bktheirregular

So I went walking down one of the main streets of Athens, doing a bit of exploring. And got caught in a con. Got mildly sheared, but I think that when I blew my stack, I panicked the people who were trying to soak me.

Long story short: got dragged into a bar, offered a drink (which I declined five times until I relented to an orange soda), someone else working there rung up a hundred euros' worth of drinks and tried to stick me with the tab.

There's a reason I don't carry large amounts of hard currency with me. Several reasons, actually, but "minimizing damage from street thieves" is high on my list. Everyone else in this hole-in-the-wall bar seemed to be leaning on me to pay up the tab - they offered to be "generous" and let me go for fifty euros - I only managed to get to the door by throwing down two twenties and screaming that they'd just taken all I had.

As I stormed out, there was a bit of discussion behind the door, and someone handed me back one of the twenties. I think that they might have been afraid I'd rustle up a cop and come marching back to clean the place out - I suppose that one could consider it an example of the power of the Strategic Loss of Temper, except that there was nothing planned about it in my case, this time.

In the end, I consider it a twenty-euro (twenty-six dollars sixty-four cents) lesson in the absolute scumminess of the human race. Cheap at the price.