which definitely had a different atmosphere from the hostel in Munich. We went to dinner at a restaurant that was recommended at the hotel, and it was so delicious we ended up going back for dinner on Saturday too! Friday was pretty quiet. We wandered around the city, and then went to bed in order to rest up for Saturday. 

We woke up early Saturday morning, had breakfast, and set out to go for a hike. On our way to the mountain, we met a lady who was very helpful, albeit pretty opinionated. She talked about George bush and other politicians. I think Will got the mot of her rant. But she helped us find our stop and recommended that we go swimming at Lanser See later that day. 

Most people take a cable car up the mountain, and then hike down, but we decided that we were going to be different. For most of the hike, we forged our own path but after a few hours we sort of got the hang of the trail system. We made it about halfway up the mountain, before heading back down. It would have been awesome to make it to the top, but we ran out of time. Plus I think most of us were pretty sore by then. 

We had packed a lunch, and found a beautiful spot on the mountain. We shared a bench with an 82 year old Austrian women who spoke no English. We were somewhat able to communicate with her in our broken German. She was super excited when she found out we were from Texas.  After lunch we headed back down the mountain, intent on finding Lanser See. It took quite a bit of walking, but we eventually made it there. It was absolutely beautiful, and the water felt fantastic after our long day of hiking. 

The public transportation system in innsbruck was pretty confusing, but I guess I've been spoiled with the systems in bonn, Munich, and Vienna. We got lost a couple times, but we always ended up where we needed to be. The train ride back to bonn from innsbruck was uncomfortable to say the least. The air conditioner was only partly working, and our ride was almost three hours longer than expected. Nevertheless, we all made it back in one piece! It's been a crazy nine days, but I'm so glad I get to experience it!

Praha

Our time in Prague started out with everyone in a really positive attitude. First off, our hostel was great. The man that checked us in was so helpful, we got free water and coffee all weekend, we had a room to ourselves and a shower that I could stand in without touching one side or the other.  Dinner on the first night was delicious and the nighttime view of the city from Charles Bridge was beautiful. On Saturday we started off with a long uphill walk to the Prague Castle, which turned out to be more of a short series of buildings surrounding a cathedral.  We didn’t want to spend money on tickets to tour the inside so we walked around the grounds and poked our head into the cathedral for a few pictures. Nonetheless, the view from the castle was incredible and the gelato was delicious. After the castle we walked uphill a little more to visit the monastery. They were booked for tours for the day, which was a bummer, but we still got to sit at the brewery and taste their famous beer. Later in the evening we went into Old Town to window shop, people watch and see the Astronomical Clock show on the hour.

I had been apprehensive about going to Prague and didn’t know exactly what we were going to do there but I ended up really liking the city and wishing I had more time to spend there. Maybe another time though because after the last week and a half of straight travel, I am anxious to get back to my host home and have a good night sleep in my own bed.

A week in Vienna

I really enjoyed our time in Vienna. We started out the week fresh off of our first overnight train. I slept in the middle of a three level bunk bed and felt like the center of an Oreo. It was a little claustrophobic at first but once I accepted the fact that it was impossible to sit up, I felt better about it and ended up getting a not-so-bad night of sleep. Our first meal in Vienna had us jumping for joy as the prices were a fourth of their counterparts in Switzerland and they had real bacon! The hotel was also a pleasant surprise as the rooms were much nicer and bigger than I had imagined they would be.

            Our week was filled with tours, visits and lectures. I found the medical school lecture given by Dr. Marz really interesting. As I listened and thought about the system in place, I feel like I broke down a tiny cultural barrier as I realized that a free 6 year program sounds a lot better that the extremely expensive and debt incurring 8 year plan that we have in place in the US. There have been many times over the last two years that I have felt frustrate that I had to spend time and energy on a class that has nothing to do with my ending career goal and that I’m not the slightest bit interested in. that afternoon was my favorite part of the trip. I had expected Fool’s Tower to be a museum about the history of the building as a Psychiatric hospital and was pleasantly surprised by the gory, realistic wax models and the large number of specimens that filled the halls and rooms. The Siamese twin skeletons and the skin diseases were the most interesting to me. It is cool to think about the time that went into making the wax models and how the people that made them were as much of a part of medical advancement and building a knowledge base as the doctors themselves were.

