I posted on this topic on my last visit here, but was reminded of it last evening when I sat down to dinner and picked out a meal that showed on the menu as $25. It's still a little unnerving to see -- but some quick reflection allowed me to remind myself that the meal was actually only $15 USD. For those of you who haven't read my prior posting -- it's an easy calculation. First apply the exchange rate between the Australian Dollar and the US Dollar - currently .782 giving a price of $19.53 and then deduct another 20% because unlike in the USA, there is no tip expected - yielding an equivalent US menu price of $15.62. Certainly the meal would have cost at least that in USA. It was delicious.
Here is the place I ate (where my cousin also works as a bartender) and here is the menu.
Now, in this case yesterday - I didn't really pay anything for my meal last night. I was graciously treated to dinner by a Melbourne couple who had contacted me prior to my trip after noting that the Ancestry.Com DNA test linked us as possible 4th-6th cousins - connected through my maternal grandmother and born in Gordevio, Switzerland - the same "Giorgi" family I have visited many times in Switzerland. It was fun to finally meet the man behind our many emails (and his wife) and spend the evening getting to know them and their genealogy research. A 4:00 o'clock meetup stretched into an evening of delightful conversation, such that we were the last ones to leave the restaurant. I'm meeting up with them again today to watch the Swiss Italian Festival parade -- and I've added two more related Aussie's to my life. Such fun.
