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Schnitz & Giggles
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Schnitz & Giggles
[S1E8] Trams, Tales, Traditions: Getting from A to B with the Wiener Linien
Ever wondered how a city's heartbeat is mirrored in the ebb and flow of its trams and buses? Get ready to discover the charming quirks and historical gems of Vienna's public transportation, from the emblematic D and O tram lines to the curious case of buses that run only on special days.
We're peeling back the layers of time to reveal a system that's as rich in culture as it is in efficiency, and we'll leave no stone unturned (well, perhaps except for some cobblestones) – from the strategic tram timing that keeps you playing a metropolitan game of cat and mouse to the U4ria of riding the subway.
Join us as Dr. Schnitzel proves that he can't count to five, while Mr. Giggles makes sure that no one would ever call him culturally educated.
All aboard for an episode that promises to take you to the nicest and ugliest stops of Vienna!
Well, guten hallo and welcome to another episode of the Schnitz and Giggles podcast. How are you doing today, luki? I'm doing fine. How are you, mikey? Yeah, I'm doing great. Yeah, you're giggling again. Yeah, as always, mr Giggles, yeah, so what do you have in store for me and the rest of our listeners? What are we going to talk about?
Dr. Schnitzel:today. Today, I think, we'll talk about one of the greatest transportation systems in the world and fortunately, you can find this right here in vienna yeah, that's good I was.
Mr. Giggles:I was hoping we're going to talk about some other cities transportation system okay, so we're talking about.
Dr. Schnitzel:We're talking about the public system, about the public transportation system. Love it. That is quite old, as many things are in vienna, okay, but quite modern at the same time.
Mr. Giggles:now we, we, we kind of in a previous episode made a passing reference to the trams. We were talking about our Frankfurter and Franz Josef figuring out a way to get his sausage fix. But we weren't sure if there was an actual tram at that time or if it was just a horse-drawn carriage.
Dr. Schnitzel:Maybe now we'll know for sure, maybe now we'll dive'll know for sure, maybe now we'll dive deeper into these things. Yes, first of all, it started out, as you just said, as a horse carriage, and they started out in 1865. Okay, that's the first time it was with the horse-drawn with the horse-drawn. So there was an like an organization that had tramway, we call it so that was before the frankfurter made its mark right when? When was the Frankfurter again?
Mr. Giggles:I have to listen to the episode again.
Dr. Schnitzel:Listen to the episode again, but it was about the same time, I think. Yeah, pretty close, but it was at the time when Franz Josef lived, for sure, yeah, so that was during his reign. Also, there will be another episode.
Mr. Giggles:That was the time when they rebuilt vienna, literally right. That's the the beginning of the ringstrasse, everything that surrounds the ringstrasse.
Dr. Schnitzel:So the second half of the 19th century, that's all they did in vienna. Yeah, an important time for building new buildings beautiful, huge for the viennese construction industry exactly, and they had a time that took them to places and they had good sausage as well. So it was wasn't up till 1897 that we had electric vehicles.
Mr. Giggles:Okay, so there was a time of horse-drawn carriages, and then they figured out a way to get electricity involved. Did that lead to more lines then at that point? Did they become more connected at that point, or did they just follow the lines that they already?
Dr. Schnitzel:had. They first replaced the existing lines, of course, and the whole system just grew and grew. They replaced the existing lines, of course, and the whole system just grew and grew, and they had. They had all kinds of numbers and letters to label those okay, those lines. At some point they even had symbols like a triangle or something. Why? Because in those days a lot of people couldn't read, okay so they know how to count above 10 or something so they, they had to just recognize the line.
Dr. Schnitzel:So you go on the triangle line, you go on the circle line or something. Okay, that was the early start, so I don't know how, for how long they they did that, but later on they introduced a number system and a letter system. There's only a few letters left, actually only two uh trams that still have letters to say okay, and they all had the different purposes which you can look up it. We're not gonna have to go into all these details, but it had some significance as well.
Mr. Giggles:Well, now I feel like this is quiz time. I can think of you quiz me, or I quiz you, I don't know, we'll quiz each other. Well, you said there's two lines that are indicated by a letter only. So the D tram, the D tram, the D line, and have you of the other one. Well, you have 25 letters left. I'm not going to go through the alphabet.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, because A is wrong, B is wrong, C is wrong.