             Overall, Vienna was an extravagant city filled with churches, beautiful architecture and a rich history. I’m glad that we got to spend more than a weekend there because I really feel like I got to know the city. 

Week 3-Part 2

I never thought my brain would or could take in so much history in just one week. Vienna was an incredible city to visit. Even just walking around the city I was impressed by the variety and intensity of the architecture even of the most simple buildings. It seemed like every corner we turned revealed something historically significant or a beautiful cathedral. On our first day in Vienna we took a guided tour of the city; our tour guide was a very sweet lady who I would’ve liked to take home to be my grandmother! In such an old city it was fun to imagine what life might have been like in the past. All of the little cafes and coffee shops as well as the buildings had a wonderful aristocratic air about them. Monday afternoon we had a tour of the catacombs of St. Stephens. I found it very interesting that important persons would have their bodies, intestines, and hearts placed in different resting places. St. Stephens had the privilege of holding many of these preserved intestines in the first part of the catacombs that we visited. Amongst some of the other interesting items under the cathedral were hundreds of skeletons of those placed in mass graves as well as a mass grave containing plague victims. These gave me the heebie-jeebies!

On Tuesday, we had a history of medicine tour by Dr. Schnabel. I thought the most interesting aspect of our tour was about the plague. We learned that plague doctors wore long cloaks and strange masks with a bird beak shaped nose which was filled with a vinegar soaked rag in order to protect themselves from the sickness. They also carried a stick with which to inspect their patients at arm’s length. We also visited the funeral museum which was, needless to say, odd. We learned a little bit about the trends of Vienna’s past funeral traditions. We found out that people in the past were terrified of being buried alive, since that was a possibility in those times. A bell was used but they would just ring continuously by no fault of the person inside. Consequently, people could request to be stabbed in the heart before being buried to ensure that there was no possibility of them being buried alive. I also found out that a person can have their ashes turned into diamonds. The highlight of the funeral tour museum was testing out coffins. It was quite comical to see our professor and classmates getting cozy in a coffin for a test run. The highlight of my Tuesday was a delicious piece of chocolate birthday cake at Café Demel.

Day three in Vienna took us to the medical university. We had a very informative lecture by Professor Marz on the differences in medical schools in Vienna and the U.S. One thing I found particularly interesting was the admissions process for Vienna’s medical schools. One standardized test determines entrance into medical and dental school. Although I can see the advantages of this system in its ability to be objective, I very much prefer our system of application and interviews. The single test is supposed to determine whether a person will make a good medical student, but I don’t necessarily think that the ability to perform well on a standardized test alone is the best determinant of a student’s work ethic and motivation that are necessary to succeed as a medical student and physician.  After lunch at the university, we visited the “Fool’s Tower,” which was originally the psychiatric ward of the Viennese medical school. It was really interesting to see the collection of anatomical specimens and models that were housed in the tower. In the evening we attended a classical concert at St. Anna’s church, which was one of my favorite events of the trip so far. The church itself and the music were beautiful.

Thursday morning we visited the Freud house. I am familiar with Freud from Psychology 107 but it was entirely different to experience Freud’s actual waiting room, study, etc. as his patients knew them. Freud had some very intriguing and controversial ideas regarding the human psyche and the treatment of psychological disorders. In particular I liked Freud’s explanation of the human psyche as made up of the id, ego and super ego. After the Freud house, we had a tour of the Josephinum. The number and variety of wax models was really impressive. It was amazing how realistic most of the models were and how much work was put into each one of them. It was like visiting an old version of body worlds, which we will be visiting tomorrow along with the Natural History Museum. It has been a wonderful time in Vienna, and so far these have been some of my favorite adventures of our time in Europe. This weekend it’s off to Zurich. Until next week! Tschüss!

Prague

Our time in Prague was quite a whirlwind experience.  We were in the city for about 40 hours, and we did so much while there!  Prague is by far one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen.  We never had a chance to do any kind of guided tour, so we didn’t get to learn much about the history of the city, but the cathedrals and buildings were a sight to see. 

