13th to 15th of October, 2019.
At the train station in Vienna, I figure how it is incredible that, first, people simply do not actually listen to me when I am telling then the way that I travel, like almost without money (at least most of them, I think); and second, how everybody thinks that taking trains from here to there, is the most normal thing. Just because you live in a huge city your whole life, and you take buses and trains to go from here to there all the time, does not mean that everybody is like that. Now, those four friends, three now, simply left me there, and I have to figure how to do everything and go everywhere just by myself. OK, I can do that, luckily I am a quite smart woman plus I have experience already but that lack of careless of them shocked me. “I am shocked!” – by Phoebe Buffay. OK, maybe that is a bit of drama queen. I am not a kid; they are not my parents; plus, they are so used to take those trains all the time that they probably not even realized I could use some help.
Anyway, it does not matter, maybe is just because they are very young.
I was starving though, so I decide to have a warm and healthy meal, noodles, which for luck it was very cheap, and prevent some migraine later. After that, I decide to buy a train ticket and go to the city centre, where I can find free wi-fi easily and figure a plan. At the station, it is a little bit difficult to choose someone to ask about a central station. To choose someone in who I can trust… ? Luckily I choose Florin and Flocky, a very nice young man and his cute Beagle, who not just spend the whole trip talking to me about how this world is all fucked up, as also gets out in the same station as I. I do not know for sure if he did that because he had to or just for kindness. Well, he is in my heart already anyway. Florin is from Romania, by the way. And as all the other Romanians I met on my travels, he is very kind and helped me a lot.
At a McDonald’s, I send a few CS requests and I wait. But I also post a public trip. After a few denies, good and bad ones, someone one offer to host me for the night. His name is Honzo. My first plan since I am now in Vienna already, it is to spend two full days in the city and leave on the 17th to Graz, to my Workaway. But since just Honzo could host me and just for the night, I first accept his offer, of course, and then I plan to spend the next day visiting Vienna, to check if I get lucky and get another host, and if not, I camp outside town and leave to another destination, one more, before going to Graz.
When I check Honzo’s profile I am shocked with his almost 600 references even so he has just a landscape picture as profile. Everybody is saying wonderful things about him though, even that he does not tells too many personal things about him. He gives me his address and it is in a very good location, close by the centre, so there I go.
His place it is very cozy and cute. And he is very friendly even that a little bit shy, I would say. He can only host me for that night because there are already two other girls staying with him, one from Alaska (who is leaving next morning) and another one from France (who just arrived), and since he has just one extra set of keys… What a sad news! I feel so comfortable at his place and we have so much in common. It would be a great few days in Vienna at his company, if I had the luck of had met him before. I meet the two girls also, and they are very sweet too. Honzo prepares some really nice food for all of us, which is great for me since I am already starving again and need some healthy food, which is exactly what he does. He has two movies suggestions on the table: The Greasy Man (which I am about to watch soon) and Before Sunrise (which I just watched). So I suggest the girls to watch the last one but I must to go to sleep.
I sleep until late next morning, I figure that will be fine just going around main buildings in town, so I do not want to get up too early. Plus, the girls are still sleeping and it seems they will keep like that for a while. I get up to say goodbye to Honzo, though, just before he leaves to work.
I have to get up at some point though, even that the girls are still sleeping. I prepare some porridge for the three of us, since Honzo kindly left a lot of food settled for us to have a nice breakfast. Including Nutella! When I am about to leave the girls finally wake up. I say goodbye and give them my contact.
Vienna it is nice but if you are like me, that cannot take too much of anything (apart of movies, pop corn and sweets) you can get a little bit annoyed by so many old buildings / palaces. They are everywhere! In each corner of the city centre there is a huge and full of details old palace. It is insane! It probably will take a long time for you to learn how to make difference between them. Plus they look alike a lot! Of course I could not visit any museums because they are all paid. But I walk a lot around here and there and took some pictures as well. I have very interesting thoughts about the alternative transport ways in here. I mean, apart of bicycles, people use a lot of scooters, grow up people, which surprised me a lot. They even go in two people on one scooter.
There are probably a lot of other things you can do in Vienna and the tourist information very close to the Opera of Vienna it is amazing! Apart of the many different types of maps, they have over four people working there to help you. They might not be the most friendly ones but they can be very helpful for sure.
After all the walking and sightseeing, I decide to check one more time for any CS offer and since there was none, I find a place where to camp and hitchhike. I stop in a mall before, where I could get some food, eat and use the toilet. That is one of my best ideas because I would need that place a lot next morning. But I would realize that just in the next day.
