Even though I love to travel, I’ve never been very good at geography. Without looking at a map I don’t remember what countries are next to each other in Europe or anywhere. I have some idea where the states are in the US–but don’t quiz me. With age and the difficulty of remembering names, I’m probably even worse at geographic information than I used to be.

Recently I came across someone who was even worse at geography than me.

I was arranging to use our cell phone while we were traveling in Europe. We’ve done this before-so I thought this shouldn’t be a problem. When I called Verizon (and after I had waited for a while), a woman named Alicia (not her real name) got on the phone.

I said, “We would like to use our phone in Europe.”

“Okay,” Alicia said, “We have different “plans.” The price had almost doubled since our last trip a few months ago. Even so, I decided it would be a good idea to have access to a phone.

Alicia asked, “What countries are you traveling in?”

I said, “Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania.”

“So,” she said, “The countries are Europe, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania.”

“No,” I said, “Europe is a continent–it’s not one of our list of countries”.

“But I need to include all the countries you’ll be in,” she insisted. “Europe, Austria, Hungary…” Then she said, “Oh, there is no phone service in Europe.”

“What!” I said, “We used our phone in Italy just a few months ago…”

“I’m only reading what it says on the computer,” Alicia said.

At that point I said, “Can I talk to someone else?”.

So, I waited a while longer and I spoke to her supervisor, Leo, and of course there is phone service in Europe and Leo was happy to take our money.

Maybe I’m wrong–

Is Europe a country now?