wee_bairn Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 (edited) As it says on the tin - what’s your favourite? Looking to use this to feed my own travel addiction! Mine so far has been Buenos Aires. The city is drenched in history, culture and a passion for the game we all love. The contrast in areas and buildings made for an all round cracking trip. From the working mans Boca area to the hip Palermo Soho the place was just incredible. As part of the trip we also managed to take in a Boca Juniors game which was worth the trip itself. Hands down the best atmosphere I’ve experienced at a football game. The buzz around the stadium hours leading up to a match that was effectively similar to playing Hamilton Accies was surreal. To top it off the nightlife was incredible. Ended up in a lock in until 7 which probably sounds incredibly dodgy in South America Best European city for me has been Rome so far. Edited November 29, 2020 by wee_bairn 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tongue_tied_danny Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 It's difficult to pin point a particular city as I've visited a quite a few and they all have different things going for them. If pushed though I'd go for Tokyo. Fascinating history and culture, loads to see and do and a refreshing lack of arsehole stag parties and "lads on tour" type tourists. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 21 minutes ago, tongue_tied_danny said: ....and a refreshing lack of arsehole stag parties and "lads on tour" type tourists. You'll find that sort of stuff happening among Japanese people in any large Japanese city if you know where to look. Lived and worked in Japan for many years so I've spent plenty of time there away from the tourist trail. I'd recommend Kyoto rather than Tokyo as the place to go as a tourist. Locals are friendlier to gaijans and perhaps not coincidentally there is more of the older heritage intact as it didn't get bombed flat during WWII. Beyond that the other city I'd go to again when I have the opportunity is Moscow. The western media always has lots of negativity about Russia, but the four times I have been for professional reasons over the last 15 years I found it a really interesting city to be in and much friendlier and safer than it gets portrayed. The musuem at the Kremlin is up there with La Louvre in Paris and I find the rest of the city to be more interesting and just as easy to get around in metro terms. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tongue_tied_danny Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 15 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said: You'll find that sort of stuff happening among Japanese people in any large Japanese city if you know where to look. Lived and worked in Japan for many years so I've spent plenty of time there away from the tourist trail. I'd recommend Kyoto rather than Tokyo as the place to go as a tourist. Locals are friendlier to gaijans and perhaps not coincidentally there is more of the older heritage intact as it didn't get bombed flat during WWII. Beyond that the other city I'd go to again when I have the opportunity is Moscow. The western media always has lots of negativity about Russia, but the four times I have been for professional reasons over the last 15 years I found it a really interesting city to be in and much friendlier and safer than it gets portrayed. The musuem at the Kremlin is up there with La Louvre in Paris and I find the rest of the city to be more interesting and just as easy to get around in metro terms. To be fair, I didn't enjoy the Roppongi area, the bars were full of American frat boy types and I got continually harassed by touts. It's just a small area of a big city though and it was easy enough to avoid. I preferred drinking in Shibuya and Harajuku. Speaking of which, Sunday afternoon in Yoyogi Park remains one of my most cherished travel memories. From the cosplayers, to the rock 'n' roll dancers and the various buskers and circus acts that were all out to play. I got a steak kebab and a cold can of beer from a street food stall and just wandered around taking it all in. I met a nice lady in a small, traditional Izakaya in Harajuku. The following day she took me on the train to Kamakura where I visited the Buddhist and Shinto shrines. We went back to the Izakaya later. Some distinguished looking middle aged man was in there who knew her and was quite friendly, buying me a couple of drinks. Turns out she worked as a receptionist at a nearby TV studio and this guy was the presenter of their version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. Never been to Moscow. I considered going before, but I ended up going to Kiev instead as you don't need a visa. This was in 2010, before all the protests and conflict with Russia. Kiev is another amazing place. There's an underground complex of catacombs called the Lavra caves, which contain the mummified remains of medieval monks. There is the usual nightlife and so on. The only downside was that I got arrested for not carrying my passport and I had to bribe the cops to let me go. I knew that you're supposed have your passport on you but I was worried about losing it so I took the chance. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Golden God Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 Loved Barcelona when I went. Galway is class though, ridiculously amount of pubs and lots of Irish girls and crucially isn't Dublin. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
senorsoupe Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 Budapest is pretty fantastic in my books, had a great time when I visited there. Prague would have been good too if it wasn't for all the English "lads" there. As far as Italian cities go, Reggio Calabria is pretty cool, but I am biased as that's where my wife's family is from, Rome I am not a big fan of, too touristy but Naples is fun. Naples is completely mad, basically a giant ADHD city but the food is fantastic, the people are great and it's a beautiful part of the world. Worst thing about it was the state of the football stadium lol. Other places I have enjoyed include Marseille, Cork and Gent, all great for various different reasons, most of them food related. France apart from Paris is actually pretty great, Paris is a shitehole though Over here in North America, I have struggled to find cities I have liked better than Montreal. I haven't been to a lot of places in the states mind you but none are better than Montreal in my books. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wee_bairn Posted November 30, 2020 Author Share Posted November 30, 2020 7 hours ago, senorsoupe said: Budapest is pretty fantastic in my books, had a great time when I visited there. Prague would have been good too if it wasn't for all the English "lads" there. As far as Italian cities go, Reggio Calabria is pretty cool, but I am biased as that's where my wife's family is from, Rome I am not a big fan of, too touristy but Naples is fun. Naples is completely mad, basically a giant ADHD city but the food is fantastic, the people are great and it's a beautiful part of the world. Worst thing about it was the state of the football stadium lol. Other places I have enjoyed include Marseille, Cork and Gent, all great for various different reasons, most of them food related. France apart from Paris is actually pretty great, Paris is a shitehole though Over here in North America, I have struggled to find cities I have liked better than Montreal. I haven't been to a lot of places in the states mind you but none are better than Montreal in my books. Budapest is excellent. I also agree with Prague - found it very tacky in areas trying to accommodate the stag parties. Interesting you say that about Naples. We were meant to go this year pre-covid and the reviews we received were extremely mixed. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 25 minutes ago, MixuFruit said: How do you find Moscow/Russian in general for getting about if you don't know your aяse from your эlbow linguistically speaking? ... I can read Cyrillic and it definitely helps. A surprising amount of modern Russian is easy to follow loanwords, so once you cross that hurdle a lot starts to open up. It's not that difficult to learn the letters, so easy to get to a point where it's possible to function more or less OK in public transport terms with a few basic phrases in my experience although best to always leave yourself a bit of extra time in stations etc to get your bearings as they don't tend to make much provision for non-Russians. I always find Russians to be friendly and not like they stereotypically get portrayed. Think Americans in particular find it difficult to deal with a culture that doesn't do phoney have a nice day superficiality, so Scots maybe have an advantage in terms of easily fitting into their way of doing things. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torpar Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 As a tourist and in my first few years living here it was Toronto by a mile and it still has it's appealing qualities, my brother loves visiting. But I'm now sick of the city and can understand why the rest of Canada seems to hate it. As soon as I can move I will. Paris for me is just a magnificent city. The history, the architecture, the food and for me the people, the majority are nice if you aren't an arsehole and at least attempt a little French, I used to be a fan of PSG but don't like what they have become so now I'm a hipster fan of Paris FC 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
senorsoupe Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 7 hours ago, wee_bairn said: Budapest is excellent. I also agree with Prague - found it very tacky in areas trying to accommodate the stag parties. Interesting you say that about Naples. We were meant to go this year pre-covid and the reviews we received were extremely mixed. The thing with Naples is that it can be a bit frustrating, especially if you expect things to work in a logical fashion (or work in general). The place is completely bonkers but has a great energy about it, so if you can handle a public transit that makes zero sense and traffic that just does whatever then you will enjoy it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tongue_tied_danny Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 (edited) 20 hours ago, Andrew Driver said: Did you pump her? Yeah I did, part of the reason why it was my favourite holiday. I considered mentioning it in my post above but I decided against it because sex boasts online can be pretty cringey. She took me to a love hotel for the full Japanese shagging experience. The Who Wants to be a Millionaire guy was pretty impressed by my pulling prowess. 