Bus "trip"

I had a nice evening with a bunch of expats. We had all been invited to one Polish woman's home for dinner, featuring traditional Polish food.  It was really good, and the company was exellent.

As midnight approached, we all headed off for home before our coaches (or in this case our subways) turned into pumpkins.  I had to take two relatively short wubway routes to get home, but one of the group recommended I take a bus instead of the first route, a supposedly quicker option.  He told me which stop to get out at, and not to worry if I missed it because the bus line ended at a subway station.  The subway system is very straightforward: basically if you can get to any station, you can find easily your way to your destination.

So off on the bus I go. My stop is coming up, and I get up and go to the door... which does not open automatically as it should. As this is my first trip on the bus, I don't know what to do to convice the door to open... And then the bus drives on. Uh oh!  Ok I think, no worries, I can just ride the bus to the end of the line and then hop on the subway.  The bus has a display indicating each stop coming up. I don't recognise most of the street names, but one or two seem to indicate I'm going in the wrong direction. Uh oh again! 

Up comes Panic street - precursor? No, no, it's fine, I can always find a taxi.  A whole bunch of stops later is Money Pennny street (loose translation):  maybe James Bond will come save me?  Finally I get to the end of the line and sure enough, I'm at a subway station.  But I'm at the end of the U6 line, about 10 stops from home, and the next-to-last run is not for another 10 minutes.  So now I'm standing at the station, one of the few that is partially open to the elements.  And those elements are definitely unfriendly: cold rain outside and a nasty wind blowing through the station. It's now almost 12:30 and the place is deserted.  I'm a bit uncomfortable but not really worried, as Vienna is a very safe city, safer than most. Then some people start to drible in, "normal" looking ones (not teenagers, scruffy-looking men or crazy old ladies) and finally the subway train arrives. 

I'm home by 12:50, fine except I'm wet and tired.  Not exactly an easy ride home.  I should have just followed my original plan and taken the 2 U-Bahns home...