Tales of Vienna Park

Tales of Vienna Park
Vienna is a city of enjoyment.
— Stefan Zweig
   

Wikipedia says: “Vienna is one of the most popular cities in Europe. The capital of Austria attracts foodies with its culinary delights and restaurants, fashionistas with its shops, and the bohemians with theaters, opera, exhibitions and museums. Vienna is considered a city of music and art. The ingenious composers lived and worked here: Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Strauss, as well as many famous artists who turned the city into the treasure chest of Europe.”
Indeed—probably everyone is entranced by this magnificent city!
Once, my husband and I were lucky enough to visit it. We had flown to Ukraine with a layover in Vienna, and on the way back, we had a layover of almost a day before our flight to Washington. Our travel agent recommended that we spend the day in the city…we happily agreed! We thought that we would walk along the streets of the famous capital—though, unfortunately, there was no time to see many attractions or to go to any theater. But at least we’d get to breathe in some of the city’s beautiful air and see something that people from all over the world admire!
The plane arrived on time, and the hotel was nearby, right across the road. The room was small but comfortable. We dropped off our bags, changed clothes, exchanged a few dollars for the Austrian currency, and went outside. We decided to explore the city a little—so that we could at least glance at the beautiful sights (and on top of that, we were hungry!).
We were advised to take the hotel’s shuttle bus. We asked the driver in English if it would be possible to see anything interesting out the window. We don’t know if he understood us, but he nodded. We excitedly entered the bus and begin going. We drive through thick woods, seeing nothing but trees, and as we rode, more and more people got off of the bus as it made its stops. Meanwhile, we had been looking out the window, as beautiful trees and grass whizzes by. It had started getting dark by that point—we couldn’t even see the trees! As we approached the last stop, we saw that we were the only two people left! We got off the bus, and the driver turned it around and drove off. We look around and see nobody! We see some inscription on a large beautiful gate, but we don’t understand anything!
As we came closer, it appeared to be the entrance to a park. We were curious to see what kind of park it was and what was inside… and maybe even grab a bite to eat. But, strangely, it was very dark—there were almost no lamps or people. Intrigued, we decided to explore this Viennese park. That is, two American numbskulls—with passports in their bags, a good amount of money, and holding a video camera given to them by their son—venture into a dark, unfamiliar place out of curiosity. Some idiots don’t understand that this type of adventure could end very sadly.

We had been walking along the quiet deserted alleys of this park for a bit, not having seen anyone. Suddenly we hear voices, mostly male. Of course, we were delighted and hurried over. Unfortunately, these tourists did not understand what was going on. For some reason, some untidy people were lying and sitting on all the benches, heaps of clothes and blankets lying around them. Fortunately for us, none of them paid attention to foreigners. Some of the men were dozing, some were talking with friends in a foreign language. And then it finally dawned on us where we were…this was a sleeping place for local homeless people! We looked at each other and realized that we needed to escape from this wonderful park. We turned around and took off. There was still no one at the bus stop when we got there, but again we got lucky! The same bus that had brought us appeared on the horizon. As the Americans say, “Thank God!” We, frightened by the adventure, quickly entered the bus that had driven us to the airport. By the way, we were hungry until the breakfast the next morning—the food in the hotel was so expensive!
Our trip to a nice Viennese park left an unpleasant aftertaste in my memory for many years.