I’ve been in Germany for a week now and it has been filled with the search for the Internet. A search that has not been overly successful.
In theory it is really easy to join the surfers of the World Wide Web, practically near impossible. My first attempt frustrated me with its failing. I bought a stick, dongle or whatever you want to call it, added on some allowance and tried to surf the web, but I never caught a wave.
The stick was by a company called Tschibo – winner in price and simplicity of usage – but their advertisement was false, just plug-in and off you go turned into me cycling back and forth into the village and calling Tschibo all to no avail. The next attempt was the local electro store, here at least I had some customer service but eve he was not sure he could provide what I need – ‘you can buy this stick (Vodafonr this time and three times the price, plus the allowance double the price as well) and give it a go, but the coverage isn’t too good and I doubt it will make you happy.’
My wonderful sister then drove me to Cuxhaven where a lovely guy from a big brightly coloured media store told me that if my hotspot doesn’t work, neither will a stick. He showed me how to get myself setup, so now, if I climb two flights of stairs until I’m up under the eaves, and sit by an open window, and it’s not raining and not too windy, and not after 5pm I can try and access the Internet. It doesn’ always work but at least I can try!
Who knew that Germany – such a successful and rich country – was so far behind when it comes to Internet coverage. And sadly this may mean I will have to cut my plans short as I won’t be able to work with so little access to the Internet. I’ll try it for a few more days and see if I can make it work, if not I’ll be packing my bags again and finding a new refuge for a few weeks.
