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

UsernameInUse · 03-03-2011 12:24PM #1

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 · 03-03-2011 12:32PM

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 · 03-03-2011 12:36PM

Las Vegas.

Gambling.

Daegerty · 03-03-2011 12:37PM

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 · 03-03-2011 12:37PM

wobbles-grogan wrote: »

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

This is not my impression of Germans

pragmatic1 · 03-03-2011 12:39PM

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 · 03-03-2011 12:40PM

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 · 03-03-2011 12:42PM

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 · 03-03-2011 12:44PM

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 · 03-03-2011 12:49PM

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 · 03-03-2011 01:02PM

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

Seaneh · 03-03-2011 01:06PM

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 · 03-03-2011 01:06PM

Galway

enda1 · 03-03-2011 01:07PM

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 · 03-03-2011 01:08PM

speedboatchase wrote: »

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

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

03-03-2011 01:09PM

Chicago - end of debate

My name is URL · 03-03-2011 01:15PM

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 · 03-03-2011 01:23PM

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 · 03-03-2011 01:25PM

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 · 03-03-2011 01:37PM

Bodrum most definitely!

pickarooney · 03-03-2011 01:38PM

Kimono-Girl wrote: »

Bodrum most definitely!

Seriously nice kebabs.

biko · 03-03-2011 01:51PM

Barcelona but there are many nice cities.

baby and crumble · 03-03-2011 01:55PM

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 · 03-03-2011 02:38PM

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. · 03-03-2011 02:42PM

Prague, cheap hookers and even cheaper drink. yummy

sirastro stop stalking

Seaneh · 03-03-2011 02:44PM

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 · 03-03-2011 02:45PM

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 · 03-03-2011 02:50PM

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 · 03-03-2011 02:52PM

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

ztoical · 03-03-2011 02:52PM

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 · 03-03-2011 03:14PM

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

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

Greatest City? 117 votes

Comments