Cities we applaud

HMGovt’s Glorious Return!

HMGovt’s Glorious Return!

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nochexxx said:
seconded!
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Thirded. I lived in Cambridge for a couple of years until one day, while walking around the same old streets in the town centre I knew I had to get back to London as soon as possible, which I did. Though the city and its pubs are very attractive, there's nothing but a numb, windswept waste to the north and east of the place, with widely spaced farm compounds scattered with rusty tractors and skips.

No-one has mentioned Shanghai? One of the most unexpectedly free and exciting cities I've visited with some great food.

Tokyo is truly great - returning to London after a couple of weeks there was a disappointment, welcome back to Lilliput.

Groningen in the northern Netherlands is good because there's a huge student population, it's a cycling nirvana and the nightlife on Thursdays comes on like a festival if you keep at it.

What's going on in Oxford these days? Has much changed for the better/worse since the mid 90s?
 
P

PeteUM

It's all grist
HMGovt said:
Thirded. I lived in Cambridge for a couple of years until one day, while walking around the same old streets in the town centre I knew I had to get back to London as soon as possible, which I did. Though the city and its pubs are very attractive, there's nothing but a numb, windswept waste to the north and east of the place, with widely spaced farm compounds scattered with rusty tractors and skips.
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Unecessarily fourthed. Been here 19 years, so I should know. On a related note I'm shamefully unqualified to rate cities but I've had good times in Rotterdam and Hamburg and I'm fast discovering that that horrible place a 48 minute train ride away is actually pretty cool. A mate of mine once stated that it was "too much effort not to live in London" and I have a fuller understanding of what this means these days.

Ultimately I would like to live in Italy if it was full of the Dutch, I think.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
PeteUM said:
Ultimately I would like to live in Italy if it was full of the Dutch, I think.
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An excellent substrand for this thread. I would live in France without hesitation if it was full of the Germans.

Oh.

Cities I'd like to visit that I don't know if deserve applause but I would imagine so:

Reykjavik
Beijing
Isfahan
Samarkand
Addis Ababa
Medellin
Montreal
 
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B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
PeteUM said:
Yup, that would be pretty cool. Mind you, didn't they try that once?
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that's what I realised with the 'oh'! But it wasn't even meant as a joke...German people are generally lovely, and France is an amazing country. Mind you, most French people are lovely outside Paris.
 
P

Pestario

tell your friends
Sick Boy said:
I don't like cities unless they are huge, sprawling and miserable with a few strong upsides but mostly downsides to living there. The being miserable criterion is very important: the less local solidarity and camaraderie and the less generally helpful the citizenry, the better. The population of the city must thoroughly believe that, although they suffer comparatively extortionate rent prices, higher crime rates, much more pollution and noise, and a dramatically decreased quality of life than virtually any other smaller city or town nearby, this is a small price to pay for the benefit of take-out sushi, night-clubs where no one knows each other, and being able to work on subsistence wages for someone much richer than you.

Seriously, a city with overly positive people in it just doesn't make any sense at all. It ruins it. This is why I don't like Montreal and Vancouver and though I haven't been there I'm guessing Cleveland as well.
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yes, agreed (I do love Vancouver though)
 
P

PeteUM

It's all grist
baboon2004 said:
that's what I realised with the 'oh'! But it wasn't even meant as a joke...German people are generally lovely, and France is an amazing country. Mind you, most French people are lovely outside Paris.
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Sorry, should have spotted that. Yes, I like Germans, although I always feel like I've got to be a bit more on the ball and dynamic in their presence and it wears me out after a while.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
PeteUM said:
Sorry, should have spotted that. Yes, I like Germans, although I always feel like I've got to be a bit more on the ball and dynamic in their presence and it wears me out after a while.
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Brilliant conversation I had while really drunk at Brixton Academy earlier this year, and accidentally spilling some beer over someone standing next to me (I never do this usually, btw).

(Friend points out I've spilled beer. Turn round to spill victim)
Me: I'm really sorry mate. Didn't realise I'd done that...
Him: Well, yes (in strong European accent)
Me: (mind ticking slowly due to prodigious booze intake): Are you German?
Him: That has nothing to do with it!
Me: (gobsmacked) No, no, I didn't mean it like that. I love Germany, have just come back from Berlin...
Him: (stares)
Me: So, where are you from in Germany?
Him: Nuremburg.

You just can't win all the time.
 
S

scottdisco

rip this joint please
matt b said:
[...]Montreal- an awesome mix of North America and olde Europe, never eaten so well, locals crazy friendly and helpful.

Leeds- I'm glad it's my nearest city. I'm not sure it's worth a fleeting visit, mind[...]
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HELL yes on Montreal for your reasons.

Leeds is good as it has a good theatre, a good municipal art gallery, a strong sense of identity, some decent pubs and the wonderful Henry Moore Institute. i mean, you know, those are the reasons i would give. plus at a house-party the other night i met a son of Leeds and he taught me some rude words in Urdu (even better, his Oslo-bred mate told me a few Norwegian swear words).

Baboon's Brixton anecdote reminds me of when i was in (the amazing, agreed wrt this) Portland OR and getting on really well w a young German or Austrian man (i actually forget his nationality, but it was one of those, and he spoke to me in his excellent English) .
we traded stories about getting ID'd for booze one day, and at one stage i laughed at him in the laughter of recognition but had to apologise fairly profusely because he felt i was just taking the piss.

Chicago, Philadelphia, Galway, Milan, Seattle, Vancouver, New York are all good for food in places i've been recently. (in fact the actor Wentworth Miller said filming Prison Break in the Chi was quality as the food there is incredible. he's right, as Padraig will tell us.)

as is TO and, of course, Brum (baltis!).
Cork is very good for coffee actually, despite its relatively very small size.

speaking as a Brit, out of the big provincial cities after London and Edinburgh and Cardiff, i do rate Manchester and Liverpool and Brum and Glasgow the most. i have never ever been to Bristol or Swansea which i want to rectify asap. because i like pretty things to visit i would probably choose Edinburgh over Glasgow but i guess i would live in the latter, it's a lot bigger.

the slow food movement in Portland OR is a strong one, and the coffee there is amazing. also their brew-pubs, i think Munich is the only town i've been to w a similarly strong beer vibe that good.

Sheffield is quality as i think every Dissensian and blogger would agree.

Tea i think asked after York: oh mate, the pubs. the Guy Fawkes Tavern. EPIC WIN.
 
Tentative Andy

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
4linehaiku said:
What, boredom? I also struggle to applaud it.
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Ha! I was thinking more along the lines of elitism, ultra-capitalism, obsession with status.... I'm sure that I'm projecting onto it to a good extent, though.
In fairness, I do like the way that where in Glasgow we would parks, in Edinburgh they have hills. Almost like chunks of wilderness scattered across the city.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
Places I want to go:

Boston.
Melbourne (this is, possibly, in the pipeline...).
Portland.
Greenland.
Tel Aviv.

Um...
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
thats a weird list craner... you of to visit ashe? you better come and see me too or i'll never talk to you again.... you'll like sydney much more than melbourne...
 
S

scottdisco

rip this joint please
craner said:
Places I want to go:

Boston.
Melbourne (this is, possibly, in the pipeline...).
Portland.
Greenland.
Tel Aviv.

Um...
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i'd like to think Oliver wants to visit Boston inspired by my taqueria email report to him earlier this year or last year.
Portland as mentioned has great food and drink and a generally interesting vibe, interesting historical buildings etc, not to mention Powell's. (bigger even than Foyles!!) heck Portland's great in general, lots of good stuff going on there i think.

Melbourne does have Oz's best gallery to be fair Luka. (though not you, granted.)
 
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luka

luka

Well-known member
australias best gallery? thats like englands best moutain range....
melbourne has the best pubs and the best coffee and the best food and better night life, but craner likes cleavage and vulgarity and tawdryness and nowhere does those things better than sydeny
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
thats a weird list craner... you of to visit ashe? you better come and see me too or i'll never talk to you again.... you'll like sydney much more than melbourne...
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Yeah, she rang me up when I was shopping in tescos the other night and invited me over, and I thought, yeah, alright. I'm going to come over when I finish this course.

What's weird about my list?
 
S

scottdisco

rip this joint please
i'm deffo hitting the National Gallery of Victoria when i go to Melbourne, i'll leave the tawdryness for Sydney then

i gather Adelaide is good for Ethiopian food, can you comment on Sydney, L?

i remember Zhao and i being impressed w tales of Sydney's Chinatown you had in one thread

top street food and clubs in Tel Aviv i imagine (wrt Ollie's list ^)
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
whats weird about your list is they are all shitty little parochial dumps... portland?!!
boston?! greenland is not even a city. melbourne i understand cos ashe is there but its a dull city. and i've never met an isralei that wasn't a cunt. so tel aviv will be shit.
sydney is pretty dull too. restaurants close about 9pm as a rule. the worst pubs i've seen in my life. dire food. the worst music/club scene on the plant. incredibly parochial, close minded, willfuly ignorant people. ugly architecture. terrible town planning. souless. desolate and hostile. the worst dressed people on the planet, men dress like toddlers. big baggy clothese with bright colours and lurid designs. too many fat hairy people. too many horrible english and irish backpackers, the dregs of their respective countries. often so hot you cant move, winter is unremmitingly misraeble. its basially a dump/ the best city in this part of the world is easily auckland. auckland is wonderful. i don't have a bad word to say about it.
 
benjybars

benjybars

village elder.
luka said:
sydney is pretty dull too. restaurants close about 9pm as a rule. the worst pubs i've seen in my life. dire food. the worst music/club scene on the plant. incredibly parochial, close minded, willfuly ignorant people. ugly architecture. terrible town planning. souless. desolate and hostile. the worst dressed people on the planet, men dress like toddlers. big baggy clothese with bright colours and lurid designs. too many fat hairy people. too many horrible english and irish backpackers, the dregs of their respective countries. often so hot you cant move, winter is unremmitingly misraeble. its basially a dump.
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can't wait!

:)
 
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