You don't have to go home but you can't stay here!

When I was in college some of the "witty" bouncers used to say this clever line when ridding themselves of the responsibility of a bunch of young drunks who thought 2 am was still early. You can apply this phrase to most of the "hotels" here in Oz. Most are not "proper" hotels and you can not no matter how drunk you are stay there. Here is a little background:

The word "Pub" is used in Australia to indicate a bar, also known as "the local". They are often called "Hotel", the reason for this dates back to the days that licenses only allowed pubs to provide alcohol to traveling public, the presence of a few rooms ( who might never be used) then gave some impression that the rules being followed.

To confuse things we also have proper hotels that also call themselves hotels. How can you tell the difference? Well, if you are "gettin pissed"(Aussie slang over served/drunk) and then escorted upstairs via elevator and you wake up with in nice comfy sheets with a $350 room charge to your bar bill, you were at a proper hotel, if you are "gettin pissed"and thrown in a cab in hopes you will make it home or you wake up in the drunk tank at the pokey(that's jail, not an Aussie poker machine room) you were probably at a pub.

LK demonstrates one effective method for "gettin pissed"