The greatest party ever

ENGLISH VERSION BELOW IN RED

Sucedió hace tres años ya, en las frías tierras escocesas. Resulta que hablando hablando Fabio (un italiano amigo mío de allí) y yo nos dimos cuenta de que nuestros cumpleaños eran casi el mismo día. Además coincidía en fechas con los ultimos días que estaba Mercé en Glasgow antes de volver a España.

No era la primera vez que montábamos una juerga buena en casa de Fabio.
Ni la primera vez que sonaba la alarma y acabábamos todos en la calle. Ni la primera vez que amenazaban con expulsarlo del piso de la residencia. Y ya me había dicho alguna vez "Luis, si me echan del piso tiene que ser por haber montado la fiesta más grande que se recuerda en Glasgow"
Y pasó que se juntaron 2 cumpleaños y 1 despedida, y que se enteró Francesco. Y que de alguna manera Francesco consiguió hacerse con las direcciones de e-mail de los 400 y pico estudiantes erasmus de Glasgow.
Y claro, pasó lo que tenía que pasar.

Francesco estuvo una semana mandando emails a las 400 direcciones de correo anunciando la fiesta y pidiendo que todo el mundo trajese a sus amigos y abundancia de bebidas.
Aclaro que Fabio vivía en un piso en planta baja, con 4 habitaciones, cocina y sala para lavadora compartida con otro piso en planta baja, cuyos residentes habían aceptado abrirlo para la fiesta aunque, con buen criterio, diesen marcha atrás posteriormente.

Yo venía de haber estado escalando esa tarde y llegué un poco más tarde de la hora de comienzo "oficial". Así que la casa ya estaba llena, aunque aún se podía entrar. Habían establecido una habitación para dejar los abrigos y ante la dificultad de entrar por la puerta pasé por la ventana, dejé el abrigo y entré en el meollo de la fiesta: la cocina.

Fabio tenía compañeros de piso rusos que parecían tener el vodka por castigo y castigaban al resto a beberselo a chupitos. Allí en la cocina estaba todo el mundo, Fabio, Francesco, Mercé, Sergio, Rodrigo, Manuela, los de Granada, las gallegas, Bula el portugués etc... Y aun faltaban por llegar mis compañeros de piso y los vascos.

Pero a lo que llegaron ya no se podía entrar. Juro que habré visto alguna foto de la gente arremolinándose en la puerta y por el caminillo que cruzaba el parque, pero no tengo ni idea de donde encontrarla.
Sucedió lo que tenía que suceder y vino la policía debido a la aglomeración de gente bebiendo y cantando fuera del piso (en Escocia estaba ya prohibido eso de beber al aire libre por entonces), lo que hizo que vinieran los seguratas a echarnos a todos del piso de Fabio. Volví a repetir la operación de entrar por la ventana a por el abrigo ya que en ese momento me encontraba fuera, mostrándoles a los vascos mis dotes interpretativas de canciones de Ixo rai!

A partir de entonces empezamos a vagar por los diversos pisos de gente que vivía en la misma residencia y que, en su imprudencia y probablemente debido a su estado de consciencia alterada nos ofrecía acudir a los mismos. Claro que el segurata no tenía la conciencia tan alterada y nos podía seguir para irnos echando piso a piso. En algún momento de nuestra peregrinación decidí que era un buen momento para mostrar mis progresos en el rocódromo y trepé a un árbol, aunque el susodicho segurata, sin duda preocupado por mi habilidades chimpanceriles me conminó con buenas palabras y amenazas de llamar a la policía a bajar del mismo.

Y así estábamos, un poco desorientados por el parque que rodea Murano (la residencia de Fabio) cuando un taxi paso cerca de nosotros y sacando la cabeza de la ventanilla Sergio gritó: "vamos a casa de Merceeee!!!"

"Vaya" pensé, "si ya estuvimos una vez y no le hizo mucha gracia que llenásemos el piso, a ver si va a ser una fiesta que quería para pocas personas y nos acabamos juntando un copón..." En previsión de ello cuando el grueso de la manada llegó a su casa y subió yo me rezagué un poco con la excusa de cogerme una de esas joyas culinarias que eran los take aways de pakistanís a las 4 de la madrugada. Pues si eran acertados mis pensamientos! menos mal que Merce es una santa y me abrió la puerta del caos que era su piso (que compartía con una italiana y con Francesco).

