re: 2 Games, 2 States, 1 Long Weekend - Columbia/Athens

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You'll have a good time. Make sure you go out Friday night in Athens to get a better feel for the town. Saturday will be an absolute clusterfrick downtown after the game and a lot of bars will be wall to wall crammed with people. If you start feeling claustrophobic or want to get in a bar that you can actually breathe air in, head towards Washington street and check out some of the bars there. They are generally a good bit less crowded than the bars off of Broad and Clayton street.

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Definitely all of this.

Which reminds me, here's a crash course to the lay out of downtown:

- There are four main streets that make up downtown Athens - Broad Street, Clayton Street, Washington Street, Hancock Street.

- All four streets are parallel to one another, running East to West.



- Broad Street is the main avenue of Athens and separates downtown from campus. Across Broad from Downtown stands the famed UGA Arch and acts as the main entrance to campus. There are some good bars and restaurants on Broad worth looking into (Magnolias, Bourbon Street, Le Dolce Vita, DePalmas, Etiennes, Taco Stand, etc.):



- Clayton Street, though, is bar central. It is the next street up from Broad and is where you'll likely end up spending a lot of time as it starts with Last Resort Grill to the West, passes by Waffle House and the Georgia Theater, passes a million and one bars, shops, and restaurants, and dead ends into the Classic Center to the West:






- As mentioned, Washington Street is a bit quieter than Clayton, but still has a fews good bars and clubs. It's West end is particularly important to visit as it's home to the 40 Watt Club which was home for acts like REM, Pylon, the B-52s, Drive-By Truckers, and a million others:




- And then there's Hancock Avenue which is largely devoid of bars except for it's West end which features Creature Comforts Brewery, Cine, Dawg Gone Good BBQ, and The National.



- In addition to those four streets, the streets that run perpendicular (in this order, from West to East) are Pulaski, Hull, Lumpkin College Ave, Jackson, and Thomas.

- College Ave is like the middle of downtown. It runs from the Arch at Broad Street up to Prince Avenue (which leads into Normaltown).

- Lumpkin and Jackson will take you onto campus.

- If you learn the street names early, it makes things easier to find. Not required, but recommended if you're trying to seek our or get directions.