July 22-25

This is our last part of our week in Vienna and we decided to visit the Vienna museum and then visit the cemetery. The tour guide met us at the museum and gave us a tour of the museum which was fairly interesting and we all saw a torch holder that resembled a club with a bunch of spikes on it and looked more like weapon than anything else. Then we went and saw probably the largest cemetery I have ever seen with some of the largest tombs I have ever seen. Some of the tombs looked bigger than some guest houses I have seen. Then we had an interesting experience with our next meal when the waitress wasn't so great and Nils wasn't too pleased and left her about a 1 euro tip.

The next day was spent visiting the Medical School in Vienna which was very interesting because we got a deeper look into how the Austrian educational system worked and how one would get into medical school here in Austria and further how it would proceed if you were a student there. Then we went and saw the Narrenturm which was a circular structure where they used to house the psychiatric patients and the reason the building was circular was kind a security reason becasue the exit door would be closed and the patient would just walk in a circle until finding an open door which would be his. The building felt more like a prison than a hospital with the windows barred up, the rooms just being an empty shell with just a bed and the overall color scheme was just kind of creepy. Then we went and saw an exhibit of many diseases which had real human specimens, and I think it was used to train medical students in the past and maybe as a reference for current students.

The next day was one of my personal favorites since we visited a mostly privately owned center (NRZ Rosenhügel ) and I could relate the most to it since my father is in a joint venture in a hospital in the states and it was interesting how they did things here in Vienna. The center was probably the nicest facilities I have seen along with Bad Oyenhausen, it had a rehab pool, a fully equipped gym and all sorts of pressure plates and high speed cameras to aid with and monitor progress. The CEO of the company explained to use the different levels of stroke patients and how the different ones must be treated and the costs of each, and that the government doesn't care how much extra one patient costs over another all will be reimbursed the same. I thought that this may create a problem where hospitals would all try and get the level A and B patients because they are the most profitable, but the CEO explained that they have a moral obligation to take all levels.

After this tour, I went to go pick up a suit I bought in the center of the city and ended up getting to the train station 2 minutes after the train to Prague left, so I went and checked when the next train was and found out it was 2 hours after the last one. So then I went back to the hotel and got directions to the hostel (Sir Toby's) and then went to grab lunch and drink before the train. The train ride turned out to be a blessing in disguise, it was some very needed alone time where I could sit and relax and then go to sleep. When I arrived to the train station I went and got some CZK and got on the tram to the hostel, sure that the group had all left, but I was wrong and it turned out that they had gotten lost and had to take a taxi to the hostel so I got there only around 10 minutes after they arrived. The next day we toured around Prague and then went on a pub crawl, Chad and I stayed out a little too late and got back at around 4:30 or so and the train left at 6 so getting up was no fun, but we made it safe and sound.