Schnitz & Giggles

[S2E1] Unexpected Turns on Vienna Buses

• edelwisecrackers • Season 2 • Episode 1

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Ever wondered why navigating Vienna's public transportation feels like an adventure in a maze? Get ready for laughs and insights as Mr. Michael Giggles and Dr. Lukas Schnitzel inaugurate Season Two of the Schnitz & Giggles podcast. We reminisce about our unforgettable finale with Mr. Algebro and tease future guest appearances by Uncle Harnold and the elusive Spruce Wayne. We also reflect on listener feedback and our quirky plans for the new season, with Dr. Schnitzel sharing a hilarious supermarket mishap involving Leberkäse varieties in Vienna.

From riding the wrong bus to unexpected detours, Vienna's transit system serves as the backdrop for a mix of comical and informative tales. We dive into the chaos caused by the new 29B bus line in Floridsdorf and the amusing complexities of route number changes. Our conversation broadens to explore city planning, maintenance practices, and the cultural chasm between public transportation in Vienna and the U.S. 

Wrapping up, we share some light-hearted news about Austria's slight uptick in global friendliness rankings, sprinkled with more of our trademark humor. Join us for an episode packed with engaging stories and the unique charm of Viennese life.

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Mr. Giggles:

Well, guten hallo, and welcome back to season two, season two, season two of the.

Dr. Schnitzel:

podcast.

Mr. Giggles:

I'm Michael, I'm Lucas and we're back Back in the game. Yeah, we took a little bit of time off.

Dr. Schnitzel:

It was necessary.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, last time you heard our voices was for our big season finale with Mr Algebra. We enjoyed having him on to talk about the season. Up until that point. He was the best guest we ever had Definitely the best guest we ever had, especially planned guest.

Dr. Schnitzel:

We had some random callers before, but I don't think we could call them guests.

Mr. Giggles:

No, certainly not, Not yet. Not yet. Hopefully. A little teaser Maybe we'll have Uncle Arnold in studio.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Have you ever heard back from Spruce Wayne, by the way, I haven't. No, but Uncle Arnold, I think. I'm sure he would come maybe. Spruce Wayne he always disappears for some reason. Yeah, he's just out there in the dark.

Mr. Giggles:

You never know where he's at. But yeah, we were realizing that the last time that we were together was when we recorded our season finale yeah, it's nice to see you again yeah, so it's really cool to see you again. It's been. I mean, this is one of the reasons that we have for for even having this podcast is that it was a good excuse to to sit in a room and talk to each other, right, because otherwise we have no reason to make up.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, apparently our friendship is not enough to just get together. Nope, never has been. No, we have to have an excuse, never will. Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Schnitzel:

We have to pull all you poor suckers into this. As long as people keep listening to this podcast, we have a reason to meet and continue and continue.

Mr. Giggles:

I mean, even if the dog? Yeah, I think. I think just going to put it out there as long as we're still willing to put. Put the podcast out there, you know we just, we're just listening to ourselves. If our last season tells us anything, we really don't need that many listeners.

Dr. Schnitzel:

You don't need any listeners to have some schnitzels and giggles. Yeah, yeah.

Mr. Giggles:

Schnitz and giggles. Yeah, yeah, schnitz.

Dr. Schnitzel:

And giggles are good without the listeners, but listeners, we love you. No, we love you. Keep coming. Yeah, we had some good feedback from actual listeners. We did.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, there are some of you who have been listening and and, uh, bringing it up in conversation with us. So we're yeah, we're thankful for that. That's because we really do enjoy talking about these things that we're talking about, right, and so it's kind of fun when, I mean, we might not remember, no, what we talked about on any given episode, right, um?

Dr. Schnitzel:

so that leads to an awkward conversation to try to remember what we said yeah, but but then we get some tips and suggestions for approval, yeah, which we're gonna ignore yeah because we'll forget again.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, we'll probably forget what the tips were, uh, but they were great tips to. Great ideas, great changes as we launch into season two. Obviously, there's some things that we want to do, that we have planned to bring you into what life is like here. But, luis, do you have any, since we haven't talked? We haven't talked. No, how was your summer? Do you have any fun vienna related nonsense stories that you want to share?

Dr. Schnitzel:

well, this summer we're talking about the summer 2024 was the hottest summer I think ever recorded, at least in austria yeah, we're still in it.

Mr. Giggles:

We're still in it, yeah record-breaking.

