Here's One For All You Multi-Cultural Heads; Greatest City You've Ever Visited/Lived?

UsernameInUse

I'm gonna go with Sao Paulo, Brasil.

Great food from all regions of the world, and cheap as...!
Different races all living in harmony. Very tolerant society and alternative at that.
Never sleeps - 4am is like Paddys Day on O'Connell Street (30 million people).
You can do anything, literally anything you wish at any time, literally, any time.
Art, music, culture.
Entertainment and opportunity.
Did I mention, cheap as....?!

Now you....

wobbles-grogan

Berlin, Germany.

Arguably the best public transport ive ever seen.
Very very relaxed people there. Lots and lots to do!
The native tongue sounds damn cool too...

orourkeda

Las Vegas.

Gambling.

Daegerty

No city I can think of really stands out as being the greatest, they all have their advantages and disadvantages

Depends on what you're after, although for cheap electronics it would have to be Asian

deaddonkey

wobbles-grogan wrote: »

Very very relaxed people there.
The native tongue sounds damn cool too...

This is not my impression of Germans

pragmatic1

UsernameInUse wrote: »

I'm gonna go with Sao Paulo, Brasil.

Great food from all regions of the world, and cheap as...!
Different races all living in harmony. Very tolerant society and alternative at that.
Never sleeps - 4am is like Paddys Day on O'Connell Street (30 million people).
You can do anything, literally anything you wish at any time, literally, any time.
Art, music, culture.
Entertainment and opportunity.
Did I mention, cheap as....?!

Now you....

One big environmental fvckup on wheels.

AnonoBoy

Waterford City undoubtedly.

The Waterford people are an amazing race. They'd steal the hat off your head and swap it for a turnip as soon as you're in the door of the house. But they'll make you a savage cup of tea and let you fiddle their sister to make up for it.

The traditional dance of Waterford City has to be seen to be believed. The Whirling Dervishes in Istanbul have nothing on the clumsy yet majestic Catherine Wheel of the Waterford man as he spins across the dancefloor at Revolution and ends up careering into a table full of drinks sending them upwards to shower him impressively with Barcadi Breezer, Blue WKD and Cider. And then the coup de grâce, a vain attempt to stand up which results in cuts to both hands and knees from the broken glass followed by projectile vomiting all over the onlookers. It's a privilege to be puked on by a Waterford Man performing the traditional dance. But luckily most tourists will get this honour if they stay for over 2 days in the mighty city.

Yay verily, Waterford City is the king of cities. Amen.

sombaht

Bangkok. Yeah, yeah, yeah we've all heard the stories, ladyboys, go-go bars etc. :rolleyes: But it really is a crazy place that constantly turns your head. Never get tired of the place and surprisingly safe.Food, accommodation, transport etc all so cheap.
A close second would be Kuala Lumpur or maybe Belem.

Cheers,
sombaht

John_Rambo

Hanoi blew my mind. Amazing place... Kotok Kinabalu is mad. Berlin is amazing, great great city, lots of arts, great food, cheap, good public transport etc... they could replan a modern city after it was flattened by the war and they did a good job.

Vicxas

Cologne in Germany was amazing,

climbed the 450 steps to the top of the cathedral and you can see all of the city... stunning. Food was amazing as was the craic.

speedboatchase

Florence. Pisses all over the shoes of the 'most romantic city' Paris.

Seaneh

Pamplona in Basque Country. Beautiful place. All the cities in that region are gorgeous but I love the winding narrow streets around plazza de castilo in the old city, great for just getting lost. Add San Fermin into the mix and you have the greatest little city on earth. Love it...



I actually really like Portland Oregon too. About the same size as dublin, so pretty small in world terms but public transport is great, traffic isn't an issue at all and the area around the pearl district and burnside is lovely, great bars and bars and eating places. Also a great restraunt across the river called clarklewis in an old warehouse, when its a fine day they roll up all the shutters and its like eating under a massive open marquee. Recommend it to anyone!

Lapin

Galway

enda1

London wins for me.
Paris a close second and then Boston in third.
Dublin gets an honourable mention since I'm from there.

I'm not a fan of those 2nd/3rd world cities people have mentioned. They can be grand for some things but not places I'd like to live and bring up a family.

London is a seriously cool place which caters for everyone, and no race nor style is unaccepted.

Seaneh

speedboatchase wrote: »

Florence. Pisses all over the shoes of the 'most romantic city' Paris.

I much prefer Verona myself. But Florence is lovely too.

Chicago - end of debate

My name is URL

I lived in San Francisco for two years. It's a great place.. I don't really like cities but SF seems more like a widely spread-out village.

pickarooney

For tourism the best cities I've been to, in no particular order, were Siena, Buenos Aires, La Paz, Georgetown (Malaysia), Durban, Cape Town, Venice, San Sebastian, Biarritz. As for living, only about two of those would be even considerable.

old hippy

Honolulu, I guess. Hawaii is the most multicultural state in the US.

And London, where I live. Not always harmonious but a lot more open minded than some places, imho.