Y bueno, allí estuvimos hasta que se hizo de día, se acabó el bebercio y se acabaron las ganas de juerga.

And now in english, for my fellow erasmus friends.

There are some days that are not like any other day. And some nights as well...
This is what happened exactly 3 years ago and now I want to remember it and remember the people that took part in it. Fabio, Fede, Merce, Rodrigo, Izas, Genis, Francesco, Nico and the rest, the loooong list of other... this one goes for you

It happened 3 years ago, in the cold and rainy city of Glasgow, Scotland. Fabio and me realized that our birthdays were just a few days apart and at the same time Merce was leaving shortly afterwards.

It was not the first time we held a party at Fabio´s place.We had 2 big parties before the Great One..the one at the end of november when the fire alarmed started (Fabio doesn't remember it because he was completely drunk..he has an hole in his memory of 4 hours....) and it was very big....It was interrupted by the fire alarm which started ringing at 3-4 am started by a friend of one of Fabio´s flatmates.

Then there was the surprise party for Salvatore organized by Fabio...but nothing great as the Great One..

Neither the first one the fire alarm went off. It was not the first time that he had been threatened to be kicked out of his flat. And certainly not the first time he had told me: "Luis, if I am kicked out it has to be because I have organized the greatest party ever".
And two birthdays and a farewell were to be celebrated in one night. And Francesco came to know it. And he somehow managed to get the email addresses of all of the 400 plus erasmus students in Glasgow. And what happened just had to happen.

Francesco spent one whole week sending emails to everybody inviting them to the party and asking, begging them, to bring as many people and alcoholic drinks as possible.
Fabio lived in a flat on the ground floor with 4 other people. Every one had their own bedroom and they shared a kitchen, bathroom and laudry. There was another flat on ground floor and, although they had agreed to open it the withdrew in the last moment (good judgement by all accounts).
I had been climbing that day and I arrived after the official hour, so the flat was really crowded, but there was still room for some people. There was a bedroom left for leaving the jackets and I entered through the window (far more easier than using the door) I left my anorak and went right into the middle of it: the kitchen.
Fabio had russian neighbours and they seemed to be punished to having vodka forever, so they were punishing people to drink it in shots. Everyone was there and still some of my flatmates had not arrived.

But when they came it was impossible to enter the flat. I swear I have seen some picture with people making a long crowded line in front of the main entrance. The fire alarm did not start that day. Actually everything lasted from 10pm until midnight when the police officers went to stop it as there were too many people outside the flat and they were celebrating there dancing and drinking (in Scotland is forbidden to drink outside). Coming into the flat, the officers saw the fire alarm relevators blocked by socks. That caused their reaction and ordered everybody to get out from the flat and the laundry (which was another party-room)...

In the following days Fabio and his crazy flatmate George received 4 times the visit of the responsible of the Village who told them that we had caused the greatest mess in the last 5 years.

I repeated the procedure of going in through the window since at that moment I was outside the flat, showing to the people from basque country how to sing to the tunes of Ixo Rai.

From then on we started wandering across the flats of other people that lived at the same residence and that, in their altered perception of reality, were inviting us to go. But the security officer had a clearer perception and was following us around and kicking us out of the flats. At some point I decided to show my climbing improvements and went up a tree, though the security man, doubting my chimpanzee-esque skills, ordered me with kind manners and threats of calling the police to go down.

And so we were, a little bit not knowing what to do when a cab passed next to us and Sergio shouted "we go to Merce´s"

I thought tha we had been in a party at Merce´s, a big number of people and she had not been pleased. Maybe it was just one of those meetings ment for few people and they were in for a surprise...
Foreseeing this I stopped at a takeaway to buy something while the rest of the group went up the stairs. It turned out that I was right, but Merce opened the door anyway (she´s is a nice girl ;).
And so we spent the rest of the night there until the sun came and the drinks left.
I hope you had a good time reading this

Luis