Dr. Schnitzel:

But uh, I don't know, by the time this episode is going to release, the weather will have cooled down. But I was just thinking about the last season and all these topics we covered. And then you know, when I just go around I keep my eyes open, my ears open, for some special things to happen and maybe to share on yeah, you never know that that's a big part of our podcast is our most recent experience right, and we talk about, uh, public transportation, or we talk about the supermarkets or the friendliness or unfriendliness and, speaking of supermarkets and perhaps friendliness, there's some, uh, just a random encounter.

Dr. Schnitzel:

I just I just witnessed a scene, let's put it this way. Okay, the other day I was actually at spa this time at euro spa and uh, I was lining up at the deli and there was a guy in front of me and did we ever talk about labor case at all? Or have?

Mr. Giggles:

because oh, it's been a long time.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Yeah, I don't, leberkase is kind of a you have, in case you're listening for this for the first time. Anyway, it's a special kind of meat that kind of carries the name of kase, although it doesn't. It doesn't have cheese in it unless you order the kase leberkase, which does have cheese in it. So this guy wanted just a bread roll, a simmer, with le, with Leberkäse in, which is the standard lunch for half of the Austrian population. Everybody loves that. So he's up at the counter and he asks for one Leberkäse semmer and the lady at the counter responds saying you want the one with cheese or the chili one. And he's like I'd like the plain one. So the normal one, just normal. You would say Nomar, that would be just a plain meat one with no extra ingredients. So she says again cheese or chili. I say the normal one, please. She says again cheese or chili.

Mr. Giggles:

Was the normal one not available by that time.

Dr. Schnitzel:

It just caught my attention and I looked where they had the Leberkäs and there were only two of those loaves that they cut off from, and it was only the cheese and the chili in there.

Mr. Giggles:

I didn't see the regular one, the normal one. So this poor guy. Breakdown in communication.

Dr. Schnitzel:

This guy. He was quite a tall guy, but by the end of the conversation he had become way smaller than I felt he was in the beginning Because she was implying you are the customer, but you should know that we're out of the regular labor case.

Mr. Giggles:

So never once she didn't say like.

Dr. Schnitzel:

She never said sorry, sir, we're out of this. We can only have this or this. That's our only options right now. She just said you want this this or this and he's like I want another option. No, this or this, like this one or this one. So what did he end up going for? He went with the chili. No, he's like uh, chili, I guess. Wow, he was. So this is a hungry man coming for his lunch and then he gets treated this way.

Mr. Giggles:

It's pretty wide swing from wanting the normal to then going with the chili one.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Yeah, yeah then from going from normal to chili is quite the step. Well, maybe he didn't want cheese. Yeah, maybe not. However, the funny thing of this whole story is that the lady was not unfriendly per se. Yeah, she was just just basically stating the facts yeah but it was almost like a riddle.

Dr. Schnitzel:

You had to figure out how do I get my food. Now, like, what do I have to say to get some food? Because my answer just normal, like the normal one, is not good enough, did it seem like she was getting frustrated with him no, that's the point.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Wow, she kind of she was just going and going the same tone, same voice. That's wild, I think she was. Just she was ready to repeat it as often as necessary until the guy finally, like finally chose one of those, chose, chose one of the two options she was giving him. Huh, because it seems like that issue could have been solved pretty easily. Yeah, and I told the story to another friend of mine and like american and he also said the states, they probably would have apologized.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, oh sorry, we don't have the normal.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Sorry for the inconvenience yeah, and maybe I don't know you get. You get an extra coupon, yeah, for something. Yeah, I get five percent off.

Mr. Giggles:

Was the guy ordering this simul, was he?

Dr. Schnitzel:

do you think he was austrian? Might have been austin, but I think he's been living in austin for quite some time. Okay, I'm not sure if I picked up a slight accent when he was speaking, because he only said lieber kiss, emerald nomar. Yeah, the things, the words I heard are out of place and then chili I feel like I've been in that situation.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, like you only three. They don't have something. I just kind of keep repeating the word. I know, yeah, that's happened.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Did I ever tell you my personal supermarket story? I think I never told you this story, and especially not on the podcast. Spit it out, man. I'm just trying to recall all my files, like our conversations. It's been so many conversations in the past, but there was this day I was going shopping and I was looking in the freezer section. I think I was looking for some pizzas there Frozen pizza, regular thing and I think I was looking for a certain flavor and there were like 10 pizzas on the right and 15 over here, and so I was just moving them back and forth looking for that kind of flavor. I was looking for a thing there. Yeah, as you do, right in that situation. And then, uh, the employee comes by and she says to me make sure you stack them again the way they were before you leave, because I just I, just five minutes ago I just stacked them, so make sure you put them back in place.