Kimono-Girl

Bodrum most definitely!

pickarooney

Kimono-Girl wrote: »

Bodrum most definitely!

Seriously nice kebabs.

biko

Barcelona but there are many nice cities.

baby and crumble

Ljubljana in Slovenia is really cool. Very small, very chilled, just great to hang out in. New York and London are great for something a bit more exciting and metropolitan. Paris is just amazing, food wise.

jonnny68

Dubai, the architecture is stunning, some amazing skyscrapers plus some classic Arabic architecture is some of the older parts of the city, people will go out of their way to help you too the customer service there is of a seriously high standard compared the downright appalling customer service here and in UK, little or no crime and if your into shopping you'll be hard pressed to beat Dubai it has absolutely everything you need, obviously there is a downside with some construction workers from Pakistan,India,etc working in stifling heat for $5 a day which amounts to slave labour but i believe this is an issue which is being seriously addressed but the positives far outweigh the negatives in Dubai, it truly is a stunning city which is very multicultural.

Ken.

Prague, cheap hookers and even cheaper drink. yummy

sirastro stop stalking

Seaneh

jonnny68 wrote: »

Dubai, the architecture is stunning, some amazing skyscrapers plus some classic Arabic architecture is some of the older parts of the city, people will go out of their way to help you too the customer service there is of a seriously high standard compared the downright appalling customer service here and in UK, little or no crime and if your into shopping you'll be hard pressed to beat Dubai it has absolutely everything you need, obviously there is a downside with some construction workers from Pakistan,India,etc working in stifling heat for $5 a day which amounts to slave labour but i believe this is an issue which is being seriously addressed but the positives far outweigh the negatives in Dubai, it truly is a stunning city which is very multicultural.

I know several people living in Dubai from Ireland as well as a few Emiraties and every single on of them hates the place.
The irish I know living there would move home in the morning if they could get a job here. One of them works for Emirates and she reckons of she didn't spend so much time away working on long haul flights she'd have packed it in already.

Know a gril, indian family, who was born there, father lectures in the university so pretty wealthy, and she absolutely hates the place. Got the Feck out of there the second she finished school and has only been back twice to visit family. She prefers to fly them to Manila to visit her than go back home.

SV

What pricks voted Dublin?

If you didn't vote for trolling purposes then I've some bad news for you, you're a ****ing retard.
nothing great about Dublin.


Mod: Poster banned.

smokedeels

Saint Petersburg - if I ever win the lottery I'll move there and sail along the Neva all day - and drink Vodka in Jazz clubs at night, I'l still dine exclusively in Yolki-Palki. I'll spend the winters back in Dublin

Rubberlegs

New York, hands down. I wanna wake up in a city that never sleeps:D

ztoical

There is a difference between having visited a place and having lived there. If I was just to pick any where I'd been regardless of length of time it would Kyoto Japan - spent a month there on a comic book residency and it was one of the nicest cities I've ever been to. Spent a couple of days in Toyko as contrast and hated it. Of course was being brought around everywhere with a translator to look after me so that helped, not sure how I would have got on with the language issues on my own.

For places I've actually spent some time it would hav to be New York, have spent a number of year living in the states and New York is just head and shoulders above the rest of the country with Seattle a far off second.

Not getting the London love, I currently live there and am not overly impressed with the place. It's a standard big city with a really ****ty public transport system....better then anything you'd find in Dublin for sure but compared to other larger cities it's pretty poor and over priced.

sombaht

ztoical wrote: »

was being brought around everywhere with a translator to look after me so that helped, not sure how I would have got on with the language issues on my own.

That's the real test of whether or not you can live in a certain city or not and brings home the reality of whether its really as great as you first imagined. Being able to go about your daily business without any help. First 2 months in Bangkok drove me up the wall re the language etc. Slowly started to improve though. By the end of the year I was heartbroken at having to leave.

Cheers,
sombaht

bluto63

SV wrote: »

What pricks voted Dublin?

If you didn't vote for trolling purposes then I've some bad news for you, you're a ****ing retard.
nothing great about Dublin.

Eh sorry no. While I didn't vote for it, I can understand Dublin being seen as a fantastic city to live. I live in London and I'm constantly getting people telling me that they were in Dublin recently and despite the price, found it to be an amazing city that they want to go again. And they're completely right. I've been to a lot of places around the world, but the Irish people are the friendliest (Scottish a close second) people I've ever met. Always willing to have a chat with you, always willing for you to join in the banter. And then outside that, it's still a city filled with vast culture and history. Don't dismiss it just because it's local, it still stands out as one of the most beautiful and interesting cities in the world.

old hippy

ztoical wrote: »

There is a difference between having visited a place and having lived there. If I was just to pick any where I'd been regardless of length of time it would Kyoto Japan - spent a month there on a comic book residency and it was one of the nicest cities I've ever been to. Spent a couple of days in Toyko as contrast and hated it. Not getting the London love, I currently live there and am not overly impressed with the place. It's a standard big city with a really ****ty public transport system....better then anything you'd find in Dublin for sure but compared to other larger cities it's pretty poor and over priced.

I have a love hate relationship with London. If you can get past the indifference and attitude from the superficial types, it can be good. Kyoto is awesome, we were there for the first time in ages and I really got it the second time round. Have you been to Tadgh's bar? Awesome and not the usual pseudo-Orish bar you find... lots of microbrews and a nice view of the river. Other great thing about Kyoto (apart from the temples and shrines) is that it's so close to Osaka.

Tokyo is very much an aquired taste. I get exhausted pretty fast there - after a couple of hours. Still, plenty to do and see and the Tower Records in Shibuya is the best.

Whereabouts in London town do you dwell, then?

ScumLord

It's a toss up between New York and Prague.

New York just for being so big, it's like being on a different planet compared to anything in Europe.

Prague for being just as incredible but from a different era.

blaze1

I would have to say New York. Just an absolutly epic place, loads to see/do, eat, drink sleep if your not worried on missing something.

Vegas is a great place to but everything about it is false... Still love it tho.

I went to london when I was 18 and it was so big it scared the sh1te outta me. I want to go back there again to give it a decent go!

Shenshen

Montreal in Canada.
You just can't beat a multi-lingual city for sheer vibrancy and life.

Sanjuro

Brisbane was pretty damn cool. But my all-time favourite, best city on earth is New York. Even though I don't live there, it really does feel like a second home.

Biggins

Nice, Souther France. There is a beautiful city quarter, an old French quarter, an exclusive fantastically rich built quarter and there is the absolute stunning views and massive choices of bars and restaurants of every kind too ...and thats just to begin with.

The idea is that some day I will retire there.

P.S. It also helps too that the women there are absolutely stunning!

upandcumming

Went to NYC for 3 months on my own last summer. Best thing ever. Could do my own thing, walked for miles and miles everyday.

A close second is Dubai. I went there years ago before the real construction and tourism took off. Amazing.
One thing though, we went out to a shanty town outside the city, towards Oman (near Hatta for anyone that knows the place) and they all had BMW, Porsche, Mercedes and Volvo jeeps! They didn't seem to mind that all they had over their heads was corrugated steel!

major bill

Dusseldorf!!! love the buzz of the city, real friendly atmosphere and some of the most attractive women ive seen.

Pal

I have lived in Dublin, New York and London.

Dublin: Nice and small with really good quality of life. Downside is the weather, economy and sadly blighted by skangers.

New York : Exciting and vibrant but a bit of a rat race. More than some of the locals are a bit gruff. You have to bite your lip sometimes. Not at all as friendly as most other Americans.

London : Culturally fantastic but too big and congested.

I really don't think there's a straight answer to your question.
To each his own.
PS
(Berlin, Florence and Venice are nice places to visit)

rossie1977

berlin, san francisco, barcelona and miami are great cities

new york, paris and london slightly over-rated, have to say new york is growing on me more each time i visit

Hazys

New York...if it wasnt for all the Jets and Yankee fans

SadieSue

I've lived here in Montreal for a few years now and its definitely not my favourite city. Ottawa is much nicer and the public transport there is better designed and not as expensive.

Copper23

Are we talking about our favourite destinations or mutli-cultural places?

If its multicultural then to be honest I love London too. Its such a fantastic city with such a good buzz about it.

If it's the best craic ever then its hard to look past Prague or Amsterdam, two awesome trips.

If it's most multicultural but maybe not the nicest... try the North Shore on Maui, the Hawaiian Ghetto Gangs of Hawaiians, Tongans, Fijians, and all the other islands who basically go around kicking the crap out of each other, stopping long enough only to beat the crap out of any Americans they can find... quick tip... if a giant Samoan guy picks a fight with you, its cos your white and he thinks your American, let him know you're Irish, he'll prob buy you a pint... they love us

If it's a multicultural Paradise then it's Kihei, Maui. The most unbelievable summer of my life to live there. You meet people from every part of the world imaginable and it's just paradise.

Chris P. Bacon

Pattaya city Thailand,best city in the world end of

Xavi6

Lived - Chi-town

Visited - Port Vila (Vanuatu)

Honourable mention - Perth / Las Vegas

Poll needs an 'Other' or 'Oceanic' option.

ValJester

1.Berlin. By a mile, there isn't a cooler place going.
2.Copenhagen. Expensive beyond belief, but has more charm than anywhere else I've ever been
3.Rome. More so for the manic energy than anything else.

InTheTrees

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Vancouver. Its consistently voted as one of the top cities to live in.

No that I'd pick it.

I'd probably go for London or New York. Or Dublin.

Depends on how you define "greatest" really...

veXual

I lived in San Francisco for a while great place!

A guy who I knew there described the place fairly well "Everyone should live in San Francisco at some stage in their life and then bring that experience with them where ever they move onto"

I just thought the whole place had a really positive vibe about it.

Alter-Ego

Probably Berlin or Amsterdam.

London is always worth a mention. There's just something about London I can't quite put my finger on. Never lived there. I'd imagine it would be overwhelming as its so vast.