Hold on to that nut!

Was at Roermond, Netherlands yesterday with a friend for (his) shopping. My first trip to Netherlands, besides the layovers at Schipol. A bright sunny day was perfect for the classic mall experience ( today it started raining again though!). Pumas , Ralph Laurens, Hugo Bosses all by the dozen ( Ok, I might have been a bit imaginative about the Hugo Boss part, but the rest is true), a much needed fix in shopping desert, Germany. And guess Germans think likewise too, becos everyone and his dog was German there( if you are driving across several kilometres into another country to shop for bargains, remember taking your dog, may be handy in forcing people to give way to you inside crowded shops that had "SALE" signs on!). All the shops spoke German. In fact I got by with my rudimentary German for the first time, knowing well that I was in Netherlands and that the shop folks wouldn't point out mistakes in a customer's language skills ( ha!). It was then that I discovered that speaking German, among other rewards, could help one get free ketchup. Yeah, was in McDonald's, dont ask me why, my friend tugged me along, and ended up forgetting to "order" ketchup ( See earlier Post). Cursing myself, I walked into another counter and asked for "Ketchup" in German ( well the 'ketchup' part is the same, the rest of "May I have a pack of ..." in German). Surprise, The guy looked up, spoke in accent free German ( compared to other Dutch there), asked me where I was coming from (chest up, 'Duisburg'), told me he was from Dortmund and lo, passed the ketchup for free. Now considering that 90% of the crowd there was German ( rest 10% were the original bargain hunters - Indians), I wonder if he did that to everyone!