“Can I ask you for a Häferl?“ asks my wife in the hotel
“Pardon me?“
“A Häferl“
“Sorry?“ … and the deep confusion on both sides persists. Simply since my wife used the most common Viennese expression for “a mug”. Completely unknown to Northern Germans who use “Tasse” only.

In Schwedt, a city with 30 000 inhabitants, we arrive at 2:10 pm a Greek restaurant.
“Sorry, we are closing now” tells the waiter
“Any other restaurant you could recommend?”
“No, they all close here for the midday break”

We manage to find a bakery at least. My wife at the counter here orders a lovely smelling hot sausage.
“The same for me”, I add.
“Sorry, it was the last one, but other kind is still available”
“I’ll take it, with a roll bun please” … where – to be on the safe side, for the roll bun I use the North German “Brötchen” instead of the Viennese “Semmel“.
It works. Equally as replacing “Verlängerter” with “Kaffee-Pot” when trying to quench the desire for a large, long coffee.

A text message from today’s hotel peeps on my phone: “Sorry, my cook just called in sick. No dinner. Breakfast still possible.”
We all light-heartedly agree to dinner somewhere else. But when arriving in Gartz, we realise our hotel was the only restaurant at a small town of 3000 inhabitants. Well, apart from a Döner Kebab booth. The Jumbo Döner tasted there deliciously. Including the exquisitely assorted sweet desert from a nearby supermarket. Or as a Czech saying goes: “Hunger is the best cook”