How to fix a blown fuse

Reason 1,483 that Europe is not like the US: the electricity is different.

The physicist in me protested it should be something like 'the way electricity is distributed is different' but it's a weekend, that wording destroys any snap to the phrase and was edited out.

There are three aspects to this difference, ranging from obvious (the plugs aren't shaped the same) to subtle (the frequency is different). However, I would say that the potentially most damaging is that the voltages are different. European electric circuits run at twice the voltage of their American counterparts (220V instead of 110V). Voltage is the potential energy per unit charge, so you can think of it roughly as the energy available to the charged particles in the current, and begin to see why this may be a problem. Too much energy in a circuit = things melting.

Electronic equipment is protected against this sort of thing, since it runs on DC current and already needs to convert the AC power that comes from the wall. Anything that draws a lot of current, though (curlers, hair-blow dryers), is going to pick up four times as much power.

Voltage = Resistance * Current
Power = Voltage * Current

This is how foreign hair-blow dryers turn into circuit-blowing monsters when taken over seas. However, you can also blow fuses by plugging in American power-strips into European outlets. I know. I've done it.

I've also fixed it, at least from the apartment-renter's perspective on fixing. No soldering required.

1. Find the circuit box. Mine hides in the closet closest to the door, but I've also seen them on the wall in the corner.
2. Open it and see what's going on. When I blew fuses in the US, the blown fuse would be the only one flipped to an off position (as compared to everything else) and flipping it back would fix the problem.
3. If no switches are visible, find the fuses themselves. They look like little clear cylinders with metal ends. Unless they have some plastic bracket or other insulation, do turn off the master power switch (should be right next to them) before pulling things out.
4. Figure out which fuse you need to change. I do this by turning off the power, removing a fuse, turning the power back on, and running around my apartment flipping switches until I figure out what I disconnected.
5. Replace the fuse. The previous tenant of my apartment kept a little bag of fuses for different currents (it's the number followed by an 'A'), and I plan to continue his example. Pick a new one that's for the same current as the old one.
6. Add fuses for that current to your shopping list for the next time you pass by a hardware store. Find a different outlet to charge your camera battery so you don't actually need the power strip.