the 20th

Well here it is my 20th blog and I have a great story to tell you all today.
Now this blog is sort of like the third and final installment of a loose trilogy concerning people visiting me or me visiting them. Now in Feb Rob came down to visit and we had a great time we did the things that we would of done if we were in the UK, we drank lots of tea, played Pro evo on the X box, went to the cinema and generally had a laugh.
I met up with my friend Grace in Germany, and again the trip sort of emulated the basis of our friendship, we went to museums, independent cinemas and mostly talked about music and films.
Now in Early May Thom and Stiff (Matt) visited and we had a long weekend in Riga. This trip also highlighted what I know about these guys.... funny,intelligent and heroic drinkers.
Now their trip to Latvia went full circle. I am pleased to say that they entered Latvia the same way they left...still pissed from a sleepless night of excessive drinking.
When they both got of the plane I found out they left from Bristol without any sleep and got incredibly drunk on a boat. Both men were a little bleary eyed but they pulled through, we spent the day mostly walking around riga, with me trying to show them the cultural sites and both of them trying their very best to seem interested.
We got to the hostel and the real fun began...only a pound a pint..and free taster shots of some Latvian Balsams got us on the way..and for our first night we went to a Latvian Hockey match.
The game was quite surreal, Latvia was playing Belarus in a friendly, the stadium was packed and the crowed were eager...the best thing about this sporting event was how easy it was to get a beer..with several people dispensing larger to members of the crowd, no one was going thirsty.
After the game we hit the bars with a couple of friends showing us the best places to drink.
The first night was great, it went very smoothly...and by 3 in the morning we were feeling a little peckish so we were taken to this restaurant that was still open and what you do is you take a bowl and then fill it up with anything you desire from the counter...there was these cheese potato dumplings and various kinds of ravioli and sald..some good eaten.
And then destined to break the calmness of the evening we find that Thom was kicked out of the restaurant because the security guy caught pissing him in the sink...the security guard obviously did not understand traditional customs.
After that we tried one more night club...the 48 hours of drinking finally caught up with stiff and he left for the hostel...but even then he didn't go straight to bed but had another beer at the hostel bar.
me and Thom stayed...Thomas was on his A game and unfortunately for him he had to settle for me to take up wingman duties..I tried my best dance moves and by one puzzled lady I was described as a young Jim Carey( not too sure if this was a complement or not)...they also called Thom something which I will have to ask next time I speak to him.

So one evening down two more left...after a days rest for the lads...we were on it once more..this time we had no guides to show us around we were relying on our own senses, wits and experience....and mostly just went to the bars we were in the night before.
In the morning I heard this story from the owner that this guy in one of the rooms was sleeping with a young lady in the room..now these rooms are shared dormitories and the bed they were using was a bunk bed and that they were "rumping in the hay" on the bottom bunk... they created a sense of privacy by using his bed sheet and hanged it around the bed so one can see...but privacy was something that was not going to happen especially when the guy who was on the top bunk pissing himself with laughter at the noises he could here,had his part of the bunk bed collapse on the unsuspecting couple...it was a good job that no one got hurt...later on stiff wanted to know more about the story and so asked this Australian guy we were speaking to "do you know anything about this guy falling through his bed, when his mate was shafting this bird ( sorry stiff this may not of been exactly what you said) the guy replied "yeah it was me" he then told us that that night they got lucky with some local ladies and instead of following the unspeaking rule of shagging in the toilet not the bedroom..his mate gave it beans and subsequently had a 6ft Australian bloke fall on him.

Now Im not a big drinker...Im not sure I have ever been..I can last all night..but usually Im not drunk and that I actually stopped drinking considerably earlier than everyone else.
This does not mean i dont get hammered...there have been very few occasions but they do happen, and on this night it could of happened but I tried to fight it...In one club and im not proud to say this but I knew that I had to sober up..so i forced my self to be sick..its not pleasant I know and even reading this back im deeply ashamed but come on im sure most of you have done worse...... I know I have but family members read this blog.
So I went back upstairs feeling slightly better and told stiff...now Thom at this point is totally unaware and is being hassled by some crazy Latvian lady...but this happens regularly to Thom..or being hassled by some mentalist as he gets away form this trouble he proceeds in buying me and and stiff a pint of lager and a shot called apple pie....so what could I do... the sensible thing, say no, drink a coke....no thats right I maned the fuck up...I drank that shot....i drank that pint....I went home early.

Now the next day....I was rough...the guys looked ok...but felt half dead, I tried for most of the time to catch up, we went to an English bar to watch Chelsea beat Liverpool....drank cider..walked in the sunshine..took it a little easier.
We went to a bar called Cuba..which had all these great postcards covering the wall and then if you look carefully you see that someone has drawn hundreds of cocks everywhere... picture of Bob marley..smoking a cock...two guys playing chess...with cocks.
Now in this bar we had the great game of flipping coasters....even in my state I was on Fire....I flipped 28...so Stiff being the competitive dick he is ...he flipped 30...so i flipped 30 and that bastard flipped 31..alas i couldn't flip 31...but hey im still proud of my achievements.
Now we got back to the hostel...watched the last of anchorman which was on in the the main room...the guys powered on and I went to bed knowing that they had to leave around 9 in the morning.
I woke up around 8 and I see that the guys arnt in bed..so maybe there ready, organised, all packed, showered....in actuality they were still up...still drinking..and I have to say I was slightly impressed.

The guys made it back well and I know that Ive missed a few things out and I might even give this a redux in a couple of weeks...maybe put in some deleted scenes.
But for now Ive wrote enough..im still recovering...and ill have too as in July Thom is coming back and were going to hit the Latvian music festival...and i need to get pub fit..as I said to Thom if this was the premiership id be John Hartson...or maybe Andy Ried.