Tag: Nights Out

Unplanned Nights Out

It’s really nice to get glammed up and head off for a night on the town. Half of the fun is in the getting ready and the other half is reliving the memories the next day. Planned nights out can end up a little stale sometimes however, and it’s always those nights that just ‘seem to happen’ which make the best memories.

With that in mind, here are a round up our top 3 spontaneous nights out on our travels:

BBQ Party In Yosemite, California

A few baked potatoes and sausages made up most of our camping meals. One of the nights in Yosemite saw a family camp next to us – wow did they put us to shame!! They had floodlights, RVs, tables, chairs and so much food!! Being from the UK, we are naturally a reserved bunch but one of the guys bounded over and invited us to join them for dinner. I’m so glad we accepted, as the night was full of amazing food (including meat cooked in a hole in the ground!) excellent company and more than a few beers. We got to learn about them and their travels and even picked up a few camping tips along the way. It was lovely to be invited into someone else’s party and we had the best night of our trip.

Ruin Pubs in Budapest

Szimpla Kert was an amazing night out, but it took us a while to find it! You can read about it here.

Street Singing in Croatia

We were returning back from the little shops and wine bars in Split when we stumbled across an open air gig. One of the bars (Luxor) opens out on to a courtyard where lots of people (locals and tourists alike) sat watching the two performers, one singer and one guitarist.

They were playing a whole range of songs and the atmosphere was great. We sat down on the stone steps, under a blanket of stars and listened to the music play. We got speaking to a lady who was travelling with her university course and exchanged some conversation about places to visit, things to see and her observations on the city. We also might have shared a few chips! It was an easy and relaxed way to share experiences with others (even for an introvert like me!) and was one of the best evenings of our trip.

All of these spontaneous nights out had one thing in common; speaking to other travellers. Without chatting to other people, our experiences would have been far less interesting. We’d never have known where the best ruin pubs were, or learned about other people’s camping tips. Make a point of speaking to fellow travellers and locals, you’re far more likely to learn about a cool place to go.

The Ruin Pubs of Budapest

The oldest ruin pub in Budapest – Szimpla Kert

We were sat on plastic, flip down seats, made out of an old theatre chair, screwed into a heavily graffitied wall. We’d made our way through the open-roofed maze of rooms and the sound of the music had faded a little, although the base could still be felt through the floor. We had headed down to Szimpla Kert,  the original ruin pub in Budapest and it was certainly living up to it’s hype!

Ruin pubs make use of the run down, derelict spaces in Budapest, creating unique settings full of mis-matched furniture and creatively placed oddities. There is quite an interesting history to the ruin pubs, you can read more here:  https://theculturetrip.com/europe/hungary/articles/a-brief-history-of-budapests-ruin-bars/

Originally we had found what we thought to be Szimpla Kert and weren’t as impressed. After being told “Don’t turn left out of your hotel, not safe” by the taxi driver, we were understandably a little cautious! Therefore, when we went hunting, we’d found somewhere that proclaimed itself as ‘the original ruin pub’ and thought that we had reached our destination. We were somewhat unimpressed and couldn’t really understand what all the fuss was about. It quickly became clear that the small, narrow pub we were in was not the one we had set out to find and, after getting lost a couple of times, we found Szimpla Kert. Entering into the bar and taking a seat, we started to understand why it had come with such high recommendations.

Across the way from where we were sitting, there was an old car seat being used as theatre seating, in front of a projector screen showing films against a graffiti-ladened wall. Looking upwards, the court-yard between the two external walls was joined together by netting, flags and awnings, creating a market place type feel, enhanced by the rhythmic, yet unrecognisable, baseline supplied by a DJ who was strategically placed behind a wall of metal fencing and potted plants.

The vibe was that of a relaxed house party, groups of people sat chatting, people dancing, some playing with a prop or two (in this case a couple of bike wheels mounted on the walls) and others making use of the wall space to add their own graffiti to the blank spaces between other visitor’s scribbles. The eclectic mix of art and furniture matched the range of nationalities gathered in the bar, each bringing a little of their own culture to the shared experience. Each taking a little piece of the culture of the ruin pubs home in their heart.

http://en.szimpla.hu/

Magpie and Stump Vs High Rollers

Bowling, drinks and Canadian atmosphere in Banff

The barmaid in the Magpie & Stump obviously wasn’t happy with our selection of drinks – we chose the rum over the tequila and the prices didn’t seem to top us over the threshold of ‘well paying customers’. The slight ‘dishwasher-like’ taste came as a freebie, and lingered around well after the last swallow.
It was a strange place, Mexican style with hundreds of monkey nut shells covering the floor. Our group weren’t sure if this was by design or by lazy cleaning. Either way, the place didn’t have the vibe we were looking for.
After tipping the waitress well, she warmed up a little and told us about a place down the street called High Rollers. From her description, it sounded a bit more our kind of scene.
Hanging a right down the road, we headed down a small staircase where the room opened out into a space big enough for a couple of bowling lanes, a DJ booth, sports on the TV and an eating / drinking area. It was here that our group found the atmosphere we had been hunting down – something between nightspot hangout and first date location.


Sharing a few drinks (including a fishbowl not quite big enough to fit a goldfish in comfortably), we alternated between reviewing our trip, watching the other diners and providing unintentional entertainment for the couple sitting opposite us as they laughed at the competition we had going on between two of our group to finish the fishbowl in record time (there was some cheating going on and the green goo didn’t always seem to disappear as quickly as it should!). The relaxed vibe and friendly bar staff seemed to rub off on the other people in the room and everyone was laughing, smiling and shooting the breeze with the people on their tables – this was the Canadian night out I’d been looking to find.
High Rollers can be found at: http://www.highrollersbanff.com/