            We got in on Friday night and checked into our hostel.  It’s interesting to note how our expectations have changed over the course of the trip.  For example, our hostel had free water and a fan, and we felt like we were in heaven!  All eight of us that were in Prague took showers and went and had a nice dinner in Old Town.  My spinach fettuccine might have been my favorite meal I’ve had all trip!  On Saturday, we walked to the Prague Castle and to a monastery that also operates as a brewery.  The castle wasn’t what we were expecting.  We were expecting to see a medieval castle that was hundreds of years old, but it actually more resembled a sprawling palace.  While there, we also went inside the St. Vitus Cathedral.  It was built in the same style as the cathedral in Cologne and St. Chapelle in Paris.   We then walked to the monastery to see about getting a tour of the brewery.  We couldn’t get into a tour, but we sat in the beer garden and tried some of the locally brewed beer.

            On Sunday, we spent the day walking throughout Old Town, looking at the shops and listening to the street vendors.  I love the music that you hear on the streets of Europe.  We wandered through the streets all day taking in the sights, including the Astronomical Clock and the big main square.  The weekend had been tons of fun, but there was a little bit of drama when it came time to get back to Bonn.  We got to the train station about an hour early.  Soon, we realized that our train was not on the board for departures.  After getting help from a DB representative, we realized that we were in fact on a bus to Nuremburg then a train to Bonn.  However, half of our group did not have reservations for the bus.  We soon learned that all the buses for the day were full, as well as all the night trains.   Those of us with reservations went ahead on the bus while the other half booked flights to get home.  After getting to Nuremberg, we also learned that our train reservation to Bonn was for Monday, not Sunday.  Luckily, there was room on the train and we were able to find seats, but it was a stressful adventure.  Overall, I enjoyed Prague and our time there, but I have never been so glad to be back in Bonn! 

Week 3.2: Innsbruck and the Lanser See

Our group of Will, John, Sam, Rock and I left for our six hour train ride from Vienna to the beautiful city of Innsbruck at around 13:30 on last Friday. The Innsbruck area may be one of the most gorgeous places I have seen with my own eyes. We arrived late afternoon at the Innsbruck hauptbahnhof and the first thing you see when you step outside is that you are completely surrounded by massive mountains. Innsbruck and the smaller towns in the area are directly in the middle of the Alps. As we had read before our trip to Innsbruck, it was the host for the 1964 and 1976 winter Olympic Games. This makes our first two weekend trips, Munich and Innsbruck, to cities that have hosted a total of three different Olympic Games. We then made our way via public transportation to Hotel Dollinger, where we spent our next two nights. Our hotel was fantastic, it had a very modern style but the most important aspect is that it had a complimentary breakfast in the mornings! After we checked in, we asked for suggestions for places in the area that were great to grab some dinner at and we found a traditional Austrian restaurant. After dinner we were going to just go out into the city to find a place to chill for the rest of the night, but we ended up getting on a tram that was heading to the garage and had to walk from a faraway distance back to the hauptbahnhof. This still turned out well, because like always I think it is fun to go out into unknown place, get lost and then try to find your way around. You tend to see different parts of places that you normally wouldn’t get to see. We eventually made it back to the hotel and got some rest for our “planned” hiking trip in the morning.

We woke up at around 7:30 to get an early start on the day. We grabbed some breakfast and then packed our backpacks with swimsuits, large water bottles and lunch from the local super market by the hauptbahnhof. We made our way to the popular hiking area and befriended an Austrian woman who happened to like Americans and especially Texans. She told us about a popular swimming area that would be a great way to cap off the long day of hiking up the mountain. On our hike, we basically free lanced everything! Every trail we saw is a trail we took, which made the trip much more exciting. At points during the hike, we ended up in the middle of a golf course, hopping over fences to get to other sides of the mountain, finding horses twice, walking on the bobsled course from the 1964 and 1976 Olympics, and finally walking through someone’s ranch (we think). Needless to say, our hiking trip was a fantastic adventure that won’t be forgotten! When we finally made it back to actual trails, we could use our maps to find our way to the lunch destination. It was an area dedicated to the Olympic Games with some benches, a huge cross and a water pump to fill up our water bottles. We stayed there for a good hour and made nice conversation with an Austrian woman who was 82 years old and still very active and in excellent shape. From there, we hiked back down towards the Lanser See which is basically a fairly large pond or very small lake. This was a very popular destination for many Austrians from the area, and we had a great time for about two and a half hours. We jumped in the cool water for a while and then watched people feed the fish that were in the pond. I swear that one of the fish was probably four feet long and weighed 50-60 pounds, it was gigantic! We then sat out on the one of the many docks and relaxed after our long day of strenuous hiking. We decided to leave the Lanser See at around 17:30 because there was a pretty big weather system starting to come over the mountains. We made it back to the bus that took us back to the hauptbahnhof. From there we left and went to grab dinner again at the same restaurant again. It was so nice we had to have it twice! From there we went back to the hotel to get ready to go out again. This time we had a plan, and it ended up turning into a great night! Our train left from Innsbruck at 10:36, and we had a connection in Munich for our train back to Bonn for the first time in 9 days! We have a Haribo factory visit and the AIB soccer tournament next week that should be very interesting!

