My drink arrived with one swirling half-melted ice cube atop my tea with sliced lemon. I politely appealed to my waiter. I received a look of bewilderment. The warm liquid slid down my parched throat as I leisurely gazed at the tourists strolling down this walking street in Budapest. Crushed, blocked, cubed, shaved or slushed, we have ice.
Ice is dispensed automatically from our refrigerator doors, crushed or cubed.
Hotels and motels have an unlimited supply of ice. We want ice with our tea, our soda pop, our liquor and our water. We order ice to cool our coffee or our soup. European hotels will eventually deliver a requested ice-filled bucket via room service, at room service prices. These obsessive thoughts about ice are exclusively North American.