[The model for Frozen?] A whirlwind trip from Vienna to Hallstatt! How to reserve tickets and things to note ⚠️

I cut a day off my stay in Vienna and took a whirlwind trip to Hallstatt! I could have joined a bus tour, but I heard rumors that the view from the train window was beautiful, so I decided to take the train! I'll introduce the useful information I gathered while talking to various people, the trouble I got into and how I overcame it, in chronological order with photos! This is a long article, so I've marked "⚠️" only before the important points to read. --- 1. Deciding the Date I wanted to see Hallstatt as cloudless as possible, so I decided to take a whirlwind trip to Hallstatt if there was a day when it looked like it would be sunny during my stay in Vienna. I kept checking the weather forecast app for a week, and there was one day when it was forecast to be sunny, so I decided to buy a ticket for that day. Some people tried for three days and it rained the day before, so it's all about luck with the weather...😢 ⚠️The weather is bad in winter 2. Booking tickets Please see the last three photos! It's hard to see because of the number of photos that can be posted, but if you zoom in you should be able to see it! The key points are as follows: ⚠️ Use the ÖBB app. (cheapest) ⚠️ If your budget allows, I recommend one that doesn't require transfers. (Read on for the reason) ⚠️ No need to reserve a seat. When you get on the train there is a place to put your name tag above the seat. If your name isn't there, it means it's not reserved, so just sit there! (Sorry if all the seats are taken! But it was Christmas season so there were plenty of seats available, so I think it's okay.) 3. Get on the train Finally the day has come! I thought I would leave with plenty of time, but it ended up being quite close. The reason is that I "wrote the wrong station." Even if you depart from Vienna, the departure station varies depending on the ticket you purchased. We departed from "wien hbf," but if you type this into Google Maps it becomes "wien central station." It's dangerous to remember "central station" here! ️ Vienna has "wien mitte (= Vienna city center station)". If you have a sense of English or German, you can mix up the two because mitte = center, and it's very confusing. ⚠️ There are stations with two names in German, and stations that are almost the same in translation, so it's confusing which stations are the same and which are different 😭 Please check carefully! The second photo is a photo of breakfast after safely boarding. It was a comfortable private room type IC with a table and outlets. 　⚠️ In Austria, there is a fine if you take the wrong train. Check the type of train and time on your ticket against the information on the screen! You can see which platform the train will arrive at on the right side of the screen. 4. Transfers 　I said earlier that we wanted a train with as few transfers as possible, but we were lured by the low price and ended up with one with a transfer. I was relieved that the Vienna subway arrived on time, but since this express train is an international line, it seems to be influenced by Germany... ⚠️There are a lot of delays😭 We had to change trains at Leoben hbf and Stainach Irdning bahnhof. The train to Leoben was delayed by about 5 minutes, but the train from Leoben that we were going to take after that was also delayed, so we were safe. That's what I saw in the fourth photo. The view after the change was full of snow and beautiful. The fifth photo is that view. I actually wanted to post a video. However‼️After getting on the train from Leoben, it mysteriously stopped for about 40 minutes at the station just before arriving at Stainach Irdning bahnhof... ⚠️And! The announcements were all in German, so I had no idea why it was delayed, whether there was a sensory adjustment, or anything else! The people around me were tourists, so when I asked them, they said, "We don't know either ٩(^‿^)۶" When I arrived at Stainach Irdning bahnhof, the train had already left... The next train to Hallstatt was at least 3 hours later! ️ The sun would set and I would miss the spectacular view... As I was looking at the screen, almost crying, I saw a national railway employee! ️ ⚠️ There are no ticket gates in Austria, so there are many unmanned stations and you don't see many employees. I think it's luck whether you can meet them when you're in trouble... I yelled at the employee. "We bought this ticket because we wanted to go to Hallstatt! But this train was delayed, right? So this train isn't there! We can't wait 3 hours! What should we do?" 🚃 That's right, we're late. There's a bus stop if you go down here, so we'll take that. (He happened to be good at English😭) "What?! A bus?! How much is that? Do I need to pay extra?" 🚃No, you don't need to pay Around here, people who are in the same situation and worried gather 👩We wanted to ride that too, what are you going to do? 👨(Eavesdropping) 👵(Eavesdropping) 🚃It's hard to explain, so just get on the bus, get off and go right! We all went to the bus stop. The sixth photo is from that time. After waiting for a while, the bus came. 🚌Here we go "Driver, is this going to Hallstatt? The train was delayed and the staff told me to get on this... money..." 