food + alcohol

[Bamawing]

I'm probably obsessing, but this weekend was a very strange one for me.

Last night I went out with Dan, his mentor, his mentor's wife (who is awesome) and his mentor's friend (who is also awesome) and her boyfriend, who is really cool and speaks English quite well. We had pizza... I ate a good bit of it, being very hungry, and drank a couple of dark beers (mm. Dark beer...).

Everything was fine. I was perfectly normal. Barely even buzzed, which isn't much of a surprise. I mean, I had two beers over a period of a couple hours with a full meal. I don't drink beer quickly.

Friday night, not so much.

I think I'll put the particulars up on my blog, but suffice to say Dan and I have found the elusive German Redneck. I kinda wished I had a camera. The only things missing were camo and mullets, and I suspect the mullets were missing primarily because the only two guys young enough to have them had crew cuts (naturally). They were talking in German so I have no idea what they were saying, but I suspect it had to do with alien abduction.

The bar had nothing to eat. Nothing. Not so much as a pack of potato chips/crisps. I was starving, but all they had was beer. So I had two beers over a couple of hours on a completely empty stomach.

I. Was. Smashed.

My first one was fine. I felt OK, certainly not much worse than usual. And at this point a guy from former East Germany decided that when Dan said "I speak a very little German, and it's not so good" that meant "yeah, I speak German. Tell me about yourself!" He was a very nice fella, really. Gave us an apple (how random is that?).

But about halfway through my second beer, I started to get a little loopy and sleepy. The next thing I knew, I was toasted.

I was gone. Sloshed. I begged Dan to take me to Wheelers "so they can see how drunk I am!" where I ordered a basket of fries/chips post haste. They didn't help. The poor waitress kept having to wake me up... :BIG blush: That was probably the drunkest I have ever been in public, and I'm more than a little irked at myself. My buddies at Wheelers (who include a couple of Irishmen and a Englishman plus a few Americans... you get the picture) were quite amused, thank heavens.

But... what happened? Even Dan said that it wasn't normal for me to be this smashed on only two beers. I've never exactly been known for a high tolerance, but this was really extreme.

The East German guy did invite us to a "party" at his house that night. And I recall him drinking some sort of small liquor-looking thing that I guess he could have poured into my drink while my head was turned. But if he was really intent on doing something unsavory, wouldn't he have drugged both me and Dan instead of just me? Assuming that's indeed what happened?

It is true that this is the most I've ever had to drink without food. I am weird about getting food into my system before drinking. I suppose it's possible to have an odd reaction since there wasn't a buffer, but is a pizza really going to make that much of a difference? The timing, number of drinks and approximate alcohol content were the same...

Dan also hypothesizes that the smoke in the area might be to blame. I didn't smell any wacky tobacky, but then, I'm hardly an expert on what it smells like. (Dan did see someone rolling his own...)

We're not going back, please don't worry about that. But... does anyone have any idea... how scared I should have been? 

[Uncle Matt]

Welcome to Europe!

I wish I could have been there

Anyway, the best thing I can recommend is to do it again next weekend and see if it happens again.

Eventually, you'll get used to it.

Or, you could try a low-alcohol beer and see if you last longer on that.

Or just go back to eating food then drinking beer.

[itchychick]

Sounds like an interesting night, Bama!

I'm no expert, but I know that American beer has a much lower alcohol content than just about any other beer, so it could be that that is what affected you?

As for eating/not eating?  That makes a very big difference to me as well.  If I don't eat it takes very little alcohol to make me drunk....

[anthropositor]

In the course of my sedate, pasroral and otherwise uneventful life, there have been occasional times when, sometimes againsy my will, I have imbibed, ingested, inhaled, absorbed, or been injected with some extremely exotic and often toxic substances.  Not quite having Rasputin's constitution, as I finish my trek toward maturity, I tend, more and more to avoid these interesting but often unpleasant interludes.  Still, usually it beats the more direct forms of torture.

Now, I do not think of myself as entirely punchy yet.  As a matter of fact, for the past few years, I have felt myself to be recovering, but this could be in part an illusion.  I'm not going to dwell on that too much, since clearly you are probably never going to be in that sort of position. 

But for you dear, this is my advice.  Always eat before you drink.  Then always drink very mild brews or wines, being very conscious of the amounts and the intake speed.  Alcohol is yeast **** ( Ed Bot!   ) you know.  Tight now, I feel like a glass of my own home-fermented wine.  But prudence dictates that I have a healthy brunch first, particularly since I have to pass a rather thorough physical in two days.

[Bamawing]

I'm no expert, but I know that American beer has a much lower alcohol content than just about any other beer, so it could be that that is what affected you?

That's actually a myth. While there are some European beers that are stronger than, say, Bud Lite, most of them are actually pretty comparable.

But I do feel better having the idea that it could just be the lack of solid food. I'm going to try hard to prevent that mistake again.

Alcohol is yeast **** ( Ed Bot!  ) you know. 

Yes, but it's quite delicious weewee. The carbonation is their burps, too.

Matty, I will have to take you to Wheeler's pub... our little island of English in a big German sea. The people there are great... even "F****ing Chris" who I nicknamed after his favorite word. I can't wait to see him again... he accused me of not going to be able to remember a joke he made of Dan, and I remember it pretty well, actually.