Well, in the UK I stick to a 3 Mobile Broadband Dongle. Which is HSDPA which gives between 1 -2 Mb data in most places in the UK. It will fail back to GPRS so you can still do your lower bandwidth stuff - but at least you can do it on a full screen.
3 are really good with Roaming and Data, in that if you use one of their "sister" networks in Europe it comes off your data allowance.
Check out:
3 - Mobile Broadband- Got a question?
Hope the mods don't mind my recommendation - I have no connection to them at all - just use the service and find it very good value for money. Not sure how good the other networks mobile broadband / roaming deals are.
You could also get a new "Smart Phone" with a data package and use it as a modem for your laptop to take advantage of the HSDPA connectivity.
HC.