105. Monday trivia victory at the pub
This is a continued story from the Crazy people, crazy stories - a week of meeting colorful characters post.
Monday
I am a sucker for trivia. I'm currently in the middle of an online trivia league tournament right now. It's a bit difficult for me because I'm in a different time zone currently, but I'm making it work. (Update: I got 10th place out of 26 people! It was such a rough ride. I ended up missing 3 days in the tournament, but at least I didn't end up being last!)
On Monday evening, I decided to join my American friend out for a Monday night trivia at the pub. In my team: me and my friend (two Americans), a Swiss guy (who left early.), a Polish girl (very lovely.), and this one Canadian girl (she's a character honestly.). There were about 5 rounds of trivia. The first round was recognizing alcohol brands. We weren't sure about the very obscure ones. I think it's a good sign, though. It just indicates to me that we are not alcoholics.
The next two rounds were Ireland-based general knowledge, which I immediately felt anxious about because we had NO Brit on our team. I was a little worried because the other teams consisted of majority English and Scottish people (I feel like they would have an edge over us, a group with more than half that are North American...). We went through 20 questions of Ireland trivia and we made our best educated guesses on them. Although I thought my geography knowledge is kind of good, I had no idea that the river that runs through Dublin was the River Liffey (we guessed that one correctly, so hooray!).
The rest of the rounds were so easy- geography country outlines and identify the flags. I'd say that my "obscure" flag knowledge is a bit rusty, but we managed to snag a free pitcher of beer after getting a perfect score on the country outline round. It was a very nice and well-deserved prize and I felt so proud of myself.
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After trivia, everyone started socializing a bit more and getting to know one another. We received our winning pitcher of beer and the two girls (the Swiss guy left) were sharing stories about their travels to me and my friend. The girl from Poland is currently volunteering at a hostel and going around SE Asia to discover new places. She had such an insightful way of looking at things and I felt like she would be a good friend if I ever get a chance to hang out with her again. I turned to the other girl and she's a bit of a wild card.
The Canadian girl was at first a little reserved when I first met her. I complimented her ring and she immediately beamed and started smiling at me.
"That's a beautiful sapphire cut you have," I told her. She was a little giddy.
"Thank you! It's a sapphire? I didn't really know. It's from my grandmother actually!" She took a huge gulp of her cocktail and started chatting away.
I don't want to overshare her stories on here, since a lot of them were very personal. However, what I can share is that there was crime, abandonment, a lot of drug use, and that she fell in love with a carnival worker and ran away to join the circus with her friend (this story is quite wild, but honestly, kinda adorable).
This Canadian girl is such a character. She told me that when she drinks, she feels like she isn't able to control herself. I kindly begged her to finish this last drink and we would just hang out and talk the entire night.
She seems like a very sweet girl, but surrounded by a lot of shallow and superficial people in both her day job and her personal life. Just based on her social media presence, it seems like she's riding the waves of fame and popularity of the social media scene, especially in her line of work. When people get famous- it can go to their head. It's an emotional high that can last for weeks on end. There are some people that could handle it and some can't. The problem is that it takes a lot of work to maintain fame, and I think that the fear that you won’t be able to remain famous can cause so much despair.
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To top off our night, I tried to recruit a bunch of people to grab a bite to eat. I was feeling hungry and wanted to leave the Irish trivia pub with an entourage since I didn't feel particularly brave enough to venture off alone at midnight, right at the center of nightlife. That's when the annoying creeps and bored sex workers come out to wait under downtown streetlamps. American friend and I ended up leaving with two other people- a German girl and a Scottish guy. The German girl was very fashionable with golden hair- she was bubbly and seemed super young since she told me she's 19 years old, and it was her very first time traveling alone. She told me that she was just staying at the hostel for a couple of days until her visa to travel to Australia comes back. Her boyfriend was already in Sydney waiting for her since his visa arrived first.
The other person accompanying us was the Scottish before at a pub crawl actually. He was a gregarious guy, if I recalled correctly. While I was waiting at the table for the night to begin, he simply walked in, and everyone immediately shouted his name and cheered for him.
We were a bit tipsy and rowdy as we were just coming from the pub. We decided to stop at the shwarma stand nearby the hostel everyone was staying at. Two other guys joined our little midnight dinner- A young guy from Copenhagen and another from Barcelona. We finished our meals, heading back towards the hostel and said our goodbyes. I didn't want to drink anymore that night. I grabbed a ride back to my place.
~ Monday you can fall apart,
<3 K