You Can't Reserve Parking Spots in Vienna
By TheRealDawn
@dawnald (85135)
Shingle Springs, California
January 25, 2011 5:25pm CST
So we're in Vienna, yes, Austria, with R's cousins. I don't remember exactly what part of Vienna, or what we were visiting, just Vienna. Actually, the one cousin works for the government there, and had gotten us some rooms in a dorm (school was out or something). Not sure if we were parking for that or were sightseeing or what, but it was not easy finding a parking space.
Anyway, we found one, and R's cousin had to go get the car from around the corner, so the other cousins stood in the parking space and waited. So another car gets there, completely ignores the people standing there, and proceeds to back into the space.
The cousins start yelling at him in German that they got the space first, but the guy just ignores them and parks the car (yeah they got out of the way). He gets out of his car and they are still yelling at him, and he turns around, and says in his nice Austrian accent, "you can't reserve a parking place," and walks off.
Oh well, easy come, easy go...
3 people like this
21 responses
@hardworkinggurl (37063)
• United States
26 Jan 11
lol, it sounds like this one time where a woman pulled into the spot of one of my friend, who was literally pulling into it.
As the woman got out of her car and went into the grocery store. Five minutes later my friend walked up to her and kind of slapped her, the funniest part was not the slap, but my friend does not speak English and all of a sudden/yet broken she said B!tch you tooky my spot! 
3 people like this
@mysdianait (66009)
• Italy
25 Jan 11
That sounds so much like it is here 
Same situation but a different ending on several occasions. The ones that were standing in the parking space get into an argument and often end up in hospital. It doesn't even make the headlines these days as it is so common 
Respect has gone out of the window 
Same situation but a different ending on several occasions. The ones that were standing in the parking space get into an argument and often end up in hospital. It doesn't even make the headlines these days as it is so common
Respect has gone out of the window 2 people like this
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
25 Jan 11
It happens here too. There was a piece on the news about two women that both reversed onto the same parking space but from different ends. They just kept bashing onto each other until the police arrived. I was queuing the other day for the airline at the garage. The guy in front of me pulled off and a car came right past me straight into the space! life's too short to make a scene. So I smiled and told him to get those tyres pumped up as he clearly had to get places more urgently than I did. He just looked at me kind of weird. LOL.
2 people like this
@GardenGerty (157645)
• United States
25 Jan 11
You mean you have weired looking people there too? I have had things like that happen from time to time. Impatient people
2 people like this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
25 Jan 11
Which reminds me of a joke I once heard.
An older woman in a Mercedes waits patiently for somebody to back out of a parking space. Just then, a young girl in a VW Bug zips into the space and starts walking into the shopping center. The woman shouts at her, and the girl gives her a sassy look and says, "that's what you can do when you're young and fast." So the woman takes her car and bashed into the VW. The girl runs back, yelling and screaming, and the older woman says, "that's what you can do when you're old and rich."
1 person likes this
@Hatley (163781)
• Garden Grove, California
26 Jan 11
hj dawn wow I am glad that they did get out of the way the way'that
guy was just backing in oblivious to your cousin , sure wanted that space badly.yes easy come easy go. I bet it was a great fun though'
to visit Vienna., I have never been to any Europen countries of cities.
So you just cannot reserve parking spots in Vienna so i will remember
in case I have a chance ever to go there. lol.
2 people like this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
26 Jan 11
It was a great trip. We went to Duesseldorf, Braunschweig, Leipzig, Graz, Vienna, Dresden, Prague and Weimar, among other things. Wanted to see The Magic Flute at the Vienna opera, but the darn thing was sold out. But we saw Wiener Blut at the Folk Opera, which was almost as good. Prague was wonderful, possibly the most beautiful town in Europe.
@fannitia (2167)
• Bulgaria
26 Jan 11
Funny situation but I understand them completely. In my town the situation is the same - you really can't find a parking spot. I haven't seen similar incidents here but I'm sure that this happens. And some people think that they own a spot in front of the block where they live. So if you park your car there they could puncture you tyre or do some other damage to it. And this is not funny at all.
