Are the bartenders in question of above average appearance? They're probably raking in the tips, if they are. This is why attractive people in this town tend to end up staying in food service forever.

They work those "Eyes Wide Shut" parties at West Hills mansions and either end up rolling in dough or buried in a secret grave.

"Hey, you're right! I'm going to stop tipping bartenders!" - a butthole

Rich cougars take their boy toys across the globe. One of my friends is spending the next two months in Berlin with an older woman who is a regular at the bar he works at.

Obviously bartenders just know how to make the most out of the old Brazilian coin trick...

You don't need a lot of money to travel. You just need a flexible or disposable job. Like, um, a bartender.

traveling to europe does actually costs a lot of money. round trip tickets alone go for $2000 to $3000 depending on when one flies. that's not even considering the shitty USD to euro exchange rate after one arrives there.

and typically bartenders work at multiple bars throughout the week and can make a few hundred dollars a night easily - which i'd say is a giant perk for having to put up with drunks and not having insurance or any type of retirement program.

bort: $2,000 to $3,000? I've never paid more than $1,500, and as little as $1,100. In late spring, with some advance planning, you can fly to Paris for $1,200 or $1,300, with a free layover in Iceland, on Icelandair.

Also, the exchange rate hasn't been all that bad since the eurozone crisis began.

Also, I do *not* know of any secret graves behind mansions in the West Hills. And if I did...well, I just don't.

If you paid 3k for a roundtrip ticket to Europe you got scammed. I stayed in Dublin for a week and roundtrip airfare with a nice hotel (with free breakfasts so no spending on those meals) for the full week was barely over $1100. Now the cash I spent in the pubs is a different story, but god damn those Irishmen know how to drink and have fun. Totally different than the cunt/bro bars of Portland.

Oh yeah, 1000 dollars is SO cheap.
Fuck all you.

most of the hot bartenders will have a significant other that's rolling on the dough. or they just saved enough up to be able to afford it. most of the bartenders i know are still in school or paying off student loans though.

Nobody said travel was cheap. But if somebody posts saying something costs double what it really does, that calls for a correction.

Dude I just flew to Sofia last fall for a little over $600 US. You can take trains/buses from there anywhere you want to go. Only an idiot pays 2K to fly to Europe.

And yes, $1000 IS a fairly cheap price. Considering a good bartender at a happening place can pull in $200/night in tips I'd say a plane ticket for roughly a week of work is not out of the one's range possibility by any means. Just 'cause you're a poor ass that can't manage their finances doesn't mean everyone is.

Last fall my girlfriend and I flew from Portland to Sydney to Auckland and back to Portland for less than $1,200.00

Was Sofia cool? It's one place I want to visit, then backpack through Transylvania and camp in the Carpathians because I'm a black metal overlord and my spells are not to be taken lightly.

Can we steer this conversation away from fucking AIRFARE and agree that tending bar in this town is practically a license to print money? No, I'm not talking about scrubbing the toilets at some shit-ass dive on 82nd or worse, I'm talking about flitting around the Bye & Bye or Rontoms or some shit and acting stuck up so that the insecure throw dollars at you all night. Yes, work in a hip bar and act like a prick = GET PAID SON.

How is it that I'm expected to tip $1 on a $2 can of PBR? When you're making the rather decent Oregon minimum wage PLUS tips? Cry me a fucking river. Bartenders have complained on I,A before and I won't hear of it. Work hard and you go places. Also, it is most definitely a 24/7 cocaine party if you're doing it right.

my comment was supposed to read $1000 to $2000

Chunty, if you want to be a stingy bastard, pay with a card at the end of the night. A $2 tip on $10 worth of PBR's doesn't look as bad on an un-itemized credit slip (although it doesn't make you any less of a dick).

But I say, if you're going to tip $1 for a $2 can of swill, then make sure you can complain about all your neighborhood service industry folk in equal measure. $2 for a luke warm black cup of to-go coffee that I pump myself, $1 for you, dapper young mustachioed man. No tip jar at the Plaid Pantry? Just leave your dollar in the give-and-take-a-penny (they'll know what to do with it *wink*).

I'm sure we all remember when grandma's tip calculator was the most exciting thing about dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory and a 12% tip meant grandma just had the best meal of her life, but times have changed. Tip accordingly.

Your bartender sets your change from a twenty, ten spot down on a wet tumbler ring with a stack of ones on top. You see the stack of small bills at the top, and leave the bottom one stuck to the counter, and the next two, as a tip.