Escape from Austria: my travel nightmare

I woke up at 11:35am. We’d missed the bus. We’d missed the train.

We were stranded in the middle of the Austrian Alps.

FUCK.

This is how my Sunday morning started.

Let me explain: the annual company mystery trip had taken us to the Austrian Alps. The trip itself was fantastic: 400 employees and three days of ridiculous fun. We had an all-out rave on an overnight train, went hiking in the Alps, took a cable car up a mountain to a private party, watched traditional Tirolean dances, rafted and cycled along the bluest river I’d ever seen and even had a formal dinner. It was incredible.

The beautiful Hohe Tauern national park

On the last night we had a disco, which ended at 6am. At 09:25 the buses left from the hotel for the train station, where the chartered private train would take everyone home to Düsseldorf, leaving at 11:25.

At this point I’d like to point out that the hotel was two hours from the nearest train station. And that this was the only train making that journey. Needless to say, getting the bus was important.

We overslept.

As the train left the station, a friend wondered why I wasn’t in my cabin…

We hurriedly grabbed our stuff and raced down to reception, to find that a few others were in the same boat. Unfortunately that boat happened to be up a certain creek without a paddle.

The reception advised us to take a taxi to Lienz, the nearest large town, but we found a better train connection from Kitzbühel so headed there. From there, we planned to get a train to Munich where we could hire a car, and two of our little group would share the driving back to Düsseldorf. However the taxi wouldn’t be cheap. €200 in fact. With little choice, the five of us jumped in and we on our way.

Smooth sailing? Not quite.

A hiking selfie during happier times

After twenty minutes of winding mountain roads and hairpin bends, one of the girls started to feel a bit ill. Then she started to feel really ill. We pulled over and she got out to be sick. A few minutes later we were on the road again, but it wasn’t long before she needed to get out again.

It soon became clear that she was ill. Very ill. Each time we stopped, she became worse and was soon barely able to stand. As she was one of our two designated drivers, we decided to scrap renting a car and get the train all the way back instead. But only one train from Kitzbühel would get us back to Düsseldorf before midnight. Missing it would mean arriving back at 7am the next day.

Without much time to spare, we did all we could to help Nicola back into the taxi and hatched a plan to split up and storm the station: one to get tickets, one to get food, one to help Nicola and one to watch bags.

When we got to Kitzbühel station, we only had about 15 minutes to spare. (The amazing taxi driver actually shook each of our hands and wished us luck). We got to the ticket office. €155 each. Bugger. Still, it was our only real option and while it caused me physical pain, we parted with the money.

Thus began our arduous train journey: Kitzbühel to Wörgl, Wörgl to Munich, Munich to Düsseldorf. 8 hours 18 minutes in total.

Smooth sailing? Well actually, yeah – sort of.

With a crack team like this, we were sure to be home safe and sound…

During the first train journey, Nicola slept. After some food in between connections she started to perk up (and I ate the best kebab of my life). By the time we reached Munich, she was fine.

In fact, the train journeys were actually quite enjoyable: we got good seats on each leg of the journey and even had space for all of our massive bags. Not to mention, we saw far more of Austria than we would’ve done otherwise. The super fast ICE train also meant that we didn’t make it home too long after the original train.

The catch?

Another group had actually been left behind as well and left in a taxi before us. They headed to Lienz, got the train to Munich and then an overnight bus to Düsseldorf. They didn’t arrive home until 6am the next day, but they only paid half the amount we did, which stung a bit.

The bright side?

Our day was actually hilarious. With the exception of the latter stages of the taxi ride, we spent the whole day laughing. As a group, we got on really well and managed to keep each other sane without getting stressed. No one snapped at anyone else and we all worked together to find the best way home. The situation we were in was far from ideal, but it could’ve been far, far worse and we were in it together.

The price we have to take on the chin as the consequence of not being more prepared, but in a weird way, I think we all really did get quite a bit from it: a great story and a big slice of life experience. Not to mention earning our stripes as seasoned travellers.

Also, that kebab was really good.

Do you have a travel nightmare to share?
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