Prague!

I have looked forward to travelling to Prague since I was little. Knowing that it was left untouched after the world wars has always drawn me to it and I’m happy that I’ve seen it with my own eyes and experienced it. Being an eastern European city, its charm is different than that of Vienna or Munich. It was a little rough around the edges coming into the city from the train station, but arriving at Sir Toby’s Hostel was like coming home to a warm fire and freshly baked cookies after a long day of travel. I heard about Sir Toby’s originally through a Breakaway Ministries summer Podcast, which specifically mentioned The Mosaic House, a sister hostel of Sir Toby’s. After perusing the suggested hostels that Dr. Wasser had recommended, I saw that Sir Toby’s was listed there, so I knew that I wanted to go and see what all of the rave reviews were about.  I also met a girl named Beth who is interning with Sir Toby’s for the summer  doing an evangelism program and she and I got to talking about how I heard about Sir Toby’s and it turns out that she knows Breakaway Ministries and even listens to the podcasts. This was cool for me because I love Breakaway Ministries and what they do on the Texas A&M campus, creating an environment for Aggies to come together, worship, and study the Bible together. I was also astounded because it’s not often that you find a hostel in the middle of Europe that is so welcoming to so many different kinds of people, and yet has evangelism and the gospel of Christianity set as its core. I loved stumbling upon a treasure like Sir Toby’s in a happenstance way like this and I loved staying there too.I met people from new York, California, the Netherlands, England, and Chile. Breakfast is by far my favorite meal of the day and Sir Toby’s has it all, which I greatly appreciated. I loved seeing the beauty and history of prague but I have to say that I would go back for sir toby’s.  That being said, the Charles Bridge, The steps to the castle, the old town square, and the astronomical clock were all places that we saw in Praha and though it’s a definite tourist destination, I was happy to be a tourist and see the sights of Prague for a day. On a whole, Prague is a stunning city and Sir Toby’s is the best Hostel that I’ve ever encountered, and the best that I suspect I will ever encounter, and I’ll be back someday. 

A beautiful week in Wien

Before I set foot in Vienna, I had no extreme predilections of what I would think and feel about this city in contrast to the other places that I’ve been to in Europe.  I didn’t know what to expect at all and what I found was extraordinary. Upon our arrival to Vienna from Munich, I was exhausted from a week of acclimating to the rhythm of this program and I feared that I might not be prepared to fully appreciate it’s beauty and history. Fortunately, after a good night’s sleep at the Deutchmeister , a delicious breakfast, and a spontaneous mélange and sacher torte at Café Demel, I knew that Vienna was going to be one of my favorite corners of the world.  I have had a keen interest in the history of medicine since high school and I had a wonderful teacher who instilled in me how instrumental and fulfilling it is to be educated on this section of history. I couldn’t help but think of her as Dr. Wasser guided us through the city, stopping to talk about various “fathers” of bacteriology, toxicology, physiology, and more. As a young person who grew up in such a modernized time, it’s mind boggling and awe inspiring to me when I hear about the people who first inquired, experimented, and spent their lives making progress and discoveries in medicine. I feel so grateful for their works, and challenged to not let myself become stagnant and simply accept everything I learn as concrete knowledge, because who knows what is left to be discovered in medicine? This city that is rooted so deep in the history of Europe, endured the Plague and two world wars still exists as a paradigm of music, medicine, philosophy, and culture, and history, which to me makes Vienna an absolute privilege to experience. I loved visiting the medical school there and hearing the striking differences between the medical education offered there, and the one that I’m pursuing in the states. While I envy their opportunity to streamline into medicine after high school graduation with only an entrance exam, I have to criticize the system in that it doesn’t view a student in a holistic way as American schools do. They’re certainly onto something since they’re matriculation rates are high and they only accept the highest scoring students. Nonetheless, I’m content to continue jumping through flaming hoops to build up my strength as an applicant and work towards my goal of attending medical school and becoming a physician. Walking through the old insane asylum that now holds the wax models was hands down one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. It awakened my curiosity about so many diseases and conditions that have never sparked my interest before, mostly because I haven’t seen many bad diseases right in front of me like that. The models at the Josephinum were equally as fascinating, particularly the obstetric models.  I’m floored by the age of these models and how much detail was known or suspected about the body over 200 years ago. The Freud museum surprised me, mainly because I didn’t know much more about Freud than his stranger theories which puzzle me quite a bit. I was interested to learn about his struggle with his mouth once it became diseased from years of continuous cigar smoking. The fact that he lived with such an invasive prosthesis and continued his work surprised me and made me more curious about him as a person.  Learning Vienna’s history as a civilization, alongside its history in the scope of medicine, accompanied by a daily mélange is what I’d like to call a great week, and I would love to return to Vienna and do it all over again!

Praha, Ceska Republika

We came to see one of the more developed cities of what is known as Eastern Europe, Prague in the Czech Republic it was very noticalbe the differences between a fully Westernize city and a city that was once part of the Warsaw Pact.  We arrived around the afternoon and quickly found are way to hostel, hostel proved itself to be a very friendly environment for tourist, me personally I really liked the fact that a lot of the hostel attendants were Spanish speakers they had one Colombian, one Spaniard, and one girl who was half Czech and half Cuban, I also met quite a few Brazilians, Australians, and Japanese who were either taken a vacation from work or studying abroad it was a very nice blend of culture.  On the tour of Prague our guide was quite a good historian about history of prague and the Czech Republic from the Celtics tribes that Romans who named the region Bohemia to being a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to communism under the soviet union to finally a free republic Czech Republic has quite the history to tell.  We came into one of the princicple churches that our guide told us a very funny and creepy story about the patron saint of the church I don’t recall the name of the saint.  The story goes the church had many valuable articafts of jewelry and there was a thief who wised to steal them so the thief disguised himself as one of the priest and came into the church he hid unitl everyone left the church and it was dark.  So the thief looks around for something of high value to steal he sees the patron saint statue with beautiful necklace and decides that is the item he is going to take.  As he reaches for the necklace the statue grabs the thief by the arm in vice grip thielf fights to get free but its futile he remained in grip of the statue unitl the priest find him there in the morning.  The priest cut of his harm and cart away the thief to disposed off and they took the arm, mummified it and hanged it from the wall as a reminder to all who try to steal from church will not end well.  He told another few more stories that were both odd and funny to hear but the highlight of the tour was seeing Charles Bridge.  The bridge was on quite the scenic paronoma the sights from the bridge were just beautiful, I even purchased a painting of the bridge it was a little pricy but I thought it was definetly worth it though.  We went to top of the hill in prague where the castle is situated at we saw a small display of corvettes and the changing of the castle guard, quite the spectacle needless to say.  Lastly we finished our exploring of Prague with another sceneic picture area of the castle and souvenir shopping.  Our final part in our little adventure in Prague was guided pup crawl with hostel of Prague brining all of their tourist together to show them a good time, which they didn’t disappoint.  My one complain of Prague are the merchants and taxis everything here is exuberenlty priced to take advantage of the naiveness of the tourist, specially the taxi going back to the hostel over priced and took more money then he should of but what is done is done and we are all now on our way to our home away from home, Bonn.  

Tsiekes Wien

And so our time in Vienna has come to an end and here I am sitting on the train on the way to Prague, Czech Republic feeling very happy about the days I spend in the city of the former Hapsburg Empire.  I was rather surprise at the ease of navigation of the city of Vienna the St. Stephans Cathedral served as an excellent landmark as its based right smack in the center of the city and the fact that our hotel was so close to the subway stations that we took often.  Here in Vienna they have what is called “Kaffe Culture” as Vienna is famous for its coffee shops, and I as a fanatic of coffee drink came to appreciate the time we were in coffee shops except the prices of the drinks they were even more expensive then starbucks …. And that’s saying something oh and the Kaffe Maria Theresia, extremely bitter even for my preference of not so sweet coffee.   The two portions of the program I liked best was the tour of the history museum of Vienna and the tour of the Museum of natural history, mostly because they satisfied my two primary interest in history, military and natural history such as zoology and paleontology.  In the history museum the portion I enjoyed best was the history of Vienna in the middle ages and in the 1600 to 1800 where Vienna served as the eastern front against the powerful Ottoman Empire and turned the Turks back not once but twice.  In the Museum of Natural History we saw two famous pieces of historical value: One the Jeweled bouquet of Maria Theresa to her husband containing many pieces pieces of precious stones and diamonds as well as leaves made out of silk and the Venus of Wilcommof the stone carving of a woman with large breast, wide hips, and no face that dates back to 25,000 years ago.  From the exhibition I preferred the specimens exhitions showing a large variety of fauna and insects of the various families and orders as well as the exhibitions of enormous prehistoric sea turtle fossils.  We went to visit the Imperial Palace of the Hapsburg that now serves as an exhitions of some famous works of various style from romantism to realism it has quite a collection of master pieces and we had the chance to see the famous “kiss” painiting but me personally I preferred the simple picture of a dog resting his head on a table looking at a bowl of food.  A few tours of the city were made as well as a tour of the Medical School of Vienna, the Tower of the Collection of Anatomical and Obsteric Wax Models, Sigmund Frued Museum, and the catacombs of St. Stephans Dome.  I felt the time in Vienna was too short we did so much so fast it felt like we weren’t there for much time at all even though we were there for 5 days technically speaking.  It has  been a real eye opener the difference between the States and Europe both culturally and the academic system but we will continue to see the rest of Europe and see what it has to unfold.  

Our Second Weekend in Praha

The group!

        Prague was a beautiful city.  Coming from Vienna it was a bit of a shock, but it definitely made for a great weekend.  When we first arrived to the train station, I was shocked by all of the Czech words.  To think that German was a confusing language! I missed my German.  I also missed the Euro and the friendliness of the Germans and Austrians.
        We made it to Prague around 7:00pm on Friday.  We were worn out from all of the travelling so getting to Sir Toby’s was an instant relief.  I loved Sir Toby’s.  We were greeted with a warm welcome and the Columbian guy at the front desk began listing all of the different things that the hotel was offering that weekend.  They had everything covered.  We even got free barbecue that night.  Another thing that I loved about the hostel was the diversity of the people living there.  There were people from Spain, Melbourne, Amsterdam, New York, California, and many others.  It was fun to hang out in the pub in the basement and to talk to everyone and find out what brought them to Prague.  The breakfast at Sir Toby’s was spectacular.  I was able to make scrambled eggs and pancakes and I had delicious coffee and fruit and cereal.  It was so wonderful.

The astronomical clock

Charles Bridge

        On Saturday we started the day off with a walking tour through the city.  The Czech Republic has such a different background than most of the western European countries, and it was very interesting.  We then walked over the Charles Bridge and walked up to the castle, where we witnessed a terrific view of the city.  Prague was gorgeous.  Sunday was basically a travel day.  The ten-hour journey back home to Bonn was brutal but we got through it and were ready to be back.
        I absolutely loved Prague.  I thought it was beautiful but I also recognize that it was not a true eastern European city.  In the future I would like to come back to see more of what I only got a glimpse of during our weekend, but I would also like to experience cities like Budapest.

A Week in Wien

By the time we all made it to Vienna for the second week, we gained experience getting around Europe on our own.  It was definitely a struggle and I wished I had some more arm muscle, but the reward of making it to Hotel Deutschland safely Monday morning made it all worth it.

Vienna is the best city in the world.  I fell madly in love with it from the beginning and my love for it grew more and more each day.  One of the highlights of the week was all of the amazing food.  The wienerschnitzel, apfelstrudel, sachertorte, goulash, chocolate soufflé, and mélange all made my taste buds tingle.  I wanted to eat five meals a day because one week was hardly enough to experience it all.  Another thing I found enchanting about the city was the café couture.  If I had an extra afternoon in Vienna, I would want to spend it in a café with a good book and a mélange. The café couture reminded me of some of the coffee shops in College Station but there really isn’t a comparison.  Sweet Eugene’s has nothing on Café Demel.

Another thing I found intriguing about the city was the artistic influence.  As I walked through the city, I would just stumble upon statues of great composers.  I took pictures next to Chopin and Brahms and tried to picture myself in Vienna in the time of all of the great composers.   It would be a lovely experience.  Going to the concert of Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony in a cathedral was so wonderful.  The music was great and it was so fun to take in all of the interesting details of the cathedral as the musicians played.  The art at the Belvedere was also breathtaking.  I especially enjoyed the Klimt exhibit.  It was cool to see how he developed as an artist throughout his life and The Kiss was such a beautiful piece of art.

I also obviously enjoyed the medical aspect of the trip.  The medical walk through Vienna was so informative and it was interesting that so much medical history occurred in such a short walking distance.  I just wish I wrote down all of the names of the physicians.  Visiting the Freud house was very interesting to me.  Freud was an incredibly influential psychologist and although so many of his theories seem far-fetched and strange, there is much merit to many of them.  I enjoyed sitting on the couch in his psychoanalysis room and breathing in his air.  The next day at the Vienna Medical School was also great.  I found myself completely jealous about how medical students go through medical school and how they don’t have to first get their bachelor’s degree.  Touring the round asylum with the pathological wax models and the other preparations was one of the coolest things I have ever done.  I wished I knew more about the diseases but I tried to imagine myself as a medical student learning from those models in another era.  The models were so lifelike.  I felt the same way about the Josephinum wax models.  The obstetrics room was my favorite because I found the different positions of the baby in the uterus to be interesting and the different models with the twins.  I was completely impressed with the detail in each of the models and was stunned that it was all so accurate until Dr. Wasser pointed out the lymph node man.  They weren’t perfect.

Vienna was amazing.  I definitely want to go back someday.

München

I am writing the first weekend blog while on the train to get back to Bonn after our second weekend in Prague, and this makes me feel like a terrible student.  I am having such a great time studying abroad and though I am learning so much, it feels like I am on vacation.  I love Europe.

We spent our first weekend in Munich.  All ten of us stayed together like a cute little family and we all had a great time.  The hard part was getting around and having to be responsible for everything we were doing.  Olivia was missed.  We took a train leaving Bonn at 3:30 Saturday morning and although it was nice to get there right at breakfast, that early train ride threw me off and I had trouble staying awake and fully enjoying the Saturday in Munich.  When we got there, we dropped our luggage off at the hostel and then wandered around to find Mike’s Bike Tour.  Half of the group did a walking tour and the other half did the bike tour.  I was in the bike group and absolutely loved it.  We biked to some of the more famous historical sites but my favorite part was biking through the English Garden.  The English garden in Munich is about 1.25 times the size of Central Park in NYC and the wonderful weather made that bike through the greenery a beautiful site.  We stopped at the surfing spot and I fully enjoyed watching.  After the tour was over, we met the rest of the group at St. Augustiner and ate dinner and then headed over to Hofbrauhaus.  Hofbrauhaus was definitely fun to go but it was way overpriced and there were too many tourists.  There was a band playing and that was a lot of fun to listen to.

On Sunday I went to Neuschwanstein Castle with part of the group.  We took a train to Fussen early in the morning and walked around the town before taking a bus up to Hohenschwangau.  The town was absolutely beautiful.  I could have stayed there for an entire weekend to just take it all in.  The Bavarian mountains were breathtaking.  The only downside was that the proximity to the castles made Fussen populated with too many tourists.  Once we got to the castles, we visited Hohenschwangau before Neuschwanstein.  The major letdown of the day was that the beautiful picturesque side of Neuschwanstein that looks just like Cinderella’s castle in Disney World was covered in scaffolding.  I was definitely upset.  The other bummer was walking up an incredibly steep mountain to get to Neuschwanstein.  No wonder Europeans are so fit even after so much beer.  It was so exhausting.  The insides of the castles were pretty and it was interesting to learn about the strange life of King Ludwig but I thought it was unnecessarily overpriced.  When we went back to Fussen, we played in a playground for a good hour while we waited for our train to take us back to Munich and that was a definite highlight of the weekend.  It was a great playground.

The next day we took a train to Vienna prepared for an awesome week!

Czechs and Crowns

Hello from somewhere between Berlin and Bonn! We are currently on our train ride back to Bonn from our second free weekend in Prague. After every week I always wish that we had spent more time in the cities that we visited. There is simply too much to see and too little time in the five weeks we have in Europe.

Being unknowledgeable like I always, I was a little shocked to find out about the change in currency and language. Nevertheless, as soon as we arrived at Sir Toby’s I fell in love with Prague. The people at the hostel were so incredibly welcoming, there were plenty of English speakers—from Canadians to Australians, and the downstairs pub not only was very comfortable and “homey-feeling,” but also had some of the best drinks I have ever had. And as always, free Wifi and BBQ dinner is something were very pleased about after a long train ride. Then some American guys that we met at the basement pub invited us to go out with them. Even though most of our group was tired, I really wanted to go with them because they had been in Prague for the past few days and knew how to get to the legitimate “night-life” places around the area. Morgan, Michelle, Mario, and I surprisingly ended up going out with our new friends. Our first stop was a labyrinth of underground bars and pubs that had multiple bars connected to each other by a small hallway or flight of stairs. Then we went to Cross Club, a multiple-story club that was bombarded by smoke, all sorts of drugs, and zombie-like intoxicated people. It was a scene I have never witnessed anywhere in the States. The rapid techno music reminded me of being in a rave, except a million times sped up. The walls were covered with moving automobile parts, with wheels over wheels spinning each other. This night was a good experience overall, and I feel like I got a taste of what the real night life of Czech was like—not just a night from a “tourist’s” point of view.

On our second day in Prague, we woke up early to go on the free tour. We walked through Old Town, passed by a couple of the churches, and ended the tour on the Charles Bridge. The city is really beautiful, and I am sad that I was not able to take any pictures after my camera battery died. Walking across the bridge was an awesome experience though. It was particularly windy on the bridge, and both sides across the entire bridge were lined up with booths and mini-markets where localists would try to sell their photography or art work. It reminded me a lot of the markets and booths in downtown Austin. We then climbed up a hill that felt like we were hiking up a mountain, and went to the Castle of Prague. The view from the top of the hill was beautiful, and looked exactly like how it did on the Bachelorette. Afterwards, we all came back to the hostel and ate dinner before going to the bar-hopping event with Sir Toby’s. The event was 400 Crowns/16 Euros, which included unlimited beer/wine for an hour and two free shots, and we ended the night at the infamous five-story disco. It was a successful night and we all got home from the cab at around 4:30 in the morning.

The only thing that I did not like about our experience in Prague was getting thrown off by the currency change. When we were withdrawing cash from an ATM, a guy told Caleb that “he needed” change and snatched a 1000 Crown bill from his hand and quickly ran off after giving him two fake bills. It was frustrating because none of us had realized that the two 500 bills were not in Crowns and we had waited so long to chase after the guy. When we were coming back to the hostel in the cab, we ran out of Crowns and offered the cab driver to pay in Euros and he incorrectly made us pay much more than we were supposed to. Aside from some bad luck, I thoroughly enjoyed my first time in the Czech Republic. From the way people dress to the crazy night life, Prague as a whole is very attractive to me. I definitely plan to visit Prague and come back to Sir Toby’s with my friends in the near future.

