In Zagreb, on Vlaška 55, there is the Hangover Museum. According to the museum itself, this is the only place in the world of this profile: eight thematic rooms, more than fifty stories, interactive stations and a ticket for ten euros online. No morals at the entrance.
The museum does not collect art. He collects physical evidence of an evening that does not remember itself. The institution's legend begins with a bicycle pedal: a friend of one of the founders woke up with it in his pocket and could not explain where it came from. Most great institutions started with little. But rarely - with such convincing details.
In tourism parlance, this is an immersive experience. In the language of the morning - a floor that swings on its own, without any ticket.
Then the project stops joking in one direction. There's a drink-driving simulator, distorted glasses, darts and a sloped floor: the attractions don't make the evening more beautiful, but show how quickly the body ceases to be a reliable witness.
And here Narwhal, having reached Zagreb, for the first time feels a slight professional jealousy. Because the museum is about us. The Croats just needed a building, a route and a ticket office to show what Narva gives out on Sundays for free and without a guide.
The pedal in our pocket is called Tuesday. The swinging floor is not an attraction, but a road from the port to the house. Distorted glasses are not needed: the city already sometimes doubles itself. Zagreb charges ten euros for what Narva distributes in the morning as a free geography supplement.
We have a face that remembers everything - the same one with which, after Ro-Ro, you still have to look alive. There is a simulator: get to Maxima and not tell everyone you meet. There is also a collection of items that we woke up with. Only we don’t sign them with signs, but quietly return them to their place and pretend that it was so.
The difference is one thing. The Croats made a museum out of a hangover - with a ticket office, a route and an educational mission. Narva left it as an oral genre, which is passed on from mouth to mouth and from Wednesday to Thursday.
Narwhal leaves Vlaška 55 with a feeling familiar to every provincial in a large culture: he went to look at a rarity, and the rarity turned out to be dearer. Zagreb built a temple to what we consider weather. Respect. But also a slight resentment for my hometown, which again did something important first and without a grant.
Return ticket, pedal in my pocket mentally left at home. The main exhibit awaits in the same place as always: not in eight rooms, but in one Monday.