Mr. Giggles:I mean do you know?
Dr. Schnitzel:I know, okay, of course.
Mr. Giggles:Well, do you want to share it with the rest of us?
Dr. Schnitzel:I'm Dr Schnitzel, come on.
Mr. Giggles:Okay, so 50% on this quiz, yes. What's the other one? O?
Dr. Schnitzel:Oh, maybe you mistook it for a zero, maybe, maybe I thought that was the zero line. Yeah, the zero line it's actually the letter O.
Mr. Giggles:It's funny because the D could also look like an O at times, depending on how you write it. That could be very confusing.
Dr. Schnitzel:Many letters can look like a D or an O. A sloppy C can be an o, sure, sure sloppy q could be no.
Dr. Schnitzel:Okay, all right, I get your point that's not okay, so since then they've moved to a different numbering system some numbers indicated, you know, a tram that would go like straight through the city or from the center towards the city limits, oh so like passing through or being centered or going around. They sort of had each indicator and even to this day, if you look at the lines, uh, and look at it from the map of vienna, the numbering sort of falls of a pattern. There is a system, there's a system still behind it, but it's not, as it has become more flexible, let's put it this way, and they just eliminated more and more letter lines and replace them with numbers. But you know this quiz question okay. So let's say, a lot of pressure there is. There's a line five, for example, yes, or the line 26, but what if I told you? What would you expect to see if I told you there's a line 5a or 26a?
Mr. Giggles:I mean, usually I'm expecting a bus line. Right, that's the answer.
Dr. Schnitzel:So the numbers are tramps, the numbers with letters A or B sometimes. So 5A, 5b will be a bus.
Mr. Giggles:I guess, yeah, all the buses have an A or B at the end of them. You never noticed that. I don't think I ever really made notes that there weren't any buses. That were just numbers by themselves.
Dr. Schnitzel:Except for some regional buses that go outside the city that are not really operated by the Wiener Linien. But we better actually even say the name Right, shout out Wiener Linien. Wiener Linien is the transportation system. The Vienna lines, yeah, or the Viennese lines, so to speak. Like the traffic yeah, that's what it is. Buses, good yeah, that's what it is. Buses good history. Trams and also, pretty late on in history, the U-Bahn. The U-Bahn, which has become the most important transportation system. In a sense, they're the main arteries of the system. Yeah, they were planning on building an U-Bahn in the 19th century, really, but then they couldn't.
Mr. Giggles:They had so many plans to change the plans and then a couple of wars happened in between, sure, so many plans to change the plans, and then a couple of wars happened in between, sure, well, the not to not to bring other cities into the mix, but the, the budapest underground line was built around the 1900s, was it not?
Dr. Schnitzel:yeah, lots of european cities started around that time. Yeah, I think the oldest is in london, as far as I know and many cities followed, although it's not completely correct if I say there was nothing since. What we used to have, what Vienna used to have, was the Stadtbahn. That was a predecessor of the U-Bahn in some ways, because even to this day, some of the tracks we're using for the U-Bahn had been built in the 19th century, but not underground, partially underground, some underground. Mostly the Line U-4 and the U-6 are the ones that use those tracks to this day.
Dr. Schnitzel:And they look, look, so much different so that's true.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, the u6 has a has an old-fashioned feel to them for sure. Yeah, all right. Good history, good history, wow history. You're not even a history teacher, but you did it.
Dr. Schnitzel:You did it, yes, good job. Yeah, thank you. What else is important? What else is interesting when we talk about the wiener linien?
Mr. Giggles:well, if we're, if we're serving a purpose here with this podcast of helping expats who live in the city or maybe thinking of moving here. Oh yeah, let's not forget that yeah, I guess we could. We could talk a little bit about the value of the of the system here. Let's do that then, okay, good, okay, okay good. I mean for those of you that don't know, you can get an annual pass to use public transportation for 365 euros which means one euro per day.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, for you, math whizzes out there. You figured out pretty quickly that that's one euro per day to use any of the the lines within the vienna city and during a leap year you get an even better get a free day yeah, look at that, I didn't even think about that. What a great value this year has been. Yeah, wonderful, wonderful.
Dr. Schnitzel:But it's so much so that that there's plenty of people in the city that don't own a vehicle that can get around the city using public transportation without the need for private automobile as a matter of fact, this is one of those trivia things the vienna they are very proud of that as well, or Vienna in general is very proud of that the more regular public transport customers, so some of them have an annual ticket or similar tickets. We have more of those customers than there are cars in Vienna. Is that right? The annual tickets or all those tickets together, I think they add up to more than 1 million. Wow, and there's less than 1 million cars registered in Vienna and Vienna overall has 2 million people in the population.
Mr. Giggles:Obviously there's people who have an annual public pass that also own a car, Of course, yeah. So, it's not either, or You're allowed to have both, if you so choose.
Dr. Schnitzel:And also the density of the whole network Right, because it's very likely, especially in the inner parts of the city, how far or how long you have to walk until you reach the next bus stop or tram stop.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, I mean, I usually tell people that you can usually get within a block of your destination on public transportation. You might skip jumping on a bus because you'd only have to be on it for one or two stops, but it's certainly not a very, very long walk. Right A couple of minutes.
Dr. Schnitzel:Right A couple hundred meters maybe, and this is what makes the city so great you are never very far from a bus stop unless you're in the outskirts of the city, but even there it's pretty nice. Yeah, you can still get to a stop pretty easily, and I've heard other people commenting on this because of the Viennese. When they see, for example, they have to wait for four minutes for the next bus, they're becoming super angry and they're like think I'm gonna walk instead, because four minutes of my time.
Mr. Giggles:I can't wait that long, right? Well, there there is some some public transportation math that you have to do at some point, like if you're maybe later in the day, when there's not as many buses running at night, or something it makes more sense to to walk an additional three stops right and then get on the bus instead of just staying put at the one that you're at yeah, or sometimes you're close enough to your destination that you can walk there in less time and you beat them.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, you beat the, you beat the system. Yeah, although this kind of backfired on me, oh yeah, just last week I was meeting a friend for lunch downtown and I needed to get on the one tram at Schwedenplatz and apparently there was some sort of protest going on on the Ringstrasse that had delayed the tram, so the wait time had jumped up to like 25 minutes or something. Oh, my goodness, I'm going to be awfully late to lunch. And so I'm messaging my friend and he had looked up. He was the one that told me about the demonstration and the delay and the reason for it.
Mr. Giggles:I said, all right, well, I'm just going to walk to you. I'd looked up, kind of see what the walk would be, and it said probably about a 25 minute walk. I'm like, all right, I'll get there before the tram would pick me up, so I'll save some time by doing this walk. But because of the unknown nature of the delay, or like the unpredictable nature of the delay, as I walked up to the restaurant the tram went by. So had I waited, I would have gotten to the restaurant at the same exact time and I ended up with a little exercise, a little walk through the city.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, I do it in a similar fashion. When I know I have maybe 10 minutes or so and I do the math, I'm gonna walk for 10 minutes, I'm gonna wait for 10 minutes, and then I often walk and if I see the tram is coming, bus is coming and hop on.
Mr. Giggles:I really like the improved signage that a lot of the trams are starting to get in and some of the major lines that have the actual time that you have to wait. They've kind of taken the technology from the u-bonds and put them on the trams or whatever. So that's kind of nice when you're doing that walk because you kind of get a feel whether it's worth just stopping at this next stop and waiting for the tram or continuing on to the next one to kind of do that little tram.
Dr. Schnitzel:It's true, because it's in real time. Yeah, it's. I mean, before those those days, of course, they just had it like on the paper at the stop and you can see okay, this tram is scheduled to arrive by right, what it's scheduled to be and I'm sure we have plenty of stories, uh, of the times when you have no information on what the delay is exactly or if the bus has been canceled back, then you wouldn't.
Dr. Schnitzel:You wouldn't dare to walk away from the stop, because you know like what if it just comes around the corner in the next minute and it passes you, you by as you're in between stops.
Mr. Giggles:That's the worst feeling.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, you got nowhere to go.
Mr. Giggles:You just got a longer walk ahead. You can't run back.
Dr. Schnitzel:You can't run. Yeah, you're stuck.
Mr. Giggles:It's a shame. It's a shame, but it's part of the city life. It is really part of the city life and it's fun. It's fun. So, as you listener maybe move to the city or or are struggling to get by in the city and you're you're sick of standing at a stop and waiting for a tram walk to the next stop, play a little bit of public math.
Dr. Schnitzel:This just should have a name, something like not like playing tag with the tram, but it's like the cat and mouse like you're trying to.
Mr. Giggles:Hey, here's a chance for you guys comment on, uh, comment below on our on our instagram post. What? What should this game of of timing out a tram be called?
Dr. Schnitzel:that's it, yeah because I don't think there's a german word for that either not as I'm aware of so we can make up our own game. That's's wonderful. We could have a championship in Vienna about that. Say like this yeah. You have like. The task is you have to go from A to B and you have to time it.
Mr. Giggles:You know, in a sense, but you can't stay still for more than two minutes maybe yeah, something like that. Yeah, so if you get to the tram stop and there's three minutes left, what do you do? You have to. Maybe three minutes isn't enough time.
Dr. Schnitzel:We'll workshop out the rules, guys.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah we'll get that back to you in a later episode. Stay tuned for the first edition of the Schnitz and Giggles Vienna City Public Tram Tour Extravaganza Name to be worked on as well.
Dr. Schnitzel:But speaking of the tram system, do you know that the whole system is the sixth largest? It's the sixth largest in the world. Okay, it's the largest one is in, you want to guess, london? No, no, it's in melbourne, australia. Oh, melbourne, then saint petersburg, then berlin and then moscow. Wow, so they have have more miles of kilometers than Vienna.
Mr. Giggles:Vienna has more miles of track than London. For the Straßenbahn, for the tram? Ah, for trams. Okay, I thought we were talking the whole system.
Dr. Schnitzel:Not the whole system. No, so am I missing a time? Did I say Melbourne?
Mr. Giggles:I think you said five cities.
Dr. Schnitzel:St Petersburg, Berlin, Moscow. That's four. What's the fifth? I don't know. Well, first person to comment the fifth city, yes, but the Wiener Linien said on the webpage it's the sixth largest. Okay, but you have to take into consideration that all those cities that I mentioned are way bigger, population-wise than Vienna. So if you think about miles per capita yeah, the tram miles per capita vienna comes at top again. All right, that's really nice. That's really nice. But did you know that there is a bus that only comes two times a year?
Mr. Giggles:the bus that comes two times a year. If you're waiting at that, stop you should.
Dr. Schnitzel:You should walk to the next one.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, you should walk to wherever you're going, yes, bus that that goes two times a year. No, I don't know. I've never been on this bus.
Dr. Schnitzel:It's the 38B and the 39B. There's actually two bus lines, 38 and 39B. So the 38A and the 39A are the regular ones that go every couple of minutes. There are two main events for the reason why these buses are just added to.
Mr. Giggles:Two days a year, or two times a year? Two days, two days, okay. So they have a schedule of multiple buses, but only on that one day. Only on that one day, okay. That doesn't help me understand which event it's for.
Dr. Schnitzel:But here's another thing we have to talk about in this podcast soon. It's the matter of death.
Mr. Giggles:So All Saints Day has always been a big thing for Vienna and Austria in general, meaning lots and lots of people are visiting the cemeteries.
Dr. Schnitzel:Right there's these buses. So All Saints Day is one and the Christmas Day is the other. They support the other lines, that are the regular lines, because they expect more passengers. That's simply why they call them the cemetery lines.
Mr. Giggles:They're going out to the central cemetery or whatever.
Dr. Schnitzel:Actually, one goes to Heidingstadt, one goes to Sievering, they even don't go to the central cemetery.
Mr. Giggles:I guess you can already get there pretty easily, because the transportation system.
Dr. Schnitzel:The transportation lines that go there are already pretty nice and good and frequent. They used to have extras, extra lines or trams on All Saints Day too, but also the demand has gone down over the years. Less people just go there on All Saints.
Mr. Giggles:Day, which we'll talk about later. Yeah, don't talk too much about this. We'll lose out on an entire podcast.
Dr. Schnitzel:And there's another bus that only operates in the summer time it's down near the Alta Donau, exactly yeah. So it's the 20B yeah, that runs from May to September, and it connects the 20B that runs from May to September and it connects the U-Bahn. Yeah, the Alta Donau stop and then the Neue Donau, the Neue Donau, yeah, the U6 and the U1. So it goes back and forth.
Mr. Giggles:We've used that one a couple of times.
