I wanted to take a minute to reflect on the bad day I had yesterday because you can only grow and learn from things if you take the time to ponder what went wrong. You know the children’s book, Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? That used to be one of my favorite books growing up because everything that went wrong for Alexander did. And yesterday was a mini version of Amy and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day or A.a.t.T,N.G,V.B.D for future reference.
Now the day didn’t start off bad. In fact, I awoke from a pretty decent slumber and said goodbye to my WiFi -free apartment and walked 50 minutes to the train station. I arrived well in time for my 11:12a train and got on board feeling pretty content with myself. Here I found the train station unaided by GPS/navigation and using the paper map I had. Right on. I got to Vienna and knew I had to take a taxi because I didn’t trust myself to walk over a mile without GPS and because it’s hot. And walking in the heat is just silly. I got into the taxi and gave him the address, house number, and name of the hostel I was staying in.
A.a.t.T,N.G,V.B.D: He drives me to the Westbahnhof train station (the name of my hostel is Westbahnhof Hostel One) and points at Westbahnhof Motel One and says, “that’s your hotel.” I asked him why he was dropping me off at another train station and he points and the hotel and says, “that’s your hotel.” He proceeds to charge me 24€ when the meter said 14euro but how am I to argue with a man who doesn’t speak English or any other language for that matter. Do apes speak?! I hand him the 24€ and don’t tip him because I’m pissed. I know this is the wrong place but I don’t feel like fighting the good fight to make a point. So I walk into the lobby of Motel One, steal some internet and put directions to Hostel One on my iPad. Begrudgingly I walk there in the hot, searing sun. But I made it. One of my roommates is from Argentina and she told me how a friend of hers dropped their phone into the canal in Copenhagen and took it to a cell phone repair shop and for 70€ they fixed the phone. So I decide to take my defunct cell phone to a repair shop to assess the damage.
A.a.t.T,N.G,V.B.D: I walk up the street from my hostel and there’s a cell phone repair shop. I thought, thanks Universe. Major points for convenience. I walk in and ask if they repair iPhones. The man behind the counter says yes and that the diagnosis is free. He tells me that I can leave the phone with them, a technician will look at it and in 1 hour I can come back. The technician will then explain the damage and the cost associated to repair and I can decide what I would like to do. So 1 hour goes by exactly and I walk back to the shop. This time, a young girl is helping me while the man who talked about “his technician” is actually the one working on my phone. Something shady was up. She tells me that they opened the phone and there was a lot of water damage and the screen needs to be replaced. She told me it would cost 150€ total. I said, “no thanks. I’m due for a new phone when I’m back in the states in a month. I’d like my phone back, please.” And this is where it gets messed up. She then speaks with the man/technician and they drop the price to 100€. I again tell them, “no thanks” and she tells me that I owe them 20€ because they had to clean up the water damage to assess total damages and I must be charged for it. Ooooh, you’ve never seen me stand my ground so much. I think I might have been overcompensating for the fact that I let the taxi driver walk all over me earlier in the day. Or I guess drive all over me is more apropos. I tell the man word for word what he told me and I never agreed to pay 20€ or anything at all. I told him he said the diagnosis was free and that I would get to decide how to proceed after that. I said I wasn’t paying and I wanted my phone back. They both knew they were in the wrong and told me to come back in 30 minutes once they have put all the pieces back together. So I left my cell phone with them and went back to the hostel to contact AT&T. I didn’t know if they would give me my phone back so I wanted to suspend my service until I’m home for the 3 weeks and get a new phone. Cell service successfully suspended and I’m happy to report that they gave me back my cell phone and my SIM card.
When I cam back to the hostel, and told my Argentina roommate, she was livid. She told me I had to do something. I told her I didn’t care anymore, I have my phone back, I have my SIM card. I don’t need to contact the owner of the business. It’s done.
So much for the short recap. Yikes! But that story had to be told because in one instance I didn’t stand up for myself and in the other, I did. Lesson learned, always stand up for yourself. Even if I had just explained a little more to the taxi driver that this wasn’t my hostel, he could have driven me to the right place and still overcharged me.
As for today, well it has gone infinitely better. With one minor exception – I couldn’t sleep because of the heat last night. I was sweating profusely and woke up to find our window had been closed the entire night. It was a sauna in here! Today I found hot weather tools – 2 fans and a spray bottle – so I can try to get a colder night’s sleep tonight. I hope the hotel I’m staying with Danielle in has A/C. Speaking of, I’m not trying to do too many touristy things because she arrives Sunday and will want to do touristy things also. This is going to be one of the better weeks of my adventure because Danielle is the only non-family member on the “pre-approved travel list.” For those that don’t know, Danielle is my bestest friend in the entire world and she was coming to Europe for a wedding. So we coordinated and will travel together for about a week and then she goes home and I continue on as I have been.
Vienna really is quite a beautiful place. I seem to say that a lot but there’s a refined culture here that’s evident in even just buildings. I don’t know what this is but the reflections of the windows is lovely.
I went to Stephensplatz but did not go inside the church. I’m waiting for Danielle to go inside.
A little bit around the corner from the church is the Anchor Clock. Since I didn’t get to see the astronomical clock in Prague due to restorations, I figured I should find this clock. It’s interesting and very hidden but it changes figures and tunes on the hour.
Finally, I found Blutgasse, which is one of the oldest and most picturesque streets in Vienna. It’s name is said to have gone back to all of the slaughterhouses nearby. It was quiet and definitely off the tourist track, which means I loved it.
I think that’s enough exploring for today, I have a few more days to myself so I will do what I do best: wake up with no plan, wander around, find plans, come back for a siesta, and then spend my evenings indoors and cool. It’s supposed to be 96 degrees in Vienna and that’s just absurd.
There She Goes... 