Vienna

From Hitchwiki
Revision as of 10:31, 19 June 2014 by Cyclebear (talk | contribs)

Earth > Europe > Western Europe > Austria > Vienna
Jump to navigation Jump to search

<map lat='48.2' lng='16.3744' zoom='10' view='3' float='right' /> Vienna (Wien in German, Bécs in Hungarian, Vídeň in Czech) is the capital of Austria. It is in the east of the country on the river Danube. More than 1.6 million people live there. It is the largest city of Austria and is surrounded by the state of Lower Austria. It is also an administrative district (Bundesland) of its own.

Hitchhiking in

From Germany

Most of the traffic going through Passau is heading East to Linz, Vienna, Budapest while most of the traffic going through Salzburg is heading South to Trieste, Italy, Slovenia, Balkans.

You should then seriously consider coming by the E 56 (even if you come from southern Germany).

If you find yourself in a car that is passing through Vienna on the eastern ring road, try getting out around the Donau island (German: Donauinsel), close to the river. From here you can walk to a metro-station that usually heads directly towards the centre of Vienna.

Hitching out

West towards Linz, Salzburg, Munich E 60, A1

a) First choice is a gas station(OMV) at the "Wiener Straße" that becomes the national route A1 shortly after. Get a train (S50) to "Wien Wolf in der Au" then cross the Bridge. You'll see the gas station after about 300m to your left. Cross the bridge and then it's a short walk behind the barrier along the side of the road. There is as well a big resting area with service station and hotel nearby which doesn't seem to be a good option.

b) Take the U4 to Hütteldorf, get off and go towards Hadikgasse (left), walk left again, then you are right on the main road leading out of Vienna towards the A1. There is a bus stop which is a well known hitching spot. Change cars (if necessary) at the rest areas St. Pölten or Ansfelden. From here you can as well get to option "a)" by crossing the motorway via the bridge and walk for about 2km to the right.

North towards Prague

The easiest way to get from Vienna to Prague is to go through Bratislava.

There is an option to go straight from Vienna to Prague. Take a train from Handelskai to Kornneuburg. Get out of the station and turn left. You'll get to a street called Doktor-Max-Burckhard-Ring, it will take you to the main street (Stockerauer Straße) Follow the main street, and then turn left on any of the first two streets (Scherzgasse or Hofaustraße) Turn right, and you'll get to the street that crosses the railways. Cross the railway and walk further until you see an on-ramp. There is also a petrol station to hitchhike from. However, most cars are only going to nearby towns from which it is not possible to hitchhike further. Again, try going through Bratislava instead.

North towards Brno

MrTweek hitching to Vienna

From central Wien take a tram nr.31 to the last station, Stammersdorf. Continue on your right down the main street, Brünner Str (road nr. 7); pass the "Merkur" supermarket till you come to another shopping centre, about 300m further. Hitchhike right after the entrance to the parking lot. All the traffic to Brno passes here, although bear in mind that many cars leave this road before the border and turn eastwards onto some country roads to get to the Slovak motorway. In case your driver continues past Brno, ask him/her to drop you off at the "Olimpia" shopping centre which is situated on the motorway – from there you will find a free bus to central Brno.

Personal experience (April 2011): I am from Vienna. I hitchhiked from this spot to get to BRNO very successfully in the last years, but last time I waited for 2 hours, gave up and took a bus... I guess since the new motorway (north around the city) is finished many cars don´t pass "Stammersorf" any more. Next time I will try on-ramps from the city but it will be more difficult now. (my ideas are traffic lights "Erdberger Lände" towards the motorway close to U3-stop "Schlachthausgasse" or on-ramps at Kagran (U1Kagran), or traffic lights at Lassallestraße close to U1/U2-stop "Praterstern" - this is the street the bus takes).

Personal experience (Endrju88Endrju88 - August 2012): I chose this spot and I had no problems there. I had sign for "Brno" and I've been waiting less than 30 minutes, then car stopped. I would recommend this spot!

Personal experience (jurarafal - May 2012): I used to hitch out of Vienna pretty often till 2010. I always went with the tram 31 to the end. Then walked to a traffic ligths near Billa at Brunerstrasse (later the market has changed its name to some another one) & asked (or showed a sign to a driver who stopped at a traffic light) for a lift till Drasenhoffen or Mikulov. As the border was a perfect place to get a lift directly to Poland, which was my aim. Now I only once used this method but I asked a driver to give me a lift to a Volkersdorf or Mistelbach as on the motorway there is a new, lovely, huge petrol station 5 km north of Volkersdorf. Once there it is easy to hitch a ride northwards

East towards Bratislava, Győr and Budapest E 60

File:SDC13249.jpg
The OMV petrol station

Cultural note: Watch out for Romanian drivers who may attempt to charge you for the ride and/or drop you off in a remote area if you don't pay. Make clear before you sit in a Romanian car that you are not going to pay: "Is the lift free? / I can't pay." - "E gratis? / N-am bani sa va dau."

