Monday, July 16, 2018

The land not down under

Another day, another train to some place I forgot existed. This time our class is traveling to the mystical land of Vienna. I've always heard of Austria, I even religiously watched The Sound of Music every time I visited my grandparents, but I failed to grasp the reality of it and always confused Austria for Australia when I would hear the country mentioned in conversation.

Here, we got to go to so many places that only strengthened my love for the medical field. My favorite places were the Josephinum, the psychiatric hospital, and the crypt. We got to see wax models of all the systems of the human body, we got to see samples of different rare conditions, and we got to see actual mummies hidden beneath the church.

In the Josephinum, I got to see all sorts of things that I've never even been able to process. Each wax figure was so in depth and detailed and now, I have a better grasp of the human body.

Back in Paris, I wanted to go to the Catacombs so bad and, sadly, I didn't get the chance to go. Luckily, Vienna is home to many crypts the effectively filled the void left by the catacombs. I've never thought I would see a mummy in such a casual setting. We literally walked into a beautiful church, turned a couple corners, went down a staircase, and boom mummies and coffins everywhere. It was so odd thinking about the juxtaposition. An actual church service was occurring right above us and we were standing there on top of five feet of crushed bones. It's so weird seeing places with so much history after living in a very young town for the entirety of my life.

After Vienna, I ran out of money and was not able to continue my streak of crazy traveling. This is when I first felt homesick. I had been so busy this entire time that I didn't have time to miss home. I finally realized that normal life was coming back soon and this was my time to mentally prepare myself for that moment.

It was almost time to leave Bonn for good and I definitely was not ready. On one of our last days, me, Chandler, and Alexa decided to finally climb Drachenfels. This was literally the first structure I saw when I used to look up Bonn before this trip. We climbed all the way to the top, we refused to use the tram in order to get the full effect. We got to the top and I could see all of Bonn. It was an amazing, yet sad, experience. I could see all the town that I had been living in just days before I was leaving it forever.

A couple days later, I left Bonn for good. I hope to return one day to the city that gave me the best summer of my life.

No comments: