Day 17: Krems & Friends

Wow, today was a full day! It started at 5:30am and I did not have time for a break until I got home at 11pm. It was so worth it!

Krems Institute
I learned a lot about Austrian and United States healthcare. I will admit, going into the seminar I had a really high opinion of the Austrian healthcare system, but didn't know all that much about it. Overall, I can still say that Austria does a better job of caring for its inhabitants, but not without some drawbacks. One of the drawbacks of Austria's universal healthcare system is that sometimes people end up waiting quite a while for surgeries, treatments, etc. There are options for citizens to purchase additional private care for faster treatment, but not everyone will have that option. In Austria, it is mandatory to have health insurance. There is no way to avoid having it if you pay taxes because it is automatically taken out of your check. One major difference in the healthcare/taxes systems of the two countries is that in Austria, everyone pays a flat rate percentage toward healthcare. A man who makes $20,000 a year may pay around 8% of that salary in taxes, and a man who makes $100,000 will pay a considerably larger amount of money, but it will still be about 8% of his income.

Friends in Vienna
When the symposium was over, one of the Krems Institute employees gave me a ride to the train station so that I could get back to Vienna to see David and Harrison! After figuring out my platform and switching lines halfway through, I finally made it! We met up at a gelato stand outside of the Stephansplatz station and walked to a coffee house in the first district where we all got melanges-- which are very similar to an Austrian cappuccino. After coffee, we made our way to a foot bridge to cross the Danube. I hadn't actually seen the Danube from Vienna so I was glad to see it! Praterstern was just a quick subway trip away from the Danube, so we made our way to the amusement park, walked around, and rode a really tall swings ride. It was amazing! The views were awesome and I was really fond of the wind blowing in my air. Haha. Swings are already one of my favorite things... but add in some extra altitude and a view of Vienna and it just couldn't get any better! I had really talked up Vapianos, so we ate there for dinner! I got the exact same thing I got the first time-- some basil and pesto pasta with a glass of merlot. Yum! After dinner, we walked over to the opera house and watched the live feed of the opera from the courtyard. From there, we hopped across the street to Aida and got some sachertorte to go. We took our cake, ate it in the subway, and made our way to The Mak, an art gallery that has free admission after 6pm on Tuesday nights. It worked out perfectly! Here are a few of my favorite gems from our short visit...