Just 21 Hours till Bucharest | Day 6

Woke up feeling back to my normal self. I’m not going to say it was because of the beer but can’t say it wasn’t haha. Being already packed was able to head downstairs and get a solid breakfast before my long travel day. I think going forward I am going to get the breakfast included with my room because they have been better than expected and hassle free as well. Like before had my standard breakfast and threw in a sparkling water for good measure. My train to Vienna left at 9:30am and just to be safe I caught an uber at 8:15. The metro would have been an equal option but with all my bags I did’t feel like dragging them down the street and navigate the metro. The Uber driver dropped me off and Uber drivers always fascinate me. Some of them just drive, some chat a little, some chat a lot, and some chat on the phone like you aren’t even there. This Uber driver was the last one. Not that it bothers me at all but is just interesting that that is what some decide to do. This guy has to be the most popular guy I have ever seen. He had about 20 different favorites saved to his text message screen and talked to probably half of them. He laughed, he sounded upset, some conversations I didn’t even know he hung up haha it was remarkable. None the less he dropped me off outside of the Munchen HBF train station. I walked inside and was greeted by a bustling station with trains that were parked right in the middle of the station. There were food carts and newsstands that had no shortage of people. There were multiple boards displaying all of the trains based on time, where they were going, and what track they were at. Since I knew I was early my train hadn’t even been displayed yet. I took the time to just stand and look at all the different trains roll in and out. Finally my train was displayed on track 10 just 20 minutes before it’s departure. Naturally track 10 was not one of the ones directly in front of me. Instead it was out in the back 40 and was a solid little walk. Before making the journey I stopped to snag a photo of one of the trains when an elderly man walked in front of me. He stopped when he recognized I was taking a photo and thats all it took. He of course inquired what kind of camera I had, and what was the thing I had on the front of my lens (a neutral density filter). He wanted to chat it was clear. Being on short time I chatted for just a second and then said I needed to be off to catch my train, why wouldn’t his train be in the same direction. We continued to chat as we walked down the platform. Finally we had reached his train and was able to walk with a bit more pace.

I reached my platform and looked to my ticket for which car I was in. The Eurail pass that I had purchased was for all 1st Class carriages. I walked to the front of the train and found the car I was supposed to be in. This trip, being so long, I brought along an extra roller bag which is one more thing to handle when getting on and off trains, planes, and automobiles. Finally on the train and the search for luggage storage was immediately doomed. There was a lady in front of me talking to another person with a large suitcase and they were told all low level storage was full. This of course was an upset for them to say the least. I managed to slide by them and I found a window seat which my ticket had told me. The only luggage storage was in an overhead bin. Unlike planes, this overhead bin was just one long continuous bit that stretched the length of the car. With no other option I managed to get not only the lighter roller bag up but also my 50lb main roller bag up as well. Finally in my seat and sweating I hear a gentleman from behind me speak in a disgruntled voice. He had bought a ticket that didn’t have an assigned seat and with the luggage situation was told to just find a seat. Well of course the person sitting in that seat arrived and displaced him. He tried another seat and same thing happened. This prompted me to look at my own ticket and sure enough I had an assigned seat to which I was not in haha. I casually stood up and found my way to that seat to who might I find in it!? The same dude who had been shuffling around seats! If I could have taken out my camera at that moment and taken a picture of his face it would be hanging in a gallery right now. Incredibly frustrated he stood up and huffed off down the train. I didn’t see him after that so theoretically it all worked out, but we may never know.

The seat was a window seat in a section of 4 with a table in the middle. There was a younger girl across from me on the aisle which her sister and parents were just a section over. There was a businessman directly across from me who worked for a little and then stared out the window, and there was a girl maybe a little older than me who sat next to me. She chatted on the phone a while, while she worked on the computer. The ride from Munich to Vienna was roughly 6 hours so took the time to work on the computer and listen to music. We reached Salzburg, Germany, and all of my seat mates exited the train. A husband and wife sat down across from me and a younger girl sat down next to me. The dad said to his daughter, “Don’t worry he doesn’t bite” and chuckled. My other seat mates clearly were not American, but the new seat mate family was. Naturally we struck up a conversation. They were awesome! They, like me, were on a similarly rad adventure. Dean, the dad, started his trip in Ireland golfing, and then they continued to Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Budapest, and finishing in Dubai. We chatted about everything under the sun including golf which isn’t hard topic to get me chatting about. Julianne, who sat next to me, produces music and has her own Spotify channel that has about 30K listeners a month. The train we were on was heading to Budapest but went through Vienna so I was getting off before them. I think we were all kind of disappointed in that as we had such a nice time chatting. With them living in Tampa and my aunt and uncle living in Key West I feel confident we will all cross paths and golf soon.

