Helllo everybody, it is my first post here! I am a student in Greece (22 yo) and I have limited experience in dating/pickup.

My friends and I usually go out at night (though not in clubs, usually in places where you can sit with your friends at the table and get drunk for cheap, Greek student life in a nutshell) and sometimes I speak to women I like but that happens only when I am kind of drunk.

Most of the women I have gone on dates with have been friends of friends or I have seen them like a few days ago in my circles and I have asked them out.

The trouble comes when I like a total stranger ins situations like at the street (no way I can stop her without shitting my pants or having a heart attack) or in buses or in any case where I don't know them, it is not night or I am not drunk (in an accceptable level).

I had bought The Rules Of The Game and it suggested that I talk to people in general so that I get used to it, but when I asked women about something in order to get used to open them, I usually got the info I asked them about (which I already knew), I said thanks and I moved on, the idea of talking to a complete stranger made my heart race and it did so in a non-pleasant way, if you understand.

How do I get over this? I have read a thousand times that this sort of change requires pain, but I have no guide in this and I feel completely lost. A friend (who currently serves the army and was my only guide in this, the others are not really helping although they try) used to tell a girl he liked whatever he had on his mind, sometimes he looked like a clown but he has got to know wayyy more people (and girls) than me. Trouble is that I feel I don't have this thing inside me, the "I can talk about anything and keep on with the conversation" and I can't find anything interesting to open them (unless they want to discuss which bus will take me where or other boring questions about repetitive everyday stuff that I have on my mind when I am out).