Mr. Giggles:

Hey, can I help you. What are you looking for? No customer service. Hey, put those back the way you found them, yeah like we want some order here. Wow, that encapsulates the Austrian customer service experience pretty well.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Yeah, I haven't thought of this story for years. Yeah, that would have been a good one to talk about. We should have added it for the first season, but now, hey, yeah, hey, here it is Second season, second chances.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, good.

Dr. Schnitzel:

At least we know we haven't used all our stories yet. No, there's probably more coming, I'm sure. But have you had any special? Summer experiences related or unrelated to summer.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, we weren't in Vienna all summer, so I didn't have as many opportunities to have any Vienna-specific. Yeah, that cuts down your opportunities of Viennese encounters Seems like transportation, and public transportation is one of those things that stands at the core of a lot of stories. I mean, uh, with all the construction going on, it makes getting around the city a little harder, because the chanel bombs are shut down from lordsdorf to the other side of the city, essentially. So getting around town on some different routes, that yeah you have to plan differently all right, I do have a story just happened last night, um.

Mr. Giggles:

So so you know like oftentimes the the wiener linien will add lines or change up what their bus lines are right, you mean, uh, like regular lines not just for construction, but not just for construction, but like yeah, I think we we mentioned this, uh, last season as well that like yeah, they always adapt the a and the b lines for the buses and that they'll switch them up and they'll add new ones depending on what the needs are of different communities.

Mr. Giggles:

Well, they did a major switch up for the lines in our neighborhood interesting and so we would take a certain line from flordsdorf to get back to to where we live, and this bus is the only one that stops at the certain stop at flordsdorf, and so we just kind of get on it as normal and go to where we want to go.

Mr. Giggles:

But we noticed a couple of weeks back that they that there were signs up that said hey, we're adding, we're adding a B line to our a and the B line will continue on somewhat. It's normal route that it had before, but this additional one will start at Florida door, but we'll, we'll split off and go to another end stop, okay, and so is said all right. I kind of looked at it. I said all right, it's not really going to mess up too many things, right, there's still a stop at our local stop, we can still get to where we need to go, no problem whatsoever. What I didn't take into account is that the line will affect me if I get on it at Floridsdorf as opposed to just going to floridsdorf. So so I was coming home from baseball practice.

Mr. Giggles:

You got, you got on again and I, just on your way back, I, on the way back at the floridsdorf, get on the bus that I'm supposed to get on, sitting there riding, you know a little hungry, ready for dinner. You know, I've got dinner waiting for me at home and and then all of a sudden the bus turns. And I'm pretty used to where the turns are on this bus and if I feel a turn it's because I've missed my stop, okay, okay. Well, because there's a turn right after my stop. You have that sixth sense and it's happened. It's happened a couple times where I've been okay, I haven't been paying attention, and I turn, I'm like, oh no, I missed the stop and I've got to like walk back or whatever but, this.

Mr. Giggles:

I looked up and there's no way. We were already at the turn. And then I remembered ah yes, there's now a new bus line, the 29 B, and it just turned, going the wrong way. And now I've got to get home somehow. So like I, had to ride this bus line all the way to the end, stop and then get on it again and apparently that bus, that is the 29B, becomes the 29A at Grossfeld-Siedlum, giving way too much information out. You're just going to be able to find me in.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Stockholm. Well, since things have changed, it's a good idea. Yeah, who knows, they'll probably change, They'll change again before you can find them.

Mr. Giggles:

And so like I get off the bus Because I didn't realize that the 29B then turned into the 29A and that would continue on its way back towards my house saying the same bus or the same exact bus, so they just changed the number. Yeah, because so it.

Dr. Schnitzel:

It starts in floresdorf and goes up past leopold yeah, leopold dow and then comes back down around and stops it at grossfield seaport, and then that end stop for the 29b becomes the starting stop for the 29a but you're saying if you end you just hop on the 29b and if you keep on like in the sitting in the bus, you can go all the way around, but you, you exit the 29a at some point, like you keep on keeping. You stay in the same bus.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, so then when you like, the Okay, we need charts. So if you get on the 29B in Floridsdorf and you ride it all the way to its end, stop in Grossfeldsiedlung. When it stops it then becomes the 29A Okay, and then the 29A continues to Floridsdorf.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Okay, which then?

Mr. Giggles:

I guess at that point every other bus turns into the 29B or something.

Dr. Schnitzel:

I don't know how it works on that end. Is it B in one direction and A in the other?

