EPTWrite up
Being with the exchange students has resulted in many a drunken nights and hungover mornings, but the most messed up night ever has definitely got to be the night I got locked in at the Stockholm Central station. Here's to a phenomenal night.
This was it. Tonight we were all going to "White Room": an upper class chic semi luxurious bar/club. I had been there before once and it was quite alright. They were known to have a rather strict dress code - leather shoes and dress shirts and preferably designer jeans - absolutely no sneakers or t-shirts. We've been planning this all week. Yannick and Sylvain the crazy french duo (great guys), Jae Kyung the Korean that doesn't know any English but still manages to communicate, Nacho the Spanish, Daniel, Roberto and a whole lot of other people. We all dress up, bringing our A-game. Many previous attempts at getting into the club have been failures due to attire that did not meet requirements or late arrival thus resulting in a crowded locale and bouncers that only admit Scarlet Johansson lookalikes - which we weren't.
But tonight, we were not going to let anything stop us. The gang got together well ahead of time to pre-party and comment on each others' apparel. Me being the relatively amateur drinker and absolute hate of the taste of alcohol, decided to do what I always do when prepping for a night out: four shots of vodka chased with whatever was in the fridge, this glorious night I found a half bottle of Jack and some coke - very nice!
The second stage is the bus party which consists of catching the bus to the train station and drinking whatever everyone brought with them. The crazy french duo had with them a 2 liter bottle of vodka & coke mixed rather generously with vodka (god damn Yanick and Sylvain), and the others all had similar beverages, including myself sporting more Jack n coke. White Room if you haven't figured out by now was not known for its wallet friendly drinks, so everyones' agenda was to get as much alcohol into their system as possible without going blind and still being able to pull a pokerface for those 5 seconds you make contact with the bouncer at the door. This was a somewhat risky business since too little drink and you'll be shelling out cash the whole night, or too much and you won't be admitted at all (which happened all too many times to the best of us).
We arrive at the train station and continue chatting and drinking while waiting for the train to arrive. The group was about 20 people and more or less half guys half girls. The night was young and looked very promising. The train ride was a scrapbook of French, Spanish and Italian obscenities yelled at 30 decibels and an exchange of all the drinks everybody had. We arrive at Stockholm Central.
I don't quite remember how much I drank, but I know that the french duo and I finished what we had amidst taking random hearty swigs from all the other exchange students, but at some point I realized that in my enthusiasm to saturate my liver with liquid poison I had overstepped the line by about 3 meters and was going into "the floor is moving" territory. This wasn't too good. But I tried to play it cool. I was not about to let 5 days of intricate planning go down the drain from a little drink. So I jerked up my eyebrows, steadied myself, and was able to walk in a somewhat straight line, not really feeling my feet hit the pavement. At this point I was full blown intoxicated and knew there was more to come since alcohol is absorbed at a steady pace independent of consumption speed and I knew there was still a lot more yet to enter my blood stream and hit my brain. We arrive at White Room. My drunkenness peaks. However, I surprised myself how strong willed I was and was able to steady myself infront of the bouncer and enter. The only thing I remember was that the walls were a very beautiful red color and two glasses of ice water handed to me by... I don't remember. Just like when men suck in their gut on the beach when a pretty lady walks by and then relax, my mind deflated and caved in to the broadside attack of alcohol and I lost all sense of balance. "Where's the toilet?", I murmured and seconds later I was escorted into a bathroom. This is when my stomach decided: "You clearly don't know what the fuck you're doing so I'm sending this right the fuck back where it came from." I exit the toilet feeling marginally better and think I can still stay and spend the night sitting at the table. I was wrong. This is when my stomach said: "There's plenty more where that came from." and I go back to the toilet. Now I realized that it was already too late to salvage anything, that there was already too much alcohol hammering my brain into a pulp to do anything than go home and lie down. Reluctantly I tell everyone that I must go. They ask if I can make it and I tell them yes. The plan was they send me an sms every half hour and I reply them to show that I was ok.
Exit club.
I look at the time. Around 10:55pm. My legs are moving by themselves and feel jelly-like. The trip back to the station is a big blur but somehow I manage to find my way back. I remember people looking at me but I was too messed up to care. The only thing going through my head was for my legs to please not stop functioning. That and the ridiculous amount of alcohol that I could literally feel pumping through my body. Arrive train platform. I look at the time. Something like 11:15. I receive an sms asking how I was doing and I reply. "Next train comes in 15min" I think to myself. "I'll just take a little rest here..." and sat down on the wooden bench inside the little "hut" on the train platform to snooze and lighten my head which was spinning harder than a 5liter V10.
