Writing this report without the benefit of downtime at the airport or in flight is more difficult than I expected…
Something got me in the mood for tacos, so I looked for a well reviewed place around where I would have to change the metro lines and came up with El Chingon.
Six tacos mixed set for 25 EUR, more than enough even for a large man like myself
Can’t fault them, the tacos were not the best I’ve ever had, but very good, and the michelada was excellent. Easy 4.5/5.
Couple more stops on the metro and I am in Parc des Nations. First stop, Slovak house. Slightly underwhelming, not much is happening, some tennis is on and there is a stand selling half decent beer and some finger food. The restaurant menu looks good though, I will visit tonight for dinner, I think.
Google did a funny and suggested I “erase people in the background”, so I tried
Main destination ended up being Czech house, and I can wholeheartedly recommend. They took over Cabaret Sauvage, with a large space both inside and outside, live sports, olympians coming to say hi, in general just a great atmosphere. I originally wanted to just stop for a bit, sample the beer and go to sleep, but the atmosphere was so nice, and then I watched watch Jakub Jurka absolutely destroy Yannick Borel in the teams fencing bronze match, winning the first Czech medal of the games and the feeling was electric.
Moments after CZE draw the score in the bronze medal match
Some great modern dance set to a mix of Smetana and Dvorak made for a great cultural interlude and before long, the main event of the night was on, mixed tennis doubles finals with Czech team squaring against China. I watched the first set be handily won by the Czech team, almost left, but decided to watch the second just on the offchance they win, and while the Chinese pair managed to tie the match, and maintain just a tiny bit of lead through most of the tiebreaker set, the Czechs managed to turn around at last minute and went from losing 6-8 to winning 10-8.
Fans watching the outside screen after team CZE wins the gold medal in tennis
The party started right after, and boy was it banging. After it was paused for the medal ceremony, I knew I had to leave before I get too caught up and end up missing the last train.
Eventually I got back to the hotel. A slight confusion on the side of the night receptionist (I had left my backpack in the hotel, and knew my room number, but didn’t get the keycard before leaving early afternoon) but soon I got what I needed.
The hotel is newly refurbished and it shows. Room is nice, bathroom on the smaller side, but workable. Plenty of power points, with USBs, even one or two USB-C. And a table just big enough to write the previous installment.
The bed was great to sleep on too, and I ended up with almost 8 hours of sleep after all, deciding that leaving a bit later than planned is not the end of the world, the golf is an all day event anyway.