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^I'm also not a big partier or a night owl. And yet once when I was bored on a weekend night and had food cravings for something I didn't have I took the night tram in Prague, went to the city center and there was life, people, light, a 24/7 supermarket. It was almost surreal. Even Bratislava felt like this with young partiers roaming the main street Obchodna at wee hours. I was wowed, especially after having lived in my small college towns and also here in Sofia the streets feel emptier around midnight.
I would like Pecs and I love Hungary but over there Budapest would be my main pick because of the Danube or Győr because of it's several rivers. I love water.
You're right about Croatia and Slovakia. Zilina checks all my requirements:
- a university town so it has young people and businesses catering to them plus if you buy an apartment it's easier to find people willing to rent
- midsized river
- hills
They also offer an olivier-like cod in mayo salad on tap. :P
Actually I saw Gibraltar has a similar population to the second of my college towns but I would live there. Why? Tourist crowds/businesses make it feel more full of life than a similarly-sized town in the middle of nowehere which sees few to no tourists like for example Tomelloso in inland Spain. And aside from the students, Wageningen in the Netherlands was also not a particularly popular spot for tourists. The only way a small town of 30k can feel like a big one is if it's touristy. Cesky Krumlov is defnitely more alive than Wageningen, but alas no unis there. Gibraltar has one though.
Would you mind to post the menu for this concoction? Thank you.
^I'm also not a big partier or a night owl. And yet once when I was bored on a weekend night and had food cravings for something I didn't have I took the night tram in Prague, went to the city center and there was life, people, light, a 24/7 supermarket. It was almost surreal. Even Bratislava felt like this with young partiers roaming the main street Obchodna at wee hours. I was wowed, especially after having lived in my small college towns and also here in Sofia the streets feel emptier around midnight.
I would like Pecs and I love Hungary but over there Budapest would be my main pick because of the Danube or Győr because of it's several rivers. I love water.
You're right about Croatia and Slovakia. Zilina checks all my requirements:
- a university town so it has young people and businesses catering to them plus if you buy an apartment it's easier to find people willing to rent
- midsized river
- hills
They also offer an olivier-like cod in mayo salad on tap. :P
Actually I saw Gibraltar has a similar population to the second of my college towns but I would live there. Why? Tourist crowds/businesses make it feel more full of life than a similarly-sized town in the middle of nowehere which sees few to no tourists like for example Tomelloso in inland Spain. And aside from the students, Wageningen in the Netherlands was also not a particularly popular spot for tourists. The only way a small town of 30k can feel like a big one is if it's touristy. Cesky Krumlov is defnitely more alive than Wageningen, but alas no unis there. Gibraltar has one though.
Yes I keep forgetting that Zilina actually does have a university , I guess it's the fact that I've only been there once or twice , what with my cottage in Slovakia being all the way down in the Banská Bystrica region near the Hungarian border .
Anyways I wish the best of luck to you with respect to finding a suitable town or city .
if you prefer USA,New Orleans offers both -Tulane University and French QtR, the street car will take you right downtown,cross the street and you mingle with tourists
Would you mind to post the menu for this concoction? Thank you.
Well, I've gotta go to offtopic, but I just LOVE this salad so:
Quote:
cod, mayonnaise, onions, carrots, vinegar, mustard, and seasonings.
The cod is cooked in a mixture of vinegar, water, and bay leaves. It's then flaked and combined with cooked carrots and all the remaining ingredients.
The salad is left to chill in the refrigerator, ideally for at least 24 hours before serving. It's usually eaten with long Slovak bread rolls known as rožky on the side. The recipe for the commercial version of treska was created in 1954 by Július Boško, a chef from Nové Mesto nad Váhom.
It was ordered by Ryba, a company that was importing fish to Slovakia and wanted to increase its popularity. Nowadays, treska is often made at home, but it can also be found in every supermarket.
The seasonings are a secret by the companies though...
A personal recommendation: The one from the company "Ryba Žilina" is tastier than the other one by a "Ryba Košice". I think the former has more or stronger seasonings. It certainly has more salt so if you prefer less salt try the later. But it has a very bland taste. I asked the Slovaks on Reddit which one they prefer and most agreed with me that the one by RŽ is tastier so even the locals think so. The name of the salad is "Treska v majoneze" which just means "Cod in mayonnaise". The taste requires some getting used to if you're not experienced to fish and mayo combo like me. I've never ate so much cod or mayo in my life than in Bratislava.
It's cool how the most popular fish salad in a landlocked country includes cod (they import it obviously).
