Santiago, Saturday

Sat 2336 At Zona 4 on Pio Nono, almost opposite Calamar. I seem invisible to staff but let's see if anyone ever comes over. Left flat maybe 2215 and walked over towards corner Paris/Londres. Long story short, seemed extremely dead. Walked (mostly by chance, not consulting map but having vague idea in head) up to Plaza de Armas, lots of people around but few bars. Ended up by Monjitas metro and turned east, thinking I'd at least be heading towards here. Suddenly spotting an ice cream-ish shop in the junction of two not quite parallel roads I had a bit of memory triggered, I U-turned into the other parallel-ish road and indeed there were loads of people selling stuff from blankets in street, bovine herds of idiots milling around in street and lots of fancy restaurants. I could have sworn there were bars there at one point but maybe my memory is faulty. I walked down Lastarria but didn't see anywhere I liked, ended up at Libertador and headed over here.

I toyed with going over towards Manuel Montt but it's about 20 mins walk from Baquedano and I wasn't sure if I'd end up having walked all that distance to find only bars which would insist on me ordering food. I cook rice/veg/tuna earlier and also had a couple of hot dogs and really don't want to be forced to buy overpriced food. So I came up here, briefly detouring to a parallel street to east of PN after seeing a sign for karaoke (not that I'm really in the mood) but not going in when it turned out it was on 3rd floor. Rationally or not I'm feeling a reluctance to go "deep inside" anywhere and maybe get trapped in some ill-defined way.

Did toy with getting a bottle at offy and going home. But I guess it's better to be out. I just feel a bit "meh" and like I couldn't handle the stress of meeting anyone even if someone did strike up conversation. I dunno.

Popped out earlier to get sausages, water and hopefully some of that grapefruit beer at ekono. Having trogged all the way over there, they had no grapefruit beer, no sparkling water - the place looked like preppers had raided it, huge lack of stock. Got well over-worked up, chuntering to myself, decided not to buy sausages there and trogged back to Santa Isabel on Portugal and got some stuff there. No beer, as I had only been planning to buy that grapefruit stuff - I don't want to end up buying litres beer and then "having" to drink it because I'm leaving soon.

Starting to think unless I actually start waving my arms around none of the staff are ever going to notice me. One prob staff (tho her T-shirt is wrong colour) in tight shorts has walked right passed my table two or three times squeezing between it and road without noticing me.

Place is a bit pseudo club and loud Latiny music coming from inside but I was trying to ring changes and it's not too bad sitting out in street; I could pretty much hear this music from Calamar nearly opp anyway.

Tried to book "taxi" to airport for Brazil before popping out to supermarket but they insist on a Chilean phone no. I asked the concierge on way out to supermarket and he gave me building phone no and confirmed they can park up in front of building to pick me up, so in theory I can now book this, but I was too fed up after popping out to supermarket and being shafted by ekono's lack of stock to book - will prob do it tomorrow.

Got to admit I'm thinking about leaving Z4. Bad enough waiting for first service, how is it going to be once I want to get the bill and leave? It's 2349 now.

Not that I really felt like it but I *did* check meetup to see if anything on today, but nothing relevant. And I think the Spanglish lang exch/party thing is on Tuesday competing with the other lang exch, not on Fri/Sat as I had imagined.

I feel a bit Billy No Mates and fed up generally, I guess I came out out of a feeling I should because it's Sat (and my last weekend in Santiago this trip, probably) but not really in the mood. I think I might leave this bar, the staff are clearly too cool to notice me even when I stop fiddling with my phone and stare at the two or three of them hanging round the entrance aream

I nearly went in/sat outside Nordic Bar on the parallel street but I decided it looked a bit pricey; no clear prices shown but everyone was drinking draught half litres and the only price I could see listed CLP3600 for a presumably half litre of doubtless artisal unicorn-tear ale.

Yeah, I'm not angry or even feeling that pissed off, but I'm gonna walk if they're not serving me here. Prob go somewhere else, even if it's just Calamar, but if I go home that's fine. I came out, no point forcing things when/if I'm not in the mood.

0003 OK, at bar with no clear name at 252/254 almost directly opp Calamar. Waitress finally came over, she couldn't hear or understand me order a litre of Becker but we got there in the end. It's odd, I've been feely conspicuously foreign all evening, I guess the fact the staff struggle to see me perhaps gives the lie to this.

0006 FFS, got 11k in notes, waitress wants paying now (is it just me they don't trust?), said no change for 10 so I said I'd have to leave then and she's taken my 10 off. Supposed to be 2k for Becker, am I supposed to tip now or not? FFS. I may just leave a bit of change on table when I go or tip when/if I get a second. Unless waitress hovers on giving me change will do that. Feels super uncomfortable.

What a fucking surprise. Got 7k in change. There's a sign right on the fucking wall saying Becker is 2k, so they've just ripped me off, presumably because I'm foreign. A generous 50% "tip" there. I was tempted to argue but I hesistated a fraction of a second and she wandered off and I'd put the notes in my pocket and it's too late. Pissed off now. Just possibly that's only 2k til midnight or something but the signs say nothing like that, there's no small print. Really hate this fucking shit. If I'd had change I'd have handed her 2.5k or so and then she'd have had to explain/lie outright if she wanted to overcharge me. Not that I expected to be ripped off like this.

I think the lesson to learn here is, especially if the staff act like you're a fuckwit foreign idiot when you speak to them, to *ask the price*. Even if it's written on the wall in letters 15cm high already. Then you can argue and at least make them lie outright. And secondary lesson is to avoid putting youself in a situation where you hand over a large note without having a concrete price to argue confidently if the change is wrong. To be fair to myself, it's noisy as hell and it would have been hard to attract waitress's attention after her doubtless calculated rapid departure in time for her not to have room to accuse me of pocketing/losing 1k of the change in the meantime.

Might as well drink this overpriced beer anyway.

0049 Still a bit pissed off. Mild chill in the breeze. Obviously not staying here for another, though otherwise might have done, and prob won't try to go elsewhere. Hardly a blinding night.

When I got that lomo a lo pobre in Peruvian-Japanese restaurant other day I had a nagging suspicion the price had gone up 1k compared to the menu when I got the bill. I don't want to get hyper paranoid but TBH I am thinking I should start paying more attention and politely asking when I see discrepancies like this, rather than feeling compelled to just hand over the cash. That, plus changing "big" bills only in supermarkets and the like and keeping small bills on hand, are probably the real lessons here. To be fair to myself, I expected to pay at the end of the night not per drink, and paying 4k plus tip with a 10k note would have been OK, plus I'd have had a bill in front of me to help me argue if they'd fucked change up. Waitress just came and felt my non-empty bottle and asked if I wanted another; I said no, of course (as I said, I'm not staying, plus I haven't finished this yet). There's quite a few free tables, no need to be hurrying me out (not that she necessarily was).

0107 Last swig and let's go.

0130 Home. Am thinking a) my default attitude is probably a touch on the "apologetic" side - esp abroad where I know my language skills aren't top notch, but in UK too b) I need to politely ask ASAP (no few seconds delay) if I'm not happy about something. Meh. Stuff to work on.

As an aside, if I'm the idiot tourist, I really don't have to worry about looking stupid by querying bills I don't understand - after all, I'm an idiot, right?