Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Hangover (986 hits)
Category: NoneLabels: anecdotes
Rating: 1.77 on 24 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Coyote <spacecoyote42.at.hotmail.com> (View user info) at 2004-08-13 11:16:54 EDT
Reykjavik is seared into my mind. It is a place of circles and intersecting lines, like petroglyphs in the Peruvian desert. The Sun loops endlessly across the sky, and the never-ceasing procession of teenage gods and goddesses circulates from nightclub to nightclub. People stagger out of the nightclubs and bars and look at the big clock on the street corner and scratch their heads in bewilderment. Eyes drift almost furtively to the overcast sky, as if unwilling to face the Sun that drifts aimlessly through the firmament without ever setting. "Hey, dude, is that 3 pm, or 3 am?". 25, 30, and 35 hours pass without sleep, and we can tell it's 8 am and not 8 pm because the drunks are staggering home.
The locals seem unfazed. There is enough light to see by, and that's as specific as they need to be. Still, they seem to have adopted some of the daystar's spiralling ways. The same groups of partiers appear again and again in the course of an evening that turns into night that turns into morning. Maybe they're not the same people, maybe our mortal eyes are incapable of discerning the subtle differences between individual members of this strange species. Split from the rest of humanity by genetic drift and isolation until we can only recognize about 20 different faces in the city of 200,000.
Circles and intersecting paths. Viking Beer is brewed of sulfurous water, has notes of seaweed in its palate, and a salty aftertase. Ducking into the well-tended bushes of a public park to vomit up some of last night's allotment, I have a second chance to note the aroma of rotten egg in the brew. I step through the bushes onto another path, and almost collide with my brother. He doesn't know where he is.
We set out in search of coffee. Twenty yards down the path, we pass a work crew of five teenagers. They're about fifteen to seventeen years old, and unearthly beautiful, even two of the three guys. I guess we stand out a little. As we pass by, one of the guys drops his rake and says "Welcome to Iceland". Cocky, but a little nervous. Grinning. Obviously his turn in the game of 'taunt the foreigners'. He wants to know why we're here, and seems a little surprised by the answer, which is "Just to party."
He looks me up and down. "Are you in a rock band?"
"No, I'm an astronomer." I bet that's pretty unusual there. Iceland is the worst place in the world for astronomy, between the ridiculous behavior of the Sun for six months of the year and the northern lights blasting away like a Pink Floyd light show all winter. Apparently they're intrigued, because one of the ethereal blondes is edging carefully closer to us and smiling. I'm uncertain how close she'll have to get before her path intersects the aroma of recycled Viking on my breath.
"Oh, that's practically the same thing." The frontman keeps up the chatter, insisting that my brother must be in a rock band, and that he's the biggest Blink 182 fan in Iceland.
"Why are you guys out here working, in the middle of the night?", it occurs to us to ask.
"It's the penalty for public drunkenness." Ah, to be a teenage wiseass again. Still, that would explain why all the parks look so perfect. "Also, she took her clothes off in the street," our Blink 182 fan continues, pointing at the elfin brunette standing shyly behind her blonde friend. This has the obviously desired effect of driving them giggling away from us. Damn.
We continue on our way, and bump into three friends in town for the same party. "Watch out," Doug tells us. "There's a bunch of kids doing some kind of work back there who wanted to know if we were in a rock band." Poor bastards are obviously wandering and confused. They've circled back on themselves. We nod knowingly and continue on, lured by the promise of coffee, and eventually beer and strippers.
We stagger onwards, debating which Irish pub looked best. There's another knot of people up ahead, and I can see they're raking leaves and weeding the path. My skin crawls as one of the kids-- a different guy, I swear it, it had to be-- gets up, brushes his hands off on his jeans and says, "Hey, are you guys from New York?" I've made the snap decision to pretend it's a hallucination and keep walking, but my brother stops and stares. "How did you know that?" The question is ignored. "Welcome to Iceland. Enjoy the stripclub," he says with a smirk, and turns back to his wheelbarrow. A blonde titters, and we stand befuddled for a moment. Just as we are about to turn and leave, one of the girls runs up to me and throws her arms around my neck. She doesn't have to stand on tiptoe to plant a slippery kiss on my lips; interesting things are happening underneath her sweater. She immediately releases me and steps back just as my arm starts to encircle her waist. Her eyes are so blue that it's like looking into a fucking glacier. She has an eerie, wolflike appearance that's not made any less alien by her Mona Lisa smile. "That was because you look like Jesus, and my friend was making fun of you."
