Wherever I've traveled, I've always learned at minimum a few phrases in the language of each country I visit. Even in Scandinavia, people seemed pleased (or amused?) that I asked them in their native language if they spoke English rather than just springing English on them without warning.

I haven't been to Eastern Europe, but relatives who have tell me that German sometimes works when English doesn't. In the former Soviet Union, for instance, people were required to study a foreign language, and the two most popular choices were English and German, with French a distant third.