How to obtain money in Europe-land

If you are considering going abroad for even a couple of days, you should open a student chequing account with Bank of America. If you do this, you will have all the cash you ever need in Europe—provided you put all the cash you could ever need in the account to begin with. You see, children, Bank of America is part of a global network of banks, including Barclays in England and Deutsche Bank in Germany, which allow their customers to withdraw cash from each other’s ATMs free-of-charge, at current exchange rates. Note: ATMs in England are called “cash machines,” or “holes-in-the-wall.”

I have now also opened an account at Deutsche Bank. In order to put money into it, I get money at an ATM and then take the cash directly to the teller. If I happen to have a few Euros left in the account when I come back to America, I can access them free-of-charge at the nearest B of A ATM. Handy.

German word of the day: Geldautomat. All of them here seem to allow you to withdraw 500 Euros with the push of a single button. My tandem-partner (explanation later) has done so by accident. How annoying.