Jamshyd
Bluelight Crew
There were constructions all over Vienna at the time I was there. After getting lost in the work-in-progress but still operational subway station, then getting lost twice on the street for following the wrong arrows, I finally saw... busses! That must be it.
I ordered a return ticket to Bratislava. It was around 5pm. The last bus back to Vienna leaves Bratislava at 8pm and I had to catch it or else I'd miss my flight back to Canada. The ticket master noted that I'll only have an hour in Bratislava if I were to do this.
"It's ok, I'll just go for a little walk to check out the old city centre."
"Good, good. Bratislava has good beer. NIIICE girls!"
Perhaps this is why there are no buses back after 8?
Anyway, so off we go. I would have most definitely preferred to do this trip by boat on the Danube and maybe come back by train, but my timetable just didn't allow for that.
The trip was very pleasant. I got the same buzz I always get when on a bus or a train (especially the latter) to a new place. I was in a very good mood, this being the last part of a wonderful journey I had taken across southeastern Europe.
On the way, I thought about the paintings I had seen in the gallery in Vienna. The Dürer originals were definitely the stars of the show. There was also a humble collection of Michelangelo's male nudes and Schielle's grotesque female nudes. Many other big names as well... Picasso, Lichtenstein, Monet, Degas.
Monet? Degas?
OOOOOH. It just occurred to me then that I am headed to a place where Absinthe - actual absinthe - is sold alongside other drinks. So that's it. No good beer or nice girls for me tonight. Only the Green Fairy.
And so I arrive. I tried asking (VERY politely, with even smatterings of Serbocroat in hopes of communicating better) if there are any later busses or trains, but the bubushka on the ticket window splattered some slavic about foreigners and actually shut the window in my face!
So here it is. 60 minutes.
Naturally, I got lost (with the map in my hands). For someone so passionate about travelling, my sense of direction is woefully inadequate. Oh well, I eventually found the centre. After the several beautiful places (Vienna, Sopron, Sarajevo, Budva, Istanbul...) I've been to just a week before, Bratislava was thoroughly underwhelming, but not unpleasant. Instances of shirtless slavs made my day even brighter.
The volatility of these 60 minutes saw me to some pub. All the seeting outside was occupied. All the seating inside was not. I hate it when that happens. I awkwardly made my way inside, and, after some deliberation found a spot to sit with my back to the bartenders, facing the street out of the door. I cannot stand the feeling of being alone and watched by my idle host while I eat or drink.
I ask for the menu, and check their spirits section.
"Campari
Campari and Coke
...."
Why on earth is this vile concoction so popular in Europe? Do people actually realize they are drinking fermented insect juice? Abominable.
Finally, on the very bottom of the menu, there it was.
I ordered one, and was asked if I wanted a spoon and some sugar. I said yes, expecting a sieve-like spoon and sugar cubes, along with some water.
What I did get was a cup of a liquid that was the colour of Colombian Emerald - strikingly so. As some may know, the green of Emeralds is rather difficult to duplicate.
I also got a teaspoon, a packet of sugar, and a lighter. And no water.
Now, I did not want to make a fool of myself. I have absolutely no idea how these four objects are supposed to combine. I eventually said fuck it and just poured the sugar into the glass and used the spoon to dissolve it (which it did not), expecting the elixir to be extremely bitter.
My information was once again anachronistic.
It tasted like syrup. However, it had a very strong menthol component which made it slightly easier to down. And down it I did - in shot-like fashion.
Having seen that my knowledge of absinthe was clearly outdated, I have nonetheless decided to follow Wilde's prescription:
"The first stage is like ordinary drinking, the second when you begin to see monstrous and cruel things, but if you can persevere you will enter in upon the third stage where you see things that you want to see."
So I decided on three drinks. Now, I'd like the reader to take note that three or even four drinks of anything have little effect against both my tolerance AND cross-tolerance.
I ordered a second drink, sans sugar, and a bottle of water. By the time it arrived, I became aware of a certain glow in my chest that was somewhat familiar from the alcohol, although not expected after a single drink.
The second was downed, and a certain tired heaviness started coming over. At this point I became very sure that this wasn't the Alcohol. I was quite coherent, yet I had a bit of a hard time articulating to the weighter that I wanted one more with the bill.
The third was downed, and by the time I walked out of the pub, things started getting really interesting. You see, I wasn't drunk - I know very well how I'd feel after any given number of drinks. There was a curious sedation coupled with an uplifting stimulation (it was quite euphoric - more so than 3 drinks ever could be).
There was a notable drop in visual "frame rate", and thoughts flowed clearly and pleasantly. Most notable, though, is the complete, lack of visuals, which leads me to think that these were probably caused by poisonous impurities in the past rather than the wormwood.
If I were to compare it to other drugs, I'd say it felt something like a combination of low doses of Cannabis and DXM.
The trip back to Vienna took around 1.5 hours, at which point I was still heavily intoxicated (if this were just the alcohol, I'd be mostly sober by now). The intoxication actually continued for at least an hour more.
---
Having tried wormwood extract on its own (to little result), I was rather surprised at the effects of absinthe. This leads me to conjecture that these effects are a specific synergy between some component in wormwood (not necessarily thujone), and the alcohol, and would not be achieved by taking either on its own.