Mr. Giggles:

No, no, because the B and the A will go in both directions, because then the B also, I think, starts at Grossfeldsiedlung and goes kind of the other way up and around. I'm not sure. Now that I'm saying this, I have to look at the map.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Yeah, I need a map now too.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, maybe the A and the B are only from Florensdorf and not to Florensdorf, not sure. So anyway, so I'm on this bus and I get off to see if, like, the 29A is behind me, since I've been on the 29B, and I look up on the little sign and it says only 29A, and so I'm standing looking at it. I like, okay, well, I guess I got to get back on this bus, and the bus driver comes out and he starts telling me or he's asking me like what's wrong.

Dr. Schnitzel:

I tell him I got on the wrong bus.

Mr. Giggles:

You're not from around and you're from around. Huh, this whole, this whole interaction happened in german. On my part, very good, so yeah. And so he comes out and he's he. He asked what's wrong. And I said oh, I, I forgot about the bus change, about this new bus line, and I got on the wrong one. And he's like, oh yeah, he starts explaining to me the whole thing, like how I said I know, I know I got on the wrong one, I just forgot, I didn't look up at that, because when I got on bus at Flores, it's the same one I get on every time coming home from practice, I just walk on.

Mr. Giggles:

If it's there, I sit and wait on it for a while. You know whatever, but I never looked at the number this time, because it just.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Because you don't need. I mean, you wouldn't need to usually.

Mr. Giggles:

Normally I wouldn't need to, and I had completely forgotten that it had changed on this Monday, and so they were explaining, explaining he's like I know. I know I got on the wrong bus. I mean, finally, he's like I know, but I forgot, and he's like ah, he just kind of laughed at me, he's like well, we're leaving in five minutes, and I said, yeah, okay.

Dr. Schnitzel:

So it took me like an extra 35 minutes to get home, which is tough. You're probably not going to make this mistake again.

Mr. Giggles:

I hope not. I mean, I could see it very easily happening again, Because if I'm not paying attention to what bus it is, I mean I hope I don't do it again.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Well, there's always a podcast.

Mr. Giggles:

You can report on. Hey, stay tuned, episode 6 will probably feature Michael on the wrong bus once again, but you know, to be fair, I think the Viennese does a really good job of like informing that there's these bus changes. Right, they put the little placards up at the bus stop.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Usually it's at every stop.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, they put it on every stop weeks in advance, right we bus stop every stop. Yeah, they put on every stop weeks in advance, right it? We noticed it. I don't know when it got put up. We noticed it when we got back from our trip to the states, you know. So that was at least three weeks before before this change was happening yeah.

Mr. Giggles:

So we totally knew I we'd even taken pictures of it. So like after, after I realized it turned, I looked, you know, I pulled up the picture, like, ah, I'm like, oh, is there an easier way to fix this problem? Like, can I jump off here and walk back? There was no like, I just had to. You just had to go all the way back and all the way around, and then stay on the bus.

Dr. Schnitzel:

It can be frustrating. There's no alternative.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, it was still to see the neighborhood yeah, I got to have to drive around the neighborhood a little bit more. They have a fun interaction with with a friendly bus driver.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Yeah you know, yeah, but uh, that would be another episode. Just construction sites in vienna, especially in the summer, because once schools out, all the construction workers come and dig up the streets and dig up like even or the the tracks of the other summers.

Mr. Giggles:

When this happens, like it'll, it'll affect a tram line or a bus line, whatever, but this summer, with it affecting so much of the the schnellbahn line, like that core line of trains going through the center of the city.

Dr. Schnitzel:

One being.

Mr. Giggles:

I mean, they had buses, yeah, that you could get on and and it was a direct ride.

Dr. Schnitzel:

But like it's not quite a replacement it's a pretty pretty busy busy thoroughfare for people but it's not for no reason if that is a good statement oh, it is.

Mr. Giggles:

It is not for no reason, it's not for no reason, uh learn english with dr schnitzel.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Uh, the good thing about vienna, I'd say, is, throughout the year you hardly ever have any major breakdowns, be it on the train or be it on, like on the streets, because there are hardly any potholes in vienna. I mean, they do appear from here and there, but usually they fill them up quickly, yeah and um, but there is, there is no major like street. That is just so bad that they had to just close it down.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, maintenance, repair is all pretty well planned out and completed. Good job. City planners, yes, good job. Even though your plans are frustrating, you do a good job at them.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Yeah, either you want that or you want potholes, absolutely yeah, potholes suck. Yeah, it's a lot nicer to have things taken care of. That's what a lot of people who've been visiting Vienna told me in the past. Oh, your streets, there's no, there's no hole. That's just you know, just they're just Vlad streets, vlad streets. Wow, the way it's supposed to be. Who knew this could happen? Yeah.

