The train system in Austria is fairly easy to navigate and pleasingly efficient. We found the trains to be on time and the transit maps easy to decipher.
Of course, none of this matters when you've been pounding Zipfers at the Anker for the 2 hours leading up to your train trip.
So Dr. Bob, our friendly host, guided us to the proper train, told us to get off at the easily identifiable airport stop, and hugged us good bye.
To make a long story short, I'm sure we were engrossed in conversation about something very important and intellectual when we zipped, obliviously, past the airport stop.
The next time the train stopped I believed I said something like "Well, we must be getting close" as I glanced up at the train map. Then I glanced at the station sign. Then I glanced at the map. Then the station sign. Then the map. Then the station sign.
Not wanting to accept the fact that we missed our stop, I figured I must be reading the map backwards. Was I upside down? Unfortunately, no.
We ran off the train, panicked and ran back on.
The train started up once again and we assessed our situation.
We had 30 minutes to get the airport for check-in. We decided that we should get off at the next stop and then catch the next train going back the other direction.
Of course, the next stop was way, way, way outside the city. It looked like this:
We waited there. And waited. And waited.
It doesn't get much better than hanging out in cold, dark, rural Austria.
There wasn't anything we could do about it at this point though. I was 75% sure I could find my way back to Dr. Bob's and we could just find another way to Dublin the next day...that was, assuming that we didn't die at this sketchy middle-of-nowhere train station.
We waited a while longer. We waited long enough for to have to relieve myself behind the station twice. I'm not proud, but again, I had a lot of beer in me at this point.
Anyhow, the train eventually came. To celebrate, I did my rings routine.
After a sprint through the Vienna airport, we made it to the Aer Lingus check-in desk with 2 minutes to spare. And, really, it was the nicest airport trip ever. No waiting and our bags were the first ones out the chute in Dublin. Screw showing up early.
0 comments:
Post a Comment