@GardenGerty (157645)
• United States
25 Jan 11
Well, that is what he said anyway. I guess he was pretty determined. You could have had some very flat cousins there, if they had not moved.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157645)
• United States
25 Jan 11
Kind of hard to argue with a car moving backwards straight at you.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (159318)
• Boise, Idaho
26 Jan 11
Have you ever seen Green Fried Tomatoes? This reminds me of the scene where the gal played by Kathy was going around the parking lot trying to find a place to park, she finds one and goes to drive her huge land yaght into it when these two young girls in a little VW or somethings go screaming into the same parking space just infront of her. She gets real mad and rams their car moving them out of the way. SHe yells something about her being older and has more insurance. Something to that affect. So funny! Great movie.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
28 Jan 11
Well, it sounds to me like the guy that took the parking spot was just a jerk. I know that there are times that I want to park my car closer to a venue than where it was parked to start with and I've had my mother stand in a spot for me to move my car up there or there have been times that I've done the same thing for other people. I don't know if doing that is legal or not, but I've never been yelled at for doing it nor have I ever had someone try to run me over when I was doing it.
1 person likes this
@much2say (53945)
• Los Angeles, California
26 Jan 11
Dang! That's pretty nervy! I don't think I have the guts to ignore parking savers and butt my car in like that. And besides that, I think I'd be afraid that someone would do something nasty to my car once I left (like key-ing it or leaving a dent). I've seen people jump into a parking space even though another car was obviously waiting for it first - and that's pretty rude too!
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
26 Jan 11
Yeah well I guess he really wanted that space!
@Torunn (8609)
• Norway
28 Jan 11
No point in driving around in Vienna anyway. Public transports the thing :-)
And although you might not be able to reserve parking places, you should be careful when you pick your seat in the tram. If you take the wrong seat an old lady with an umbrella will try to hit you, because it is her seat. And you should sense that in some weird, telepathic way.
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
29 Jan 11
Yes but we had to drive TO Vienna. Well actually I was willing to take the train, but the cousins weren't...
Heck old ladies over there will drop doors in your face. You don't mess with the old ladies. lol
@Torunn (8609)
• Norway
29 Jan 11
One day, it'll be us doing it, poking people with umbrellas and pushing them around with doors ...
My hope is that they're really quite happy but like scaring people, and since they're old, most people don't want to say anything. Not quite sure why the young and the old in some way are set above normal manners, but if it's like that when I grow old I'm going to make the most of it. *evil laughter*
I will scare people, I'll threaten them with Einsteins particle-wave duality and say that I'm going to Fourier transform them so they end up stuck as a discrete set of frequencies! *more evil and scientific laughter*
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
31 Jan 11
YOu live that long, it's an entitlement, I guess. :D
@fabsprecious (1565)
• United States
1 Feb 11
Wow, that's intresting and frustrating in a way. I personally hate going to crowded places and then have to look for a parking space just to get in. It's funny I did that exact same thing last week, when we took our kids to the children's museum, I spotted a parking space on the other side and my husband had a few cars ahead of him, so I got of the car and stood in the front of the empty parking space waiting for. Two people got pissed, but there was nothing available, we had been driving for almost 10 minutes. When you're desperate, you tend to do desperate things. But luckily, they were just a bit aggrevated and drove off, no big deal.
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
1 Feb 11
I hate that too. Grew up in a suburb where parking was free and plentiful, and to this day I feel a wee bit offended at having to scramble and/or pay for it.
@TheGreatWhiteBuffalo (4822)
• United States
27 Jan 11
Oh' yes they could have, if they didn't move... Maybe a foot to the tail would have helped? I'm not suggesting that they should have resorted to violence, but the thought is there.
What are other ways to reserve a parking space?
Is it legal to run over pedestrians?
Hmmmm,
Brain turning, swirling, curling - like weight lifting this is heavy...
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
27 Jan 11
Cars have the right away over there, but only to a point...
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
26 Jan 11
Well it's not like you are camping out physically sitting in the spot for hours on end just a few minutes. You can't really reserve a spot here. BUT I would say that was pretty gutsy of that driver to keep backing in despite someone standing there. Reminds me of people who pull in next to me when I had my doors flung wide open trying to get my kids out. Can't wait just pull right on in... when they hurt someone maybe they'll move on and find a parking spot elsewhere.
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
26 Jan 11
Our car was just around the block, but oh well....
@Lore2009 (7378)
• United States
26 Jan 11
That's happened here in US for me. Got in a big argument but we weren't even reserving, we were waiting for them to pass since we were turning left into the parking space but they were coming from ahead and just turned right into it, while we had our signals on too.
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
26 Jan 11
Ah well apparently a turn signal is not a reservation either! :D
@bounce58 (17387)
• Canada
27 Jan 11
I think it is very understandable as I've seen other cultures where parking spot is even more valuable than say, gold!
And I can see the argument that if isn't a car in that space, then parking space IS available.
Interesting tidbit about Vienna though.
And I can see the argument that if isn't a car in that space, then parking space IS available.
Interesting tidbit about Vienna though.1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
26 Jan 11
I guess you can't reserve parking spots lots of places!
