It was the last day of my Vienna tour, which had been full of experiences, big and small. My return flight was scheduled at 15:45 from Vienna Airport by Qatar Airways. I had read that it would take about 30 minutes from the hotel to the airport, so I calculated that I would be OK if I left the hotel at 12:00 p.m. (In hindsight, even this was naive.) I was still very anxious in the morning because of the scheduled departure, so I woke up early and headed for breakfast at the hotel restaurant a little after 7:00. This breakfast buffet had a great menu and tasted so good that I regretted not using more of the hotel’s food.
I wondered whether I should go sightseeing at least one place in the time before the hotel’s departure, but I had the feeling that I had already visited all the tourist spots to the extent that I was almost full, and I decided that it would be better not to overdo it physically, so I spent the time before the hotel departure relaxing in my room, organizing my luggage, preparing for my blog, and so on.
When the time finally came, I headed for the Vienna Central Station, once again dragging my heavy suitcase. When I think about it, the main reason why I chose this hotel in the first place was its location, about a 10-minute walk from Vienna’s central station. It would be convenient for me to go back and forth from the airport, and since I was considering a day tour to Salzburg, Mozart’s birthplace, I thought it would also be convenient.
However, as I wrote in the previous article, for some reason I could not come directly from the airport to the hotel when I entered the country, and there were enough places to see in Vienna alone, so the Salzburg tour was not realized. Therefore, I came to Vienna’s Hauptbahnhof (central station) for the first time on my return trip. The first time I saw the Hauptbahnhof, I felt a bit intimidated by the extremely modern building.
I was a bit nervous as I entered the station, as it felt strange to be entering the Hauptbahnhof for the first time at the end of my trip. From then, I relied on Google’s directions and went up to the platform according to the directions. A train arrived, which appeared to be a direct express train to the airport, and I boarded the train on time.
It must have been about 10 minutes after the train’s departure that I began to feel strange and slightly uneasy, because according to Google, the train was supposed to go directly to the airport station in 22 minutes. However, the train was going through a tunnel and through an open suburban-like landscape. I hurriedly checked the Google screen, but it did not look like it was heading for the airport station. I suddenly noticed that there was no indication that the train was heading toward the airport station, with the message “No GPS signal (lost 5 minutes ago).
At the time when the train should have arrived at the airport station, the train is still speeding through the suburban-like scenery. This is clearly not heading toward the airport station! If it is not, it is going in the opposite direction! As soon as I thought that, my blood began to boil and I broke out in a cold sweat. I asked some of the passengers in English, but they seemed to understand only German, and one of them answered that he was Hungarian, and I could not understand him at all.
But now it is clear that I should have taken the direct express train to the airport, but the train I am now on is going in the opposite direction, and it hardly stops at any station, just like an express train. The only thing I can do now is to get off the train at the next stop, turn around, and catch the fastest possible train to the airport station again.
After a long and exciting wait, the train finally stopped. The station sign was “St. Pölten,” which of course was new to me.
But no matter where the station was, all I had to do was get off the train here and catch another train back to the airport station. I hurriedly got off the train, went down from the platform toward the station entrance, and looked for a service counter or other consultation counter, but there was none. I looked around for someone who looked like a station clerk, and finally found a station clerk in an orange jacket, and told him what had happened. Of course, he understood English, and I found out that I had come to St. Pölten by express from Vienna Central Station in the opposite direction from the airport station, and that there was an express that would take me back to Vienna Airport. He told me to wait there. The station attendant, a bearded young man in his 20s, kept coming back to check on me and was very kind.
The question was, would I be able to catch my flight on time after such a long journey, but the train station staff assured me that I would be OK at that time. The station attendant gave me some relief, saying, “I think you’ll be OK at that time.
(I will write about this in the next article.)
