Ok this did happen last week, but I still have to talk about it. It was almost poetic that I get my 2nd flat tire here a year after my first flat tire here.
Me and curbs, we do not get along. They are just there taunting me, seeing how close I can get as I take a turn. Well this time I was trying to look at my stupid Navi while turning..hence hitting the curb. Heard a pop and then my car started to shrink down so I pulled over to the side of the road. Just before some major road construction, so I am not in an ideal place to park. I get out of my car and go into the trunk to pull out my quality orange warning triangle to put it out on the road. See all the studying for the German drivers test paid off. I know how to use a triangle!
So this nice German man sees me from across the street and motions me to come an park in his lot. I move my car over and he asks me if I have a spare tire. (he says this in English after I tell him I have no idea what he is asking me). So we go to my trunk and the place for a spare tire is there, just no spare!
Now what. I have my kids and I am suppose to be meeting friends for lunch.
Last time this happened it cost us 500 euro! I was not going to make that mistake again, there had to be close tire places around without going back to the dealer 45 min away!
So the German man asked me if I know anyone with ADAC (Germany's AAA), I said yes. He told me to call them and have them get me a tow truck. So I call my trusty friend Tricia and tell her the story, she hooks me up with ADAC and they are coming to rescue me.
In the mean time I have called Lindsay to come pick up my children as they are now starving after waiting for an hour now. She whisks them off to lunch while I wait for the truck.
Well the truck comes, but it is just a normal truck. He wants to fix my tire, but the hole is on the rim of the tire and not on the sole...and since this is my second rim hole I know it cannot be fixed. The ADAC man then asks me for my spare tire. Really? Are we suppose to have one? I call up my husband who drives a company car which is a Mercedes. I ask him "do you have a spare tire?" he tells me no, if he gets a flat his car automatically inflates it with steal and..blah, blah, yaddy yadda...he lost me..all I know is that he is spoiled!
So me and my little Golf sit and wait for the "official" tow truck.
The Tow truck man speaks no English and is trying to talk to me. All I have is Das Auto ist klein! Das Auto ist Blau. Das Auto est kaputt! (car is small, blue and broken)
So he loads up my car and motions me to get in his big truck.
He takes me to a local tire place to get me a tire, except they do not have any of my tires in stock. The very nice mechanic lends me one of his own personal winter tires so that I can get home. So the man that works in the office tells me to tips his mechanic really well since I now will have his tire on my car. So I give him a 20 and tell him I will see him tomorrow and that I will treat his tire with care (doing all this in charade motions)
Well the tire does not come in for another week. So I go back and tip my good mechanic again for lending me his tire so that I had a car for another week. So now he tells me I am to ask for him by name the next time I come in and he will take car of me. I am sure I will be back in another year, so I will remember to do that.
Total cost toe truck free, tips 30, new tire 120! That is way better than 500! So I guess after a year I have learned how to survive in Germany with friends and my keine deutsche.
