Chicago.

I love Chicago, but sometimes I wonder why. How come I forgive it for being as segregated as old-skool Johannesburg, for example? I think the fact that I know it so well has something to do with it, and in my self-critical moments I also suspect myself, sometimes, of a touch of the "Well, everyone's been to New York"s. Not that Chicago isn't genuinely a wonderful place, mind.

Other than that, in North America I rate NYC, San Francisco and Toronto, and in Europe, London, Seville, Granada, Valencia, Prague, Pecs, Paris, Avignon and Amsterdam. Bubbling under: Maastricht and nearby Aachen; Helsinki; New Orleans as it used to be; Graz; Cologne; Munich.

Special to me always: Newcastle upon Tyne.

I basically like places, I think.

I'm writing this in Lewes, which is a relatively unblighted small town, I reckon, perhaps because the Yoot Dem have Brighton down the road.

infinite probability wrote:

QUOTE:
India.
Noisy, dusty, dirty, smelly, polluted, crowded and bloody hot. God was it hot and I got quite sick too. And the poverty, christ, it would do your head in. But there was something about the place that got under my skin. I remember most the small kindessness complete strangers would show. Not the usual "tourist"/ "native" interactions that was usual in the touristy places, but the everyday kind. In the midst of all the heat and the poverty and the physical uncomfortableness I found an extraordinary grace that felt more real to me than mere physical beauty. It's very hard to describe, but when strangers open your hearts and homes, no matter how poor or humble, I felt very privileged, and very lucky. it's something that impacted me more than all the beautiful sites in the world put together.

And I didn't even get to see the Taj Mahal, no great loss in the circumstances.

Nice piece of writing.

My word, you're a cosmopolitan lot.

I love nearly every bit of Scotland I've been to, but with special affection for Glencoe, Glasgow and the west coast from Torridon north to Cape Wrath, a staggering landscape composed of striking mountains, scattered far enough apart to be highly individual, rising from sea level to dominate their surroundings. Sandwood Bay is a picture-postcard huge beach you have to walk four miles to get to, and on a sunny day seems like paradise.

Also, Mull is so pretty that I had to leave early, it exhausted me. Any wild campsite that gives you a view of the sun setting over Scotland's west coast is a place to be treasured.

I liked Lille quite a lot. And the Cornwall/Devon coast. Near London the North Downs ridge is extremely refreshing, and Black Down is indeed a fine hill.

In the order I first saw them:

Manchester
Edinburgh
Juneau, Alaska
Barcelona
Buenos Aires
Mendoza, Mendoza Province, Argentina
Bariloche, Río Negro Province, Argentina
Budapest
Montevideo
Valencia
Granada - more than just the Alhambra (but that, on its own, would be enough to justify the existence of the whole of Andalucía)
Seville
Cádiz
Salamanca
Havana

My shortlist would include;

NYC
Galway
Oban
The scenery around Glencoe
Anniestown, Co Waterford

Lots of great towns I've been to. A few come to mind.

State College, PA
Bellefonte, PA
Lewes, DE
Marblehead, MA
Newburyport, MA
Salem, MA
Boston, MA
Brookline, MA
Hoboken, NJ
Pittsburgh, PA
Cincinnati, OH
Chicago, IL
Minneapolis, MN
St. Paul, MN
Ely, MN
Grand Marais, MN
Des Moines, IA
Iowa City, IA
Durango, CO
San Diego, CA
Claremont, CA
Charlotte, NC
Savannah, GA
Williamsburg, VA
Fredericksburg, VA
Lexington, VA
Alexandria, VA
Toronto, Ontario
Victoria, BC
London
Edinburgh
Cambridge
Ravensburg, Germany

How did you manage to avoid Vancouver if you've been to Victoria? And why?

When did you go to Viana do Castelo bewaldeth? Beautiful, beautiful place, I've alreay made a pact with Senhora steveeeeeeeee that I'll buy a house there and retire once I earn my first million.

Other than that, I love Tavira in the Algarve and Cádiz in Spain was an utterly incredible city in every single aspect a city is judged on.

I guess the question that needs to be raised is whether this thread is about places you'd like to live in, or just visit. Cadiz is pretty cool around the old centre with all of its higgledy-piggledy streets and histroy, but for my tastes it's probably a bit too provincial in many ways to actually live there for more than a short while ...

QUOTE:
How did you manage to avoid Vancouver if you've been to Victoria? And why?

You'd have to ask my parents. I was only 10. We were doing a big western trip with our station wagon and pop-up camper. We only spent a day in Victoria (via the ferry from Port Angeles) before heading back east through Glacier and Yellowstone.

But I remember it was a really pretty town.

QUOTE:
State College, PA
Bellefonte, PA
Lewes, DE
Marblehead, MA
Newburyport, MA
Salem, MA
Boston, MA
Brookline, MA
Hoboken, NJ
Pittsburgh, PA
Cincinnati, OH
Chicago, IL
Minneapolis, MN
St. Paul, MN
Ely, MN
Grand Marais, MN
Des Moines, IA
Iowa City, IA
Durango, CO
San Diego, CA
Claremont, CA
Charlotte, NC
Savannah, GA
Williamsburg, VA
Fredericksburg, VA
Lexington, VA
Alexandria, VA
Toronto, Ontario

never been to charleston SC then? or indeed Savannah GA

ok

my top 5

dublin
singapore
moscow
istanbul
charleston SC

sad to miss barcelona, dallas TX, London, helsinki, corsica, sienna and KL

I have been to Charleston once as a kid, but I don't recall anything about the trip.

I forgot Cambridge, Istanbul and Glencoe.

Lots of nice bits, the world's got.