Adventures in Austria

Last weekend on July 10th I set out for Salzburg, Austria for my first free weekend. While we were on the train for forever it was fun to watch the landscape change to more hills and mountains. I took so many pictures trying to capture the mountains beauty and magnificence. The weekend was spent enjoying all things in Salzburg. I went into at least five churches and one fortress. My favorite part of the weekend was the Sound of Music tour on Sunday. It was amazing to see all the sites the movie was filmed at. Maybe it was a little cheesy to sing along with the songs but I enjoyed every second of it.

The weekend came to an end all too soon. I had to wake up super early(5am) to pack up and make the trek to the train station in Salzburg. Once there we hoped on a train. Two hours later our group was in Vienna. Our time in Vienna went by so fast.

While we were there, we got to see a lot of medical sites and exhibits which was interesting. Our professor got really into giving us a history of medicine tour of Vienna. He dressed up in the traditional doctors outfit of the medieval period. People on the street kept giving him a double takes because of his outfit. We experienced firsthand some of the medicines used during the time of the plague. Some were absolutely awful and didn't do anything.

In addition, we went to the josephinum which had wax figures of the human body. The figures were really accurate. It was fun to see how doctors used to study and learn the human body. All of my classmates enjoyed talking about what each figure represented. There was a special section just on women and child birth. It made me very thankful for modern medicine after seeing some of the ways child delivery used to be performed.

 Also, we got to visit one of the first psychiatric hospitals. I was disappointed that we didn't get to learn more about the hospital because today it is a pathological anatomical museum. Some of the specimens were interesting to learn about. Lastly, we got to see Freuds house. I loved learning about advancements in medicine in the places that they happened.

Now I am off for more adventures!