Today is one of those days that frequently got me to question my decision-making powers. Let's start with how it started. I didn't sleep a wink because I wanted to make sure that I would get up early to catch a train to Győr, Hungary, from Bratislava-Petržalka train station (not the main station in which I arrived from Prague, but a "suburban" station). I got on the train at the scheduled time of 8:32 a.m. About 20 minutes later, I got off the train in the middle of nowhere at station in Austria called "Parndorf" all because some German-run train website (http://bahn.de) said to get off at Parndorf and change trains there to get to Győr.This is what I saw when my Vienna-bound train departed about 30 seconds after I exited. A dead platform in the middle of Austrian nowhere, with only a stray dog on the platform. The station was empty. There were no signs as to which of the three "platforms" the alleged train to Győr would arrive at (important because I knew I would have about 15 seconds to jump the new train). So for the first time this day -- but most definitely not the last -- I asked myself what the #@$% I was thinking.
I decided to stay on the one platform because it served as both Platform 2 (north side) and Platform 3 (south side), so I had a 66.67% chance of being in the right place. Good call, because at 9:13 a.m., two minutes ahead of schedule, my Győr bound train rolled into "Parndorf." Crisis averted.
One last view of Bratislava:
Petržalka station.
