Stranded and scared:The worst train ride ever

It was the month of April when I decided to book a train and embark on a 9 hour journey to Vienna. I was scheduled to reach at night, and was a bit concerned initially, but decided to overlook the fact and just go ahead with it anyway. I was rather enjoying switching trains through Germany, working on some posts occasionally and staring at the view outside, but it started getting problematic when a certain connection was delayed by over an hour. Should I be worried? I thought to myself. Naah, probably not.

 

Jump to more delays,missing connections and here we are at Salzburg, at 10 pm already. I knew I had to catch the RailJet to Vienna , and then I could expect to reach in about 2.5 hours or so.With only 5 minutes to catch the train, which included having to wade through the huge pool of passengers who were probably in a situation like myself too, I ran frantically till I came across a train which said Vienna, and heaved a sigh of relief after getting a seat. The train started but there weren’t too many people in there. I looked out, saw the rush at the station and people getting up on another Railjet on the opposite platform. Wait..is something wrong?

I looked around for the train route brochure and was confused. What even ..? Looking up at a co-passenger, I asked, “This train IS going to Vienna, isn’t it?”. And my fears were realized when she nodded a big NO. This train was coming from Vienna and I hadn’t realized it in all the hurry and scurry. Wow.Classic. It’s fine though, I thought. I’d just get off at the next station and get back in time for the next connection. But,from that point onwards, the craziness of the night had just begun.

 

 

It took a while to reach Salzburg Sud (I think), and after running around platforms and checking the charts, I realized that there were NO more trains to get back to the main station that night. Nor were there any trains to Vienna from there. Someone at the station suggested taking the bus back to Hauptbahnhof(central station), and I ran to catch it just in time. Phew! Now for the bus ticket. There was no ticket vending machine nearby.My train ticket wasn’t valid for buses, and the only spare change I had was in Swiss Francs, not in Euros. To top it, the bus driver didn’t know any English, seemed to be rude and wanted me to go looking for an ATM machine if I wanted to buy a bus ticket at all. Between my basic German skills, lack of time at hand, no idea of train connections, there were just too many things to worry about at that point. Luckily, a kind soul on the bus offered some change to me and I was relieved to atleast start the journey back to Hbf. Ah,didn’t the city look different at night?I remembered walking over the bridge and past all those shops on a day trip previously, as the bus drove by.

Beauriful #salzburg #austria @beautifuldestinations

A post shared by Menorca@EuropeDiaries (@menorca_c) on Oct 5, 2013 at 12:09pm PDT

The stranger also looked up the train timings for me and said that if I was lucky, I could catch the 11 pm train to Vienna. As luck would have it that night, I reached the station later than 11 pm and missed the train. ‘When is the next train to Vienna please?’, I asked an official after not being able to find the details on the screen. ‘Well, I’m afraid, not before 4 a.m.’  Really? There ought to be some way, some connection..bus, train, carpool..something! But, there wasn’t.

So, there I was..stranded at Salzburg Station until the wee hours of morning. Cold, hungry,helpless.Blaming myself for not being careful, but also trying to keep my calm and think of a solution.I decided to walk into a McDonald’s cafe or something similar. They are generally open all night, I thought. While food and coffee did comfort me, I was disappointed to know that the cafe would shut down at midnight. Where should I go? I walked around in that area, but found nothing open. Also, barely any people were out there except a few who were drunk. Staying inside the station would be better than just walking around with my luggage aimlessly, for sure.

 

So, I spent my time mostly in the waiting area or just walking around the station. Heck,I didn’t even have any Euro change that I could use for the washroom. Damn you,broken ATM machine!Lucky that some official let me pass through though.Several trains were delayed because of the snow and fog, and those that arrived late night were completely full. At around 3 am, a train going towards Budapest arrived, and I went through all the compartments to check if there was any free seat at all. There wasn’t. Not even a place to sit on the floor. Everything was full.  Then,after an hour or so, another train arrived, and I finally found a seat in a 6 seater coupe.

Those few hours with the strangers in the train proved to be very interesting and memorable. Everybody was tired and sleepy, but we didn’t really have enough space to stretch out and sleep of course. So, we talked a lot. Crossing fields covered in snow during Easter, we spoke about several things, starting from our stories to deep life conversations, world issues, politics, etc. The wise man, who now takes care of his farm in Hungary, used to be the Head of Marketing of a multinational corporation, and had spent a lot of time travelling the world. Another co-passenger I connected quite well with, was a nurse. Funny thing is, she did not speak English and both of us spoke only broken German. But, somehow, we managed to communicate and learn of each other’s story, and at other times, our friend, the wise man, would intervene to translate things we’d say.

 

Travelling for sure comes with a lot of experiences- some good, some bad and some extraordinary. However, each kind is important, as you certainly learn something with every new one.

• I learnt to be more careful and to triple check before getting up on any train!
• Also, it would be nice to have some of the local currency with me to have avoided certain emergencies.
• Receiving kindness on the road can be a bliss!Remember to help people in need.
• Plus,try getting a direct train connection or at least a less risky one.
• And lastly, you don’t necessarily need to speak the same language fluently in order to communicate and get to know each other!

I reached Vienna in about 16 hours instead of 9, but to this day, memories of the snow fields, the wise man, kind nurse and helpful stranger are etched in my mind. Have you had any travel mishaps?Or learning experiences? Let me know in the comments below!

 

P.S: If you have any interesting,inspiring or scary travel stories to share, do write to me at [email protected] and be a part of the #TravellersTales series!

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