Dr. Schnitzel:It drops off, all the people want to jump into.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, it's a wonderful connection point to get from the U6 to the U1. I mean, it would actually be kind of convenient to have all times a year, potentially Because there aren't a lot of direct cross connections between those two lines on this side of the don't know. That's true.
Dr. Schnitzel:But of course the demand is always.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, it goes through a neighborhood. Not much to stop at in between.
Dr. Schnitzel:They're always monitoring how many passengers do we have on the bus, on the tram, and then, if it doesn't add up, they change the lines, they cancel some, and that happens.
Mr. Giggles:It seems like nowadays, though, they're more in the mode of adding new bus lines to meet new neighborhoods or the potential expanded ridership.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, because buses are easy. You can have a bus line tomorrow if you wanted to, but trams need tracks and lots of preparation time. Although they're building a new tram track now in the northern region where it connects the northern eastern part and the northern western part, so Florezdorf and Stonerstadt.
Mr. Giggles:Really.
Dr. Schnitzel:So they're building some new tracks and trying to connect. That's in my neck of the woods yeah, connecting those districts that traditionally didn't have a lot of tram tracks.
Mr. Giggles:Well, it's where the population is growing and where a lot of the construction is happening, because the density of the population wasn't there.
Dr. Schnitzel:So they extended some of the subway lines there the last couple of years, and more buses, of course, were there as well, but at some point it pays off to build a tram track. Here's an interesting question to you. Maybe I'm ready. Do you have any favorite stop, like any station, especially talking about the U-Bahn, which are the bigger ones, of course, sure or Schnellbahn. We haven't talked about the.
Mr. Giggles:It's a pretty. There's a lot of factors that could play into this. Yeah, you have to really think about that. I mean, flordsdorf has become a regular stop for us because there's, you know, it's kind of a starting point for a lot of connections throughout the city. That's true, because it's kind of a main train station with a lot of access points to different things. Man, but favorite, I don't know. Yeah, by what standard? Yeah, yeah, by what standard is the favorite? You're free to choose. I'd like to go to, yeah, I guess I guess floridsdorf, just because it's what we use, so it's, you know, if that didn't exist, then it'd be hard to get around for us exactly, yeah, oh you sir what's your favorite stuff?
Dr. Schnitzel:my favorite stuff by whatever standard first I think I should tell you more about what's Viennese. Think about Floyd stuff and that stop, yeah, because probably most of the locals wouldn't pick that Right Right, because of the nonsense, the nonsense, the shenanigans that are going on there. Yeah, that's something, but maybe the stop is fine from transportation Sure.
Mr. Giggles:I don't have a lot of the cultural baggage in the neighborhood. The cultural baggage is bigger, the neighborhood baggage.
Dr. Schnitzel:But you have I don't know how many bus lines and trams passing through.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, I have so many.
Dr. Schnitzel:So it is a great connection point. So that, of course, is absolutely true. I was just thinking myself, because I don't have a definite answer, although… I have an answer.
Mr. Giggles:You have an answer now. You want to go first? No, no, you go, you go. I don't have two answers.
Dr. Schnitzel:Maybe I'll give you my first answer, all right, and then you give me your second answer. Okay, my first answer is some really nice old ones. Yeah, of course, sure, the? U fort is very in time and the other stop, heilingstadt, is some way similar oh, the other end stop.
Mr. Giggles:I was like you're giving your second, your second stop. No, no, I'm so I'm just.
Dr. Schnitzel:This is my answer number one. Okay, I haven't all right switched to answer number two yet vienna has put lots of effort into maintaining and renovating those old buildings because they because they're old but not run down.
Dr. Schnitzel:Right, but some of them have been run down and looked really shabby in the last couple of years. They even tried to modernize the whole station. It's not just to add another coat of paint only, but even the whole technology and the electric system you name it will be renovated along with the whole building. So that would be my answer number one.
Mr. Giggles:That's a good answer. Those are some nice stops. I mean, I've had some experience in the city. Okay, I like the Schotten Tor station, uh-huh, because you get that cool underground tram section with the view up towards Fotevkerke, yeah right, so that's kind of a cool feel with all the little food stands down below, and then the accessibility to the U2 is nice.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, it's like a little adventure, as if you were in Prater.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, it's kind of fun.
Dr. Schnitzel:It's like a amusement park and St Stephen's, so to speak, at the same spot.