🚌Ah, let's go, money is fine. Relax. When I got on the bus, the girl who had joined the conversation earlier started talking to me. 👩Did you talk to the driver? Did he say anything? "Hmm, I'm not sure. It seems it will take about an hour. I showed him the QR code for the train, but he didn't seem to check it. He said I didn't need to pay." 👩Huh... You're not sure, are you? Anyway, thank you! Feeling anxious, we set off. We were rocked for an hour. On the way, I saw on Google Maps that we were deviating from the route we were supposed to take by train, so I was rocked while feeling extremely anxious, wondering if the Hallstatt we imagined was the same as the Hallstatt the driver was talking about. The scenery was incredibly beautiful. 7th photo. It felt good to see the snow-capped mountains up close. We looked out the window for a while and the bus stopped at the bus stop. It wasn't Hallstatt, so we just sat there blankly, and the driver came over to our seat. 🚌Oh, you. You said you wanted to go to Hallstatt, right? You meant the lake, right? Get off. "Huh?! Why? Something's wrong..." 🚌No, this is the station, so get on the train. "Huh?! So this bus doesn't go to Hallstatt 'Lake'?" 🚌Yes, it doesn't go there. "Huh wwwwww If you hadn't told me wwwwww I'd be stuck wwwwwwwww Thank you so much wwwwww" I get off the bus with the driver while sharing with the Hallstatt group around me. 🚌That means it's okay⭐︎This way👉🏻When a train comes in this direction, get on! This way👉🏻It's this way! Don't get it wrong. "Thank you so much~ Have a good day~" I calmly check the timetable and take a toilet break. 8th photo, a trap, a train going in the opposite direction. After waiting for a while, the train comes, but it's late again! I get on the train with the girl from before, shouting "FINALLY‼ ️‼ ️". 9th photo. Finally, we are in Hallstatt! 5. Arrive at the nearest station. Get on the ferry. ⚠️Cash only, €7 one way! You can't get lost here, so it's safe. The view is also nice during the cruise. I thought I was going to cry. I can't post a video, so please see it for yourself. 6. Arrive at the opposite bank This is the 10th photo. ⚠️Make sure to check the train schedule at this time! Do you understand? There are many points of difficulty, just like Spirited Away. •If I had failed the first transfer, I would have been stuck. •If I hadn't met the JNR employee, I would have been stuck. •If there was no bus at the transfer station, I would have been stuck. •If I hadn't talked to the bus driver, I would have been stuck. •If the bus driver hadn't come to tell me, I would have been stuck. •If I hadn't continued talking to him after that and he hadn't told me the direction of the train, I would have been stuck. Transfers^_^...I think it's better not to have to^_^‼ ️ 7. Sightseeing 　The 11th photo and onwards are photos of sightseeing. The town itself is large enough that you can go around in an hour. The population is about 800 people. If you want to see the caves or ride the cable car, you may need a little more time for sightseeing. ⚠️Please try to communicate with them in English or German as much as possible. 　The villagers are very kind, but they seemed a little tired of Asian tourists. There are signs saying things like "Let's say hello," and there are often bad reviews on Google Maps about their customer service attitude... but maybe the customers are to blame? I was sitting at a cafe trying to get a seat, but I was surprised when the cashier came over to a seat outside with a tray in hand. He pointed at my friend and said, "SHE IS NICE! SOOO NICE!" My friend said something like, "I wish everyone could speak English as well as you! It doesn't matter if you're bad at English or not - it makes me so happy just to have someone speak English!" I wonder if many customers just point and order without saying anything because they can't speak English? I thought. After that, we went to a honey shop, and they offered samples, so I greeted them in German and asked in English, "Can I try this?" They were surprised and said, "👁️👁️‼️" and said, "Of course! Of course!!" and looked very happy. They also talked a lot when we were paying, so I think it's important to communicate. It's true that the other tourists who came in after us just silently told us to try as much as we wanted and left without saying hello, so it might have been rude of them‼ ️The staff was like, "Japan, Japan? What do you say to greet? Namaste? Oh, no? Konnichiwa? Konnichiwa~🥳", so they might think that all Asians are scary‼ ️Let's raise our stock‼ ️‼ ️‼ ️ 8Take the ferry to the nearest station and go home. ⚠️ The boats basically run in tandem with trains, but there is only one boat per hour. Be careful, as there aren't many! ---- I was wondering how to write this, but I thought that writing everything would reach people who are having trouble with rare cases, rather than trying to extract information poorly, so I apologize for the long post! I hope this is helpful. Hallstatt is a great place with amazing air and clear lake. If you visit Austria, I highly recommend you go there. I also want to book a nice cottage and go swimming again in the summer! I'll definitely go! Have a great trip, everyone! #0yentrip2025january #austriatrip #austria #hallstatt #lakehallstatt