June 13 Bochum to Munich

One thing that frustrates me in Europe is that there’s no mobile phone plan equivalent of the Euro. I can use the Euro in at least 16 countries, but I have to get a different phone plan/sim card in every country I visit if I want to avoid crazy roaming fees. I know, waa waa, poor me. But it’s annoying. I already can’t use my American cell phone over here, so it’d be a nice treat if I didn’t have to travel around with a pocket full of sim cards. I’m starting to feel like Stringer Bell.

Part of me is willing to pay the roaming fees just so I can have the same phone number everywhere I go. But my UK sim card keeps reading “SIM CARD ERROR” every time I insert it. So after some false starts, I end up with a Vodafone sim card. The false starts involved me going to established cellphone service stores (Tmobile, O2, etc) and them telling me my only option was to sign a contract for a year. At least cell phone carriers are keeping the lying-to-your-face style of service consistent across the globe. So I find myself in an electronics store run by some kind Arabs, and my phone is up and running in about 8 minutes. I realize as I watch the dude at the fake mobile store maneuver my phone in his hands that the reason I couldn’t get the UK sim card to work is because I putting it in upside down. Stupid estanger.

And we’re off on our way to Munich. It’s a pretty monster 6 hour drive, but my Midwestern blood enjoys it a little bit. We planned ahead and got an early start so we could get the rental car back in time. But even with time to spare, it turns out that everything in Munich is actually closed on Sundays, including where I want to return the car, so I end up showing up at the airport rental return (the third return location we visit) late. I blame it on flying into an airport an hour farther away than the airport I thought I was flying into, and the desk agent takes pity on me. She agrees it’s dumb that Ryanair says they’re flying to a town they’re not actually in and waives my extra day fee. I would have been on time if I had that extra hour, really. I swear.

And so we start our little respite in Munich. We stock up on some German bum poison at the local grocery store.

We can’t quite bring ourselves to buy pre-dyed eggs to eat for breakfast though.