Traveling at the Speed of Light

250 kilometers per hour.  That's how fast our ICE train was traveling between Berlin and Bonn. 155 mph, for those of us with Imperial minds, is pretty fast, but life the previous week felt like it was speeding by at a rate closer to 671 million mph, or 1080 million km/h, otherwise known as the speed of light.

Monday began in Munich, but ended in Vienna. Then, before I knew it, Friday was there and I was leaving for Prague. Now it’s Monday again, and I’m in Bonn. My host mother and father told me, separately, today that they’d never had a group do as much traveling as ours, and they’ve been hosting students for over fifteen years.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to travel and get to see new places, but sometimes it’s nice to be back in a familiar place where I can just relax. I honestly didn’t realize this until the train ride from Prague back to Germany. Olivia and Dr. Wasser had both previously told the group we’d be thrilled to be back in Bonn after nine days away, but I wasn’t entirely sure I believed them. Sure, I’d liked the week I’d spent here before leaving, but I didn’t really feel too attached. Oh, was I wrong. Even arriving in Berlin and seeing German advertisements rather than ones in Czech was comforting. However, nothing compared to stepping off the train in the Bonn Hauptbahnhof and knowing exactly where I was and how to get “home.”

That was the first time I’d thought of my room in Bonn as home. Before, it’d just been “my host family’s house” or “where I’m staying.” Now though, it’s a place where I can just slow down, look back, and let my mind catch up with my life.

My time spent in Vienna was without a doubt magnificent, amazing, and thoroughly enjoyable. Whether I was touring the Medical University or walking through the catacombs below Stephan’s Dom, I was blissfully happy. The food was great, the history museum awe-inspiring in its detail, the Freud museum fascinating, the Belvedere beautiful, the Josephenum incredible, and the Natural History Museum too grand for words. The highlight for me though, was the Spanish Riding School, or Spanisch Hofreitschule, where I got to spend an hour watching beautiful Lipizzaner horses perform, play, and have fun. Even then though, when I was having the time of my life, that hour felt like a minute.

Five hours after the too-soon departure from Vienna, I arrived in Prague and hit the brick wall known as a language barrier. Before traveling to Germany, I’d had some practice with the German language, so I knew what I was looking at or hearing, and could maybe understand a little of it. But even though I grew up in a small Czech town, the only phrase I know (Jak se mas?) was of no help whatsoever. The Czech words are also so different from the English variations that inference of meaning is nearly impossible. Thankfully, the hostel in which I and the rest of the group were staying was incredibly helpful with directions, recommendations, and an overall just plain friendly attitude…In English. For the rest of the weekend, I and the group didn’t stray far from Sir Toby’s unless on a trip led by one of the staff members. Those trips led us to mostly tourist areas where English was much more common, and we managed to get by and enjoy ourselves immensely.

Sunday brought with it another day of travel, and for the first time in over a week, time seemed to slow back down. Perhaps ten hours of train travel always does that. No matter what, I welcomed my return to Bonn with open arms.

~Daily Blogs Posted Below Break~

Sir Toby's made the trip

This weekend the group went to Prague, Czech Republic! We are now on the 2nd leg of the train ride back to Bonn as part of our10 hour total trip. I can safely say that I already miss Bonn and my host family so it’ll be nice to go back, but I have also had a great experience seeing new places and new countries over the past 9 days. The summary I can make of Prague is that yes, it has a lot of beautiful history that was preserved in the war, but overall the people there were not anywhere near as friendly as the Germans. This to me lowered my good experience of the place but thank goodness for Sir Toby’s!!

Sir Toby’s, our hostel, was amazing and so welcoming after I had my doubts about Prague on the train ride in. The place was full of other Americans and English speaking teenagers who were either studying abroad or just on vacation to travel around Europe. Breakfast was included in what we paid for (which was delicious), they had the ability to wash clothes and even use a kitchen if you wanted to make food. We showed up on Friday around dinner time and they were having a free barbeque on the back deck!

On Saturday we went on a free walking tour provided through Sir Toby’s (once again, awesome) and learned a lot about the time period before and during the wars in that part of the Europe. We watched the astronomical clock strike the hour which was great given the technology they had but I’m glad I was told not to get my hopes up. I tried pork goulash at a traditional Czech restaurant and then we walked up to where the castle used to be and got there in time to see the changing of the guards. I spent most of my money on souvenirs in Prague because they had so many beautiful paintings and just interesting knick knacks that are so different from the more westernized parts of Europe that I’ve been to. That night we joined in a bar hop also provided through Sir Toby’s. It was a great deal for the price and I had a lot of fun!

Overall, Prague wasn’t my favorite place I’ve been to so far though. I guess I just wasn’t as prepared for it to be so different and when it wasn’t as pleasant and urbanized as Germany I was disappointed. I could also just be getting tired and worn out with all the traveling. Next time I’ll just have to plan and research the place I’m going more before being tossed into a different culture (the pricing of things was getting confusing!) If I did go back though, I will most definitely be staying at Sir Toby’s hostel!!

With Love from Prague

Prague was an adventure unlike any other. Let me start by telling you about the best hostel in all of Europe Sir Tobys. Sir Tobys is not like staying in any other hostel or hotel. It is like moving in with 50 other people in your same situation and having a once in a lifetime adventure with them. The staff feels like you are talking to your best friend and are overly welcoming. When we pulled into Sir Tobys I felt like I was home. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to travel to Prague no matter their age or situation.

The city is breathtaking. We went on a free walking tour of the city and learned a little bit about everything. The Jewish Quarter was an especially interesting area of Prague. I had never heard of it before and was confused about its perfect condition after World War II. Come to find out, this area was kept up during Hitler’s rule to be a museum about the extinct race. Luckily this never happened. I also learned that Prague had everything that could have prevented World War II, but the action was not implemented. It is crazy to think the world’s history could be so different if maybe one person had made a different decision. 

Overall Prague was amazing and I loved it. Not top on my list to come back to, but it was a great experience and I am glad I had the opportunity to experience it. 

