Week 5!

 Vienna and Prague

Boy was this past week busy! After a restful weekend on Bonn, we started the week with a few lectures from Dr. Wasser and Dr. Fajt on Monday before we left for Vienna. 

Tuesday, we headed to Vienna on a long a train ride. Though the train ride was long, we ended our long travel day by eating at Zwolf Apostellkeller. I had the delicious veal schnitzel and an apple and cream strudel. Our first full day was jam packed with lots of tours and activities, starting with a city tour from Dr. Schnobel. I thoroughly enjoyed this tour as we got to see a lot of the city, gained some cool historical lessons, and witnessed how people were naturally so interested in the Dr's uniform. After a lunch at the America themed Sparky's, we headed to the Drogistenmuseum where we got a chance to see the evolution of pharmacology and the development of pharmacies. Overall, the herbs and the various historical drugs and perfumes were very interesting to see and learn about. After this museum was the crypt! This was my first ever crypt to enter, but it far exceeded my expectations. It was a bit spooky at first, but seeing how well the remains have kept up and what you can still tell from the people that lay in their coffins was amazing. My expectations for other crypts will be so high now. 

Our second day in Vienna was busy, starting with the Military Academy filled with wax models of various anatomical structures and systems. This was such an interesting museums because it really showed how artistically beautiful the body can be depicted. We headed to the Freud Museum after this and received a wonderful lecture from Dr. Wasser about the life and philosophies of Freud. I really didn't know much about him, but found everything about our subconscious and the processes he did to come to his conclusion very interesting. We had a yummy Pakistani lunch after this then headed to the Narrenturm museum where various illnesses and were presented by more wax models and other preparations. Despite the gross nature of the preparations, this museum was cool to see. If anyone needs a place to get sushi in Vienna, go to KitchA, it was super delicious. We finished the day with a great performance at the string quartet concert. 

Our last day in Vienna began with a trip to the Natural History museum, which may have been my favorite museum. The variety of exhibitions and beauty of everything presented was really cool to see, I wish we could spend forever in there. It was also in the very pretty museum district of Vienna. Later, we headed to Prague, Czechia! Overall, this city was super cool architecturally and had lots of great options for food and exploration. While we were there, we toured the palace and cathedral on the palace grounds, while also getting great views of the city. The gardens below the palace had the best views of the city and beautiful flowers everywhere, but had so many stairs I could get my workout in for that day. The Czech Republic is known for its kolaches, and I can confirm they do live up to the hype. I wish we had more time in Prague to explore the other side of the river and learn a little more history, but that means I will just have to go back. 

Now that we are nearing the end of our study abroad, everything has seemed a little bittersweet. We are all tired and missing home a bit, but these experiences we have made have been so important and so memorable. I'll make sure to soak in every bit of this last week we are here with all of our classmates and house family!