A hangover museum in Zagreb to remember late-night binge drinking

It often happens that revelers don’t remember much of what they did the night before. On Zagreb (Croatia)a museum collects hangover stories and relics of drunken nights to help visitors fill their black holes.

The “world’s first surf museum”, according to its creators, evokes only the festive side of those drunken nights. But soon it will also show the risks inherent in excessive alcohol consumption.

“The museum talks about some nights between the moment we left the disco and the moment we woke up,” Rino Dubokovic, 24, who opened the museum in early December with his friend Roberta Mikelic, from The same age.

It is about “bringing together in the same place the objects with which people wake up and the stories they generate, so that some can identify” says Mikelic

While several museums around the world are dedicated to alcohol, the two young men had the idea of a place dedicated to post-holiday cares. One of them recounted waking up with a bicycle pedal in his pocket, with no idea how or why.

The small museum exhibits memorabilia and relics corresponding to 25 hangovers.

Four rooms recount the stages of a laborious return home. “Street” is adorned with graffiti. The “Mirrors” recall the shop windows that reflect the dazed face of the reveler.

In “Jardín”, the visitor listens to the morning song of the birds. In “Room”, where people wake up after a drunken night, there is chaos of spilled bottles and overflowing ashtrays.

Visitors are offered rakijathe local brandy, and they can play darts with special glasses that simulate the effects of drunkenness.

The testimonies are recounted on pages hanging on the walls. A young man recalls showing up at his house at dawn, and showing his identity document to his father, a uniformed police officer who was about to go to work. He thought he was in front of the entrance to a nightclub.

“Bad memories”

His father “let him in” but “I had no right to go out for a long time,” says the young man.

The fifty daily visitorsusually young foreign tourists, think the museum is a good idea.

“I am very shocked, but also horrified, as all this brings back very bad memories, but also very good memories,” says Andrew Hardie, 29, from Edinburgh.

The risks of loss of control and alcoholic amnesia, which can lead to assault or rape, are not addressed.

According to World Health Organization (WHO) the harmful use of alcohol causes 3.3 million deaths each year in the world. In the 20-39 age group, about 25% of deaths are attributable to alcohol.

The creators of the museum are preparing to dedicate a “black chamber” to these risks where warnings and information will be displayed.

They also want to open a bar to serve anti-hangover remedies.

Meanwhile, visitors are invited to complete on a black board, with white chalk, the following sentence: “This morning, I woke up with…”

…”Two stray dogs”, “my ex”, “a bunch of pumpkins”, responded the visitors.