Ah, Absinth. Never cottoned to the stuff. Spent a while in Holland with a friend of mine, and I mostly just got blasted on testing out every single beer tower I could locate. Got a challenge once, though. Imagine a horseshoe shaped bar. Only, it is big enough to accomodate around 50 people at a time. There was around ten bartenders working behind it. And there was a Beer Tower about every two feet of Bar.
... I got about a third of the way before I was completely pissed. Another third, and I can't remember anything else. When I got back the day after, to check if I left my wallet there, and possibly the insides of my head, I was hailed with a cheer from the staff. With wide eyes, I tried to recall what could be the source of this quite fitting adoring worship, but as far as I knew I had not saved the world in any shape, way or form that day. A waitress went behind the bar, and waved my wallet in the air, prompting myself to shuffle carefully towards the bar. She poured a pint, and set it next to the wallet. "No charge." "Oh..." I said. After a quick repair, which consisted of my draining that beer back to back in less than ten seconds, I came to enough of my senses to ask "Why?".
"You don't remember, do you?" "... no." "Go check the wall of fame. Right side".
Wall of fame? What the hell? Did I ruin it, and they are just softing me up for the kill? Oh God! I vomited on it... I did, didn't I? No... if I did, I wouldn't have felt half as decimated as I am.
Went over, and checked this Wall of Fame. And I saw myself staring back. A big, Shiteating grin, a male and female bartender under my respective arms, and both were grinning. Recovering from the shock by concentrating on putting one foot ahead of the other, I managed to get in a more or less straight line, back to the bar and raised a finger. New beer.
"So... what is the purpose of that wall?" "Why, you are one of eighteen people who have managed to get through every single beertap in one evening! I'm impressed. You even managed to walk out of here yourself, which makes it one out of three. "
...
"I made it all the way through?"
I later found in my wallet a treasure. Something I will never lose, and is now on the wall next to me. A copy of that picture, with the words behind: "To one of the best drinkers Amsterdam has ever seen!"
... I gotta stop posting when I drink coffee. I get quite chatty, don't I?