Being new our first few days here consisted of a lot of eating out. Great food, horrible service. We sort of new this coming in, but had no idea just how bad it could really be!
Example One:
Go to nice Italian Restaurant, get great food. Waitress was decent enough until an hour later when we all needed drink refills & still had no food. Once we got the food it was awesome, but not sure it was worth two hours & very little to drink lol ...we later learned we pretty much should have stood up & done a dance to get her attention.
Example Two:
Sat out on a great patio on one of the first really super sunny days & the waitress & waiter we literally flagged down by one of the gentlemen we were with. She passed us no more than 5 times before the local we were with stood up and got her attention. Even he was surprised at the lack of attention. I think, especially in more touristy areas, you have to be quite aggressive with the wait staff. At least that day we had this to look at...
Gorgeous wasn't it?! I couldn't even see when I took this picture...turned out pretty well.
That is the statue of Rembrandt through the trees there & is "Nacht Wacht" or Nights Watch.
Now, the second part of the culture shock has been getting used to not really tipping. Coming from North America where tipping is huge we always feel a little funny when we leave & don't leave anything. We've talked about this with several locals who've said not to feel bad or weird apparently the wait staff gets paid quite a nice wage 20-30 euro an hour! I don't feel so bad anymore. I will say we do usually round up to the nearest euro when paying the bill just to leave "something" to soothe our conscience and if we do get particularly good service at a place we will leave whatever we feel appropriate. But, that is not often the case and now I know why! In North America (states especially) service industry folks are paid basically nothing because they are counting on high tips and we all know this, but here why worry about your table when you know you are getting that 20-30 euro an hour anyway...I certainly wouldn't! ha!
Kind of a fun dose of culture shock this week, it has really taught us how to deal with people and to be a bit more aggressive and outspoken when we go out shopping even at boutiques or go to restaurants. Can't wait to see how tomorrow's service will be at whatever bar we choose!
