Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Three Prices

One thing that has always perturbed me on my trips to Europe is that they charge non-Europeans more to get into museums and other touristy things. I guess I don't understand it because in America we have the same price for everything no matter where you are from (except in and out of state tuition). Plus our national museums in DC are free.
In Latvia though they have three prices for almost everything. One for Latvians, one for Europeans and one for everyone else. My Latvian class for example cost twice as much for me as it did for everyone else cause I am from outside of Europe. Then when I got some documents notarized which is supposed to be a set price they charged me 10 times as much even though I only spoke in Latvian. So I thought it was funny when I went back to same place this week to get another thing notarized for my residency permit except this time instead of 10 lats I was charged one. I think this was because it was a Latvian document and last time they were documents in English. I just think its funny that even though the dollar is doing poorly they still assume we have so much money so we have to pay twice as much. After getting ripped off and charged more then everyone else it kind of makes you miss home where there are free refills and the price that it says is the price you pay even if you have a foreign accent.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Not just free refills, but free condiments as well! And if its any consolation, the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma does charge people who don't live in Tacoma $2 more.