Mr. Giggles:

So that's the fun thing is the stories just kind of keep coming. Yep, the experiences and you know, being in the States this last summer and having to drive everywhere and not having access to good public transportation really made Made you miss.

Mr. Giggles:

Vienna Made our whole family there were lots of things that we missed about Vienna while we were gone for a while, but just the convenience of being able to get on a bus and go where you wanted to go. I know Caelan was missing it quite a bit as well. It was nice to get back to it. Yeah, because this is the real life, yeah this is the schnitzel life.

Dr. Schnitzel:

The schnitzel life. Yeah, while you were gone, austria did change. Did you know that? They published some survey results again? Oh, do we have a yes concerning the unfriendliness? Really yes, and for some reason, austria is not the top spot any longer, it's just number two. Austria is getting friendlier. That means Austria is getting friendlier. Wow, good job Austria. Yeah, it was on the news sometime in the summer.

Mr. Giggles:

So who's the?

Dr. Schnitzel:

least friendly country in the world now. So the least friendly country right now, as of 2024, is Kuwait. We've been talking about Kuwait before.

Dr. Schnitzel:

It was high on the ranking or low on the ranking, depending on the way you're looking at it. But the funny thing is it was on the news that Austria is only second place now in terms of unfriendliness, and I think I saw some comment or tweet or something and some Austrian said just comment, had somewhere, and he said, yeah, sorry guys, I think that that was me, because I helped the tourists this summer. I gave them good directions. I was friend of them, so I'm ready to take the blame for that.

Mr. Giggles:

Sorry for being friendly. Well, I wonder if that is indicative of Austria getting friendlier, or is Kuwait just becoming less friendly?

Dr. Schnitzel:

Is Kuwait getting worse? You mean, yeah, austria has a hard time keeping up. I guess I don't know, unless we go to Kuwait and just figure this out.

Mr. Giggles:

I mean that would be a fun content yeah. Go to Kuwait. Go to Kuwait, sure, hey, we're from Austria. We want to know if you're really more unfriendly.

Dr. Schnitzel:

And they tell us go home, arrest us. How's that?

Mr. Giggles:

for friendliness, you win. I just got yelled at on the Uber in Austria. You guys arrested me. Kuwait, I'm sure you wouldn't arrest us.

Dr. Schnitzel:

We won't give you a reason.

Dr. Schnitzel:

We shouldn't have assumed that but the funny thing is also uh, on the I looked up on the web page uh, some more details about this whole, like all the statistics, because austria is still number one or number two also in this ranking. Concerning the quality of life, like we talked about in the season one, did we lose a spot in that too? I'm not sure if we lost the spot there too. I thought we were number one. I think it was number one, yeah, number one unfriendliness and number one quality of life, yeah. So I don't know what's going on.

Mr. Giggles:

The world's really messed up, is going to be losing its identity yes, how so like these things start losing skiing competitions before too long, hopefully yeah, we're losing the snow slowly, so that's fair that might happen.

Dr. Schnitzel:

uh, however, on the web page it was kind of ironic when I found out it said that one big thing, like one big challenge, is still the language barrier.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, or like the big challenge is the language. That'll never change, that'll never change.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Yes, and the funny thing about it is, when I read the article, they actually misspelled the word language. So the challenge is the language, and they couldn't even say it in German. It was in German, yeah, so the challenge is the language, and they couldn't even say it in German.

Mr. Giggles:

It wasn't German, couldn't even say it in German, right? I mean proof's in the pudding. Even the word language is too hard to spell when complaining about how hard it is to learn the language. It's funny.

Dr. Schnitzel:

It is what it is. It's what's, it's, what's, it's what's All right.

Mr. Giggles:

Well, listeners, I hope we have some fun topics for the upcoming season. Welcome back. We're glad that you're here listening again and if you have ideas of things you want to learn about, if you're here in Austria and there's something that you want to share with us, if you want to be a guest on this fine podcast, hit us up.

Dr. Schnitzel:

We'll get you on, hear your experiences. The season is still fresh and new, so we'll mold it and we'll shape it. So any inputs is appreciated Great.

Mr. Giggles:

Until next time. Guten bye-bye, Guten bye-bye.

People on this episode

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Lukas Marsak (Dr. Schnitzel)

Host
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Michael Johnstone (Mr. Giggles)

Host