Vienna is a big city. As of 2013, there were 1.7 million residents located in Vienna. And although Vienna does not even compare to the 8.4 million in New York City, it’s still really big!! Also let us keep in mind that I come from a small town with about 13,000 residents, so this is new for me. And while I would love to think that whenever I visited New York and DC, I was able to master/understand any public transportation system, today I learned that I have not.
Vienna has 4 different forms of public transportation. The bus, the tram, the U-bahn, and the S-bahn. Each of these transportation services cover multiple routes all over the city. My friends and I quickly learned the route from our apartment to school, however there are many more routes that we have yet to travel. On this particular day, I was walking by myself around the 1st district (the inner city) and decided to head home for the day. In order to get home from the 1st district, I have to take the 1 or the 62 tram. Unfortunately for me, I must have been distracted or disheveled because I got on the wrong tram. It wasn’t long before I realized I was going in the wrong direction. However, adventurous Elise thought it would be fun to just go along for the ride and see where it takes her. I mean surely the tram will eventually return to the 1st district stop, right?
No. Wrong. What started as a fun, little trip around the 1st district soon became a 45-minute trek to the outskirts of the city. Nothing around me looked familiar. Whenever the tram has reached the final destination, it will always say “Auf Wiedersehen!” which is the German way to say goodbye. The all-too familiar saying chimed on my tram and I looked outside to see baseball fields and nothing else. Swell.
Needless to say, I hopped onto another tram and made my way back into the city. After 2 more tram switches and trekking onto a bus, I finally got home.
You know that quote everyone says? Not all who wander are lost. I was definitely lost.
