Priorities

Next week I'm heading to Vienna, where the town center and one of its palaces is on UNESCO's World Heritage list, and Budapest, where the entire city, including the banks of the Danube, is listed as a World Heritage site. So naturally, the first thing I've done is ensure where I'll be watching the Super Bowl.

For the record, I'll be watching it here. You probably think this was an easy process. It wasn't.

The easiest (and cheapest) option would have been to watch the game at Chez Fitzhenry here in Prague, where the benefits include a stunning view of the Kacerov train depot and the hospitality of Baldy licking my feet. Thanks to ESPN America being a part of my cable package here, I watched both playoff victories.

However, it would be difficult to watch the game at home when I have already made plans to take my vacation and/or holiday beginning on Feb. 4. Long story short, most of my classes are on break and it made sense to choose this week. So, having already promised the Special Assistant to the Blogger a weekend jaunt to Vienna, and having determined that I would move on to Budapest from there, I began my week by typing, "places to watch the super bowl in (fill in major central European city name here)."

Stephansdom, which will not be showing the Super Bowl.

I started in Budapest, where I'll be spending most of my vacation and/or holiday. Monday morning, I emailed the most recommended sports bar there, but the owner responded that the place was already booked. He suggested I try their sister pub on the other side of the Danube. So I emailed that place, as well as two others in Budapest. No replies by Monday night.

So, on Tuesday morning, I emailed Billy's Bones, the aforementioned Irish pub in Vienna. By Tuesday evening, there was no response. So I called one of the places in Budapest, and the person on the other end of the line seemed to have never heard of the Super Bowl and asked me to call back in 10 minutes. Instead, I called Billy's Bones. The helpful gentleman asked me two questions: Would I mind sitting at the bar? And would I be coming alone? Having answered yes to both, I have secured a spot for the big game, which starts past midnight Monday here.

I'm curious to what kind of a crowd it will be. The place clearly caters to English-speaking expats, but most expats here are from the UK, which contains a pocket of American football fans but a much larger pocket of rugby fans who ask why NFL players wear pads. And if there are patrons who don't speak English very well, I'll just assume they're Giants fans.