Here's a link with the addresses of the TreskaBars (CodBars) where you can order the salad on tap as well as other fish products by Ryba Zilina. Now there's one in Bratislava as well:
It's certainly the food I miss the most from Slovakia tied with bryndzove halusky (boiled lumps of potato dough similar to gnocchi) and bryndza (a soft sheep cheese), sprinkled with cooked bits of bacon). Goulas is fine as well but it's Hungarian, while Treska is 100% Slovak in origin as a recipe despite the imported cod. The state fish company decided to come up with it in 1954 to boost popularity of imported fish. Czech cuisine was more meh for me than Slovak one but thankfully I could find the halusky in Prague supermarkets. I don't remember seeing Treska there though.
Back on topic: I'm thinking about doing a PhD, but I don't want to make the same mistake a third time, hence the thread. I'm especially interested in people used to living in big cities of 1 million or more who went to college/uni in a small town (say 80k or less ppl) how they felt. Any regrets not going to a bigger town/city?
It's funny that I had more of a student-like experience as a 9-to-5 working professional in Slovakia/Czehcia than in the small college towns. I went out more there and made more connections for 1 year there than I did for several years in the small towns. Those college towns of 4k and 32k would turn to ghost towns when the local students went home for holidays. If you dropped a pin on the street you'd hear it. Now if a touristy town of a similar size has a uni that wouldn't be felt so much due to the tourist crowds (Cesky Krumlov and Lagos in Portugal come to mind but alas no unis there).
Last edited by tomektomek; 05-02-2022 at 02:49 AM..
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Originally Posted by tomektomek
Oh I get that, but I wouldn't call Oxford with its population of 152,450 small. Nor is Cambridge that small with 129,000. We have regional capitals that are smaller (Pernik, Stara Zagora, Pazardzhik). Towns of those sizes usually have a hospital or two and almost every amenity of a big city like a theatre or two. I agree on St Andrew's. Now that must be a boring college town, it's just tiny!
A really small college town in my book is more like 1000 to about 50,000. Above 50k towns start getting more and more amenities available in larger cities as well as feeling less like out in the stricks and more like true civilization.
I remember I'd use any chance I'd get to escape from my 32k college town to the next door one which has a population of 65,500 and of course felt two times livelier. Funnily that town doesn't have a college or uni and still felt nicer. It also has a train station while my college town only has a bus station. Alternatively, I'd go to the regional capital with pop. 115,700 but it felt somehow sleepier than the 65,600 one, so there are exceptions. But still, I wouldn't call any town of below 40-45k urban enough.
I'd say my personal sweet spot is somewhere above 50,000 and it gets more and more comfortable until 500k, then the quality of life starts dropping for me personally with all problems like traffic, dirt, crime increasing. Of course I'd prefer a college town of those sizes to a non-college one as in order for them to thrive they have to either be industrial or tourist resorts. I wouldn't like to work in tourism or a factory. My perfect size is 100-450k.
Oxford and Cambridge are dominated by their respective Universities, and in terms of night life and entertainment, they obviously do not have the same levels as large cities. Whilst many of the individuals attending such elite universities are often full of intellectuals as well as the sons and daughters of the wealthy and powerful.
Although Oxford is the larger of the two, neither could be classed as major club or entertainment hubs, although the students at such posh universities tend to have their own expensive posh balls and exclusive events, which include lots of strict dress codes.
In terms of smaller towns, the same is true for plate glass campus universities or universities with campuses's in county towns rather than cities.
These are the 8 'poshest' university halls in the UK, apparently -
St Salvator's Hall, St Andrews.
University College, Durham.
St John's College, Cambridge.
Christ Church, Oxford.
Holland Hall, Exeter.
Churchill Hall, Bristol.
Mylne's Court, Edinburgh.
Founder's Tower, Royal Holloway.
Agricultural colleges (land management etc) can also be very posh, with the most famous being the Royal Agricultural University - Cirencester.
As for London, the wealthy elites tend to choose the likes of Imperial, UCL, LSE and London Business School, with other notable institutions including Royal College of Veterinary Science (RCVS), Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Courtauld Institute of Art etc etc.
Prince William met Catherine Middleton whilst studying Fine Art at St Andrews, and the universities above (and especially certain colleges within the universities) tend to attract a certain type of individual.
Last edited by Brave New World; 05-02-2022 at 05:08 AM..
The main problem with going to posh colleges is that you are surrounded by people liker Boris Johnson or Bill Clinton.
As for the agricultural lot, they used to hold their Annual General Meeting at Blackpool, however their behaviour saw them receive a ban from the seaside town in 2018, although they have now officially allowed back for 2022. All I can say is how the hell do you get banned from Blackpool, which is a seaside town famous for it's drunken and rowdy behaviour.
Last edited by Brave New World; 05-02-2022 at 05:53 AM..
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But still, I wouldn't call any town of below 40-45k urban enough.
