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 21st 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 16th 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!
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