This week we went to Vienna, Austria! The 8 hour train ride there wasn’t actually as bad as I was expecting. I slept for half of it and read, played cards, and ate for the other half. Once we got there, after checking into the hotel we went on a tour of the city with the famous plague doctor, Dr. Schnable. It was just Dr. Wasser dressed up but it was pretty cool. It was especially really funny when he put his mask on and lead us through the streets. The people on the sidewalk just flew to the other side and made way for us, haha, I’m pretty sure it was out of fear but they were also so curious and could not peel their eyes away. We learned a lot about the city as well as where the hospitals were at the time of the plague and were given some of the medicines that were administered to plague patients. Some were the real medications administered but others were replicas of what was given. I really liked how interactive it was and how much effort Dr. Wasser put into the city tour because it made it really interesting and showed how much he cared about us learning the information. A little while afterwards, we went to the Goulash Museum for dinner. It wasn’t actually a museum, it was just a restaurant that specialized in goulash. They had horse goulash but I decided to get beef. I tried a piece of the horse, it was good. I’m not quite sure I would have been able to eat a whole plate of it though because it tasted like a mix between beef and venison and I don’t really like venison. But now I will never question if any mystery meat is horse because I know what that takes like. For desert we had chocolate goulash, which I was very interested to see what it would be. It was pieces of chocolate cake covered in chocolate sauce, the best surprise I could have ever received. The next day we visited the Josephinum Museum where we looked at wax figures of the body made over 250 years ago! They looked incredibly real and it was really cool being able to see the organs by themselves up close. The next day we went back to the museum but this time visited the first insane asylum every. We took a tour and this one and I enjoyed it the most out of everything we was in Vienna. It was so interesting seeing the rare diseases people had and all of the wax casts that they took of them. The people who were housed there weren’t all affected by a mental disability, some of them just had a strange looking skin disease. A lot of the rare diseases I had heard of before of medical social media accounts but I had never seen any in person. It was cool just to see the skeletons, pictures, or wax casts of these disease that occurred even hundreds of year ago. Later that day we visited the Natural History Museum of Vienna (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien) and saw the famous Venus of Willendorf that we had heard so much about in lecture. The last day in Vienna, we visited the Freud house. It was really interesting to be in his house and learn so much about it. I had heard about him in psychology class but just to learn so much more about him in greater depth was cool because he was a very interesting (for lack of a better word) man. Our final day in Vienna, we had lunch together as a group at a Pakistani restaurant. This was the first time I had ever had this type of food, it was pretty good, very different than anything I would eat on my own but sometimes I need to be pushed into those situations and leave my comfort zone. That’s what study abroad is all about.
This weekend we visited Budapest, Hungary, and Krakow, Poland! I have always heard that these were amazing places so I wanted to visit but I was also a little skeptical because they are both in East Europe. We took a three hour bus to Budapest which wasn’t bad. Our Airbnb ended up being in the old Jewish quarter which is apparently now the place to be. Our Airbnb was super cheap and was the nicest place I think I’ve ever stayed. Budapest was also very cool, I wish I could have seen more of the city but we only had one day there. It’s definitely somewhere I want to go back to while I’m still young. We ate at a restaurant that night called BORS Gastropub that was Star Wars themed. It was just a grab and go street food restaurant but that was the best sandwich I’ve ever had! I got a pulled pork sandwich with a mint and raspberry soda, I’m starting to get hungry just thinking about it. Then we took another bus to Poland. This time it was an eight hour overnight bus. It wasn’t the most comfortable, neither did I get the best sleep ever but it got us there for about 20 euros. I wasn’t expecting much in Krakow but it was so pretty! It is honestly the most Catholic place I’ve ever been and it was amazing. There is literally a church on every street corner, with the most beautiful being St. Mary’s Basilica. That was a church like I’ve never seen. The inside had every color of the rainbow in it. I was able to go to mass there Sunday morning and I was so in awe of all the detail and colors. I felt so lucky in that moment just to be there in Poland, in that church at that moment being able to celebrate my religion in such a beautiful place. The rest of Sunday, we spent at Auschwitz. It was such a good museum that I never want to have to go back. Hearing about World War II in a history class in the U.S. is very different from seeing what happened to the people and standing where so many people were killed is very different. It was a lot to process and I’m glad I got to see it but I think that’s all the World War II information I can take for a while just because it was all so heavy. That night we flew back to Bonn, sadly for our last two days there.
This is a picture from our day in Budapest!
Here's a picture of St. Mary's Basilica in Krakow, Poland. They wouldn't let us take pictures inside though.
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