Beautiful Austria

This past weekend was our first free weekend, and most of our group chose to go to Salzburg. We made it okay without too many hiccups. Saturday morning we went paragliding, and it was beautiful. It was kind of nerve wracking when the parachute lifts off the ground and pulls you backward while you are trying to go forward. It was an interesting feeling to just be lifted off the ground while still trying to walk. Once in the air, the views were amazing! One thing I noticed while in the air was there were a ton of pools in Salzburg, which I did not expect at all. Sunday we went on the Sound of Music Tour, and it was great! We were able to see a lot of places that were in the movie. It was crazy to think Julie Andrews had actually been to some of the places we visited.

We didn't leave for Vienna until Monday, so we had a very early start to get to the hotel on time.The tour of Vienna was interesting especially since we were joined by a plague doctor and given some of his medicines. The catacombs were so cool. I've never seen anything like it before. The mummified bodies were a little creepy but very interesting. I cannot believe they had one that was 300 years old! The piles of bones did freak me out quite a little bit though.

On Tuesday, we went to the Josephinum. I absolutely loved the it! It was so cool to see what medical students originally used when studying the human body. It was also interesting since I've only ever seen dog, cat, and fetal pig cadavers. Since I've already taken anatomy, I found it so much more interesting especially since I could compare some of the differences of the wax models with my canine cadaver. It was awesome to see all of the old medical tools! There were so many cool things we got to see there! During our free time on Tuesday, part of our group went to the State Hall. It was amazing! I have never seen a library that big before! They had over 200,000 books and manuscripts, which blew my mind. That evening we went to a classical concert. I really enjoyed the music and watching the musicians play their instruments. You could tell how passionate they were about it through their motions and facial expressions while playing.

Wednesday we went tothere Natural History Museum. It was interesting to see so many meteorites from the US there. I thought the dinosaur exhibit was pretty cool. I didn't know that Austria was completely underwater, so they didn't have many bones from dinosaurs. Then we went to the Narrenturm. All of the wax models and specimen were interesting to look at. I liked hearing the stories that went along with each of the specimen.

The Freud Museum was interesting too. I learned more about Freud from that excursion. I did not know he had to flee Austria, or that he had half of his jaw removed because of cancer. It was interesting to learn more about his life and him as a person.

I'm looking forward to more adventures.