Question #238 City Folk
I recently visited Vancouver which was pretty rad. This brings me to my question:
What is the most recent city where you were pleasantly surprised by how awesome it was?
Bonus points for the more exposition you can give.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
I just spent the weekend in Vancouver. It had the following features:
Beautiful snow-capped mountains all around.
Copious bike lanes.
Lots of parks.
Some of the best food I have eaten.*
Junkies.
A metal shirt store.
At-Ats just like Oakland.
Container ships.
Sea-planes.
Sunshine (surprisingly).
Timbits.
All of these items were positives with one exception.
* I will admit to deciding to go to Vancouver based entirely on an episode of No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. We freeze framed the "Japadog" that was featured in the show and found that they had veggie dogs. We made our travel immediately after this discovery.
We went to Vancouver last labor day weekend, to scout neighborhoods to move to in the far future. I do love Vancouver, and can also add to its list of treasures:
Great craft brewing
However San Francisco is the only city that has stolen my heart and perpetually pleasantly surprised me, other than my few years in London.
For instance GG park:
You can play sloshball, attend a concert, see ancient treasures and modern art, visit a virtual world of plants, practice your fly fishing, wave to the bison, and have a beer by the sea... greatest park ever? yes. greatest city ever? probably.
You can add NYC to the last city that blew me away. I have always hated many aspects of NYC but this last visit in 2007 was enough to make me believe that the quirks add up to something really special.
Scoff if you must, but Sacramento is a pleasant surprise on a daily basis. Affordable housing in CA, good schools, publications that will publish my writing although I am not 'connected', enough places to buy decent groceries semi-close to home, kind and helpful folks who are good friends.
And, yes, I have lived in San Francisco and West Marin.
well i was just in sydney, AUS recently and that is probably one of the coolest cities i will go to ever... but i was expecting it to be that way...
so to really answer the question, i would say the town of Napier, New Zealand which i also visited last january... its a really cool little beach town...kind of santa cruzish, but a lot cleaner and prettier...lots of cool little wineries and stuff around too...
just wear lots of sunscreen (they have UV index of 11 + in summer which means you start to get a sunburn in like 5 minutes...no joke) and you'll have a good time there..
Last weekend I went to Breaux (Bro) Bridge, LA. It's the heart of Cajun country and the "Crawfish Capital of the World." It's about two hours west of New Orleans in the middle of the boot.
My neighbors are getting married in a month it's custom for the parents of the bride to have a big crawfish boil... like 500lbs big. I'd never been to a boil before--let alone a "Breaux Bride Boil"--so it was pretty dope. Tons of people there, half of which I couldn't understand because of their thick Cajun French accents (just like the movies)... then they told me that I talk funny.
Then we went downtown... it was like I was in another country. Not only could you be walking down the street and hear people speaking Cajun French but on every Saturday morning the two block downtown "strip" turns into a Zydeco and Cajun folk jam session. Random people show up and play crazy instruments like the washtub base and the rubboard, anyone can just start playing and there were all kinds of people just dancing EVERYWHERE you could hear the music.
Probably the best thing I've done since I got down to NO and I'd for sure go back there.
Another positive Vancouver attribute:
socialized health care
I agree w/ NYC. I've been there frequently over the last decade or so, but only during the last couple of years have I had enough friends living there that when I visit I can have people to take me out, show me around and help me have a non-tourist experience. I've only spent any real time in Manhattan, Queens & Brooklyn, but that was enough for me to establish that the place is the second best city in the U.S. (the first being S.F.).
It's got great (vegetarian) food, in the nicer months you can spend all day & night in shorts & t-shirt, you can walk from place to place pretty easily but if you're lazy the public transit is excellent, there's a shitload of nightlife options, there are a million things to see, and it's on the same cultural wavelength as peak-of-civilization (northern) California.
Second place goes to Berlin. I used to hate it, but it's become a really cool city over the last decade and now I'm totally into it.
ps>
another point to London for having amazing health care. The numerous times I managed to get myself into the accident and emergency ward made me scoff at my taxes. Plus I was in and out quickly everytime (even with xrays).
oh, another city of mention>
Concord Mass...
another stockton lass and I CRIED yes CRIED when we witnessed the fourth of july events at the town center. It wasn't even like Wonder Years, it was like a modern Norman Rockwell. Potatosack races, red-white-and-blue bicycle parade, GayLesbianBiSexualandTransgender bake sale... besides having the best fourth of july jamboree, Concord also spawned a crazy amount of thinkers, artists, and revolutionaries. It has a great sculpture garden (The DeCordova) and it has the BEST farm stand icecream you will ever eat. handsdown.
I was newly impressed with Austin when I visited it for the first time in a few years last summer. It's got a little something for (almost) everyone. To name a few things: the Whole Foods Market is out-of-this-world huge, Waterloo Records is incredible (and has every album imaginable - even from overseas), the hill country and hot springs are gorgeous, SoCo, the nightlife is surreal, and Kerbey Lane Cafe has the best vegetarian menu (portabella fajitas!) Oh yes, and the people. ;)
although i've been to other cities recently, i'm going to have to admit that visiting pete and t (i just though, for a second, i could call them PT cruiser, but i won't) in fort worth, tx surprised me with how awesome it was. granted i was visiting people i really like and a group of our friends all descended on the city at the same time, i was really stoked on FW. awesome food (ranging from CFS to sushi [surprise?] to vegan) as well as fun bars and pretty cool downtown. i would love to have visited in the summer, but that wasn't possible. the topper (for all of you drinkies) was i bought at least thrre rounds for about six people and the tab was less than twenty bux!
Louisville, KY 1996 - art, the ohio river, 75C beer
boise, ID. Good weather ( in the summer ) roomy streets, reasonable rents, lots of bikes and good restaurants. walkable downtown, good health food store. It's possible that there are no 'minorities' in idaho which may be a weak point or a recommendation, depending on who you are.
Post a Comment