Don’t Miss the Train

           We planned to go to the real Oktoberfest in Munich (München) to celebrate our birthdays (Oct. 2^nd and 17^th). Oktoberfest ends this weekend, Oct. 3^rd, which is one of the main reasons we set off for Europe so quickly (that and we needed to leave before we turned 26 to qualify for the Eurorail youth pass). When looking for a place to stay, we found that most hotels were very over priced and all hostels were booked. We tried to find a couch to crash on within a 50 mile radius but there was no luck there either. Finally, we just decided to stay in a hotel in Salzburg, Austria for 1 night after our day at Oktoberfest. It was about 1 ½ hours (by train) from Munich and since we were headed to Vienna the next day it would be along the way. Our hosts in St. Gallen, Switzerland, informed us that because it was the last weekend of Oktoberfest we would probably want to make a train reservation (to make sure we get a seat) and get to Munich by 8 or 9 to beat the crazy crowds. When we went to make our train reservation we were informed that the first train didn’t leave St. Gallen until a little after 8am which meant we wouldn’t arrive to Munich until 11:20am. Since it was our only option we took it. We also took the opportunity to reserve seats on the night train from Vienna to Venice (which was mandatory).

           Later that night our hosts asked what time our train left. We checked the tickets and said 8:34am, which was then memorized by our host, Claudio. We woke up the next morning and got all packed, had breakfast, and made some sandwiches for the road. Claudio reminded us that the time we said was about 8:30am.  He drove us to the train station and we arrived with 10 – 12 minutes to spare. “The train should be on track 1”, Claudio said. So, we walked straight to track 1 but the next train departing was not the train we needed.  We looked on the monitor and Munich was not on the departure schedule either. Crap. We check our reservation again. 8:19am. @$#^. 8:34am was the arrival time for our Venice reservation. How we mixed the two up I don’t know, but we missed our train to Munich.  I wrote this poem (with some help from Randy) to tell our misadventure from there.

Don’t Miss the Train

Travel is hard

In one’s own country,

Especially by bus or train;

With too many connections

It’s easy to get lost,

And heaven forbid it rains.

When you travel abroad

You don’t know the land,

And the language is very strange;

If you don’t know the route

And you don’t plan ahead

Travel can be hard to arrange.

8:30, we said,

The train would arrive,

And off to Munich we’d go;

For a day of good fun

The old German way,

But little did we know.

No ‘München’ listed

On the board,

But we don’t know what that means;

The time has passed,

No train has come,

Oh wait…the ticket says 8:19.

Don’t miss the train

For it won’t come again,

At least not when you need it to;

You’ll miss out on the fun

Beir und brats with everyone,

And that’s the last thing you want to do.

Breathe in, “It’s ok,

We’ll just catch the next train”,

So we wait until 10:09;

No seats reserved

Means we’ll have to go search

For an unmarked seat, and that’s fine.

So we step on the train

That car is already full,

And we can’t find any seats;

“Let’s try the next car”

So we step off the train

And then the train just leaves.

Don’t miss the train,

Don’t miss it again

For you won’t get to Oktoberfest in time;

I know you want to scream

But how silly that seems,

Is it really worth loosing your mind?

It’s too late now

To salvage our plans,

So maybe we try Plan B;

“Straight to Salzberg instead,

To relax, then to bed”

“Sounds like a plan to me”.

The woman at the booth

Then maps out a route

That takes 7 hours from here;

That’s an extra 3 hours,

But we won’t complain

As long as we’re going somewhere.

So, we grab a bite to eat,

Then head to track 3

And we wait there patiently;

But the time, it comes

And the time, it goes

And no train comes to track 3.

Back to the woman

at the booth we go

with our luggage strapped to our backs;

“What happened to the train”

We ask….”Oh” she says,

“It seems they changed the track”.

Don’t miss the train

Don’t miss it again,

Don’t miss the train a third time;

Breathe in and out

No need to shout,

You’ll catch the next train just fine.

“It’s a little difficult now,”

She starts to say,

“To get to Salzburg from here;

Train, bus, and foot, to get to the station,

Then you can hop on the right train from there”.

We catch the next train

Without any trouble

But the fun isn’t over yet;

Hop a bus just in time

To the end of the line,

And get dumped at a shopping outlet.

With no idea where to go

We ask a man if he knows,

He says “Yeah, I’ll take you there”;

A shuttle bus he drives

And we hop inside

We arrive with 5 minutes to spare.

Once the train arrived

And we were safely inside

We let out a big sigh of relief;

We transfer to the last train

And on that we remain,

We are almost in disbelief.

Don’t miss the train

For it won’t come again,

At least not when you need it to;

You’re in Salzburg now

So let you’re hair down,

Oh, and Randy, Happy Birthday to You!

….ok, so some of you might have questions about this whole fiasco. One question might be, ‘why did you get off the train to switch cars?’ Well, since our luggage is so large and the car was full of people settling in their seats, it was faster for us to just get off the car and run down the track to the next car. Had we known the train would leave so quickly we wouldn’t have gotten off.  We also thought that you had to find an empty seat to sit in if you didn’t have a reservation. We now know that if you can’t find a seat you can stand or sit in/near the exit doorways of the train. We found that when we had the pleasure of sitting/standing by the exit for almost 5 hours on a very crowded ride from Munich to Vienna. I’m sure you have other questions or suggestions, but trust me; we know all the things we could have and should have done differently in this situation.

Overall lesson learned: Don’t ride the train on the weekends. Most locals travel by train and they have lots of free time on the weekends to do just that.

(I bet you thought the lesson was going to be about missing the train. Denied.)