I wake up. The first thing I notice is that the lights are out. The TV screen showing the next arrivals is black. The signs out on the platforms are black. The lights are switched off. The only light was coming from the weak overhead lamps and city ambiance. I check the time. Around 12:50. Fucking shit. I missed the last train which would connect with the last bus back to my comfortable bed. Damn it. Just as I was kicking myself in my head, I get up on my feet and am brutally reminded that I am drunk out of my wits because as soon as I put weight on my feet it feels like the floor is jerked right out from underneath me. And I needed to hurl. NOW. I stumble out onto the platform and vomit onto the train tracks. Better down there than on the platform. I get up and try to make sense of the situation. I check my phone and reply the second sms asking how I was doing. Going back down into Stockholm Central station, everything looks eerie because of the complete lack of people. That, and the steel bars covering every exit that leads up to the street level. I realize that I was locked in! I frantically run around trying to look for an exit. Phrases like "spending the night here" and "sleeping in the station" flash through my head. My head is still spinning like an overclocked gyroscope and alcohol levels very high. I finally find an exit. The ticket machine is switched off. I manage to haul my ass over the gate and get to the sliding doors. They don't open. I wave my hands at the motion detector as if it really helps. I look around and spot a male and female outside embracing in close proximity. I consider the global bro-code for about 2.5 seconds and decide that their kiss can wait till later and I probably wouldn't cockblock him. I start banging on the glass door and obviously surprise them. Of course they didn't see me inside the station with all the lights off. They look like they saw a Chinese guy drunk off his ass hammering like crazy at a glass door. No wait. They hastily leave. Now I'm really considering lieing down and spending the night since my head is really messed up and any forwards movement was always accompanied by some movement to the left or right, if not a lot. But on the brink of surrender I see a door with a weak slit of light glowing out from the bottom slit. I didn't notice it before because it was so weak and my vision was probably comparable to a snake's at that time. With the last of my strength and coordination I haul my ass back over the ticket machine and start knocking on the door. A janitor comes out and I swear I saw this white glowing halo all around his head, or was that my eyes not adjusting to the sudden light. He seems pissed off but I was too drunk to care and was just happy to see someone. He unlocks the door and I stumble to the night bus stand.
The night bus is what you take if you missed the last train out of Stockholm and it comes every hour. I checked the time but I don't remember what time it was, all I remember was that it was 20min till the next bus came. I vomit into some bushes behind the bus stop and take a piss. I feel horrible and lie back to take a rest.
I wake up. Again, I don't remember what time it was but I had missed the bus. I go back and vomit into the bushes again. I come back and decide that I cannot miss the bus again by sleeping so I keep myself awake. 40min I held myself awake in the cold and drunkenness. Thirsty as fuck and vomiting another 2 times, I stayed awake. How much time passed? What the fuck only 2 minutes?! Ok ok ok back to snoozing a little. Should I check the time? Nah I'll wait a little more. Damn my head is fucked up. I could kill for some water right about now. Should I look at the time? Nah I'll wait a little more so that I'll be rewarded by a fat chunk of time passing and that much closer to the bus coming. Ok... I'll take a peek now. That must have been at least 15min WHAT THE FUCK 5MINUTES ARE YOU SHITTING ME. Oh how I longed to sit on the soft seats of the bus, all warm and cozy and snooze.
Finally. Finally. The night bus arrives. I crawl my ass onto the bus and look around. "MARTIN!!!!! HEEEYY!!!!!!!!" I hear from the back of the bus. In my drunken state I was able to make out the guys. "What happened man you left like four hours ago!". Never have I been so glad to see those guys. Daniel, Yannick, Sylvain and all the others were there. I let out a huge sigh of relief now that I know that I am in good hands and sit down beside them. "What happened?" everyone asks. "I'll tell you later..." and fell asleep.
What happens next was a blur since I was so drunk and exhausted but it basically goes a little something like this. We arrive Tullinge. Exit bus. Vomit on the grass. Taxi comes. Arrive dorm. Vomit outside. I get into my room. Vomit in toilet. Fall asleep on my bed. Wake up in the middle of the night. Vomit. Wake up again in the middle of the night. Vomit. Lost count after the 5th time. Wake up to sunshine. Drink a glass of water. Vomit. Back to sleep. Wake up drink another glass of water since I KNOW my body needs water. Vomits it right back out again. The third time I drink water I drink only half a glass and manage to keep it in. Hangover lasts not one, but two days. A week later at a party I have a sip of cider. I vomit. Three weeks later I can finally drink again.
tl:dr going to really nice club. pre-drink too much and have to leave early. fall asleep in trainstation and then meet friends again on the bus back.
