The Museum Of Hangovers Opens In Croatia
We’ve all had that moment. Waking up on a Sunday morning, the sun is burning bright through the blinds and we reach for our phone to text our friends about exactly what happened last night. The cultural phenomenon of exchanging stories the morning after a night out with good company, throbbing headaches, and hopefully a buttered bagel, is one that’s universally known and practiced. So much so that one individual from Croatia thought it would be an amazing idea to create a museum where this phenomenon can be captured and enjoyed by all; not surprisingly, he thought of the idea while he was out drinking with some friends.
Rino Dubokovic is a student at university in Zagreb, Croatia who said he was out with a bunch of his friends drinking and talking about some of their funniest hangover stories when the idea suddenly dawned upon him.
“I wanted some sort of collection where all these objects from drunk stories would be exposed together with their stories,” Dubokovic told CNN Travel.
Thus, The Museum of Hangovers was officially born, well, after six or so months of actual hard work. The Museum itself contains a multitude of fun exhibits, including a room where visitors can test their drinking abilities by putting on specialized set of “beer goggles” that cause your sight to blur; visitors can then go through and test their reflexes while they’re “intoxicated.”
Additionally, the museum has an exhibit with a bunch of random objects that people inexplicably found the morning after a night of heavy drinking, and an interactive exhibit where everyone can share their craziest stories. The website for the museum also has a specialized section where you can leave your favorite “night out” stories that might become featured in the museum itself!
The museum also includes a gift shop of fun memorabilia ranging from fun drinking board games to more traditional bar games such as darts.
One thing that Dubokovic also told CNN Travel was that he didn’t want the general public to think that he was attempting to glamorize excessive drinking, blacking out, or making poor decisions that could harm someone. Instead, he’s trying to emphasize the way in which the museum was born to begin with. The art of being in good company and creating these funny and wild memories that everyone will look back on as “the glory years.”
“It’s [the museum] a physical representation of the kinds of chats I had with my friends, where everyone is sharing stories and bonding about things they did in the past. In the future, we want to make people aware of the bad things related to alcohol,” he said.
According to the website The Museum of Hangovers officially opened on the first of December as a “test concept” for a museum. Croatia and Europe in general is known for having these “temporary” specialized museums pop up. They open up for a month or so and then based off how much positive public perception it receives, they’ll gain further sponsorship’s to stay open for longer.
So far the museum has been a massive success both in Croatia and online. The internet loves spreading the word about cool and new trendy international spots to hit. At this rate, the Museum of good friendships, good drinks, and even better stories is looking like it’ll be around for a while, at least until the morning after.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
