Rough Train Ride from Vienna to Bratislava
Now comes the most headache-inducing part of planning this business trip: getting into Bratislava. Since Slovakia is a small country without an international airport, you have to take a train or bus via Vienna. We chose the train. To get to Bratislava station, you have to take the City Airport Train (CAT) and transfer at Wien Mitte-Landstraße. Honestly, when my travel companion explained it to me, I thought it would be super easy.
But if I had to go again, I would absolutely just take a direct bus for a comfortable ride.
My train ticket to Bratislava. The departure and destination points are clear, but I can't understand the intermediate route at all.
First, we took the airport train and arrived at Wien Mitte-Landstraße. Now we just needed to take a train heading to Wien Hauptbahnhof and go to Bratislava, but I had no idea where on earth to catch this train. I found out later that Wien Hauptbahnhof means the central station, and it's abbreviated as Wien Hbf. I really hate abbreviations...
I don't know if all of Europe is like this, but there are no special ticket gates in the subway, so people just wander in and out freely. I was later told that they sell tickets you can use to ride around all day as much as you want, rather than just single-ride tickets. Instead, if a plainclothes police officer asks to see your ticket, you have to show it immediately, and if you don't have one, you pay a massive fine. Hearing this was a huge shock to me, coming from a country where the only free thing is the air we breathe.
If you go to the ÖBB (Austrian Railways) desk and show them your ticket, they'll point you in the right direction without you even having to say a word. Thanks to that, we at least made it to Wien Hbf. When we arrived at Wien Hbf, it was drizzling, and even being here, I still couldn't figure out where the train to Bratislava was. Am I actually going to make it to Slovakia today?
In a rush, I asked around until I found someone who looked like an ÖBB employee. I followed the yellow signs to Gate 10 as instructed, only to find the train station was in a completely different building. How is anyone supposed to find this on their first try?! On top of that, the train we were supposed to take had already left, and the next one wasn't for another hour and a half.
Ugh, so annoying... Whatever, I don't care anymore.
Let's just go hang out~~~!!!