We all exchanged contacts and it was time for me to get off of the train. I had a 6 hour layover in Vienna but my main priority was ironing out some of those future train tickets. I found a ticket kiosk but there was no selection that noted I had a Eurail pass. In turn, that meant that the kiosk was going to charge me full price for the tickets. Next to the kiosks was an actual ticket office so I walked inside. It was crowded of course and they had a system just like the DMV but without the hostile and shitty people haha. Before I could take a number a nice young lady told me that if I walked just down the way and up the elevator there was an OBB lounge and they would be able to help me faster. I thanked her and headed that way. There was a nice gentleman behind the counter who spoke marginal english. I tried explaning my situation of when I try to buy a ticket it will only mail them to my place of residency. I could tell he was only understanding a portion of what I was saying but fear not! There was a 14 year old standing next to the counter who was glad to help. We tried navigating the website, and app, but couldn’t figure it out. Before I knew it the lounge host and this kid were researching on the computer what to do and I had to get a good chuckle out of the whole thing. I had no idea who the kid was but these two looked like they were in the midst of a research project. They spoke German so I couldn’t understand what they were saying but I appreciated both of them trying to help me. In the end there was no resolution and only thing to do was to contact Eurail. Eurail doesn’t have a phone number haha so can only use their chat service. After a few agents and multiple explanations of what my issue was the chat agent said I should try and find another ticket office and see if they can help. I shouldn’t have been shocked. I went back to the original ticket office and pulled a number and waiting for my turn.

My number was called and the very nice lady at the counter was able to help me with at least one of my ticket issues. For some reason this train from Stockholm to Copenhagen can’t be booked on the Eurail app or at the Vienna train station. I will have to call the train company direct and see what can be done about that. With the ticket issue resolved there was only 5 hours to go before my train to Bucharest. I was pointed in the right direction for a luggage locker and could then walk around Vienna for a few hours before the train. Found myself a nice locker and approached the machine to find that it only takes coins. I had meant to exchange some currency back in Boston but put it off for another day. Well that day turned in to the next, and the next, and every place took card, and so I never exchanged any currency. I grabbed all my bags and walked back towards the information desk. Upon arriving, I asked the gentleman where the currency exchange was, to which he told me, “youre going to want to walk to platform 9, catch the metro 2 stops to the city center, and then walk a few blocks to the currency exchange.” Here I was standing at the largest train station in Vienna and there was no currency exchange in sight. I acknowledged what he said, turned around, and walked right out the door. I stood there perplexed on what to do next. If I didn’t want to wheel all my shit from the hotel to the semi familiar metro earlier then I surely wasn’t going to drag it all on a metro I had never been on in a city I have never been to. I abandoned that idea and instead pulled up my maps to see if there was a bank close by. Long story short I walked around for 30 minutes not finding a single one that was on the map, and when I asked a different info agent they said you have to go in to the city. The Vienna train station is like a mall that happens to have trains in it. There are multiple floors that have food courts, shopping, and more. I finally asked a security dude if there was just an ATM around and he laughed pointing to a wall about 20 feet from me. Even I laughed replying “If it were a snake it would have bit me.” We both laughed at that and I walked over. I took 20 euros out but of course it just gave me a bill and no coins. What a nightmare. I tried going to a deli to ask for change but dude wouldn’t break a $20 so I moved on. There was a Subway Sandwich so I figure not the most cultural but I can get a sandwich and hopefully get some coins. I got a sandwich, liberties were taken when making that which didn’t come from me haha. I went to pay with my card and also asked for change. He just took the $20 and used that instead of my card. I did get coins back but by that point I figure god must just not want me to walk around Vienna right now so I sat and just ate my sandwich in the corner.

Only 3 more hours to go before my train departed. Having a first class ticket I returned to the OBB lounge. The nice man was still there from earlier and he looked at my ticket but then asked if I could come back in like an hour hahaha. I complied and headed back down to the main plaza level. The train station is huge and yet not a bench in sight. I wandered around for a while and then found a block of chairs tucked away and sat down. During this time I decided to Google the train I was on. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss. Every video, article, and review I clicked on had nothing but doom and gloom. The train is shit, we were delayed, the train got cancelled part way and no refund was given, we had to pay for new travel, the shower didn’t work, my stuff was stolen, and the list goes on. One of them even said they had paid for a first class ticket but was told they were second class and had to sit for 20 hours in a seat. That moved me to action and I went back to the ticket counter to double, triple, and quadruple check that I had my own sleeper car and in fact was first class. The lady told me that there are no classes with sleeper cars and that it is the top of the list when it comes to accommodations. I said ok and headed out.

The time had come to head toward the train. I wish I hadn’t had looked at all of those reviews. Train travel in Europe is some of the best in the world and reading all of those posts didn’t breed confidence. I had known full well that the Bucharest and Budapest legs of this trip would be the most “adventurous.” I didn’t exactly anticipate it would be sketchy. It had certainly crossed my mind to bail and make another decision but since I had a sleeper car I could just lock myself in there and “ride” it out. The train itself was older and not like the Orient Express. The total train trip time was 21.5 hours from Vienna to Bucharest. I boarded the train and found my sleeper cabin. I don’t travel by train much unlike my dad so when I saw that there were 2 beds in a single sleeper car I started to worry. The room had a bathroom but when I opened the door the aroma wasn’t that of perfume and roses. A lone fly flew out which further backed up what I saw. I closed that door and sat on the bed. The train left promptly at 19:42 which I will say beats the hell out of Amtrak haha. Luckily enough no one else showed up to be my cabin mate, and as my dad said, no one will because you paid for a single room. I could hear the other sleeper cabins close their doors followed by the sound of the chain lock. I followed in their footsteps and locked my door. I laid on the bed as it started to darken outside. Just 21 more hours till Bucharest.