Melange in Wien

The week in Vienna was amazing. I didn't really know what to expect because I didn't really know much about Vienna. The culture was definitly different from Germany and the people seemed to be more proper and more refined. Vienna just seemed to give off a higher class attitude than any of the cities we visited in Germany. The cafe couture was to sit in a cafe all day and drink melange and read the newspaper. I just feel like thats on the sophisticated side, at least to me. There seemed to also be more construction going on in Vienna than any of the German cities, it looked like they were building more modern buildings. You could tell that Vienna survived the war much better than Germany did. There were a lot more original/older buildings still around. I feel like we got to do more things that were medically relevant in Vienna than we had been doing in Bonn. We had less lectures but we got to go to more places that we relevent to medicine. My favorite day so far has been the day we got to go to the Vienna medical school and then visit the Josephinum and the Federal Pathologic Anatomical museum. I loved looking at all the models of the different diseases and it just amazes me that people sat down and made the models so realistic and detailed. I thought it was a really good idea to help doctors study and I wish we could study on models like those. Though I suppose they're obsolete now since we have photographs but still I think we should bring them back. The josephinum was amazing. The wax models of the human body were just astounding. It was just mind blowing to think that someone sat down and made them, they were so exact and detailed it had to have take years to complete. Also, the collection was so vast I could have spent days in there studying all the pieces. There was also a collection of old doctors equipment that was very expansive. I really wish I could have had the time to sit and there and study it all. That day so far has been the highlight of my trip. Another thing that I thought was really cool was being able to have a lecture about Sigmund Freud in his house where he practiced. That was a once in a lifetime experience. There's a whole other dimension to learning in a place where things actually happened. The medical history walk was also really cool, just walking around the city and seeing all the places where important doctors lived and learning about the unique things that happened there. That is the type of learning I really enjoy, the interactive learning. It makes the information come alive. The natural history museum was also really awesome. It was so much cooler than the Houston natual science museum. The collections were so expansive, they seemed to have everything. I didn't realize there were so many different types of stone but the rock collection took up like 4 huge rooms. The animal collection was the same. They seemed to have every type of animal imaginable. It just kind of brings into prespective the vastness of nature and how many different types of animals inhabit the earth. Then to think that thousands of species are going extinct before they're even known is just kind of humbling. The Venus of Willendorf was cool, she was carved with such detail and seemed to have held up really well for being so old. I really love old buildings so the fact that the museum was in such a beautiful old building made it that much better. The Stephansdome was also beautiful, I really wish we still made churches that were that elaborate. The catacombs were really kind of creepy. The jars with all the royal families organs were a little weird and then the rooms full of bones really creeped me out. To be that close to peoples dead bodies that died of the plague was intense. The amount of bones in the rooms was really crazy. So many people were buried underneath the church. Oh yeah! I almost forgot to mention that Morgan and I actually managed to meet up with the lovely Ashley Bogdan! The fact that we managed to be in the same city at the same time on the other side of the world, and we found each other. Awesome! We also went to the belvedire museum. The palace was gorgeous, if I was a princess that is the castle I would want to live in. It was beautiful. I really wish I could have take pictures. The Klimt exhibit was there so we got to the famous Klimt kiss picture. I had never heard of it but I guess that's pretty cool that I've seen the original. I'm not really that big into art. I know some artists like Rembrant and Van Gogh but other than that I don't really pay attention. Especially with the whole modern art wave, I really dislike the vast majority of modern art because a lot of it I feel like takes no talent and looks like something I could do. I mean when you compare it to the artists of the romantic or impressionist period there's just such a vast difference in the quality and detail of the work. That's just my thoughts, I'm sure many artists would disagree. The concert that we got to go to was really fun, I wish we could have gone to the opera but the concert was still a cool experience. Especially since it happened in one of the gorgeous churches. I really enjoyed Vienna but I'm ready to go back to Germany.

Gold Star for Sir Toby's Hostel in Prague

Once we arrived in Prague, Sir Toby’s greeted us with everything we wanted to hear. Definitely the friendliest and most helpful hostel so far, even though it is only the second one. Free BBQ for dinner was exactly what we needed. We got to know a few of the workers and other people staying at the hostel, while we ate and drank at the pub downstairs. I decided to stay in with Meredith, Sarah, Alexis, Katharine, and Caleb. We settled into our room and watched a movie until we fell asleep.

The next morning we went on a walking tour of Prague provided by the hostel. The tour guide did a great job of incorporating history and modern events. We were able to see the famous clock in the square at noon. Our tour guide warned us a lot of the tourists are disappointed when they visit the astronomical clock so we didn’t have high expectations. However, it is still a cool attraction. The clock can be read in many different ways, too. Walking through Prague, you could notice a difference between the cities we had visited before. Though it is considered a "westernized" eastern city, it was still different from Bonn and even Vienna. The city felt older and worn down, but it did not take away from its beauty. We ended our walking tour at the Charles Bridge.

Before we went across the Charles Bridge to the castle, we had lunch at a traditional Czech restaurant. I decided to get a chicken burger, though it did not look like chicken. Once we reached the castle, we had a more enjoyable time. After climbing up many stairs, we were able to get some great pictures at the top!

In the evening, we decided to join the hostel’s pub crawl. It was the most enjoyable night I have had on the trip so far. It was really cool to join over 200 people on the pub crawl. I had an amazing time with everyone!

Viennese Princess

The week in Vienna is finally over. There were a couple of things I didn’t get accomplished this week. Among these were not meeting my Viennese Prince, and hiring Café Demel to work at my apartment. But I can always go back to do that. We did so much in a short amount of time! Let me just make a list of all the things we got to do:

·      Medical History Walk with Dr. Wasser

·      Museum of Vienna

·      St. Stephan’s Cathedral

·      Tour of the Catacombs

·      Siegmund Freud Museum and Lecture with Dr. Wasser

·      Vienna Medical School Lecture Professor Marz

·      Federal Pathologic Anatomical Museum

·      Josephinum, Collection of Anatomical and Obstetric Wax Models

·      Concert of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony

·      Natural History Museum

AMAZING! Everything was just crazy cool. Dr. Wasser knew so much about everything so it was like getting an insiders view. The neatest part for me was seeing how much I missed the first time I came to Vienna. When I was here before it was all about hitting the most famous attractions and shopping. I had no idea there was so much history here. Each corner withheld new and interesting information I would have never known about.

Professor Marz almost talked me into going to medical school in Vienna that is crazy since it is the opposite of Vet School in the US. The way the Vienna Medical School works is very intriguing and seems to me to be a great way to learn. It uses a lot of practical application, which is how I learn the best.

