Hehehehe.....the company I used to work for was bought out by a German Company, and so I had the pleasure of spending a few short days in a small town in Bavaria......almost no one spoke English.....(though many guys at the plant I visited did, however poorly)
So, me, being in Europe for the first and only time in my life, spent the whole time with my English/German dictionary trying to communicate with the locals at the various Inns/stores/restaurants....and even though I knew some German from taking it in High School, it was quite an experience, especially trying to explain our various English idioms, and in turn, trying to understand theirs.
One of the funniest things was, since, again, I'd never been in Germany before, I was leary of drinking the water, and so went to the local grocery and bought some bottled water, which, of course was warm. (They don't believe nor have refridgerated beverages in Bavaria).
So, not wanting to drink warm water, I tried to find some ice......not a chance......went into a number of stores, and tried to ask for ice cubes, using my dictionary the best I could......I got a lot of strange stares, and a lot of "You want Ice Cream?"
Finally, I just gave up, and fortunately, since it was mid April and still pretty cold there, I just put the bottle of water outside the window of my room at the Inn, and it got cold enough for my needs.
The next day, I told my "host" about my quest to try and find ice cubes, and he was stumped. I told him that in America, we can walk into most any store and buy a 5 lb bag of ice for about $1.50.
His response? "You silly Americans pay for frozen water?!"
