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Russian 'educational' trip
In my second year of college, the History and Politics department organised a week in St Petersburg, allegedly for the purposes of education. We were informed beforehand that any drinking would have to be done in moderation.

Whoops.

It took until the second day for three of us to discover that the hotel bar served absinthe at a very reasonable rate. This was having had the evening meal in a Russian pub which involved two pints of lager and a cigar for me, and several fluorescent blue cocktails for a girl I vaguely recognised from college but had only met at Heathrow the previous day. We shall call her S.

Upon later returning to the hotel, we decided that an evening of heavy drinking was in order and so discovered the absinthe. I remember thinking at the time that 70% alcohol could only be a good thing. In my innocence, I had no idea that la Fée Verte (ooh, get me) was usually consumed with sugar and water, and thus necked the glass.

The rest of the evening remains fairly blurred. I recall more absinthe for both S and I, as well as vodka (when in Rome, obviously), Scotch (purchased at Heathrow) and Davidoff cigarettes (like smoking a cigarette made of silk and moistened shut with Claudia Schiffer's ladybits).

This all naturally led to the conclusion of the evening - S and I sharing a bed (not wahey, unfortunately, despite later rumours that we were doing the underpants Charleston), her passing out on my shoulder and waking up about ten minutes later to vomit on me. Nothing creates a special bond like being vomited on, you see, and we spent the rest of our friendship being incredibly awkward around each other.

Length? Not much of that in the Russian winter, I tell you.
(Sun 10th Dec 2006, 3:12, More)