At the supermarket, something curious happened actually. I decide to buy, after a long time, some peanut butter. At first I could not find but then I see this other guy, also apparently looking for something, which I soon realize it was also peanut butter, so I keep looking around and I finally see on the top, at the last shelf, where they keep some extra products. I tell the guy about it, not exactly for altruism but because he is also very tall so he can get the peanut butter for us. He is nice and tells me he is going to try to make a sauce with peanut butter for a burger his is about to make. When I am talking to him I drop my yoghurt in the floor by accident. I go and take another one but I leave without pay for that one. Is that too bad? For now, I am waiting to get dark because since I am in town, I rather be sure I will not be seen. Illusion.
In the way, I see a couple with dread locks and alternative style clothes in a fancy Indian restaurant, where I asked quickly about directions. That remind me about the other couple I saw in the supermarket, also with dread locks and same clothes, and they were buying some nice food, and made me think about what the hell those people are doing. I always thought that when you go for that life style, you are into more simple things, not fancy and expensive stuff, because you should know how unfair and not balanced the world it is. Apparently I am wrong. Either that or Into the Wild is really doing a great job in the “brain wash” of the people.
Before I get in the place where I will hitchhike next morning, I find this nice park going along the river, followed by nice apartments just crossing the street. So I decide that it might be a better place to camp, since it might prevent of some bad people to plan to do something with me. I do my camping just between some bushes but it still visible from the trail beside the river. Since it is quite late, I assume nobody will be walking by here right now so I do it anyway. When I am almost finishing, just putting the bags inside the tent, a guy stops in a bench down the hill where I am. It was so quickly the moment that I saw him and he saw me, that I am not sure if he could tell I am a woman, a man and or a local. It takes me a few minutes to decide if should I stay or should I go. So I convince myself that not everyone in the world is a bad person. That not just because that man saw me it means that he will do something bad, to plan something bad to do to me. So I stay. And nothing happened.
Next morning I realize how good idea it was to make my camping in there. At the hitchhiking spot, a construction side, there is nothing apart of some quite long grass very close to the road. Road which by the way it is a highway and I just figure that when the police come and tells me I have to pay 50€ as a fee and then go back to town. My heart almost explode when they say “50€”. But I tell them the truth: first, I did not know there it was highway; second, I did not know I could not hitchhike in the highway; third, I did not know I had to pay a fee for that (obviously). And I try to exemplify by telling them about the other countries I have just been on it and it it written in the road signs about “No Autostop”, like in Italy. But then one of the officers, the driver, it is a bit rude saying that I should had search about that before coming to the country, that no one will take me by the hand and explain to me this and that, and bla bla bla… Fucking asshole! Luckily the other officer was more relax and when I told them I would just grab my stuff and go back to town, they let me.
Back in town, from this weird quite industrial side, I am blessed to ask for help at Bark motorbike and accessory shop. I just ask him about where it is the closest McDonald’s because I need to use their wi-fi, when he tells me I can use his shop wi-fi. But then I tell him that I also need to charge my computer because the battery is gone an he says I can also charge my computer in there. And as if was not enough kindness, he gives me coffee and when I say I will be brief, he says: “We close at 6 p.m. So take your time”.
My best plan B is take the train to a nearby neighborhood and from there hitchhike to Semmering, my extra destination, replacing Vienna. I take all the directions from here to there, from the both train stations and the hitchhike spot. Crazy.
At the first train station, a lovely lady approaches me and ask if I need any help. “You look a little lost”, she says. I am actually a bit confused by the trains names and stops. She takes the same one as I and during the trip she tells me a bit about her travels while I tell her a bit of my own. She actually gives me a better place to hitchhike, at the same station she is coming out for work. According to her, there all the cars are going directly to the highway, so my chances are bigger. Later on, Doerthe send me a very lovely email confessing I actually gave her some motivation to put the feet on the road again. Amazing!
I do not know about the other place where I was going but here, where she suggested, there are a lot. The first person who stops for me it is a very young, I mean, it looks so young, that I could not avoid asking her “Are not you too young to drive?”. I also just realized she is a girl a few minutes after we start to talk. Unfortunately, Ivone, this very beautiful young lady, misunderstood my sign by one of Vienna’s neighborhood, which is Simmering. So one I got in the car and we start to talk, we realize the mistake and she needs to drop me just a hundred metres ahead. No problem because luckily there is a gas station just over there.
A couple stops for me and at first, the man scares me a little bit. Maybe it is Wivei’s long white hair and bear, I do not know, maybe it is just his style, but he reveals be a nice man anyway. And his wife, Ingrid, also a lovely lady, who gets very interested in knowing more about my travels. They are going to Semmering to hunt some mushrooms. Wivei himself had done his share of hitchhiking, and according to him, here in Austria, he was not that lucky.
They drop me at the centre of Semmering, perfect spot. I just have to wait for the tourist office to open so middle time I decide to have my lunch.
