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Phone booths that accept coins are still available all over Germany. The older ones are yellow, the newer ones are mostly glass and display a pink T. They are more expensive than using a prepaid card for your cell phone. A nice feature is that you can send SMS, faxes and e-mails even with the oldest types. Input is a bit cumbersome, however.
A cheaper option is to buy a German prepaid SIM card. They are readily available from mobile shops like ''e-plus'', ''vodafoneVodafone'' and ''tT-mobile''. A lot of supermarket chains like ''Aldi'', ''Netto'' and ''Lidl'' also have their own brands that use the network of the bigger providers. Check beforehand how to register the SIM card. Sometimes the seller wants to see an ID. If you prefer not to give out your real data you might for example buy a SIM card at ''Aldi'', which you can register via Internet with fake data.
If you want to make calls abroad there are some stores offering international phone booths in bigger cities. They are usually located in migration areas and often include an internet cafe.
Most German prepaid cards also have a data option if you own a smartphone or a surfstick for your laptop, which also can be bought for about 30 euro. It's often better to buy a single day flatrate for two to five euros instead of using the data tariff. Details depend on your provider.
Some ''Burger King'' restaurants offer free Wifi without any registration. At ''McDonalds'' you get free Wifi for one hour per day without consuming anything. Sometimes the restaurants are located on service stations, you can look them up [http://www.mcdonalds.de/metanavigation/mcfinder/mcfinder.cfm here]. Enter a lokation location in the search mask and make sure to check the option ''WLAN'', the German abbreviation for Wifi. Once there, connect, type in any adress address and you will be asked for a valid German mobile number, through which you will receive your access code. Take care: in both cases the connection is not encrypted so anything you send in clear text, e.g. when using a browser or e-mail tool without SSL, can be easily recorded by others nearby.
== Language ==
The basic hitchhiker needs can be satisfied by a look at the phrasebook [[western Europe phrasebook|here]].
When asking your drivers for help it pays off to know that the German word ''Straße'' for street contains the weird letter ''ß'' which looks a bit like a B. If you pronounce it like an ''s'' Germans will understand you. Contrary to popular belief the diacritics on Ä, ä, Ö, ö, Ü and ü are not metal umlauts and thus they do affect pronounciationpronunciation. If in doubt try to pronounce the word as if the diacritics didn't exist. For instance, if you pronounce the city ''Würzburg'' as ''Wurzburg'' you will probably be understood.
== Other possibilities of transportation ==