Mr. Giggles:It's one of those stops where you can come out in the absolute wrong part of the the city too, like it's kind of like uh, carl's plots as well, where, like you could come up like a mile away from where you actually want it to be because you you came out the wrong exit or whatever, and there's there's little escalators, there's big escalators you got everything you want you can spend the whole day there. Yeah, you got some. You know you got nonsense happening with uh, it's right near the university, so you get.
Dr. Schnitzel:You know you get weird weird folks you can run into like any random demonstration as well.
Mr. Giggles:Right, yes, that is my answer. I really like shotentor great.
Dr. Schnitzel:I mean, the one you picked is a very good choice, also again from a technical or like transportation point view, because there are I think it's 10 trams, so many trams that meet there. Even there, some are just passing through, but most of them have their final destination there, right Final stop.
Mr. Giggles:You can get to a lot of places in the city by starting there at Chottentor. Yeah, it's amazing how many there are.
Dr. Schnitzel:And you have one U-Bahn connection and there's one or two buses as well. It's the one stop in Vienna that has most trams at the same stop.
Mr. Giggles:That would have been a good trivia question.
Dr. Schnitzel:Trivia question. Yeah, so you basically just mentioned it, but you know where most U-Bahn lines meet V-Karlsplatz. V-karlsplatz, yes, we have three of them meeting there, so do you want to hear my second answer? I'd love to Thank you, sir so.
Mr. Giggles:I think one really cool stop is Lengenfellgasse, lengenfellgasse have you ever been there.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, I'm sure I have. Yeah, if I describe it to you, probably will remember, because Lengenfellgasse is unique. That's why I like it. There's none like them, like this one. I think I know what you're. It's where the U6 and U4 have that weird.
Mr. Giggles:I get quite frustrated by that station A few times that I've had to stop there. You're just an expat, Well. I mean, it's simply laid out, but also depending on which way you're transferring.
Dr. Schnitzel:Very frustrating, but I mean, if our listeners haven't been there before, yeah, describe it. It's not the only stop where two U-Bahn lines meet, of course, but it's the only stop where they meet on the same level, like literally on the same platform, right? So you have four tracks of two U-Bahn lines next to each other, but, of course, in two different directions. So if you want to go to the other direction, you have to go up and go to the other platform.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, but if you want to hop from from, you can actually hop from one train to the other, if, if they're waiting yeah, if you're, if you're going in the the, you know, from the u4 to the u6 it's going in those directions, you're golden, because it's just a run across the uh which, which that actually is a lot of fun to sit and watch is the the commuters who are like, who are switching there and seeing the panic on their eyes as their train comes in, and they see, it seems like they usually wait, though yes, they actually have a little uh like a, like a traffic light.
Dr. Schnitzel:Okay, so if the u6 is their first and if the u4 comes in within a certain time range a couple seconds after that, 30 seconds, a minute or so yeah, they have to, has to wait until the other arrives, and so then they exchange the passengers, so to speak, and then they're good to go again. So that's a good, that's a good.
Mr. Giggles:Uh, it's a good choice thank you, see, I like that that's also unique and fun.
Dr. Schnitzel:Good. What's also typical for vienna is, uh, we, we're doing so well in the city where we're having like all the best uh things on the planet for urban life, which in turn causes lots of the people to find reasons to complain, sure, so, like I said, we, we have one of the best transportation systems in vienna. It's not perfect, right? So there was just a recent voting on finding the opposite, finding the ugliest. Oh, uber, stop. Okay, do you have any suggestion for thatliest, which is one that you like the least or you just dislike? It can be ugly or just impractical, frustrating.
Mr. Giggles:I can't necessarily say why, but I feel like the folks theater stop would make it on that list.
Dr. Schnitzel:As in the ugliest, yeah, U2 or U3? Oh well.
Mr. Giggles:U2 isn't there.
Dr. Schnitzel:I'm pushing you. But actually yeah, First of all, they're renovating the U2 part right now.
Mr. Giggles:Right, yeah, so it's been a while since, at least in 2024. Oh, maybe, maybe the museum's quarter station back in the day I mean, it doesn't exist anymore, really, yeah, they're redoing it, so I'm sure it'll be quite nice. That one seemed a little janky, I think it's funny that you said Fork's Theater.
Dr. Schnitzel:That's what I'm saying.
Mr. Giggles:I don't know why I said it. There's something about it, I feel.
