Treating You Like Euro Trash

(My friend and I are visiting Amsterdam on a layover to Israel. We stop in a cafe for lunch and at the end of our meal, decide to leave a tip for the waitress. We’re a little unfamiliar with the currency, but give it our best guess and stand to leave. As we near the door, the waitress shouts, approaches us, and shoves the tip we’d left back at us. Note that my friend and I are used to traveling in the Middle East, not in Europe, and are admittedly daft when it comes to Euros — and we are also terribly jetlagged and exhausted.)

Waitress: “Hey. This is wrong.”

My Friend: “I’m sorry. Did we leave too little?”

(The waitress points to the coins in her hand, indicating one coin in particular.)

Waitress: “This is 2c.”

Me: “Oh… I’m so sorry, I thought that was €2.”

Waitress: *irritably* “It’s not.”

Me: “I see that. I’m sorry; I can’t believe we missed that. We must be more exhausted than we thought!”

(The waitress sneers impatiently as I shuffle through my purse to find the correct coinage. Meanwhile, my friend attempts to lighten the situation.)

Friend: “We really are sorry; it was an honest mistake. I’m sure you get this stuff from foreigners all the time and it must get really annoying.”

(The waitress just glares.)

Friend: *laughing tiredly* “You know… We’re just dumb tourists…”

Waitress: *curtly* “Yes, you are.”

(I finally find the right coin and hand it to her, adding two extra euro to make up for the mistake. The waitress quickly snatches the correct tip, keeping the one we had originally left, and then pauses, glancing at me. She snorts.)

Waitress: “I could have guessed.”

Me: “Excuse me?”

(She gestures to the Star of David pendant hanging from my neck.)

Waitress: “You’re a Jew, no? Well, nice try.”

(She turned abruptly and returned to the back of the cafe, leaving us stunned and confused.)