Previously: 40 Years in Beer, Part Fourteen: Pilsner Urquell pilgrimage, locked gates, and a taxi driver’s day off.
Back home again in Indiana, the year 1987 came to a rollicking close with a wonderful visit from friends, which in itself wouldn’t have been particularly newsworthy if not for the fact that they traveled to New Albany all the way from Copenhagen, Denmark.
It was a unique experience for all of us, including the somnolent city.
During the summer’s European adventures, Barrie Ottersbach forged an early acquaintance with Kim W., our USSR group leader, while aboard the Aeroflot flight from Copenhagen to Moscow to begin the tour.
I joined them in the heart of the evil empire via a 36-hour rail journey from Budapest. A few days later in Leningrad, Kim introduced us to Allan G., and we bonded by the side of an urban canal, with mosquitos the size of starlings illuminated by the white nights, and a bottle of Russian vodka passed from hand to hand.
Then in August, Barrie and I hopped a train back to Copenhagen for the express purpose of having beers with Kim (henceforth, “Little” Kim) and his pal “Big” Kim A.
Unfortunately Allan couldn’t attend the festivities, but nonetheless the Three Danes of the Apocalypse had entered our lives, and we’ve been buddies ever since. Now, in 2022, I’ve known the three Danes for far longer than not, a total of 35 years, and I’m immeasurably enriched by their camaraderie in ways too profuse to adequately chronicle.
Granting that the primary purpose of this ongoing “40 Years in Beer” narrative is to wax autobiographical about my participation in the business of beer, these episodes of European beer travel may seem superfluous. However, in retrospect they strike me as absolutely essential.
It cannot be repeated often enough that European places, people, history, food and libations were huge influences on me, and while in 1987 I’d yet to harbor ambitions to be in the pub business, when the dominoes finally started falling, my only real strategy was to duplicate as much as possible elements of these travel experiences for a local drinking audience.
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