My Bartender and The Pub

It is a truth universally known that, whenever you move to somewhere new, you will instinctively select a pub that will become YOUR pub, your home, the place where you spend your happiest and loneliest nights and the space where the memories of your adventure are registered and processed. If you’re lucky enough, this place will feature a bar man which will grow to know you, start saying hello every time you come in and will soon become your secret friend in the parallel reality of The Bar.

In my case, luck was on my side and I soon found My Bartender in a tall, ginger, friendly dutch guy working in a pub down my street. I don’t know his name, he doesn’t know mine, but after about a week of seeing me and my friends constantly there, playing table football and paying his wage in pints, we went through the silent agreement of becoming acquaintances. 

You see, The Pub is not just a pub. It is not a place you just walk in and out of: it is a whole different reality, like a Narnia for your thoughts, a place that listens to the deepest notes of your heart and dances to the sound of your mind. You become a character, your character, everything is where it’s meant to be and an atmosphere of quiet nothing surrounds you. I know it might sound like I am completely out of my mind, perhaps I am, but if that’s so my mind is in The Pub right now.

So, back to my little friend. I decided to dedicate a blog post to him because I felt like he deserved it. I haven’t been here long but I feel like this is one of the elements that is making my experience here in Rotterdam unique. It’s only been a month but it feels like a lifetime and I feel so at peace. It’s nice to walk into a place and feel like you belong, it’s nice to step into the bar with a dark look on your face and have a stranger but at the same time someone so close to you, tell you not to look so sad. It’s an amazing feeling to have someone so detached from you know your taste and what you want, yet nothing at all.

So here’s to my bartender, this casual man who always smiles and makes my days a little lighter. Cheers!

Elena