Travels with a Humble Narcissist

I have determined that all we need to do to achieve World Peace is to play ABBA songs everywhere on loudspeakers.

We will all begin to sing along.

At some point during the songs, we will all link arms and begin swaying & singing together. 

It will be beautiful.

At least it was a few nights ago in Gdańsk, Poland, when I joined a bar/pub crawl.

When you travel with friends/family, you don’t really have to engage with other people. You already have built-in company.

Traveling alone forces me to get out there and meet people. And sometimes, I need a little help.

So, I have found bar crawls to be ideal for socializing.

I was originally hesitant because I assumed I was too old to participate, but after the first one, I learned that age is relative. By that, I mean I can lie about my age unless I have a relative there to ruin it ;).

On the plus side, everyone at the crawl is there to meet people. Many are traveling alone or in small groups. People are from all over the world. There are hosts that interact with all of the guests and facilitate comradery with games of little skill or drinking games. The cost of the crawl is minimal, and it includes drinks.

The negative side includes shooting shots, kids who drink too much, a crowd of mostly ex-pats, not locals, and going until late into the night.

This lead up is just to help explain how I ended up in a Karoke bar. . .

with some Swedes. . .

singing ABBA.

At some point in the night, I got invited to one of the Swedes’ upcoming wedding.

I learned that I should definitely go to a hockey game in Sweden, and the best city to go to in Sweden is Gothenburg.

But, most importantly, I learned my singing sounds surprisingly good at least compared to people whose first language is not English.

Alas, our pledges of eternal friendship did not last much past the goodbyes at the pulsing dance club where the crawl concluded.

Apparently, Swedes go to bed early.