The Catacombs tour under the St. Stephan’s Cathedral was a little creepy. It is weird to know that there is a skull with in arms reach. That normally wouldn’t freak me out if it were in a pathology department or something. The fact we were walking through the graves and the skull was lying like that because that is the way the body decomposed was very weird. In areas where victims of the Plague were dumped, there were literally piles of bone.

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Or should I say one of the best concerts I have been to. We listened to a little bit of Mozart and Beethoven. The musicians were wonderful and it was a beautiful way to top of a good day of learning. It also made me appreciate where I was, what I was doing, and where my life was going. Sometimes those moments of reality just hit you, and this was a great one.

We even got to sneak in a visit to Sand in the City! When I was in Vienna before, my sister and I always went to Sand in the City in the evenings. It was a great place to hang out. No one had heard of it and I was worried it was a summer fling I had and that I couldn’t go back to. With the help of my dad and our wonderful coordinator Olivia we found it and got to enjoy it one evening. I didn’t realize before but it is a local hangout. It is cool when you get to be a local instead of the tourist.

I love Vienna. It is my favorite place so far. I even got to light a candle in St. Stephan’s for my Mimi. That being said, I am ready to get back to Bonn. I miss my European hometown and my European family. See ya soon

More Ice Chocolate Please!

During our second week, we had the pleasure of staying in the beautiful city of Vienna. We visited several well-known attractions, such as the St. Stephan’s Cathedral, Sigmund Freud Museum, Museum of Vienna and Natural history museum of Vienna, and the University of Vienna medical school. In between all of the scheduled events, there was still time provided for strudel-eating, coffee-drinking, and other typical Viennese activities.

On Tuesday, Dr. Wasser took us on a medical history walk around Vienna to provide us with information on the various doctors, surgeons, or other important medical persons. This was very helpful because most of the people discussed during the walk were also brought up during our other excursions, like tours of museums and the Josephinum. Next, we visited St. Stephan’s Cathedral. St. Stephan’s cathedral was not as amazing as the Koln Cathedral, but of course it was magnificent. It’s a shame we don’t have beautiful cathedrals like that in Texas. Unlike the cathedral in Koln, St. Stephan’s suffered damage during World War II. This is the reason for the ceramic tiles that compose the roof. Beneath the church are the catacombs. Thousands of bones lie in rooms of people from Vienna, even famous people. Walking through the rooms of what use to hold dead bodies and peeping into little windows of rooms full of bones was slightly creepy. It was interesting to hear that people believed the closer you were buried to the church the easier it would be to reach heaven. Things have definitely changed today.

Wednesday we had the morning for free time, so I was able to go to the Spanish Riding School. Katharine and I watched a performance done by Lipizzaner mares with their foals and young stallions. Being familiar with horses, it was an awesome experience! I could definitely see the difference in movement and temperament of the Lipizzaner compared to my own quarter horses. The Lipizanner have the appearance of a light, “springy” movement that is so smooth it is often referred to as dancing. I really enjoyed watching the young stallions run around because you could it brought out their personalities. I am very glad Katharine and I decided to go to the Spanish Riding School! 

The academic part of the day was spent at the Sigmund Freud Museum, which use to be his house before he left for England to escape from the Nazi rule.  Dr. Wasser gave a great tour through the house… so great other people started joining in. As the founder of psychoanalysis, Freud had some very interesting theories. He wrote three papers on cocaine and openly suggested his friends and family to use it. He had some interesting theories regarding sexuality, like the Oedipus complex and Elektra complex. After learning about his life and achievements, it was great opportunity to be able to walk through his house and see his living room, where patients waited to be seen, and his study area. Dr. Wasser told us we were even breathing in molecules from his cigar smoke. Though I am not sure if I agree with all of Freud’s concepts, I definitely respect him as a very intelligent man, who opened up many doors for our future studies of medicine and psychology.

Our busiest day was Thursday because it was spent mostly at the University of Vienna’s Medical School, and then in the evening we went to a concert. At the medical school, we discovered the differences between American and Austrian systems of medical school, including the application process and how the students spend their years in school. There are aspects of both systems that are attractive to me; so neither is the “perfect” system. Unlike the U.S. medical schools, Austrian medical schools accept students based on the highest scores on one test. There are no interviews or resumes or essays that are used to examine the applicant. The most attractive feature of the Austrian medical system was the fact that no undergraduate courses were required. Once you graduated from high school, you could enter medical school. If the veterinary schools did this in the U.S., I would have appreciated this opportunity because my career goal has always been to become a veterinarian. Though I see how undergraduate degrees provide you with time to experience other things as a young adult and allow you to decide if you truly want to go to medical school.  Our medical tour ended at the Josephinum. The Josephinum holds a very large collection of anatomical and obstetric wax models. Emperor Joseph II established the building as an academy for medical students to learn about anatomy and surgical techniques. It seems like a great way for students to learn because it was hands-on and visual. For instance, there were demonstrations of what to do when a baby is breeched. It was amazing to be able to see these hundreds of years old models.

Following our medical-filled day, we were able to spend the evening at a concert in a cathedral. It was a great performance! I had never been to a symphony, besides one field trip in elementary school. Plus, it was amazing to listen in a cathedral in Vienna. After the concert, we all ate at a café where I had the most delicious ice chocolate. It was the best drink/treat I had in Vienna and it was similar to chocolate milk, which was my favorite drink as a little girl. I wish I could go back to Vienna for more ice chocolate!

Before the weekend started, our last minutes in Vienna were spent at the natural history museum. Such a great museum! My favorite part was definitely the animals. The stuffed models were real animals! We were able to see a model of a Dodo bird, which was actually not the actually animal since it is extinct.  Of course, we also go to see the Venus sculptures we had heard about from Dr. Wasser’s “baby got back” presentation. After the museum, we caught a train to Prague!

A Taste of Eastern Europe - Praha - 2nd Weekend

Although Vienna is about as far east as Prague, the two cities differ in so many aspects clearly from the fact that one was under communist power for so much of the twentieth century while the other was quickly snatched up by western powers. Geographically, Vienna should have been under Russian control after WWII, but the western allied powers kept this from happening. What is now the Czech Republic suffered what seems to have been a worse fate as a result of being under the red control. I was easily able to notice the difference between Austria and Czech Republic simply from the state of the main city in these two countries. For me, I can see little difference between Austria and Germany from my short travels in both countries, but travelling into what is considered Eastern Europe seemed to be a huge difference in culture, cleanliness, language, and overall appearance. There’s more than just a difference in accents, but most people still seemed to speak English well enough to communicate. This is also due to the fact that Prague is such a huge tourist spot for the English-speaking traveler such as myself.