Dr. Schnitzel:Were you referring to the ugliness of it, or you just don't like it?
Mr. Giggles:I mean, I love the the stop. It's a wonderful stop for many of the things that I enjoy doing in the city yeah, it's a very important stuff. Yeah, it's especially in our, in our backstory. I feel it's a it's an important stop because it's, you know, some good tram lines start there. Yeah, maybe it's the, the dimensions of it, like it's super deep and narrow yeah, yeah. So maybe it feels different. I don't know. I can't place. That was just my gut feeling I'm sorry.
Dr. Schnitzel:I think it's just funny that you said it, because it's kind of the pride of the Wiener Linien Oof. That's because, sorry everybody, because it has it's literally an art gallery. Yeah, because if you're waiting for the U3 there and if you look up, they have some art up on the ceiling and on the side walls, right, which, but I give to you, might look a little creepy.
Mr. Giggles:Maybe that's what it is.
Dr. Schnitzel:Maybe it just feels creepy, it just feels out of place maybe, but sort of half the station is a museum in a sense, right for you and you can access it's close to the museum or if you have a ticket and it's, it is close to the big museums also.
Dr. Schnitzel:Uh, that's, that's why it's kind of the it's and the folks theater, it's the theater. Yeah, that's also just if you just walk up there for the people, for the people, yeah, for the fork, so you have museums, quartier there you have folks, the other there you have, uh, the other museums. This stop is sort of the, the key stop for culture museum, paintings, theater. I've never been accused of being very cultured.
Mr. Giggles:I suppose after all these years living here, you still haven't really caught up on that I mean, yeah, I don't know why I blurted that out as being one of what I thought would be one of the ugliest, because, yeah, I really stepped into that controversy oof mean, you talk like a real Floyd stuff person. Oh no, I'm a trans Danubian Because the people in Floyd stuff are often accused of being like the Uncultured hicks.
Dr. Schnitzel:Uncultured hicks, more like the rednecks of Vienna. You're just in the right spot.
Mr. Giggles:All right, where I'm supposed to be. What is the ug, the ugliest one to you, my friend, I was thinking this well, the same thing, what you were thinking?
Dr. Schnitzel:the same thing? No, no, I was asking myself.
Mr. Giggles:Oh okay, you just jumped all over me about how wrong I was, and you're gonna agree with me.
Dr. Schnitzel:It was like a pretty rude move. Uh, I had a boss once who was like that.
Mr. Giggles:Alright, we'll skip, skip that. So which is your least favorite? Stop Lucas, let's stay on track here. I completely agree with you we're going to get under a wall, yeah.
Dr. Schnitzel:I even made a meme about that. That that was back in the day. I don't have a definite answer for this one. There's one that's uh, just next to it's like you forgot, it's kumpentorfer strasse, which is pretty ugly because they also have a center for drug addicted people there. Yeah, so lots of people hang out there that make the whole place a little uneasy, yeah, although I passed by there, although I pass by there.
Dr. Schnitzel:I've been passing by there, so that's good and you've been passing by there. You're a German teacher, it's okay. It's okay Since I was a child. Yeah, you're a big U4 guy. I'm a big U4 and NEC Big U4 guy. Yes, although I'm more U3 guy these.
Mr. Giggles:Well, euphoria for you Every time you get to go on that Euphoria.
Dr. Schnitzel:Euphoria.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, euphoria. Yeah, I have to explain this one too.
Dr. Schnitzel:I wasn't listening to you.
Mr. Giggles:That's fair, don't blame me, yeah.
Dr. Schnitzel:I mean, who would?
Mr. Giggles:listen to us talking.
Dr. Schnitzel:That's just insane. Yeah, crazy people. However, the Kupferdorfstraat is not a U4.
Mr. Giggles:Oh no, crazy people however, the kumpelstrasse is not the u4. Oh no, I thought it was. It's not the u6. Okay, well, sorry about it, I'll say I don't go on the u4 very often. Yeah well, you go to florence, I go to u6 quite a bit, but not that far over.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, that's where it becomes really dangerous. Yeah, in a sense, what I'm saying is I grew up in that area and people have been dealing drugs there and for ages, and it's not more dangerous than other places. I think in Vienna it looks a little strange and less friendly.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, probably feel more uncomfortable if you're unfamiliar.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, you might feel uncomfortable if you go there for the first time, but it's kind of my hood so I'm okay with it. The place means a lot to me in a sense, sure, but it's not really nice, just to say it the way it is. And also the voting, the public voting. That was All right. That started this whole conversation. That started this whole conversation. They picked the stop Thalierstraße. I don't know if you're familiar with that. That's just two stops down from Kumpentorfer Straße. No three stops down. Amongst those old, old, old stations, it's one of the few that are fairly modern.