Tagged by Xorkoth
substancecode_absinthe
substancecode_alcohol
substancecode_alcohols
explevel_firsttime
exptype_positive
roacode_oral
I ordered a return ticket to Bratislava. It was around 5pm. The last bus back to Vienna leaves Bratislava at 8pm and I had to catch it or else I'd miss my flight back to Canada. The ticket master noted that I'll only have an hour in Bratislava if I were to do this.
"It's ok, I'll just go for a little walk to check out the old city centre."
"Good, good. Bratislava has good beer. NIIICE girls!"
Perhaps this is why there are no buses back after 8?
Anyway, so off we go. I would have most definitely preferred to do this trip by boat on the Danube and maybe come back by train, but my timetable just didn't allow for that.
The trip was very pleasant. I got the same buzz I always get when on a bus or a train (especially the latter) to a new place. I was in a very good mood, this being the last part of a wonderful journey I had taken across southeastern Europe.
On the way, I thought about the paintings I had seen in the gallery in Vienna. The Dürer originals were definitely the stars of the show. There was also a humble collection of Michelangelo's male nudes and Schielle's grotesque female nudes. Many other big names as well... Picasso, Lichtenstein, Monet, Degas.
Monet? Degas?
OOOOOH. It just occurred to me then that I am headed to a place where Absinthe - actual absinthe - is sold alongside other drinks. So that's it. No good beer or nice girls for me tonight. Only the Green Fairy.
And so I arrive. I tried asking (VERY politely, with even smatterings of Serbocroat in hopes of communicating better) if there are any later busses or trains, but the bubushka on the ticket window splattered some slavic about foreigners and actually shut the window in my face!
So here it is. 60 minutes.
Naturally, I got lost (with the map in my hands). For someone so passionate about travelling, my sense of direction is woefully inadequate. Oh well, I eventually found the centre. After the several beautiful places (Vienna, Sopron, Sarajevo, Budva, Istanbul...) I've been to just a week before, Bratislava was thoroughly underwhelming, but not unpleasant. Instances of shirtless slavs made my day even brighter.
The volatility of these 60 minutes saw me to some pub. All the seeting outside was occupied. All the seating inside was not. I hate it when that happens. I awkwardly made my way inside, and, after some deliberation found a spot to sit with my back to the bartenders, facing the street out of the door. I cannot stand the feeling of being alone and watched by my idle host while I eat or drink.
I ask for the menu, and check their spirits section.
"Campari
Campari and Coke
...."
Why on earth is this vile concoction so popular in Europe? Do people actually realize they are drinking fermented insect juice? Abominable.
Finally, on the very bottom of the menu, there it was.
I ordered one, and was asked if I wanted a spoon and some sugar. I said yes, expecting a sieve-like spoon and sugar cubes, along with some water.
What I did get was a cup of a liquid that was the colour of Colombian Emerald - strikingly so. As some may know, the green of Emeralds is rather difficult to duplicate.
I also got a teaspoon, a packet of sugar, and a lighter. And no water.
Now, I did not want to make a fool of myself. I have absolutely no idea how these four objects are supposed to combine. I eventually said fuck it and just poured the sugar into the glass and used the spoon to dissolve it (which it did not), expecting the elixir to be extremely bitter.
My information was once again anachronistic.
It tasted like syrup. However, it had a very strong menthol component which made it slightly easier to down. And down it I did - in shot-like fashion.
Having seen that my knowledge of absinthe was clearly outdated, I have nonetheless decided to follow Wilde's prescription:
"The first stage is like ordinary drinking, the second when you begin to see monstrous and cruel things, but if you can persevere you will enter in upon the third stage where you see things that you want to see."
So I decided on three drinks. Now, I'd like the reader to take note that three or even four drinks of anything have little effect against both my tolerance AND cross-tolerance.
I ordered a second drink, sans sugar, and a bottle of water. By the time it arrived, I became aware of a certain glow in my chest that was somewhat familiar from the alcohol, although not expected after a single drink.
The second was downed, and a certain tired heaviness started coming over. At this point I became very sure that this wasn't the Alcohol. I was quite coherent, yet I had a bit of a hard time articulating to the weighter that I wanted one more with the bill.
The third was downed, and by the time I walked out of the pub, things started getting really interesting. You see, I wasn't drunk - I know very well how I'd feel after any given number of drinks. There was a curious sedation coupled with an uplifting stimulation (it was quite euphoric - more so than 3 drinks ever could be).
There was a notable drop in visual "frame rate", and thoughts flowed clearly and pleasantly. Most notable, though, is the complete, lack of visuals, which leads me to think that these were probably caused by poisonous impurities in the past rather than the wormwood.
If I were to compare it to other drugs, I'd say it felt something like a combination of low doses of Cannabis and DXM.
The trip back to Vienna took around 1.5 hours, at which point I was still heavily intoxicated (if this were just the alcohol, I'd be mostly sober by now). The intoxication actually continued for at least an hour more.
---
Having tried wormwood extract on its own (to little result), I was rather surprised at the effects of absinthe. This leads me to conjecture that these effects are a specific synergy between some component in wormwood (not necessarily thujone), and the alcohol, and would not be achieved by taking either on its own.
Tagged by Xorkoth
substancecode_absinthe
substancecode_alcohol
substancecode_alcohols
explevel_firsttime
exptype_positive
roacode_oral
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