The group moves off, and we exit the greenspace into downtown proper. The clock says 11. It must be morning, because the Sun is... no, that's not right. Last night the Sun was... Hm. It must be morning, because most of the bars are closed. We choose a cafe that looks likely. My brother is still pissed off that I got a kiss and he didn't. He sits down at a table for four occupied by two stunning Icelandic women, while I wait for the coffee at the counter. "Hey, are you guys from Iceland?" he asks. Stares. Silence. Finally: "No, we're Africans." He slinks away and downs the muddy coffee in one gulp. I order a Viking and glance at the guy next to me, who could easily have been Thor's stunt double for some of the more challenging scenes in Ragnarrok. He frowns back and asks, "Hey, are you in a rock band?"
My plane leaves in 17 hours. It must be time to start drinking.
User Reviews
Submitted by Alter (user info) at 2007-09-26 20:54:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No, Comment.
Submitted by maiorano84 (user info) at 2007-03-15 03:29:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm having a staring contest with you right now.......
Submitted by MANICMOTHER (user info) at 2006-11-30 22:07:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by shadow (user info) at 2006-02-20 20:17:32 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
damn it, i can't place it. An enigma wrapped in a mystery surrounded by a website.
bah, it'll come to me.
Submitted by shadow (user info) at 2006-02-14 01:54:37 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
There is something in your visage that is hauntingly familiar... in your eyes. I cannot place it but I am sure it will come to me.
A post of superb quality.
Submitted by Chinaski (user info) at 2004-11-30 00:40:50 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Nicely written and interesting, man. We should jam sometime.
Submitted by Dead_0hi0_Sky (user info) at 2004-11-30 00:36:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Duuuuuuude! don't you play bass for megadeth, man?
Submitted by someone (user info) at 2004-11-30 00:28:31 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by maiorano84 (user info) at 2004-11-16 04:53:41 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Winnar!
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2004-10-29 16:49:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Coyote (user info) at 2004-09-17 15:41:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Squirrel-- go where you feel most happy, don't necessarily base it on your prospective major. You never know how your goals might change in two years.
And find someone to write you a letter of recommendation who will compare you favorably to all those competitors at your school. I was lucky, I only had one rival, whom I convinced to apply to Harvard instead.
Submitted by ohlookasquirrel (user info) at 2004-09-15 21:51:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I just saw your comment on my last post (I'm still around here once in a while, just not posting under squirrel).
Thanks for the good wishes, I'm applying early action in the next month or so, so I need them.
I decided AGAINST all of the essays (the alice one was quite atrocious actually). Instead, I ended up taking the best bits of the ballet one and reworking them into a much more poignant essay.
I'm getting more and more nervous as time goes on and I find out that more people from my extremely competitive public school (I got a 1600 on the SAT, but so did another girl in my class, not to mention many people with almost-as-high-scores and impeccable grades to boot) are applying to Yale, many of them early.
Oh well, I'll end up happy wherever I am.
I'm torn though, because while I love Yale, I'm not sure how strong their cognitive science is for undergrads, and whether it's too psych based. I'm more into neuroscience than psych, and for a while I was thinking Harvard early for that very reason.
Jeebus, there went my life story.
Um....good post?
Submitted by KieferSutherland (user info) at 2004-08-14 22:10:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Your hair sucks and your story is too long for me to even think about reading it right now. Here's a +2 anyway. Douche!
Submitted by Scott_James (user info) at 2004-08-14 21:54:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I want your beard.
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2004-08-13 22:34:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I can lose myself in the wonderful, dense, tightly interwoven web of words you always create.
And it has NOTHING to do with the fact that I want to have all kinds of sex with you.
Submitted by KoolMang (user info) at 2004-08-13 12:55:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
No Comment
Submitted by LucidCognition (user info) at 2004-08-13 12:40:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Does no one over there have long hair?
There's all sorts of crazy fucking metal that comes out of there.
Submitted by freebie (user info) at 2004-08-13 11:38:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Damn this is good.
Now what band do you play in again?
Submitted by Coyote (user info) at 2004-08-13 11:35:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Ainkara (user info) at 2004-08-13 11:33:08 (#)
That's.... a little odd...
---------------------------------------------------
Trust me, it was an odd weekend.
Oh wait, you were referring to my face? Damn.
Submitted by Ainkara (user info) at 2004-08-13 11:33:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
That's.... a little odd...
Submitted by 1Point21Gigawatts (user info) at 2004-08-13 11:29:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Ridiculously well written. Fuck your vocabulary, Jesus Christ!
Submitted by RideJohnnyRide (user info) at 2004-08-13 11:28:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
o.
m.
g.
Submitted by DonkeyOnTheEdge (user info) at 2004-08-13 11:21:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by gamma (user info) at 2004-08-13 11:19:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Holy shit! It's Jesus!! THE SECOND COMING IS HERE!!!!!