A week in the city of music

Vienna, or Wein to the natives has been an interesting place. We're here in what seems like the off season for t would have been nice to see the Vienna Boys choir in concert or an opera or something. Wednesday we did catch a tourist-y Mozart concert and the string orchestra was really good, but the two singers were not at the same level.

Today started out in the Vienna graveyard where we spent quite a long time searching fruitlessly for the graves of Sigmund Freud's parents and the people who've donated their bodies to science. It reminded me of spending 45 minutes looking for Jim Morrison's grave in Paris and then not having time to look at any other graves. I think because of that experience and being able to visit the church the morning was actually pretty pleasant. In contrast with the medical tour of the city on Tuesday morning, which if I'm being honest I found uninteresting and boring, this tour actually had things that were still there we wer looking for (even if we couldn't find them) we weren't just imagining what the Jewish section of a cematary would look like because we could see it.

Also the best part of the morning was certainly the Cemetary church. I've always kind of tough that Art Deco was a tacky style of art, but this church which was decorated inside completely Art Deco was wonderful. The simple repetition of paterns and the wonderful color choices were just so appealing and the inside of the dome was more beautiful and moving than a more traditional mural by tenfold.

I split off from the group when we had free time for lunch to practice my traveling alone skills before this weekend, Stephansplatz was quite pleasant this afternoon.

Desert at Cafe Demel started off the afternoon activities right and I had a delicious piece of super chocolately cake. Then we went to the University's History of Medicine museum which had a bunch of interesting old instruments and information about developments in medicine as well as an absolutely amasing collection of wax anatomical models that were so well done they relly reminded me of Gunther Von Haagen's plasticine models, they were truly pieces of medical art.

The day ended with wonderful traditional Vienese (sp?) food and a rain storm that will hopefully tame the terrific heat that's plagued our entire time in Wien.

-Caitlin