(posted by tobias)
This is it, folks. Perhaps the greatest drinking game of all time. Yes, I know it just looks like ping pong, but it’s a very special variation. The Germans call it “Rundlauf Tischtennis” (roughly, round-running table tennis) and it is one hell of a lot of fun. So much so, in fact, that Berlin has a bar devoted more or less exclusively to the pursuit of the perfect rundlauf – the one and only Dr. Pong!… Basically, a bunch of people gather around the table, and one person serves to the person opposite, who returns it to the next in line, and so on, moving (for some reason) counter-clockwise. If you miss a shot, or a return, you are out. It goes from polite and friendly to fast and frenzied pretty quickly, and the last two players on the table play to five. Then it starts again. The serious players do it with drinks in hand…
p.s. that’s my partner in crime Athanasia at the table – having just made a spectacular return, of course! (I taught her everything she knows…)
-tobias