A fairly large number of Bulgarian dialog partners only spoke to us through an interpreter. Only gradually did we find out that some Bulgarians had studied in the former German Democratic Republic and could therefore follow the internal conversations of Haver employees. To the great surprise of the Bulgarian company representatives, the German suppliers switched to “Dutch”. Well, the assumption wasn’t quite right. The Haver employees simply fell into Low German, leaving the German experts behind ...
The guests from Germany learned a few things during this long stay. Mostly notably that shaking your head means “yes” and nodding your head means “no”in Bulgaria – something they only knew from India at the time.
They also learned that culture can be enjoyed for little money. They could visit the opera for just one US dollar.
Another discovery: they could buy almost everything they would need for the three weeks they’d be spending away from home in the GUM department store there. The only handicap was that the sizes didn’t quite fit. When the day came for the men from Oelde to leave, Wolfgang Haschke left all the things he’d bought and couldn’t use at home behind in his hotel room. What he couldn’t have known, however: The cleaning lady in charge of his room turned up with all his belongings while he was in the lobby paying his bill. She was of the opinion that the German guest had forgotten the items.