There is an OMV petrol station with a Mc Donalds on the motorway to Budapest where you can easily find a ride to Bratislava or further into Slovakia. To get to this petrol station by public transport (www.wienerlinien.at) you should go to Enkplatz (by Metro U3) and from there you can take a bus number 76A to 7. Haidequerstraße (the bus stop is on the other side when you leave the metro station). Be careful (!) because there are two stops with the same name, 7. Haidequerstraße and 11. Haidequerstraße – get off at the first one, which comes after Simmeringer Haide. After the stop, the bus turns right, but to get to the petrol station, walk straight on on to the north for just 200 meters. The petrol station is on the A4 highway towards Bratislava, Győr and Budapest.

It is easy to reach this gas station. A sign (I had one for Bratislava) is useful as I just walked to the station holding my sign and looking around a bit to find a good spot to stand, and a driver came to me and offered a ride.

Most of the cars passing in this petrol station are coming off the motorway or going to the airport. You can get more cars going to Slovakia or Hungary if you take the first ride to the next petrol station on the motorway, named Göttlesbrunn, which is just before road splits into the E58 towards Bratislava and the E60 towards Budapest. The E60 road enters Hungary at the Hegyeshalom-Nickelsdorf border crossing.

South towards Graz, Slovenia, Zagreb

Take the free IKEA bus from the Opera ("Oper" Metro Station Karlsplatz: lines 1,2,4) to the SCS ("Shopping City Süd") 8:00/10:00/11:30/13:00/14:30/16:00/17:30 (Feb 2011). If it happens that you don't get a ride and want to use the same bus to come back to town it won't be free anymore, it costs 1.50 euros.

Other option if you want to pay 3.40 euros for the train then take the Badener Bahn to Maria-Enzersdorf (Südstadt) Advantages of the latter one: it goes more often and earlier in the morning than the bus. If you take the train, you can go to one station after Shopping City Süd which is called Maria-Enzersdorf (Südstadt). This one is closer to the actual interchange: just get off the train, head the direction you came from, turn right by the end of the platform, cross the tracks, pass 100 m of wild grass and there is a curved street – you'll see the signs.

Alternatively you can take public transport to Matzleinsdorfer Platz where the Triester Straße begins [1] (direction South-West). This road is extremely long but it has on-ramps for heading South (Graz). Try hitching along this road, or ask at the petrol station. If you keep walking down there is a perfect place for hitchhiking where cars take the exit and join the highway. There is a lot of grass and a perfect place with enough room for even a truck to stop.

Personal experience: T0ma5 waited for 2 hours on April 2011 before getting a ride to Graz, there is a lot of traffic, but not many cars are leaving the city since this location is not that far from the centre.

Sean and Maria sat at this onramp at the Shopping City for 3.5 hours before we caught a ride (looking at appx 4000 cars). It is a very busy place, but most cars are heading back up to Vienna. We may have had really bad luck (weekday afternoon) but we recommend standing on the inside part of the curve, because the cars have to be in the right lane in order to get on the highway (left lane is to the shopping centre). There is a smaller place to pull over, but it might be worth it. Big sign might help.

  • User:MaxHermens continued walking along the onroad, towards the highway that went from north to south, and stood on that onramp. This way, you'll always catch traffic going in the right direction. This does mean you have to walk along a patch of onramp with loads of traffic and no room for pedestrians (this is dangerous!). After that bit, the cars go right and up, and there starts a safety lane again where hitchhiking is possible. He waited here for about an hour until he got a ride towards Graz.

If you are okay with hitchhiking at traffic lights, you can also just go to "Schönbrunn" with U4 (underground – green line). Cross the street and walk towards the entrance of Schönbrunn-castle. Now you are on "Grünbergstraße". Here you can try to hitchhike from the traffic lights. This street leads to "Altmannsdorfer Straße" which leads to A2 (the motorway leading to the south)

I hitchhiked from the Shopping city for one hour in rain before getting a ride. Next time I discovered the place at the end of Triester Straße where I got a ride in 20 min. My friend often uses that spot now. I think it is the best spot in direction Graz.

There is a perfect place at 'Triester Straße' where is crosses with 'Computerstrasse'. Bus 16a goes directly to the spot. It's the last big interception before the Triester Strasse turns into a highway, cars coming from upfront, left and right can see you perfectly and a few steps further there is a petrol station, so drivers can stop for you, or you can just ask people. I never had to ask more than a handful of people to get a ride down south.

For everyone going to Slovenia or Zagreb, know that there are no gas station on your side of the road some 100 kilometres before Graz. The first one is near Leibnitz, some 15-20 km after Graz. So if someone offers you a ride to Graz, try to see if they're maybe going to Leibnitz or past Leibnitz.

Public transport

It is possible to ride the subway, bus, and tram system with no ticket. One Viennese local (who actually did use a year pass) told she'd been checked once in a period of over a year despite riding public transport every day. Buses and trams are almost never controlled (except night buses!).

The fine is 70€, but foreigners can give a fake address in their home country and avoid paying.

There is an internet site with a list of the lines which are going to be checked for black riders (http://apps.vienna.at/tools/schwarzkappler/). Schwarzkappler is an Austrian slang term for the ticket controllers. Although the site takes her information from a reliable source (the "Wiener Linien" herself) there had not been yet a proof how reliable that information is. Another website where the passengers inform where and when did they see controllers: http://schwarzkappler.info/ Main Austrian cities and some German as well. Facebook and Twitter pages. Thomas has used the metro for 2 months (Feb-Mar 2011) following the advice of http://apps.vienna.at/tools/schwarzkappler/ and never saw any control.

Links




trash:Vienna