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Europe Trip? Heed This Advice or Risk Electronic Failure

Pack a bulky adapter for your next trip to Europe and you may, quite literally, find yourself in a round hole-square peg situation.

Some electrical outlets in Europe are set inside recessed circles. Now, I had never thought twice about these, as my go-to adapter is small and fits easily inside the circumference of the socket. But on a recent trip to Spain, I traveled with someone who had a large square adapter that didn’t fit into this common socket type. And that meant she couldn’t charge any of her electronics.

So I made a deal with her: I’d lend her my small, easy-to-carry and easy-to-plug-in Flight 001 4-in-1 adapter, and she’d let me take a photo of her adapter as a cautionary tale for our readers.

Moral of the story: Beware the bulky adapter. Not only does it weigh down baggage but it’s utterly useless if you find yourself someplace with a narrow outlet.

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(Photo: Christine Sarkis)

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