auckland is wonderful. i don't have a bad word to say about it.
yeah you're right, public transport in auckland is non-existant....
the same applies for all australia and nz. cities too spread out, too suburbinated.
in a pleasant surprise when i first went there (this says everything about my stupid preconceptions about a car culture, and nothing about anything else), a lot of American and Canadian cities do have good public transport (well, certainly a lot of the big ones in my experience, including 24-7 trains, and a very nice free bus system that spreads across downtown Portland, incidentally).
Don't think that this was a stupid preconeption at all. Think it depends on the way the city's laid out, its history etc. The private/public transport thing in America often seems to illustrate a sharp class divide, at least in some of the cities I've been to, ie poor people take the bus.
obviously European cities do good public transport.
apart from Manchester's Metrolink tram.
that cleavage, between bus and tube?
Brighton always feels like cheating somehow, it really does my head in.Brighton is actually a really nice town, but no, not a city.
Is it because its small? or because its full of skateboarding 40 something men? why is it cheaty?Brighton always feels like cheating somehow, it really does my head in.
Proper cities;
Alexandria
I don't know, really. It just has that slightly unreal air - I get the same thing a bit with Cambridge, only where in Cambridge it's embarassingly easy to find nice pubs, second hand bookshops, general highbrow stuff, in Brighton it seems embarassingly easy to find, I dunno, 'funky' clothes shops, ska-rockabilly-prog nights, all that malarky. And the closet puritan / masochist in me refuses to appreciate anything like that unless I've had to plough through a load of listings, endure some grim public transport epic and then get lost in the rain in a load of backstreets somewhere near Whitechapel first.Is it because its small? or because its full of skateboarding 40 something men? why is it cheaty?
Brighton's main problem is that the streets are crawling with apologetic Guardian journalists - wherever I go that beardy guy Alex Petridis who wears embarrassing clothes seems to be there, including the kids playground in our local park.
how about Bath? - similar but also differentI don't know, really. It just has that slightly unreal air - I get the same thing a bit with Cambridge, only where in Cambridge it's embarassingly easy to find nice pubs, second hand bookshops, general highbrow stuff, in Brighton it seems embarassingly easy to find, I dunno, 'funky' clothes shops, ska-rockabilly-prog nights, all that malarky. And the closet puritan / masochist in me refuses to appreciate anything like that unless I've had to plough through a load of listings, endure some grim public transport epic and then get lost in the rain in a load of backstreets somewhere near Whitechapel first.
It's similar to the way that I can't just enjoy a nice country pub, I have to slog up some hills in shit weather first.
It might just be me being weird tbh.