This past week we were given a break while we recovered from intensive German and prepared for normal classes to begin. I took advantage of that time by visiting friends and places! I traveled to London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. On the first stretch of my trip, I had a plane ride from Linz to London. The Vienna airport doesn’t have Ryan Air, which for students without an income is a disappointment. Because of this, I had to take a train from Vienna to Linz early on a Saturday morning. This became an interesting experience!!
After taking the U-Bahn (vienna’s underground transportation) to the Vienna Hauptbahnhof at 6 am, I had found my platform and was ready to go. Having paid an extra 3 Euros for a seat incase it was filled, remembering to pack food for the airport, and strategically wearing my heaviest outfit, I felt very prepared!! My train was scheduled to leave at 6:44. At 6:40, the train pulled in. People began to file in, but I walked from door to door, trying to figure out where my unnecessarily bought assigned seat was. At 6:43, the doors began to close. I panicked and ran to the train, slipping in just as the train began to move. Ironically enough after worrying about where I would get a seat, the compartment I entered was completely empty. I stored my luggage in the overhead bin and sat down. At this point, the train was well on it’s way out of Vienna. My ticket was not checked until 20 minutes into the ride.
After this, the trip passed without any hitches. I am not trying to capture an audience with uniqueness and creativity with this story, because I’m sure it is a typical one. I would rather like to focus on the universality of trying things for the first time, that thing mostly being the ÖBB train system. I was shocked that I got on the train without someone first checking my ticket, assuring them that I am not stealing and also reassuring me that I picked the right train! I talked to friends who traveled by train multiple times throughout the week, and discovered that of the ten train rides they took, their tickets were only checked at all on five of them!
As this was my first time traveling truly alone- where there were no family members or student groups waiting at my arrival gate, I learned a lot! At the top of the list is definitely the realization that navigating English speaking countries is exponentially easier than German, regardless of how far my linguistic talents have progressed.