Shopping in a foreign language

Once you've been here a while, you tend to forget how even mundane tasks like shopping can be when you don't speaka da lingo.

We got a reminder of this when some friends visited from England last week - went to the local Edeka to pick up some drinks for the journey to and from the ski slopes - and came back with a bottle of apple vinegar.

They only discovered it was essig, not saft, when one of them took a massive gulp after a thirsty day on the slopes.

To add insult to injury, the next day they did it again: managed to buy grape vinegar instead of juice. They didn't find the little alcove in the store where they keep the drinks.

Speaking not a word of German, and not believing the locals in our remote village would understand English, they eventually worked out how to ask a shop assistant: "Coca cola??"
[img]http://www.kulinarischer-salon.at/catalog/images/birnen_apfelessig1.jpg[/img]

how embarassing. even i was never that bone-headed.