well last week (and later today) I went downtown for an event called wednesday night market, basically they block off a downtown block and set up booths for different businesses and stuff, it is boring to go there for the stuff, but it is a good place to hang out with friends. I ran into a bunch of old pals I havent seen in years, talked to people I probably wouldn't of on my own lol, and it was a pretty productive experience. I am not sure how long I will stay this time since there are a lot of forest fires in the area and there is a cloudy haze permeating the city >.< so venturing outside isnt the best thing to do at the moment.....but its only for a few hours :/

While i don't feel the bar is the best place, a number of people do, so it was worth mentioning as an option. It seemed to me that there is a wide variety of people at the bars and that the type of people can even vary from bar to bar. I live close to a bar where the great majority of the patrons are young engineering students. There is another that gets most of it's business from blue collar workers meeting after work. There are a couple biker bars and a number of sports bars. While i lost interest in bars long ago, i never saw one group that i could place all these people in.

Exactly, Well said minus.

it also depends on the type of person you are, i mean iv made a few friends at pubs. maybe its because australians are just so much cooler then everyone else? lol. A few times iv ended up playing pool with complete strangers and had a good time.
I dont know why some of you look down upon people that go to pubs, i mean everyone goes to one every now and then.