Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic (Part 3)

After eight long hours on two trains, I was back in Ceske Budejovice. I got back a little after 8pm, so most of my fellow linguists had already left the dorms and were out and about doing things. Fabrizio had left me a note saying they our group had gone out to dinner, which reminded me of how hungry I was. The last thing I had eaten was a Zwiebelmett at the train station in Berlin. Raw pork? Yes. Zwiebelmetts are basically raw ground pork with lime and onions served on a piece of bread. Not bad, actually, but certainly not enough to fill me up for the rest of the day. I was starving, and I had to find food.

I headed over to a few nearby restaurants, only to find out that they stop serving food around 9pm. My stomach was growling. I walked back, and had just decided to go to bed when Alex and Tom came to rescue me. The group was waiting downstairs to go to a pub two blocks away, called Domino Bar. I know the boys gave me something to snack on, I can’t really remember what it was. I was going to fill my stomach with cold Czech beer, hoping that it had enough nutrients for a healthy diet. Or not. It didn’t matter.

The pub itself was OK. The staff was unfriendly, but that seemed to be the norm around there. There was a couple of pool tables and foosball, nothing too fancy other than the jukebox the girls seemed so happy about. Good company made a huge difference. It was nice to be making new friends, from all parts of the globe, learning and sharing experiences.

Lucerna (Skuherského 1392/75, 370 01 České Budějovice) was our hangout spot on Wednesday and Friday night. This was a much nicer bar, with a lounge and a dance floor. It was huge too, apparently there was also a nightclub upstairs. It was there where I was first introduced to Becherovka, typical herbal Czech liquor that can very well serve as fuel for your party engines. It is smooth and sweet (and cheap), so we sipped on a few singles and doubles over ice.
Undoubtedly, the place where I had the most fun was Kulečníková Herna Metropol. This billiards bar was much like a small Czech version of Backstage Billiards in Orlando. Cheap booze and darts, pool, foosball, among other table games, and GREAT music. Classic rock galore.  There was a bit of a Western vibe to this joint (Americanized, one may say), but that mix made it a very cool place to hang out and drink some beers. On top of that, amicable competition among linguists is always nice. On that note, Czechs are better than you at throwing darts, regardless of where you’re from. They are better than anyone.

The 2011 EGG Summer School was coming to an end. I made very good friends there, some of which I got to visit again a few months later. I had a great time with them in this lovely Czech small town. I only had another two weeks left in Europe, but still lots of energy left to enjoy them to the fullest. The next post will show a bit of my fun weekend in Prague.