36 minutes ago, senorsoupe said: The thing with Naples is that it can be a bit frustrating, especially if you expect things to work in a logical fashion (or work in general). The place is completely bonkers but has a great energy about it, so if you can handle a public transit that makes zero sense and traffic that just does whatever then you will enjoy it. Istanbul is like that as well. A pretty chaotic place that just about holds itself together. That's another city that's well worth a visit. It's where East meets West and it shows. A real clash of cultures. Edited November 30, 2020 by tongue_tied_danny 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tight minge Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 For ease of living: Singapore, but that is with a young child in tow. Ho Chi Minh was fantastic, amazing city and half an hour on your motorbike and you could be in the jungle/Mekong. Maybe too consumed by tourism now as you will not find a traditional barbers or coffee shop in d1 now. Hong Kong, whats happening to it now is a tragedy. Moscow, as others have said is great and fantastic place to live (except the weather). Shanghai, Guangzhou, Istanbul are all decent. All in all, Budapest is probably the best place I have lived though. Such a wonderful city. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genuine Hibs Fan Posted December 1, 2020 Share Posted December 1, 2020 Visited a friend in New York and going around there with someone who knows the place was pretty class, did a lot of stuff you wouldn't necessarily think to do as a tourist. It's an incredible city but the scale of it boggles the mind a bit. Bogota and Medellin are both great for different reasons and I would happily live in either. Barcelona was a big favourite but got a little sick of it by the time I stopped living there. I think in terms of being a surprise and interesting experience Sarajevo might be up there, really enjoyed the few days I spent there. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S7C Posted December 1, 2020 Share Posted December 1, 2020 Europe - Stockholm North America - Vancouver South America - Salta, Argentina Asia - Osaka 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karpaty Lviv Posted December 1, 2020 Share Posted December 1, 2020 On 29/11/2020 at 12:50, tongue_tied_danny said: To be fair, I didn't enjoy the Roppongi area, the bars were full of American frat boy types and I got continually harassed by touts. It's just a small area of a big city though and it was easy enough to avoid. I preferred drinking in Shibuya and Harajuku. Speaking of which, Sunday afternoon in Yoyogi Park remains one of my most cherished travel memories. From the cosplayers, to the rock 'n' roll dancers and the various buskers and circus acts that were all out to play. I got a steak kebab and a cold can of beer from a street food stall and just wandered around taking it all in. I met a nice lady in a small, traditional Izakaya in Harajuku. The following day she took me on the train to Kamakura where I visited the Buddhist and Shinto shrines. We went back to the Izakaya later. Some distinguished looking middle aged man was in there who knew her and was quite friendly, buying me a couple of drinks. Turns out she worked as a receptionist at a nearby TV studio and this guy was the presenter of their version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. Never been to Moscow. I considered going before, but I ended up going to Kiev instead as you don't need a visa. This was in 2010, before all the protests and conflict with Russia. Kiev is another amazing place. There's an underground complex of catacombs called the Lavra caves, which contain the mummified remains of medieval monks. There is the usual nightlife and so on. The only downside was that I got arrested for not carrying my passport and I had to bribe the cops to let me go. I knew that you're supposed have your passport on you but I was worried about losing it so I took the chance. I had to bribe the police to get my passport back after being robbed at knife point in a L’viv nightclub in 2012. Thank god for police reforms. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikingTON Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 San Diego is one of the few US cities that seem enjoyable to live in. Superb weather, plentiful Mexican-influenced cuisine and beers and the city is condensed like a European city by its geography. Minneapolis is also superb in spring/summer but must be a bleak place in mid-winter when it's -20 or worse. Philadelphia is a fun place to visit as well. For eastern Europe Gdansk and Wroclaw are my picks from Poland; Olomouc is Prague without the tourists and Plzen is seriously overlooked as well. Trnava is a much better base than Bratislava but Slovakia's all about the natural scenery rather than great cities. Budapest is good to visit for a few days but I can't deal with their century of beetroot-faced injustice politics any longer than that. The beer is gubbins as well. Thessaloniki, Split and Lisbon are all fantastic cities to visit. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Szamo's_Ammo Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 San Francisco is a great city. A temperate climate, liberal by American standards and plenty to see and do. It is also close enough to the other major Californian cities and not too far away from Vegas if you fancy a drive through the desert. The high cost of living and the hilly streets and roads are a killer. Los Angeles is a shithole and I've never been to San Diego. -1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hk blues Posted December 4, 2020 Share Posted December 4, 2020 Bangkok - more so 25 years or so ago than now. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
underdogunderdog underdog Posted December 6, 2020 Share Posted December 6, 2020 Berlin, Malaga and Melbourne 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boostin' Kev Posted December 6, 2020 Share Posted December 6, 2020 Berlins my favourite although as time goes on with gentrification that'll probably change my opinion. Fancy visiting Leipzig. Someone mentioned Naples, loved it there. planning to go back there and sail to Sicily. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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