Mr. Giggles:Right, it does feel different.
Dr. Schnitzel:It's a completely different design. Yeah, because most of them are like white houses with green roofs, right?
Mr. Giggles:And this is just brown, like a brown rectangle. Yeah, it's like it was modernized in like the 70s.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, and I think it was built in the 80s, okay, so they added that stop. Lots of people don't like it. It doesn't fit with the vibe of the U6. I mean, you have to say, you have to give it that I think there's no other stop in all of Vienna that has the same design as Thalia Strasse. Right, it's very unique, yeah, but it seems like it's very unpopular. This kind of design, yeah, doesn't fit.
Dr. Schnitzel:But I've heard people say they really like that place because you have, I don't know, three hot dog stands and two K-pop stands right next to each other. There, hey, next to each other, there, hey. And it's a place where a lot of people hang out. Also, like, there's a lot of nightlife there, so people getting some snack in the middle of the night, that's a place to go. Okay, that's good to know. It might not look great, but it has lots to offer. Yeah, kind of like our podcast, our podcast, yes, all more trivia. One more interesting uh thing that has to do with the vina linea. There is a guy his name is daniel diam, okay, and he's. He's not a conductor, he's not a driver, he's actually, uh, he works in one of the garages of the vina linea and his garage is referred to as the strongest garage in vienna simply because it's like spruce wayne. Here's a second. It's a secret life why are you laughing?
Mr. Giggles:you're laughing, okay, I didn't think you were going into a stupid joke and then all of a sudden, you change your tone.
Dr. Schnitzel:It's not a joke, okay. This guy, daniel daniel glum. Daniel glum, he's a bodybuilding champion. Oh really, he's won the naba universe title and only four other austrians have won, or he's one of the four austrians who've won it. I think that's correct, okay, and there's one one Austrian you might know who won this title?
Mr. Giggles:Sure, obviously we know the one.
Dr. Schnitzel:A couple of years back, yes, so he followed in his footsteps, but he didn't make it to Hollywood. He's working in the garage in the Wiener Linen. He's very happy about this. Yeah, good for him.
Mr. Giggles:I saw a picture of yeah I guess a lot easier when you don't need to wait for the trolley or the crane to come pick up the bus.
Dr. Schnitzel:So we have really, really cool people working for the best of the city here and so that we can appreciate that, there's this web page. They're called itux poeten wiener, itux poeten poet, the poet. Okay, and itux is like every day. They're just a platform where you can send in your. Whenever you heard someone say something okay in the city, overheard. You overheard something, stuff like funny, funny stuff or strange stuff. They publish it. Okay, there's a situation they recorded. It was happening in the schnellbahn or one of the regional lines, not the actual urban, but there was an elderly lady and she asked do you know if we'll arrive in time because I have to catch my connecting train? And the conductor responded I'm sorry, but I forgot my crystal ball in the dishwasher today.
Mr. Giggles:What a jerk poor little old lady just wants to get home. To get home. Well, I'm sure I'm sure we're gonna have to follow up with another episode of experiences using public transportation. Talked a lot about the infrastructure and the history today exactly, but we haven't even scratched the surface of the fun that it can be to ride public transportation brings all people together brings all people together, for sure, sometimes closer than you want them to be, sometimes much closer than you want to be.
Mr. Giggles:Well, good, I hope, uh, this was informative for all of you listening. It's a fun thing to be able to talk about and, by the way, if you're in vienna, take a chance.
Dr. Schnitzel:There's a museum about the whole transportation system as well. It's called remise, so check that out, but it only. It's only open on weekends and wednesdays.
Mr. Giggles:Make sure you plan it for the right, sounds like you need to plan a field trip for your german classes, and then you can invite me as a chaperone maybe we should do that on a wednesday and maybe we should record it while we're doing it. Hey, season two it's gotta be a wednesday though. Yeah, gotta be a wednesday, all right. Well, good bye-bye.
