KLUB@maristb.bitnet (Richard Budd) (12/10/90)
While staying in Potsdam on what is turning out to be an incredibly educational bicycle trip in the former Soviet bloc, I learned that there were in September, 1990 only two telephone lines available between Potsdam and West Berlin. According to a fellow traveler, it was easier for a West Berliner to reach New York City, over 4,000 miles away, and get a clear conversation, than to call Potsdam, on Berlin's southwest border, and even get through to the other party. I would be interested in hearing about improvements in this situation. Also, the telephone books in the booths in Potsdam and at the youth hostel in East Berlin were dated 1986. Two weeks earlier (August 24, 1990), my travelling companion tried from a youth hostel in Konigstein, Saxony to make a collect call to upstate New York. He used his AT&T account number as identification. I managed with the help of the hostel warden to reach an AT&T operator, but he refused to complete the connection when he discovered we were in East Germany. My friend later was able to telephone (not collect and cash, not credit card) from the Hotel Newa, an Inter-Hotel where Western tourists were forced to spend the night in the bad old days. I saw his receipt for the call. It cost him DM210 for five minutes. Richard Budd KLUB@MARISTB.BITNET Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY