MIKE MLYNAR
“It’s a great invention, a beer garden, isn’t it?” Says Frieder, leaning back with relish in his chair and looking at Frank, Fred and Fritz at the table with satisfaction. The four friends, all around 70, are sitting together for the first time with good food and drink these days. “Well, what does invention mean? At least it’s not a new one, “interjects Fred,” we just called it differently here, sometimes a garden restaurant, sometimes a terrace, often just ‘sitting outside’. “” Exactly, you brought yours over there “, Frank turns to Frieder, the only Wessi in the Friends Quartet, “but it sounds very comfortable.” “It is,” stresses Frieder. “Especially, of course, with the original inventors in Bavaria. You bring your snack to the beer gardens to eat and all you have to do is order the drinks. ”“ I thought for a long time that ‘Biergarten’ was re-exported to us from US English, ”reveals Fred. “Because there are more beer gardens than kindergartens over there.” For which he also has an American saying ready: “If it weren’t for them, baseball would likely be our only excuse to sip› Lager ‹In the sun.” “And what exactly does that mean?” Asks the rather Francophile Frieder. “Because if it weren’t for the beer gardens, baseball would be our only excuse for hissing a ‘camp’ in the sun,” says Fred, quite aptly. “It wasn’t all bad in the GDR, including the English lessons,” grins Fritz and waves to the waiter.
Before the four of them make their way home, they puzzle over who can pay the bill. Frank wins and pays in cash to the cent, because the other three want at least to contribute the tip. After paying, Frank only has a fifth of the original amount in his wallet. And coincidentally, there is still this relation in it: The number of euros in the amount that he had in the wallet before paying was now just as large as the number of cents in the amount after paying. Conversely, the number of cents in the amount in his purse was initially five times the number of euros in the purse when he went home. How much did he pay?
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