Not So Merry in the Marriott

This morning Dave nearly had a heart attack. There was a bill outside our hotel room door.

“What! 60 euro for phone calls?”

I tried quickly to think. Now did I call China? Africa? The moon? What on earth…

It cost us 60 euros (about $95 now with the dollar continuing to plummet) for two calls from the room to local cell phones. Let's see, the first day we were here I phoned Dave’s boss’s wife to follow up about the accident. Then one day we phoned a realtor to discuss some houses. We figured they might charge for local calls, but we had no idea that it would cost 2 euro a minute to call a cell phone!

I know people think we are terribly spoiled living in a Marriott. And they are right, mostly. We are grateful for the good breakfasts and excellent service. But eating out for three meals a day for weeks on end is getting old. For one thing, it is hard to eat light when eating out and my hula hoop is still in shipment (translation: belly bulge). And for another, meals here take a long time. And we have so much to do. Claire noticed yesterday, “We seem to spend most of our time at restaurants!”

We do love the turn-down service. Every night we have either a chocolate or gummi bears on our pillows. I make the kids earn their candy each night by telling me at least one German word they have learned that day. Luke nearly always says “zug” (train) but I make him come up with more. He is actually picking the language up really quickly.

We are also glad to have free access to a washer and dryer. But man, it’s Barbie sized! And I had to use my dictionary at first just to do a simple load since the dials are in German. The machines are so very different from back home. The dryer has three separate filters to clean each time. And because it is a condensation dryer, you have to empty about a gallon of water between cycles. And it’s not efficient. The first time I tried to dry a small load, it took 3 hours. Now we hang clothes in the room to dry. On laundry days it looks like our suitcases exploded.

Appliances in general tend to be much smaller here. The houses we looked at had dormitory-size mini fridges and ovens large enough only for about a 14-pound turkey.

I keep having to remind myself that we moved to Europe to slow down. But the process is like detoxing from a bad addiction. I’m having DTs just thinking of driving through McD’s and paying with a credit card on my way to Walmart to buy flip-flops, 10 pair for $2.00.

Dear Lord, did I just say that?