Week 3.1: Wien and Wiener Schnitzel

After our free weekend in Munich, we made our way to the classical city of Vienna. We made it to Vienna at around 13:00 and had time to kill until Dr. Wasser and Olivia made it from the airport. We ate at a local pita restaurant, and I enjoyed a great sausage, ham, and mushroom pita. When the leaders of the group finally made it, we all went on a guided city tour of Vienna. I honestly had no idea what to expect from the city, but it turned out to just be a very beautiful place and home to many famous classical musicians. We saw a small concert hall that I believe Mozart played at a few times. We also saw the palace that was built for over three centuries. After the tour, we had another tour at the St. Stephens cathedral. Our guide showed us a detailed and up close and personal tour of the catacombs. This is basically where tens of thousands of plaque victims were buried, and also where the intestines of many royal family members were housed. We also saw where many priests were buried. After the catacombs, we had our first group dinner at the Gosser Bierklinik. This was most likely the greatest full meal I’ve had in quite a few years. I had the Wiener schnitzel, which came with a side of sliced potatoes. Dr. Wasser allowed us to get wine and that was probably the best wine I’ve ever had. After the main course, we had two platters of a desert sampler that was simply spectacular. When dinner was finally done, a small group of us went to a small outdoor bar in downtown Vienna and relaxed for a little while.

On Tuesday, we had our hot breakfast and got ready for our medical history tour with Dr. Schnobel. This “Dr. Schnobel” was actually Dr. Wasser dressed in a plague outfit with the full on black gown, ski mask type article of clothing covering his head and a plague mask with the huge beak covering his nose and mouth. I would say that it was funnier seeing the looks that other Wiener’s had on their face when they saw him than the look on our faces when we saw him. There was one guy who stopped and stared at him for a good two minutes. It was priceless. After the three hour tour, we went to the funeral museum for a tour. The best part of the tour was at the end when people could get in the coffin and have it shut on top of them. Next on the list was a stop at Café Demel for some cake, coffee and chocolate. I wasn’t very hungry so I just had a chocolate shake type of desert which was fantastic. The cake also looked very good, because Carson got one for her 21^st birthday present from Olivia.

On Wednesday, we made our way to the hospital where we had an amazing lecture by Dr. Marz on the differences between the schooling required in the US and the Austria/the EU. The biggest difference is that their medical system is six year schooling from the time when they get out of high school, while in the US we have a four year university degree after high school and then the four years of medical school. After the lecture, we went with our medical student guide to eat lunch at unibrau which stands for the university brewery rather than the term “one brow” referring to someone having a continuous eye brow instead of two separate ones. I had a different type of Wiener schnitzel, where it was filled with cheese and some vegetable and it was fantastic. We then proceeded to our tour of the Foolstower, which was a home for the mentally ill a few centuries ago but is just a museum now. This was very cool, because they had thousands of wax sculptures depicting the visual symptoms of some raunchy diseases like tuberculosis and elephantiasis. Our guide was fantastic and kept us on our toes by asking us tricky medical questions. I really enjoyed this tour! After this tour, we had free time to grab dinner and chill until our classical concert at the St. Anna church. I went to the local grocery store and bought some bread, some ham and some strawberries and had a nice dinner. The classical concert was fantastic as the quartet played some great classical music. Vienna is the home for classical music and you can always hear concerts being played everywhere and any day. Even most of the street performers are fantastic.

