Thursday, August 18, 2005

Czech Republic: Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder (With Pics)

I spent three days limping around Prague and reading, waiting for my foot to heal. Limp to the Charles Bridge. Sit. Read. Limp to Old Town Square. Sit. Read. It was slightly frustrating. I realize that when people take vacations, this is what they do: sit, read, relax. But when I travel, I like to do things. If I wanted to sit and read, I would have stayed at home and done it for free.

Luckily, though, Amy and Anna arrived in Prague with plans to paint it red. They gave me a text message: they wanted to go out dancing. I was still limping slighlty, but figured the girls and the alcohol would make me forget the pain in my foot. They did.

***

I walked into the bar, Jenny in tow. I had met Jenny, a Scottish design major, at my hostel. After some dinner, she had come along to meet Amy and Anna with me before we all went to a five story club Prague club with such a good reputation, we had heard about it in Budapest.

Amy and Anna were in their hostel’s bar, surrounded by a group of six British guys. Both bounced over at my entrance, giving me hugs and cheek-kisses while Jenny excused herself to the bathroom. I sat down at a table and Amy and Anna sat down with me, one on each side. When Jenny returned, I introduced her to the girls and she sat beside Anna. With the three girls sitting with me, I was now with 100% of the females in the bar.

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Jenny, Anna, me and Amy

One of the British guys came over and asked--only half-jokingly and slightly drunk-- “what does he have that I don’t?”

Without missing a beat, Amy said: “Absinthe” and Anna said: “Blue eyes.” I felt like a rock star.

Part of it, the girls confessed to me, was that they just didn’t like the British guys. I figured they were sidling up to me kept the Brits at bay. But still, laughing with these three girls while half a dozen guys jealously looked on: I’ll admit I was ego tripping.

Amy was right about the absinthe, the day-glo green hallucinogenic drink legal in only a handful of countries, the Czech Republic being one of them. I had bought a bottle that afternoon, had text-messaged the girls that I was bringing it over. Not drinking absinthe in Prague is like not eating fish and chips in London or not drinking sake in Japan.

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The infamous absinthe

The bartender brought what we would need for the true absinthe experience, free of charge. Jenny, who spent a semester in Prague, begged off, claiming one too many bad absinthe experiences. Instead, she took the pictures as we poured glasses, filled spoons with sugar and a few drops of absinthe, lit the mixtures on fire, blew them out and dumped them in the glasses before the absinthe was quickly swallowed.

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Preparing the sugar

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Absinthe on fire

Although no longer as potent as it once was, absinthe is still extremely strong. The bottle I bought was 77% alcohol: 154 proof. Knocking back that much of the sugar-filled and warmed liquid brought on a feeling best likened to napalm in the chest.

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Me and Amy, post drink

A lightweight, I went from 0 to drunk in about six seconds flat. Amy and Anna were party girls, though, and had been drinking every day of their five week trip, missing only once when they were on a ferry and had no access. They were up for much more, but the bottle was already gone. I figured I was done for the night: I had only enough Czech crowns for a taxi ride and club cover, but it didn’t matter: the girls never stopped handing me drinks. Before we left for the club, the three of us did shots of Jose Cuervo Gold with cinnamon and orange slices instead of salt and lime. It was pretty damn good.

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Doing tequila shots

The club was by Prague’s famous Charles Bridge, overlooking the river and five stories tall, different music on each floor. A LED board in the entrance showed the available music: a techno DJ on the fifth floor, oldies on the fourth and so on. Ignorant of American political correctness, the second floor was labeled: Black Music.

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Look at the music second from the bottom

We popped into the techno and “Black Music” floors, but spent most of the night in that oldies room, singing along as great song after great nostalgic song came on, from “Bloody Sunday” to “It’s Raining Men”.

I remained the rock star. Amy and Anna danced with other guys, but still spent the majority of the night with me. Jenny and I made out early on in the night, lips locking almost accidently while we were dancing and then staying there. When I was dancing with Anna, though, she went off with another guy, who she’d spent an hour making out on the dance floor with. I didn't mind: I was enjoying the attentions of Amy and Anna and was happy that Jenny was getting some. Jenny eventually disappeared and I wouldn't see her again until I went back to the hostel, her and the guy crammed into her bunk (she claims nothing happened :-) ).

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Girls in the club

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Some time during the night, Anna managed to loose my shirt. She had pulled it off me, possibly to make me match a lot of the other shirtless guys in the club, and then tucked a corner of it into her waistband. When I later asked for it back to go to the bathroom, she looked down to realize that it was AWOL. A search of the floor proved fruitless and Anna became upset, her mood nearly maudaline. I didn’t care; it was a $2 cotton tee-shirt. Still, she apologized over and over, saying she never lost other people's things things, promising to buy me a new one. I accepted the offer: “buy me a Prague tee-shirt tomorrow,” I told her. She agreed, but then pulled off her tee-shirt, revealing a black bra. “Wear mine for now,” she said, even though my fleece was tied around my waist. And then, and I’m not sure of the reasoning, Amy pulled off her tee-shirt so that Anna could wear it, putting on her cover-up she had brought. When I got back from the bathroom, shirts were re-exchanged, me going back to skin and getting photos of the girls changing in the process.

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Anna taking her shirt off.

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Amy changing her shirt

And it was in that state that I would dance with the girls until light was coming in through the club's windows. The interim period was a little blurry (as the girls seemed to have quite a bit of money and the alcohol never stopped coming), but I do remember a lot of making out, ice, and somehow I ended up with double stomach hickies.

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To tell the truth, I don't remember how this happened

I realize, putting this on a public forum, that people might say I'm bragging. They would be right. I don't know how my skinny ass lucks out some times, but I did. It was a very enjoyable night, and I don't mind sharing it and this piece of advice: absinthe make the heart grow fonder.