My doubts were however put to shame and I had some of the most enjoyable evenings out in a European city ever accompanied by good, solid German food. My thanks go out to Pål, chairman of the board of Avinet (and on other occasions excellent drinking pal), for urging me to come along.

Hotel California and the Hollywood Media Centre

The base of our operations was a hotel centrally located on West-Berlin’s Kurfurstendam. The hotel carried the rather dubious name of “Hotel California” which inevitably sprouted a large number of semi-identical and rather obvious jokes.

Despite the slowest elevator I have ever seen the hotel was very agreeable indeed. Good location and ok rooms. I never got to sample the breakfast but I was told, by those of my colleagues who managed to get up in the morning, that breakfast was good!

Naming the trip a “study trip” sadly required us to camouflage the party as a corporate learning event. This meant living though a few plenary session lectures before we could split up in more navigable units and get down to some real sight-drinking.

The “business-part” of the study trip took place at the Hollywood Media Center, a few blocks down the road from the hotel. Tacky wall displays informed visitors, whether they wanted to or not, about nearly six decades of film-making that hitherto had escaped most of us without our quality of life being poorer for it.

Kings Pub, a Russian on Ku’damm

Straight across the street from the hotel colleague Yngve and I found the best watering hole we had both encountered for a long, long time, Kings Pub, a hole-in-the-wall alcohol-consumers delight with room for no more than 12-15 people.

Kings Pub was run by Russian barmaid Irina on the two nights we were there. Irina knew how to charm pub guests into giving up their cash in exchange for dark beer and vodka. As a result we spent no less than € 100 each night on drink alone, which is much considering that one beer cost no more than € 3.

Warmly recommended, go there.

Afternoon breakfast at Hackescher Markt

For reasons unknown, I had agreed to aid Yngve in coming up with some entertainment for the gala-dinner of the study trip. Simultaneously I had been asked to give the final speech of the dinner, thanking the hosts.

The evenings being what they were time was suddenly running short if I was to both contribute to the entertainment and think a little about what to say in my speech. It was Sunday afternoon by the time we settled down at Hackescher Markt in East-Berlin to start writing.

Eating breakfast in the afternoon while watching street entertainment, drinking beer and writing comedy at once is far from unagreeable. Inspiration even came to us eventually.

Dinner at the roof-top restaurant in the Reichstag building

On Sunday night, the night before departure, our gala-dinner event was scheduled at the roof-top restaurant in the Reichstag-building, a truly magnificent location in the company of equally magnificent friends and colleagues.

Food was good, I got the biggest portion of Foie Gras I have ever seen. Either the goose was genetically manipulated or more than one had to die to fill my plate alone. The wine was better, borderline excellent, and complimented every course in an excellent way.

More surprisingly, entertainment was also good. Both the speeches and two additional “entertainment acts” plus an ingenious Asplan Viak-song were well-received. Even to the extent of praise.

As usual, the party didn’t stop in time for the following day to be an altogether good experience. I woke up with a start, hearing the bus I was meant to take to the airport 3 minutes later hum in an impatient way. 5 minutes later, in no fit state to travel, I was on my way to Schönefeld by bus.

Eight hours later I parked my car outside my house in Sogndal, walked in, crashed and fell asleep, fondly remembering the past days events.

The restaurant is located in a dimly lit cellar in downtown Reykjavik and is fitted with a modern yet comfortable interior design. The food is excellent and the event-meal Excotic Menu is a safe choice for the pallate although painful on the wallet!

At A Tasca I usually find myself drinking Tequila slammers. A Tequila slammer, for those who aren’t familiar with the idea, is equal parts fizzy drink (7-up or similar) and Tequila poured into a shooter glass. The drinker then uses his hand as a lid on the glass, slams it violently on the bar counter so the thing stirs properly and downs the content in one fell swoop while it is still fizzing!

Slamming is a remarkably efficient and painless way to consume a bottle of Tequila and get you in the right mood for a night out on town!

Of course, A Tasca has a lot more to it than shooters. They prepare a mean Caipirinha (cachaca, sugar, lime and ice) for those who have fallen in love with the Brazilian national drink, or a Caipiroska (substituting cachaca for vodka) for those who have bad experience with the aftermaths of sugar cane rum.

This little bar is also a salsa place. While I am not a dancer (by a good margin) I enjoy the latin music and rythms as a backdrop for drinking and as a starting point for a good night out on town in Lisbon!

Tractor driver chatting up woman from old Zetor-tractor at one of Zetor’s characteristic pub tables.

After visiting Helsinki’s tractor pub Zetor, named after the Czech tractor brand popular during the Cold War, my interest for Leningrad Cowboys came to life again after years of slumber. The pub, owned by Aki Kaurismaki, was decorated with Zetors fitted with a bar counter so you could sit on or around the tractors enjoying your beer. Almost like home.

My first meeting with Leningrad Cowboys was through Kaurismakis 1989 cult film, Leningrad Cowboys go America (which I didn’t see until 1996). I was immediately intrigued by the pack of strange characters, the lack of continuous dialog and their highly original and irregular interpretations of rock’n roll music!

As with so many things, the contrasts are what makes the band ingenious. The cooperation between the Cowboys and the Alexandrov Red Army choir see to it that contrast is in plenty! Together they do covers such as “California Girls”, “Happy together” and balalaika renditions of “Sweet Home Alabama”, “Knocking on Heavens door” and “Stairway to Heaven”.

Great stuff!

It was in September in the year of the Lord 2006 I first came to encounter Brinjevec. The occasion was a business trip to Slovenia and an evening of high spirit in the captial of the said country, Ljubljana. In the company of my two excellent accomplices, Torbjørn and Tommy, I entered in a bar where we asked the waiter to keep the drinks flowing until further notice. Closing time, however, came first.

At some stage it became evident that good quality would be wasted on our anasthetised taste buds and so we changed the strategy to asking the waiter to bring the worst alcoholic fluids on sale in his establishment – with the purpose of making a top – or rather bottom – five list of Slovene alcohol.

Intrigued by the challenge he set out for the bar and returned time and time again with one drink fouler and more evil smelling than the previous one. Just as we thought it couldn’t get any worse he brought Brinjevec.

There is no means to describe the taste, smell and characteristics of Brinjevec merely by using an ordinary vocabulary consisting of words. The closest one might get in a regular human life would be terpentine. The mere shock of still being able to see after gulping down the first little sip of the drink was almost too much for me.

It was then that it dawned on us that we had a winner. Brinjevec. For the interested a bottle of the said substance can be procured at a cost of about 5000 Slovene Tollars – to be converted to Euros by 1st of January 2007. It is allegedly based on juniper berries and ethanol but I would believe anyone who said it was made from a random mix of terpentine and methanol.

Other than that – go to Slovenia immediately. Go to Trebnik Castle in Slovenska Konjice and buy all their cool stuff – don’t miss the love potion which – if nothing else – is a sturdy herb liqueur.

Barrio Altos many gems include the restaurante O Faio, an excellent although a bit touristy restaurant with nightly Fado entertainment in doses suitable for non-hardcore Fado fans.

The restaurant boasts many excellent dishes among which you’ll find grilled Porco Preto sausages and chops, queijo da serra and excellent bacalhau.

You may have to suffer the company of a few white-sneaker-wearing Americans tourists by the table next to yours – but remember that they are likely to dislike you just as much as you dislike them. Go for it.