One of the things about the last day of summer—it may turn out to be the next-to-last. You never know. There’s a compounding effect, as each one is more appreciated than the one before. I was back on the hill Sunday, enjoying perhaps the last warm day of the year for a second time.
The people I was with were well-traveled individuals, putting my wandrings to shame (although, not being players of the ex-pat game they never tried to put me to shame). I asked my drinking companions, “Have you ever, anywhere, ever seen a more beautiful place to sit and enjoy a beer?”
Beer drinkers enjoy a sunny afternoon in one of the world’s best places to sip a pivo.
Uker, who’s been around (he was traveling with the first person ever to be diagnosed with malaria in Mongolia), thought for a while and said, “Nope. There’s nothing like this.” Or something like that. I wasn’t taking notes. I have in the past asked this question of other folks who’ve been around and about. They will look out over the city, think about it for a while, and shake their heads. There are some nice places out there, but this place is a mystical convergence of beer, peace, beauty, and people who love beer, peace, and beauty.
I know some people who could make a case for their own back porches as the best place on the planet for sipping suds (I have had such a porch myself), and those people are fortunate indeed, but for the sake of this discussion I think it necessary that we limit the contenders to drinking and eating establishments that a traveler could visit without an invitation. Ultimately, compiling a list of the most beautiful places in the world to have a drink may be the greatest service this blog ever performs.
So now I throw down the gauntlet. Do you know a place that can compete with this? If I get any responses (especially with pictures), I’ll set up a special page to list the best the world has to offer. I may add a couple more myself. There are some damn fine places out there.
Well, I do have a place that “could compete” with the place you describe, but it doesn’t completely meet the other criteria. It is definitely a place “that a traveler could visit without an invitation.” But it doesn’t fall into the category of “drinking and eating establishments.”
It’s the marina at Heron Lake. It’s an awesome place to relax at the end of the day and enjoy a good beer, and most of the sailors who frequent the marina do know what a good beer is — the swill that most Americans consider to be beer seldom appears. And most of the sailors are willing to share a beer or two with people who come to socialize at the marina pavillion.
In addition, the scenery is spectacular. It’s not the ancient cityscape of Jer’s favorite place, but natural beauty that is breathtaking, particularly at sunset, with the golden and red tones of the setting sun reflecting off the water of the Narrows, and the cliffs, and the clouds in the sky turning red and pink and purple, with the sky itself going from blue to green to yellow, and then fading to lavender before going dark.
In the summer, a thunderstorm typically rushes through in the late afternoon, bringing a sudden chill in the air, a brief deluge of pounding rain (sometimes with hail), sharp winds, a super-clean wet rain smell, lightning, thunder, and the ozone smell from the lightning. The aftermath of the thunderstorm brings a rainbow, which is double about a quarter of the time and every once in a while triple.
Yeah, you’re roughing it in that you have to bring your own beer — first-time visitors typically get a freebie or two, but you should bring some to share next time you show up. But with a bunch of beer-lovers congregating every weekend, we get the beer connoiseurs’ equivalent of a pot-luck dinner.
I am, at the moment, on too slow of a dialup connection to even think of uploading pictures, but you can find some good pictures at my blog, http://itsfiveoclocksomewhere.blogspot.com , and even better pictures on Pat’s blog, http://desertsea.blogspot.com .
I remember there was a great place in Belgrade, up at the castle there, with a lovely porch overlooking the Danube down below. I don’t have any photos, however, and my attempts to draw the scene have failed…