Tuesday, 02-July-2024


Tuesday had been a fairly relaxing day for me – I’d gotten my cell phone repaired, and…

Huh. You know what? I wasn’t going to write up a post about fixing my phone, but in retrospect I think I’ll put one together quick, since it was a fairly impactful event on my trip.

Back in Krakow, I’d cracked the screen on my phone. I’ve dropped and tossed my phone countless times; being as careful with it as I can, since it does happen to be a critical lifeline and safety tool, but also trusting that the heavy impact-resistant case would serve its duty and help to keep the phone safe.

While having dinner at Pimiento one evening, I’d slipped while taking a photo of the glorious dinner in front of me… and in trying to catch the phone as it fell, I’d smacked it into the corner of the table. The angle and force turned out to be just right, or just wrong, and a lovely shatterpoint appeared on the screen.

It was almost purely cosmetic, thankfully, and so I was able to avoid an emergency repair to the phone… but every time I flipped it on, it would remind me that it was damaged, and possibly not waterproof anymore, and maybe it would get worse, and…

Yeah, anxiety.


Once I arrived in Vienna, I looked into repairs. They weren’t cheap, and the first two places I went wanted a week to fix them. I’d looked in Prague as well, but they’d been even worse… wanting two weeks minimum, and frankly being kind of jerks about it (fitting in with Prague in general…).

One evening though, while picking up a bottle of wine and some snacks from a grocery store in the nearby mall, I saw a small shop off to the side… and walked in. They took a look, and apologized in advance for the price and the time it’d take – 10% less than their competitors, and only an hour to fix.

I… uhh… I played it cool, and told them I’d be back in the morning to get it fixed.


It was an anxious hour, truth be told, not having a phone on me. Which should probably worry me a little bit, but… ehh, I’ll think about that later, when I’m not travelling far from home. Thankfully it went quickly, just long enough for me to get a nice lunch, and soon enough I was back picking up my newly-repaired, re-armored, and happily working phone.

Moral of the story? It’s worth shopping around for expensive repairs, and I’m probably too attached to my phone. Good times.