Europe will likely be the last continent I visit. It's not that I don't want to go there, it's just that I'm more interested in the other six and would focus my efforts on exploring then first. So imagine my glee when Brooklyn Mick obtained a bottle of absinthe, which to my knowledge is only sold (legally) within the EU.

Before you start huffing and scoffing about blindness and psychosis, trust that I'm not the type to swallow anything in any quantity in search of a killer buzz. Besides, I'd be much more worried about a substance that wasn't manufactured in a country (the Czech Republic) that takes its likker brewin' seriously. I would consider absinthe to be illicit rather than illegal, and illegal substances usually have far more dubious origins than this bottle of quality Czech-made green hooch that a coworker bought all legit-like while visiting his boyfriend's parents in Wales.

Still, while it had been a while since I'd come across a new psychotrope to experiment with, I wanted to take it slow and safe. Brooklyn told me that the wormwood content of a given bottle was rated between 1 and 20, 10 being the highest that could be sold in the EU, and this stuff was an 8. Plus, it was 110 proof, apparently because the active ingredients are alcohol soluble, which is why, when you add water, it turns white as the ingredients are drawn out.

Traditionally, you dribble the absinthe over a sugarcube into a glass of water, using a special holey spoon that would probably be found in most home liquor cabinets around the turn of the last century. We just mixed it up in the recommended porportions and did shots- with plenty of time in between each one to gauge the effects.

I tell you, I am in love with this stuff. It was like all the good parts of alcohol without the bad. Of course, I didn't drink enough to really regret it. What was it Oscar Wilde said? "After the first glass you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world." For me, it was like being drunk while being completely clear-headed. I was euphoric, but I wasn't abandoning my inhibitions and better judgement as I have been known to do under the influence. I didn't drink enough to experience the tracers or visions that others have reported, but I was definitely three sheets to the wind. You know that point after three glasses of wine where you feel great and none of the lethargy or sickness of the alcohol has set in? Just imagine if you could reach that state, and then keep drinking in order to amplify it. That's the best I can do to describe the effects. I'd wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who had the opportunity to try it, as long as it wasn't homemade, and they drank it responsibly.

The only drawback was the fact that it also contained 110 proof alcohol, and that alcohol gave me a ripping hangover. I forgot to hydrate myself before bed. I was so clear-headed, mentally, that I didn't realize how drunk I was, physically. Bear that in mind when partaking. But I hope you get a chance to try it! And if you've got a source, send me some! :D