We don't have free refills here to begin with, you have to call on the waiter for him to pay you a visit. But waiters aren't smiling, making small-talk (which is the impression I get from TV), etc. - which is great for me because I'm used to the way we do it and I'd find it very annoying.
Also, in some touristic places (wink wink Paris) waiters are quite notoriously rude, which is why tourists will often say that "Parisians are rude" or even "the French are rude".
So you don't have someone looking around and refilling water glasses? Huh. At least it's consistent then. Here, sometimes you'll get refills without asking, and sometimes you won't be bothered for anything unless you flag them down. The latter group still wants their 30% tip though.
While I do like having someone ask "Do you want another <drink>?" or "Do you want more water?", I'd quite happily go without if it also meant not having to tip at all. I couldn't care less about smiling or small-talk.
In fact, there's no such thing as free water. You pay for that. I was quite surprised when I was outside of Europe and you just get a glass of water without being asked.
We don't have free refills here to begin with, you have to call on the waiter for him to pay you a visit. But waiters aren't smiling, making small-talk (which is the impression I get from TV), etc. - which is great for me because I'm used to the way we do it and I'd find it very annoying.
Also, in some touristic places (wink wink Paris) waiters are quite notoriously rude, which is why tourists will often say that "Parisians are rude" or even "the French are rude".
Waitresses make small talk because there is a culture here for female waitresses to butter up lonely men in exchange for tips.
Or just the tip.
That's what I learned from South Park. But they won't do that in Europe.
So you don't have someone looking around and refilling water glasses? Huh. At least it's consistent then. Here, sometimes you'll get refills without asking, and sometimes you won't be bothered for anything unless you flag them down. The latter group still wants their 30% tip though.
While I do like having someone ask "Do you want another <drink>?" or "Do you want more water?", I'd quite happily go without if it also meant not having to tip at all. I couldn't care less about smiling or small-talk.
In fact, there's no such thing as free water. You pay for that. I was quite surprised when I was outside of Europe and you just get a glass of water without being asked.