After Denise, Aaron, Ashleigh, and I finished up with the rides in Future World at Epcot, we headed into the World Showcase area. It was clear from the start that Aaron had only one thing on his mind: having a beer indiginous to every country represented at Epcot. Although I wasn’t willing to spend the money to do it (beers generally run six or seven dollars there), nor did I particularly feel like getting swizzled, I must admit that the idea did appeal to me. It was just one of those challenges or goals that you could say “I did that” after completion. So it all worked out well when Aaron realized that he really couldn’t easily drink 11 beers by himself in the time that it would take to travel this ‘world’.
We started off our venture innocently enough in the Mexico pavillion where we rode the Gran Fiesta Tour. This was formerly El Rio del Tiempo, which was virtually the same ride, but now included films of the Three Caballeros throughout. It was certainly now more entertaining, but by the end of the ride I was disappointed that they had removed the grand Mexican finale of the dancing girls in favor of a giant film of more of the Caballeros. After the ride, Aaron had his first beer and Ashleigh and I each had a sip. Denise, still feeling under the weather, wasn’t interested and wasn’t too happy about the whole scene.
The first: Dos Equis in Mexico
Although I mildly regret skipping the Maelstrom boat ride in the Norway pavillion, I thought it might be best to hang out with Aaron and help him by taking ‘sips’ of each beer. This would allow me, too, to ingest at least some beer from every country as well. We breezed through China and made it to Germany, home of some tasty wheat beer, before Denise and Ashleigh got off of the Maelstrom and caught up with us. It was there that Denise decided she had had enough and was going to head back to our Pop Century resort. Ashleigh had become fixated on getting herself a pair of Mickey Mouse ears to match the ones that she had already got for Derek. To find these, she had to take a trek all the way back to the Magic Kingdom. As persistent as she is, she capably completed the task. Aaron and I pressed on.
The second: Carlsburg in Norway, outside the Maelstrom
The third: harassing the lion with Tsing Tao outside China
The fourth: a tasty wheat beer in Germany
Ashleigh and Denise waving goodbye – not indicating how many beers they drank
We made it through Italy and moved on to the American Adventure. We were originally going to stop and see this attraction, but were too late. Instead we sat out front and finished the beer before advancing to the next country. Here Fat Zac made his second appearance of the day. I regret not sticking around to see the attraction because I overheard that this attraction would soon be revamped. Before we left, I had the idea to have Aaron pose with one of the American ladies with his beer. We continued to run with this idea where applicable.
The fifth: Peroni from Italy
The sixth: enjoying a Bud Light with Mary in America
Fat Zac returns to America
As we neared the Japan pavillion, we saw that the Matsuriza was going on. The intention was to have Aaron pose with these traditional Japanese drummers with his beer, but by the time he had purchased it, they had disappeared back into their hut. We were starved at this point so decided to eat some sushi there in Japan. I had originally wanted to eat in my traditional Norway restaurant, but they were booked up, which was a problem I had never encountered before. The sushi was good but nothing spectacular – comparable to the kind that we sell in Kroger, honestly.
The seventh: Kirin and sushi in Japan
Me and sushi
Morocco was next on the agenda, and they delivered us our first disappointment – they were out of beer. Aaron had to settle for a Moroccorita, a frozen daiquiri that the vendor swore to us was unique to Morocco. We then blew through France with little fanfare.
The eighth: Morrocarita – it wasn’t beer, but it served its purpose
The ninth: Kronenbourg in France – there’s a reason they’re known more for their wine
The United Kingdom was by far the most entertaining. Here we hit the traditional Rose & Crown pub with live piano music. The atmosphere felt like true merry old England (at least I would imagine it this way since I’ve never been there). There we met Tina, a nice gal from Liverpool who taught us some of the British vernacular. I was just sauced enough to forget most of it, although I remember the terms fab and brill. The beer here was the best of the evening in my opinion, a cider ale – which I had never had before. In fact, Aaron bought me my own full glass here. From then on, the celebration seemed all the more vivid and exciting.
The tenth: Carly served us some great Strongbow Cider in Merry Old England
Our Liverpudlian friend Tina
It was unfortunate that we had to end the evening on the disgusting and bland beer of Canada that we had to purchase from a cute street vendor. We couldn’t find a bar or restaurant that wasn’t booked solid, nor could we find a much-needed restroom in this shanty little town of Canada. But I did have the pleasure of buying Aaron his final beer of the quest.
The eleventh and final: Gabby was the cutest but the Labatt Blue was the worst in Canada
We wobbled our way out of the park at that point and Aaron posed for the photo at the top of the posting, indicating that he had conquered Epcot and its eleven countries. He did not however pose for the photo below taken on our way back to the bus, which I thought would be an important post script to the evening’s affairs.
I thought the story would end there, but Aaron had other plans when we got back to Pop Century. He insisted on grabbing another drink in the bar. I was just tipsy enough to go along with it, and hence ended up with a White Russian.
Brain stem destruction concludes at Pop Century
Denise and Aaron slept in a different room at the resort than we did, so I didn’t hear Aarons frequent visits to the bathroom overnight, but I did get to see his frazzled, war-torn appearance the next day as we made our way to our next destination – and the occasional disapproving glares from Denise. Oh well, we ended up with an experience to remember. Alls well that ends well. That’s my motto.
Up next: a farewell to Pop Century and arrival at Daytona Beach…
Now that looks like fun! The pictures are very amusing too!
Dave Chasteen
November 15th, 2007
I’ve never been so proud.
(I’m sure the sarcasm in that comment was heard “around the world.”)
Denise
November 15th, 2007
Well you may not believe this, but I remember everything about the trip round the world. And one of the things I remember discussing was Brad’s desire for more comments to be submitted, particularly by those involved in the posting. So here goes:
First a big thank you to Brad for his “able assistance.” I think I would have succeeded on my own, but it would not have been nearly as fun, and I would have had to consume even more beer. Thanks to you, it was a lot of fun, and it was great quality time that I will remember very fondly.
I’m no beer connoisseur, but my two favorites were the German Wheat Beer and Tsing Tao. At the other end of the spectrum were Carlsburg and Kronenburg. We had tinkered with the idea of having a glass of wine in France and in hindsight that would have been much better! The best country was certainly the UK, with the worst being Canada. It was definitely a letdown to end there with that stupid mountain thing and no restrooms.
I, too, was disappointed that the Norwegian restaurant was closed. The sushi was good, but a full meal would have served me much better that evening. Sorry about the American Adventure, as well. Had we waited for the next show, we would have never made it all the way around.
It should also be noted that we accomplished this feat in about three hours. While it may have been wiser to try this over a full day, the frenetic pace added its own entertainment (and challenges).
The next day was indeed rough, and I’m glad that Denise was insistent in getting me out of bed, or I surely never would have on my own. I learned a long time ago that mixing different kinds of beers is not a good idea. However, in this case, ten different kinds of beers and two different mixed drinks were the only way to reach the goal. It did make for a bad next day, though.
I guess in closing, I will say that this was something I had never done before and will never do again. But I was glad to do it once. Like you said it’s pretty unique and made for some fun stories. Plus it was good to spend some time with you. Thanks for hanging in there with me.
Aaron
November 15th, 2007