This week we went to Vienna. The week started off with a history of medicine tour by Dr. Schnabel.
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| Dr. Schnabel in all of his garb |
We learned about and tried some of the medicines they used during the time of the Black Death in Germany (mid 14thcentury). We also learned about the methods of human dissection and how the teacher would instruct the person dissecting and would never really get his hands dirty. During these anatomical dissections, they also had students watching in what looked like a lecture hall/observation deck. Dr. Schnabel also told us about key doctors and places of that time. That night we had a group dinner at the Gulashmuseum. It isn’t an actual museum but they had many different types of goulash (most of which were too adventurous for me). We had a great dinner and to top it off I got dessert dumplings with plum filling in a vanilla sauce that was delicious!
The next day we had tours in both the Josephinum and St. Michael’s Crypt. The Josephinum was absolutely amazing. There were thousands of anatomical waxes and it is considered to be one of the best collections in the world. The Josephinum was built by Emperor Joseph II for military surgeons and was then expanded and eventually became a hospital. This hospital complex also had a psychiatric building which we toured the next day. Furthermore, the anatomical wax collection was very impressive given that the waxed dated from about 18thcentury. We also learned that the waxes were made in Florence, Italy and then moved to Vienna, Austria, which is also quite a mind-blowing feat as well. Going to the Josephinum was definitely one of my favorite parts of this program. The vastness and detail of the collection was astounding and extremely interesting.
After the Josephinum, we went to the crypt. Inside there were some mummified bodies which were a little spooky but it was a unique experience for sure. After we had some free time and some of us went to café Demel for pastries. I got apple strudel and vanilla ice cream and it was still warm and I felt like a true Austrian. That night we went to a classical music concert in St. Anna's Chuch. The string quartet played compositions by Mozart and Beethoven. It was absolutely beautiful and the church’s architecture was equally as stunning.
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| St. Anna's |
On Wednesday we had a guided tour of the Fool’s Tower. The Fool’s Tower, as mentioned above was near the Josephinum, and was made for psychiatric patients. It was built in a cylindrical fashion so that when the patients wanted to walk around they could walk in a circle and end up in their room again. There were also 28 windows on each level of the building which comes from the 28 days that correspond to the lunar phases. So we learned that it was believed that some psychiatric issues were dependent on the phases of the moon and that is where the word ‘lunatic’ originates from. Inside of the Fool’s Tower, we saw a large collection of anatomical abnormality specimens as well as wax casts of many bodily abnormalities. The medical student who gave us this tour was very informative and told us about how the wax casts were made and gave us a lot of background regarding the specimens and waxes that we saw. This tour was another one of my favorites!
Then we ventured to Schloss Belvedere which was very pretty!
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| Schloss Belvedere |
Afterward, we met up with the group at the Natural History Museum and had a guided tour through the museum. We saw the Willendorf Venus, their stone collection, and much more.
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| Willendorf Venus |
The architecture of the museum was amazing and beautiful. The staircases were expanse with great marble (and we later learned they also used plaster that was painted and polished to look like marble). Later we went to watch the Germany- South Korea soccer match. Sadly, Germany lost but it was fun to be with my classmates and coordinator, Henning, and TA, Alexa, to watch the game.
On our last day in Austria, we went to the Sigmund Freud house. Dr. Wasser gave us a very informative tour. It was amazing to stand where Freud stood and to see his office where he synthesized Freudian analysis. Our tour was followed by a lecture in which we learned about Freud’s work and thoughts as well as some personal history of this life. It was amazing to be in Freud’s house and to listen to a lecture about his life. I absolutely loved Vienna! It was a beautiful city with so many different experiences. I saw things I would never have known to find by myself and learned massive amounts about medical practices and the history of medicine.
That evening for our weekend travels, my friends and I went to Budapest, Hungary. We arrived at our Airbnb safely and we all had to use the bathroom. There were 8 of us and we had 2 rolls of toilet paper. And you would think this would be enough to last us 1 day. Well, we all went to the bathroom and someone went back in and said “where did all the toilet paper go???” and I said “there is another roll behind the toilet” and they said “no it’s gone” so I went in to look and it wasn’t there. So, in the matter of an hour of being there, 8 of us used 2 rolls of toilet paper which I don’t know whether to classify it as impressive or scary. Anyway, we didn’t have any toilet paper and the Airbnb didn’t provide paper towels so we were out of luck for the next 12 hours. On Friday we sight saw in Budapest. We went to St. Stephen's Basilica, Matthias Chruch, and the Széchenyi Thermal Baths. All of which were awesome!
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| St. Stephen's Basilica |
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| Széchenyi Thermal Baths |
We then had the absolute best pulled pork sandwiches at Bors gastrobar. It was so delicious and I still crave them. We also ate chimney cakes which are these little bread cakes that are made of sugary goodness. Then on Saturday, we went to Krakow, Poland. We looked around at all there was to see and went to the Wawel Cathedral as well as the Wawel Royal Castle.
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| Wawel Cathedral |
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| chimney cake! |
They were situated on top of a small hill and the gardens around the area were beautiful. We also ate traditional perogies which were made of potatoes, onions, and cheese. On Sunday we went to Auschwitz 1 and 2. It was definitely an experience I think everyone should have. It was saddening and upsetting but also very educational. It definitely gave me more of a feel for what actually happened in Nazi death camps and work camps. I am appreciative of the experience to visit such a place and learn more about it. Afterward, we flew home and packed up for our next adventure to Berlin!
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