PANDEMIC PUB CRAWLS

What do you do when they close all the pubs?

​

A Vroni without pubs is like a fish without water and therefore not a viable proposition. Extreme times call for radical measures, and if I wasn’t allowed to go to the pub, I was just gonna open one myself. So this is the story of my pandemic pub crawls.

 

I’ll have to start at the beginning, even though you might have heard this story before. Last year I saw a newspaper article, it was not very big and towards the bottom of the page, and it said that some kind of new virus was becoming a concern in China. Phew, I thought, luckily that’s really far away.

 

‘Freu dich nicht zu früh’, we say in Germany, don’t start celebrating yet. Or more precisely, ‘you idiot, a virus doesn’t give the tiniest hoot about borders and distances, and will be with you sooner than you think’. Alas, it took another couple months or so, and they shut our country down, too. The whole world went into some kind of strange pause mode, hoping to reopen soon when things would return to normal. We are still waiting for this one year later, and in the meantime, governments have tried many things to combat this virus and help people survive. They shut the shops, they told everyone to work from home, they stopped any unnecessary travel. But the thing that affected me the most, was that they shut the pubs! Shock, horror!!!

 

Of course this makes perfect sense. A virus feels very happy in a pub environment, so to keep everybody going was out of the question. But I was now stuck. Coping mechanisms had to be put in place. The next best thing I could think of was to open my own pub. In order to make this safe it had to be in my own home and with no other people in it. Luckily there are phones and video calls and sometimes, in good weather and with restrictions permitting, even gardens.

 

My plan was simple. Give the pub a name, arrange a time and date, and bring a drink. Friends were inventive and many funky pubs opened their doors to visits from this little punter. And so it began.

 

On 18th of April 2020 we opened our first bar in the house. This was the Royal Scum, named by my daughter who fancied a pirate bar. She said they have glass eyes and prosthetic legs behind the bar, you can get them with your drink. Its a bit of a rough venue and kicked us off to a good start. That night I went to another Edinburgh bar, The Flodden Inn, and then to a little Bavarian town for a drink at the dignified Cafe Caro. You might as well start with a pub crawl and I had many more adventures going from door to door all over the world with a simple call, always drink in hand and happy to be having fun with friends who were so far away. Even friends who were in town got a visit, as we were not allowed to see each other even just a few streets away.

 

Strange times indeed, but my evenings gave me something to look forward to. I would actually prepare as if I was off to the pub, put on make up (haha its minicule) and brush my hair. I put on outdoor shoes. Even if it was just on the phone, I felt like I was going out.

​