Friday, October 12, 2007

Problem on the Railway!

We ran into a bit of a problem on the way back from Vienna by rail last night. Or train arrived into Bratislava at about 9:00pm last night. After getting off the train, we head down the train platform and start down the stairs toward the main part of the train station. Just as we get to the bottom of the stairs, we hear a loud thud and a couple yells. When we turn around we see that one of the women that was sitting next to us on the train had fallen down on the stairs and seemed pretty hurt. We were all concerned for her well being, but also a bit skeptical wondering if it was the ever present possiblity of some sort of train station con artist scam. Andrew and I carefully head up the stairs to see if the person is really hurt or not. We find out it's one of the older women on the train who appeared to be from the states. She actually appears to be pretty banged up. At first she was regretful to admit that she was injured---possibly she was somehow embarrassed or perhaps she was afraid we were going to scam her. So, after a bit we mutually agree we're all good people and have to figure out if she needs a trip to the hospital or not. When she tried, she couldn't put any weight on her ankle. So, we decide all she really needs at this point is help getting to a taxi on the other side of the train station. Clearly, she wouldn't be able to hop the entire way. So... Andrew suggests we use some trick where we stand on each side of her, cross our arms and she sits back onto our forearms. Thats what we ended up doing. He and I carried her all the way through the train station directly to the taxis. You can just imagine how silly this looked with this women being carried through the station like royalty! We got quite a few stares.... Anyway, we were happy to help her out and hope that she was alright. Fortunately, she was here to learn about some medical equipment so hopefully there were some people at her hotel that could assess her problem and fix her up.

2 comments:

Mari said...

Glad to hear that you saved the day! We miss you back here, but sounds like you're having a great time! :)

Unknown said...

Wow..you guys are having a great experience...maybe you can lead a mini tour group in the future and include you know who....have a great time...we will be at the airport thursday.