Internet Cafe in Heidelberg. WTFPWNAGEBBQ Smokers 2, wife 0.

How does the rest of the world do it? Twice this weekend I dragged the laptop into town and hoped to at least connect for a breath of time.

Starbucks on the Hauptstrasse. Sat down with some chilly Java Chip Frappucino’s and got the laptop out. (By the way, since when is Heidelberg a steamy tropical town? The heat and humidity are brutal. Worsened because there’s no A/C anywhere! It’s like being on the equator somewheres. Good Radlers though. (Beer + lemon drink mix. VERY good tasting and refreshing!))

Anyway, Starbuck’s server is Kaput. No connection. Bummer. So, on the way back to the streetcar stop we remember a 99 cent/hour internet cafe. We head there. I plug in.

We’re sitting next to a blonde girl who is puffing away like some dragon on her cigarette while she pecks at her keyboard.

But I manage to log on. Yay! So I check on Kinless’ transfer. Seems they don’t like the name. Again. (What’s up with that! Blizzard: It’s a Freakin’ EPITHET! LOOK IT UP! Since you won’t be bothered, here’s what Webster’s says: “a characterizing word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing “. Get it? ARGH!)

So, Kinless leaves Argent Dawn, and then as Arcarius joins Kirin Tor. Arcarius is late latin for whats became Archer. Befitting a Hunter, no? (Arcuarius is the latin for archer, from arcus, meaning bow.) Level 48 Hunter. Time for some BG action perhaps? You bet.

So we try to transfer Darkhand over then. My level 45 Rogue on Frostmane. He’s entirely alone there and I want him united with my wife and my friends characters on Kirin Tor. Except the page is down. Not possible. But at least I logged on, ran around the world a bit. But the smoke is killing us, so we depart.

Sunday, returned to the cafe. Got set up. (I actually saw another cafe patron in World of Warcraft. Was that Molten Core??!!!) We’ve got a fan blowing on us this time. Still kind of smokey. I go to the character transfer page. Error. Again, reload, error. Reload, error. Error, error, error. C’mon Blizzard. If you offer a service, how about it be accessible?

Well, there’s that, and then this Turkish kid sits down where Blondie was the day before. Because he is European he is compelled by law to light up a cigarette. (Some day, when the mood strikes Germany, they will outlaw cigarettes and make smoking in the country illegal. If there’s something that Germans can do they do it hardcore, balls to the wall, no holds barred, 110% of the way. At the moment they can smoke, and they do so with fury and gusto. The day they are supposed to stop, heaven help the person sighted with a cigarette in his mouth. The day will come. They’re always about 20 years behind America. (4-6 weeks to get internet connection to a fully wired apartment? That’s worse than some 3rd world country! Sorry. And every room in an apartment is just a room. Every space must be room shaped and have a door. 1906=2006 in German apartment technology. But I digress.)

Anyway, the smoke is making the wife nauseous, and I can’t transfer my character, so I quickly hop on, run around with him a bit in Ironforge, and then log out. Felt pretty darn good just stretching my virtual legs.

In the end, about when I can resume playing, on Kirin Tor I will have a 48 NE Hunter, a 45 NE Rogue, a 36 NE Druid, and a 36 Forsaken Warrior. Not a bad little stable of characters. A Draenei Paladin and a Blood Elf Warlock will be in the works come the Expansion.