Vienna Trip

Vienna. A wonderful city in a beautiful country. One of my favorite things we did was go underground to the catacombs. I never knew that people actually believed in vampires. The story about how Van Helsing could be named after the queen's doctor, Van Sweden (or whatever his name was) was so interesting! Getting a deeper insight into what life was like back then was fascinating. Famous people were kept open in their coffins for multiple days so that people could travel from far away to say goodbye. Knowing that being buried alive was an option was frightening to hear though... Regardless, I liked the catacombs and loved getting to go underground. 

Another part of Vienna I really enjoyed was the Fool's Tower. The circle structure really messed me up, and if I were locked up there, I would go crazy trying to escape. The information in there was dense, but interesting. Filling up tuberculosis lungs with wax and mercury shows how far medicine has come because we obviously now know better. I thought it was crazy how you were supposed to perform surgery in 2-3 minutes; any longer and you were a bad doctor. That doesn't even make any sense. I wonder what the reaction was like to the first doctor who took over 3 minutes to perform a surgery that actually saved a life. I'm glad this has changed now. I hated learning that people would climb the tower and mess with people through the open windows. It was smart of them to plaster the first two floors. I wish I had learned a bit more about the bad experiments that happened by the guy who created the hospital in the first place, but the stuff we did learn was fascinating. 

I loved the string quartet performance! I felt really connected to the city and its history by listening to classical music performed by strings. It reminded me of our tour seeing where Beethoven and Mozart lived and died. The people who created classical music were once in Vienna, and we got to follow their footsteps through the city and listen to their music performed live in a beautiful church. Nothing felt more right than that concert. 

The natural history museum was wonderful. The information I learned, like how the word "dinosaur" was created to mean frightened reptile, will probably be stored away in the folder of my mind titled "random information you'll remember when you're trying to take an exam". I have always loved natural history, and this museum was probably one of the best I've been to. I even touched a meteorite as old as our solar system! Stuff like this reminds me how important it is to stay curious about the world and to keep learning. The world is huge, and I have so much left to learn.

All in all, Vienna was a wonderful experience. This was my favorite excursion so far, and I hope to go back one day. I found the history to be enriching and the culture to be lovely. The tours we went on were fantastic, and I was fully engaged the whole time. I hope I can remember everything I learned so I can tell my friends and family back home.