On Thursday, we had our lecture on Sigmund Freud at the Freud house where he lived for over 30 years of his life with his family. This was a fantastic lecture and I know so because when we actually toured the house, the guide was telling us most of the stuff verbatim from what Dr. Wasser lectured us on. The only problem with the lecture was that it was quite warm and made a perfect atmosphere for relaxation and eventually some dozing off. Freud’s house was very interesting with many personal items of his because his daughter donated many of them when she knew they were making a museum for him. We then had a short lunch break and we met back up so we could go to the Josephinum. The Josephinum is a huge medical storage area where they have thousands and thousands of medical instruments used from way back in the 16^th century and further back. However, the largest part of the museum is their vast collection of wax humans that were used to model the human anatomy. They detailed the human musculoskeletal system, all of the organs and many human processes like pregnancy. This was a great lead into the Body Worlds exhibit we would see on Friday. After the Josephinum, we had a group dinner at the Gulaschmuseum. This was another good dinner, but I think I was dehydrated because I felt pretty light headed for most of the dinner. It was still another great meal!

On Friday, we went to the Natural History Museum where we had a guided tour of this massive museum and then had an unguided student led tour of the Body Worlds exhibit. The Natural History Museum was fantastic with many fossils including the world’s largest turtle ever recorded. Dr. Wasser really enjoyed this fossil! The body world’s exhibit was great, and each group of three gave a short little lecture on whatever mini exhibit they wanted to. Our group did one on the muscular system and flexibility (it wasn’t my idea) but it did turn out fine in the end. After the museum we left for our free weekend in Innsbruck!

Weekend in Innsbruck Yo!

            This weekend has been my favorite by far.  We went to Innsbruck, Austria for a chill weekend of hiking through the wilderness and swimming in lakes.  I got our group lost on Friday night by getting on a tram that was supposed to go toward the university but ended up going to the garage, but all ended well.  I read online that Innsbruck is a relatively safe city to walk around in at night.  We did, however, half to walk half way across the city back to the hauptbahnhof. We used that as a warm-up for the next day.

            We stayed in a nice hotel, nicer than anyplace I’ve stayed in Europe.  After our complimentary breakfast on Saturday morning, we took the bus to the mountain where the 1964 and 1976 winter Olympics took place.  This mountain is a hotspot for hiking, biking, and even golfing.  Most people take the cable car up the mountain and hike down, but not us.  Being adventurous, we hiked up and down taking our own path going where we wanted to go.  Somehow, still at the bottom of the mountain, we found ourselves in the middle of the golf course facing the driving range.  Luckily two ladies told us the way around, and we found the Olympic bobsled run.  I don’t if it is shut down or not, but there was nobody there, and the gates were wide open.  So we went in.  After exploring the bobsled course, we hiked across the ski slopes in hopes to make it to the chapel that was half way up.  Taking shortcuts through the wilderness, I remembered how much I loved my backpacking trips I took when I was younger.  I want to start doing that again.  After many water and picture breaks, we made it to the chapel.  Once again, surprisingly enough, there was nobody there but the door was wide open.  So we went in.  The beautiful chapel combined with the view of the mountains around Innsbruck made this stop quite an experience. 

            The map had a picture of a cross a little ways up the mountain so we decided that would be a great place to have lunch.  Once there, we saw the beautiful cross over looking the valley and the mountains on the other side.  There was also an elderly women sitting under the cross who really enjoyed the little bit of German I could speak.  She couldn’t speak English, however I knew enough German to talk to her for a little while.  She told me she was eighty-six, but she did not look it.  I would have guessed low seventies, but even then, I would still have been impressed by the shape she was in and the fact that she was hiking on a mountain. 

            For the trek down, the group split up.  Rock and I wanted to take a different longer path down, and the others wanted to take the same path down.  Rock and I were so glad we took the long way.  It was extremely beautiful, and an easy hike.  We also got to record some fun bloggie videos.

            At the bottom of the mountain, we regrouped at a popular swimming hole.  The water felt so good.  It was freezing, but after a long day of hiking, there is nothing more rewarding.  We swam, layed out, and fed the fish before catching the bus back to the city.  We ate dinner at a local Viennese restaurant where I had the best chicken cordon bleu I have ever had the pleasure of eating.  We finished the night off with a trip to the casino, and I left with forty extra Euro in my pocket!