I think the highlight of the weekend, for me, was the Hostel (Sir Toby’s), which we were able to easily find after taking an underground train and a tram a few blocks from the building. As soon as we walked in, the Columbian receptionist was immediately helpful in every way he could possibly think of. I couldn’t think of any questions to ask, but he kept spitting out information that reminded me that I needed that piece of info. Everything seemed to be already set up for us: We had our own room for 10, we shared a bathroom with ourselves, there was free BBQ outside for dinner that night, we all got a free beer downstairs at the pub, breakfast included make-it-yourself pancakes and eggs along with anything else you could want, and there was a free tour of the city leaving from the hostel every morning and a pub crawl leaving every night. Sir Toby’s hostel in Prague is pretty awesome.

Leaving the hostel seemed like an adventure in itself, departing from a warm, homely pub with a bed for a less friendly city than we’ve been used to so far in our travels through Germany and Austria. Half of our group went out the night we got into Prague while the rest of us hung around the hostel to rest from the long day of travel for the following day of city walking. After beginning the next day with a large buffet style breakfast, all ten of us set out with the tour guide for the old city center. Our tour guide was from Michigan, working or something in Prague for the last year or so. He seemed to be about 4 or 5 years older than us, so everything he said about the city came with a little added spontaneity and spark. One particularly interesting church he showed us had a mummified forearm hung high on a wall inside. The legend was that while a thief attempted to steal something out of the church at night, the statue of Mary had come to life and taken hold of his arm. Supposedly, no one could get his arm out of the grasp of the statue, so it was severed and kept as a warning against thieves. We were also able to see (if I remember correctly) some of the oldest existing synagogues and Jewish cemetery in Europe. What interested me about this was that Hitler had not destroyed them during the Holocaust, and the guide explained that Hitler had planned to make these buildings into museums for what would have become an extinct people group. I would have thought that Hitler wanted to wipe the very memory of this people he hated so much from the face of the earth, but apparently not.

If I ever go back to Prague, I will definitely try to stay at Sir Toby’s and see more of the city. With only one full day of travel within the city, we in no way were able to fully experience this key city in the most western part of Eastern Europe.

Just a little late

Last weekend was our first free weekend. Our entire group decided to go to Munich. By the time we had it all decided and we made seat reservations the earliest train we could take was at 3:30 am to arrive at 9:00. Our host mom insisted on making us breakfast and driving us to the train station, it was super sweet. She is awesome. Everyone managed to make it to the train station on time and we had no problems getting on the train and switching trains in Cologne. The trip to Munich was good, I slept most of the way. Surprisingly we had no problems finding our hostel and figuring out the tram schedule to get around the city. On Saturday we explored the city, the culture there was much more vibrant it seemed than the other places we had been. I don't know if this was simply because it's more of a touristy town or if it was just the Barvarian culture. I went on the Mike's Bike Tour with a couple other people from the group. Our tour guide was super enthusiastic and made the tour really fun. It was the perfect way to see the big sites in Munich and to help get a sense of how to get around in the city. We ended the day with a trip to the Augustiner and Haufbrauhaus. The beer was excellent, especially the Edelstoff from the Augustiner. It also happens to be the beer that the pope likes which makes it even better. The haufbrauhaus had a super fun atmosphere and it was a neat experience. I drank a whole big glass of beer by myself. I did leave with a big beer glass as a souvenir, of course. On Sunday we woke up early and took a train to Fussen to visit the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles. Fussen is the most precious little town nestled at the bottom of the Alps. I didn't want to leave. The castles were awesome. The decorations were so intricate and beautiful it's amazing. The outside's are pretty but the inside's are so much more elaborate, I was not expecting that. Neuschwanstein was never finished so it was a pretty short tour, but the parts that were finished were amazing. It's just the amount of detail that went into designing and actually decorating them is mind blowing. I don't think anyone spends that amount of time on their house decorations, but then again, no body builds castles anymore. It was disappointing that half of Neuschwanstein was covered in scaffolding so we couldn't get the super picturesque views you see on Pinterest. Apparently it's always covered in scaffolding because of the up keep and repairs that have to be done. I also did not realize that the castles were as young as they were. When I think of castles I think of the medieval ones you see in all the renaissance movies, so I was slightly disappointed because they weren't as old as I thought. The decorations were also more elaborate than I expected. I didn't realize they painted intricate murals and carved detailed accents into every visible surface. I was expecting just regular stone walls with maybe some hung paintings and tapestries, I was definitly blown away. After the castles we went back to our hostel and packed up all our stuff because our train left for Vienna at 7:30 the next morning.

My Post about Vienna

Howdy! It is currently Saturday evening in Prague, and we are getting ready to go to a bar-hopping event provided by Sir Toby's! We have just spent the entire past week in Vienna, Austria with Dr. Wasser and Olivia. I don’t even know where to start talking because we did so many different things in Vienna.

My first impression of Vienna is that the people there are very proper and conservative about behavior and mannerisms. I feel like in every situation, our group is always that “obnoxious American group” that people do not always appreciate. For example the other day while we were on a tram in Vienna, some drugged up French man started shouting at us across the bus telling us that he was “not interested in anything we had to say.” Nevertheless, it is moments like these that I will always remember and laugh about at the end of the day.

Though we went to so many different places, there were a few places that stood out to me this week. The Museum of Vienna was interesting because it was my first introduction to Vienna’s history, of which I had no prior knowledge. The Siegmund Freud Museum and lecture were both really cool. I did not know too much about Freud’s philosophies about psychoanalysis, but being an atheist myself, I found some of the concepts very relatable. It makes sense that we are controlled by Id, Ego, and Super-Ego that keep our mental state in balance. Going to the Narrenturm was also really fascinating because we went through the Federal Pathologic anatomical Museum. When Dr. Wasser said that we, as medical students, don’t have to worry about getting sick from the displays on this tour, I thought that I would be the one to prove him wrong because I cannot stand looking at large amounts of blood. Fortunately, all the organs were cleaned as they were placed in separate jars and the wax models were nothing close to blood gushing out of people’s skin like I had expected. What I found interesting were some of the very rare diseases that have been found and modeled with wax: the girl that died with a bunch of nails found in her stomach because she had a mental disorder…the many different still born Siamese twins that were not able to make it…all of these cases were very cool to see yet very sad as well.

