This is nowhere more apparent than the Travel Shack in Vienna. An international backpacking bar in Vienna’s city center, this place sees travelers from every corner of the globe mixing with the locals to share ideas and good times. My local Austrian friend is how discovered this local place, and I’m so glad that I did. As amazing as the city of Vienna may be, the experience was made complete by a night at the Travel Shack. It’s primary appeal is its laid back and tolerant atmosphere which attracts visitors from all over the world. On any given night there might be two or three dozen different nationalities represented here all drinking, having fun, and sharing each other’s culture.

Another wonderful draw to the Track Shack is the myriad of randomness that you find as soon you walk in. Drinking games imported from all over the world, gadgets that you’ve never seen before, flags from every country hanging on the wall, and random décor that brings so much character to the place. One such unique drinking game is trying to hammer a nail into a stump with one arm tied behind your back…using the small back end of the hammer. Yes, people are actually playing with hammer and nails while drinking at a public bar. And quite honestly that’s just the tip of iceberg, but we can’t get into all the details here. You will have to experience for yourself!

It was on my second visit to the Travel Shack that this particular story took place. I was with a couple of European buddies and my local Austrian friend Dominick that first brought me to the bar. There we were having a few drinks, meeting people from all over the world, and partaking in some of the unique games. We were there a couple hours at this point and it was maybe midnight when the overhead music started playing loudly. Everyone in the bar started to look around confused at each other expecting this to mean last call or something. It wasn’t.

The bar tenders didn’t skip a beat and pretending as if nothing was happening just kept pouring drinks and serving customers. A few more minutes went by and we just shrugged our shoulders and thought nothing of it. Maybe they wanted to simply take a break from the roar of the crowd for a bit. And that’s when it happened. The entire wall to the left of the bar started to slowly ascend into the ceiling. My friends and I looked at each other with a strange expression as did literally everyone in the bar. What the heck was happening here?

Out from the bottom came some kind of smoke as the wall ascended up into the ceiling. The wall reached the top and all that we could see was a thick layer of fog. And then it hit. Michael’s Jackson’s Thriller was slowly coming through the fog. At first no one did anything. We looked at each other and then slowly started moving toward the fog and music. Then more people followed until we found ourselves in a mysterious room covered with fog to the point you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face with Thriller playing overhead. Slowly the fog started to dissipate and the room came into focus. We were in a completely different section of the bar that was hidden from the street that was like a cross between a club, a bar, and someone’s garage.

The entire moment from beginning to end was just hilarious. Seeing everyone’s reaction as the wall literally just starts to ascend into the ceiling out of nowhere was priceless. How often have you been in a bar when that happened? I’d have to say this was my first. And then watching everyone slowly start moving into the fog like a herd of zombies was like something out of a music video. And then to cap it off Thriller came on to complete the experience. And the bar staff played it completely cool as if nothing was happening. Many, many more things happened that night but I’ll keep you guessing as to what those could be.