So I go into a gas station to pay the typical 80 Euros for filling up the tank, when the clerk tells me, "Cash only"! I then look in the direction he is pointing to see an eeeeeeeeetty-bitty sign that says "No kreditkarte". At this point, we still didn't have a working bank account, thanks to our fascinatingly unorganized relocation agent*, and therefore no way to get cash, except for with R's passport. Well, R was at work, and I was far far away from him with no real hope of getting any cash for another 4 days when R could go down to the bank and withdraw it, which you can only do between the hours of 10am and 4pm during the week. Plus, he works in the suburbs. So, for all you Chicagoans, imagine working in Aurora and being told to go to your downtown branch during your lunch hour to get some cash. Not going to happen, right?
Anyway, the man starts yelling at me, first in German and then in broken English, "Why would you take the gas if you couldn't pay for it!!!!", over and over again. I tried to nicely explain that I didn't see the sign, but as he kept repeating this phrase, I saw he thought I wasn't upset about the whole thing. So I started raising my voice, saying, "What kind of gas station doesn't accept credit cards? I've never even heard of that! Why would you have a gas station that accepts only cash when you spend 100 euros every time you fill up!" At which point he backed down and said, "it's okay, it's okay. You give me your passport and I let you go".
Yeah right. Well, first of all, I had no identification with me other than my driver's license and my useless credit card--not that I would have given him my passport even if I'd had it with me. We then loudly argued about what I could leave him as collateral for a while, and finally I told him, "you'll just have to trust me. If i was a bad person I would have left without saying anything."....AT this he apparently saw my logic, or no other option. So, to make a long story short, after much ado, (this in and of itself is quite a long story, full of "it's not possible"'s),I found a way to get some cash and went back to pay the man, who of course looked quite relieved upon my return.
Lesson learned: if you get into trouble in Germany, just start shouting!
Also, carry lots of cash.
*Isn't it the nature of a relocation agent's job to be organized?
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