And lastly, we went to an orchestra concert to hear Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony on our last night in Vienna. Unlike everyone else in our group, I actually did not think the concert was all that great. I have been playing the violin since I was very young and my high school orchestra has been constantly ranked as number one in the state of Texas, so I grew up playing with and listening to more intense and professional orchestras. I had expected that hearing a concert in Vienna, the place I have always known as the city of Mozart and Beethoven, would have been mind-blowing to me, but I am sad to say that I was a bit disappointed in the lack of musicality and tone in this performance.

We had a good amount of free time during our time in Vienna as well. A lot of the girls in our group particularly enjoyed eating at Café Demel. I especially liked going to Belvedere and looking at Gustav Klimt’s artwork and observing how the style of art has been changing over time. I realize that in any branch of the arts, our society has grown to appreciate individual style more and more. While a respected artist in our generation is usually praised for his/her expression of individuality, it is the artist’s technique that must be mastered before anything else. I compare Klimt to Lady Gaga in this aspect. Klimt’s earlier paintings had made it clear that he had the skill to be just as good as any well-known painter in the early 1900’s. Similarly, Lady Gaga got into Juilliard at a very young age, making it clear that she had the ability to be a great musician. However, it was these artists’ revolutionary style that distinguishes them from the other artists/musicians that are just as talented. In this case, it was Klimt’s famous gold-leaf paintings that changed the art world during this time.  I believe that it takes both ability and bravery to become a respected artist or performer.

Anyways, I feel like I am starting to make this blog post unnecessarily long…overall Vienna was a great cultural experience. Every day, I am more grateful to have been given the opportunity to travel across Europe and learn about so many things I have never seen before. Though it was not my personal favorite, Vienna is definitely a place I will never forget.

A Week in Freud's City

I've always wanted to come to Vienna, so I knew that I would enjoy five days in such a historically relevant city. I knew only that Freud, Mozart, and Beethoven lived here at certain points in their lives and not much more. I had no idea there was such a history filled with medically relevant people surrounding the past of the city. I knew a little about Roman influence in Germanic parts of Europe, but I didn't know that Roman soldiers had begun the city as a sort of outpost on the Danube with about 5-6 thousand soldiers guarding the eastern border of the empire.

Personally, I love learning the evolution of a city such as this when so many powers in Europe have influenced its growth over the centuries until now. It's so interesting for me to see the different models of the city plan from the different centuries as walls were created, torn down to make room, and attacked by Turks and Ottomans.

From today, hearing about the differences between the Viennese and American process of getting into and through medical school intrigued me. This system that seems to be in place in most of Austria and Germany, based almost purely on one thing for entry, appeals to me for its focus on aptitude. The American process of getting into medical school has so many factors put into the decision on whether or not you can study medicine for a higher degree. For me, while this process seems to have the more efficient way of determining whether a person is more well rounded in their life and studies, it also seems to be overwhelming in the numbers of things that have to be accomplished when considering if you can even try to get to medical school. I guess, this could be a good way to weed out the people that can't handle the stress, but I think it also may get rid of the people who are very good at medicine but nothing else. I don't claim to be an expert by any means, but I do think that there is room for improvement in the medical schooling process and admission in the United States by comparison to what other nations have going on.

Because I have such an interest in the field of infectious diseases, the pathology museums that we visited, having human and wax models of ideal and sickly patients, severely intrigued me. I feel that I have been exposed to a fair amount of what kinds of diseases can be contracted in this world from classes, such as Great Diseases of the World, Medical Entomology, Animal Nutrition, etc. These classes along with what we were able to witness this last week from behind glass on wax specimens have helped to confirm my wants to pursue the infectious disease part of the medical field. While this part of medicine in the United States deals largely with AIDS patients, the developing world suffers much from disease that needs doctors of this kind to diagnose and treat people. Seeing how people in what is now the developed world began to find solutions to disease of such kind hundreds of years ago shows how far behind so much of the world is, and I can't help but think how "easy" it would be to apply what we have to offer to people groups that have no way of dealing with such disease, practically.

Vienna is so Beautiful!

I've been in Vienna, Austria for 3 days now and I'm about to leave to go see a concert of Beethoven's 5th Symphony! The group got here from Munich a little early and wandered around near the hotel for awhile. We ate at a nice Italian restaurant and then played cards in the lobby. We then took a nice walk through the city and saw some historical sites dating back to WWII. There is an obvious difference in the attitude and atmosphere of Vienna versus Germany or more namely Munich or Cologne just because it seems quainter and more focused on art, music, and beauty. I also think its easier to find people that speak English here and they all seem pretty nice and relaxed. The first night we got here we went to a Viennese cafe called Pfudle where I tried a more "legit" schnitzel than the ones I had in Germany (made with veal, not pork) which was amazing! I'll have to go back to try the strudel...

The 2nd day was another walk around the city, this time putting emphasis on the medical foundations of the place. There is a lot of things medically that took place here! We took a tour of the museum of Vienna to learn about its royalty and city structure (the Emperor Joseph's sister was Marie Antoinette!) One of the most amazing things of the day was the visit to St. Stephan's Cathedral (which looks similar to the Cologne Cathedral....) and then the tour of the Catacombs! We saw where some of the important religious figures and their families coffins were as well as saw real bones from the other people wanting to be buried near the Dom and piles of people that died in the plague. It was really cool! 

On Wednesday we learned all about Siegmund Freud and toured his house J Then we went to one of the palaces that had an art exhibit by Klimt and saw the famous painting “the Kiss”. Thursday was more medical tours like the Vienna Medical School where we learned about the structure of admissions. Then the best part was the Pathological anatomical museum and the Josephinum museum, both of which had anatomical and medical structures that can be learned from. There were really awesome to look at! Then it was anther great Viennese dinner and a Beethoven concert (dress up time!)

....It's now Friday, the last day in Vienna… I’m currently on a train to Prague, Czech Republic for the weekend! This morning we went to the Natural History Museum in Vienna which I loved. In Houston my family and I would go to the Museum of Natural Science at least once or twice a year so it was very neat to see the dinosaur skeletons and most importantly the Venus of Wilcommof (…I like big butts and I cannot lie….. hahaha) This post is longer than my others but we did a lot here this week and I don’t regret an of it! Vienna is so beautiful and, oh yea! Michelle and I got to meet up with our friend Ashley whose also doing a study abroad stationed here in Vienna! It’s been great Austria, peace out!