which type of two-pronged adaptor for CR?

Discussion in 'Travel Tips & Advice' started by Michelle Lange, Sep 11, 2009.

  1. Michelle Lange

    Michelle Lange New Member

    Hi, I have two types of european adaptors; both with 2 round prongs but one adaptor's prongs are thicker than the other's; one of these is labeled 'Northern Europe'. The other one probably doesn't apply to CR because it's label only mentions Southern Europe. But would CR be considered Northern Europe? We refer to it in the USA as 'Eastern Europe' but I haven't come across an adaptor labeled for Eastern Europe.
    Thank you.
     
  2. eso

    eso Well-Known Member

    Look here:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets

    Majority of Czech plugs is type C or E
     
  3. Zik

    Zik Well-Known Member

    The Czech Republic uses the same outlet as all other European countries expect of the United Kingdom. So if you ever have been to Europe before, you'll know.

    It's better not to say the Czech Republic is in Eastern Europe. Czechs hate it. And I really think it isn't true.

    1) Our culture has always been orientated on Western Europe (Germany, Austria, the UK...), not Eastern (Russia, Ukraine...). Check Huntington's theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clash_of_Civilizations

    2) The Czech Republic is a member of the EU and the NATO. These organisations contain American, West- and Centraleuropean countries.

    3) The Czech Republic is richer than Greece or Portugal. We are on the best way to get the EU average (minimally). Before the WW2, Czechoslovakia was the 5th richest state ever.
     
  4. bibax

    bibax Well-Known Member

    Ziku, all your claims are disputable. For example Turkey is an Asian country (I don't count the European part of Istanbul).

    And we use another type of socket than Germans. :wink:

    France, Czech Republic, Slovakia, etc. use this type:

    [​IMG]

    (the lower hole is for a screw!)
     
  5. Dannae

    Dannae Well-Known Member

    Bilbax, I do not think Ziks' claims are disputable - I believe the are very true. Plus you know where the geographical cenre of Europe is, right?

    Also if e.g. Austria is counted as West Europe, than Czech Republic must be too. Look at the map :wink:
     
  6. jen

    jen Well-Known Member

    You want the one with the thicker prongs. We had horrible problems in Italy, thinking that our Czech plugs would work there, but many of the (older) sockets were only for the thin plugs.
     
  7. Dannae

    Dannae Well-Known Member

    True but I just checked some of my plugs I brought from overseas w/me. So e.g. the extension cord has thicker prongs, cell phone charger thinner.

    Also - just reminder - do not forget we have 220V in Europe! My sister in law once burned her hairdryer while she was vacationing in Europe :roll: .
     
  8. jen

    jen Well-Known Member

    Ah - that's true. So it probably doesn't matter here in Czecho, but in Italy, specifically Sardinia, some of the sockets weren't grounded, so you couldn't plug in the fat plugs there, plus they have the stupid three pins in a row grounded plugs...

    One bit of good only slightly unrelated news - apparently the major cell phone manufacturers have agreed that for the European market, all phones will use mini-USB for their charging sockets (on the phones)....
     
  9. Alexx

    Alexx Well-Known Member

    Off topic, but which place do you mean? The one next to golf course 30 km north of Vilnius?
     
  10. bibax

    bibax Well-Known Member

    The nominal voltage in Europe is actually 3 x 400 V. The line-to-earth voltage is 230.94 V (exactly 400 V divided by the square root of 3)!

    400 V
    ------- = 230.94 V (usually truncated to 230 V)
    1.732
     
  11. Ctyri koruny

    Ctyri koruny Well-Known Member

    Turkey is European :?

    They'll be in the European Union soon enough! I don't want to get political, but I think that's very rude, just deciding that the millions and millions of people that live in the west of Turkey don't count.




    Anyway I find it impossible to get adaptors that will work here at home, only once did I find one and that was in a pound shop, it didn't even say what country it was for or what type of adaptor it was and I'd never been here so it was a gamble.

    I've also seen ones that look like they'll fit a few times but that don't have the holes. This year what I did was I just got an extension chord with 4 plugs on it from home and stuck that into my one adapter so now I have four.. I hope this is safe and the fact that all of my sockets blew the other day isn't related.
     
  12. bibax

    bibax Well-Known Member

    97% of the territory of Turkey is in Asia, thus Turkey is rather Asian than European.

    But the point was that the membership in NATO says nothing about the geographical location in Europe as Turkey is also a member of the NATO. The members of NATO are situated on three continents.

    Also the claim that "Before the WW2, Czechoslovakia was the 5th richest state ever" is rather a myth. Maybe 11-13th in Europe and 15-18th in the world (depends on criteria).

    Finally, the European countries use various outlets.

    Zik's claims are indeed disputable.

    It is also disputable.
     
  13. Petronela

    Petronela Well-Known Member

    To confuse you a bit more …. Please don’t forget that Europe is only 50 hertz. So anything with timer on it may or may not run but time keeping will be all wrong. If I remember correctly the electric clock will be off as much as an hour per day, so save your luggage space and don’t bring anything with timer on it.
    Also many of the small electric gadgets these days are dual voltage without really advertising it, so check the box. I was pretty surprised both my curling and straitening iron were, so all I needed was the adapter for plug, (walmart sells those as a set of all possible combinations for like $9)
     
  14. Dannae

    Dannae Well-Known Member

    :roll: :roll: :roll: Sure, everything is relative. :roll: :roll: :roll:
     
  15. bibax

    bibax Well-Known Member

    Why so many Rolling Eyes? Do you really believe that "Before WWII, Czechoslovakia was the 5th richest state ever"? It is not relative, it is nonsense.
     
  16. Dannae

    Dannae Well-Known Member

    Well, I this one was for sure meant as "one of the best growing economies" ... not everybody is that good in English I suppose :?
     
  17. jrjaks

    jrjaks Member

    Back to the original topic, Rick Steves sells a kit containing all the various outlet adaptor plugs you might encounter on a European trip. As I recall, I was able to use them for outlets in UK, CZ and Italy.
     
  18. Ctyri koruny

    Ctyri koruny Well-Known Member

    Did someone mention NATO? What does NATO have to do with anything? Most countries also use bar-codes.. it's not relevant.

    This seems to me to be what happened:

    You: It's a tomatto.
    Me: That's a strawberry.
    You: No it's not it's a tomato. JUST BECAUSE APPLES ARE RED DOESN'T MEAN THEY ARE CUCUMBERS

    I think that you are insane and do not want to talk to you.
     
  19. Zik

    Zik Well-Known Member

    It's really truth. OK, I've heard it was the 5th one, it's not official, but there are official informations Czechoslovakia was one of the 10 richest. The official website of the Czech Republic doesn't tell a rank, but:

    How many states do you think were richer in that time (in GDP per capita for example)? The United States + Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland + small states like Lichtenstein or Luxemburg - and that's all! Not poor Germany, not Japan, not Austria, absolutely not Arabian states.
     
  20. bibax

    bibax Well-Known Member

    You are right, Ctyri koruny. But it was Zik who mentioned NATO, EU, prewar Czechoslovakia, etc. without any relevant connection to outlets and plugs. I only remarked that Zik's claims were disputable (not incorrect necessarily).
     

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