What surprised you most about the cities you've visited?

[AviationGuy]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

I was really surprised by Boston. I didn't really know what to expect, but when I got there, I loved how clean and aesthetically focused it felt. Really a lovely city.

Miami, on the other hand... ugh. I got the worst vibe from it. The very city emanated douchy-ness. And the downtown was pathetic, and incredibly un-walkable. Disappointingly, all the new high-rises were very pedestrian-unfriendly. And I couldn't find any good restaurants! Incredible case of style before substance.

Munich is just a depressing, grey, ugly city. Felt like some second world Eastern European city. It's no Berlin, that's for sure.

Jerusalem was surprisingly verdant. Felt like Italy. I came in thinking that it would be a stone city in the middle of the desert, with nothing except for course shrubs for shade. Imagine my surprise when I found that there were more trees in Jerusalem then in Los Angeles! And incredibly urbane to boot.

One of the coolest things I've ever seen on Streetview is Jerusalem. I haven't been there, but the place looks incredible from what I can tell, with not only trees everywhere but flowers all over the place.

Someone mentioned Rome earlier. As much as I loved the history and architecture, I had a difficult time getting past the graffiti that seemingly covered every building. And the people were surprisingly unwelcoming. But I still love the place.

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by brickell

You came to Miami and looked for good food downtown? Easy mistake to make I suppose but Miami isn't alone in having separate cultural and business centers.

Tampa for one. NYC to an extent. New Orleans? LA? Boston? Philadelphia? DC? Maybe I'm being too tight with my definition of downtown, but you get the idea. South Beach is only a short ride across the bay.

No, I didn't like Downtown and I wasn't happy with the food separately. It seemed like a food culture hadn't taken shape yet.

[LMich]

New York (Manhattan): The place is even more huge than what you see in media. You don't really get it until you see it in person. The scale is just on a whole other level than where most people live. BTW, the long-time locals are some of the friendliest people you meet, and totally shatter the ridiculous stereotype.

London: As an American, it felt unusually familiar, if that makes any sense, like somewhere you've lived before. It felt very lived it. It's also as ploycentric as you think it is, kind of visually and spatially chaotic in that way.

Paris: Visually stunning in the inner-city, but it kind of felt like a giant outdoor museum. Was kind of surprised how grimey the hoods get along the ring road around the south of the city proper. The panhandlers were about as aggressive as any I've encountered.

[BnaBreaker]

I think the two biggest positive shocks I've had in this country were Los Angeles and New Orleans.

When I went to New Orleans, I had heard all of the hype, but honestly didn't expect very much, particularly just a few years after Katrina. I assumed it was Bourbon Street, the beignet place, and not much else. Let me tell you that I don't think I've ever been more wrong, about anything, ever. I absolutely fell in love with that city. What a magical place. It has such a truly one-of-a-kind vibe. The city's French, West Indian, and African roots still come through in a very noticeable way. I didn't expect the historic section of the city to be SO urban and walkable and SO expansive. It's truly a beautiful place to be in. The pace is laid back, there is something there for everyone, the people are friendly and real and it seemed as though everyone I met had some type of interesting skill or hobby or career. The music was incredible, the food was off-the-charts amazing, and Bourbon Street, despite the abundance of belligerent frat boys and wannabe whores was a really freaking great time. I even ended up stumbling into the oldest bar in America, which truly looks the part. Those people down there REALLY know how to live and embrace the good things in life.

When it comes to Los Angeles, I had been fed the same schpiel that others had been fed. I was told that LA was nothing but a huge, smoggy, sprawly, suburb full of fake people. And that was absolutely the case...when it came to the Inland Empire. The CITY OF LOS ANGELES, was gritty, it was urban (albeit in it's own special way), it was spread out but every area had something to offer. The public transportation was much better than I expected, the culinary scene there is PHENOMENAL. You could find cuisine from all kinds of exotic locales in seemingly every strip mall. There was a never-ending array of things to keep me occupied, the hills and the beaches were absolutely stunningly gorgeous. There really is something magical about watching the sun set from the Santa Monica Pier. And the people? Well...okay, I can kind of see what people were getting at. It seemed as though nearly everyone younger than forty identified themselves as a member of some fabricated sub-culture or another...that being said though, they were all friendly, so I have no real gripes in that regard.

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by leftimage

Miami: downtown is boring. South beach doesn't pretend to be something its not: cheesy but authentically so. Fake but genuinely so. And the turquoise-water, white-sand beaches so close to the core... an amazing city. Would consider moving there.

Miami or Miami Beach?

[SignalHillHiker]

One other. I first consciously noticed this in Winnipeg:

Other cities use Street and Avenue differently. They have a meaning, such as one is North-South and the other is East-West.

In my city, it's just... whatever it happened to be called. Most of the main streets are Roads, most of the quieter residential streets are Streets, and every now and then there's an Avenue or Boulevard. There's even one called, literally, "The Boulevard".

[McBane]

Jerusalem is a beautiful city. The city's zoning code requires all buildings to be faced with Jerusalem stone. And I mean real, high quality stone, not cheap imitation crap, which gives new buildings a real sense of belonging - they fit in with their historic surroundings without coming off as being an obvious knockoff. Anyone who has spent time in Philadelphia or other historic east coast cities can attest to the amount of cheap looking faux-historical crap that developers churn out.

Predictably, this makes Jerusalem an expensive city to live in. Plus it can be very boring.

I think with Tel Aviv, a lot of people are surprised by how cosmopolitan and multi-cultural it is. This is beyond Jews of various backgrounds. I'm talking about random non-Jews there just to experience the city's energy as well as guest workers from SE Asia and Africa.

[Marcu]

NYC: As others already mentioned, the density and pedestrian vibrancy in some ways resemble super dense cities in Asia or the developing world more so than anything in the Western World.

Much of the Gulf Coast of Florida (Tampa, St. Pete, Ft. Myers): Disappointingly suburban. A lost opportunity to create a vibrant, urban environment near some of the nation's best beaches. I was expecting more of a Miami Beach-like experience, but it just wasn't there.

Quebec Province: Montreal and Quebec City are beautiful, but the countryside between the two seems somewhat impoverished and run down. Rural areas tend to be poorer everywhere, but this seems particularly true in Quebec.

Nashville: Great, surprisingly urban experience, even for those that don't like country music like myself. I was expecting a tourist trap, but found a great city with a lot to offer.

[Gram3000]

Ive been living in Dallas-Fort Worth Area for 5 years, it feels like a cultural wasteland but albeit a wasteland with one of the most stable economies in the country even if you consider working at Walmart or Whataburger a stable long term job! However, there are many jobs heavily slanted towards medical, finance, service/industrial sectors. Dallas has alot of potential but when you realize you are in the south, and the infamous slow pace, conservatism, republican, good ol boy systems that underlay this place you understand why sometimes change can be hard to bare or accept. Not to say that their isnt progress being made in many aspects but it will take alot longer for this area of the country to truly establish itself as the ultimate cosmopolitan world-class destination its reaching for.

Socially many ppl here (many natives and some transplants) are hard-pressed and stressed and lack certain social skills such as general eye contact or general human interaction outside of their social circle (many cliquish circles here) Not usually associated with the general southern comfort/hospitality moniker that is applied to the South overall. This being the sun-belt area, Its still overly car-centric and super sprawly with a very shitty transit system (DART) Yet, People are flocking here because of the afformetioned economic status but if you come from someplace like the coastlines, this is a whole different universe for many.

Most of what I talk about applied mainly to Dallas area but I have found outer burban cities to range from your quintessential TX burban lifestyle to still being rural no man land type areas still awaiting deep pocket developer to plop the same tired manufactured just add water instant McMansion style homes with vast areas of strip malls and antiquated infrastructure. With all that being said, I would take Austin anyday lol.

Ive been to Atlanta, last year to me it suprised me how cosmopolitan the city felt soo much that you forgot that you were actually in the south at times but more of a city stuck between the South with a NE USA slant, I actually call Atlanta the "NYC of the South." PPl actually had style with what they wore, walked at a faster rate,yet still maintained that genuine "SoCo feel" I liked ATL, I need to explore more of the city as I was just there for just 3 days though.

[QuantumX]

I was in Chicago earlier this year and what surprised me most about it is the fact that there is a beach near where I stayed in downtown Chicago. My hotel was on Ohio Street and I could walk to Ohio Street Beach like I was staying in South Beach. I was also impressed with how clean downtown Chicago was.

BTW guys, whenever you're in Miami, go to Brickell Village. I understand what some of you are saying about downtown Miami. I like to hang out in Brickell Village. Try it!

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by QuantumX

I was in Chicago earlier this year and what surprised me most about it is the fact that there is a beach near where I stayed in downtown Chicago. My hotel was on Ohio Street and I could walk to Ohio Street Beach like I was staying in South Beach. I was also impressed with how clean downtown Chicago was.

I think outsiders would be surprised to find that a lot of U.S. northern big cities (if not most) have at least one beach within their municipal borders.

[brickell]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

No, I didn't like Downtown and I wasn't happy with the food separately. It seemed like a food culture hadn't taken shape yet.

OK. I can accept that. I think most people would disagree though. Honestly, most of the food found along the beaches and downtown and the Gables isn't really my style. I prefer cheaper, more homey dives. But a lot of people love it.


Since we're on food. I've had some amazingly bad food in NYC. Lots of good food too, but a lot of bad. It's not always easy for an outsider to figure these things out.

DC has a dearth of restaurants in the tourist areas which surprised me. Eating in museum food courts gets old after a while.

Philly was surprisingly good as were LA's diners and burger stands. Lots of good, cheap food out there. I guess I was expecting more Hollywood, less middle class.

I've had surprisingly good Mexican food in the mountains of NC.

In London, I was surprised by how few places served British food. I noticed a lot of mid-level Italian eateries.

[Segun]

Being on this forum for so long, the representation of cities is so good, its hard for me to be surprised anymore...but there are some instances.

Seattle: I was surprised there wasn't better neighborhood flow outside of downtown. I could see how a visitor would visit and go nowhere outside downtown. Its similar to Chicago in that regard, with industry surrounding the central area, but even Chicago has a seamless corridor north of the city. Whats also interesting is that the architecture is so utilitarian near the center, its hard to distinguish the actual residential neighborhoods from the commercial and industrial areas. The second time visiting I traveled around more, and they didn't have the light rail open, so perhaps that will tie it together some more.

Austin: SSP and word of mouth amongst "hip" people had my expectations high about this place, and I expected it to be similar to Portland; newer urbanity creating a large compact walkable area, but it wasn't quite. Columbus, OH easily matches Austin in terms of urbanity and vibrancy, and neighborhoods like German Village probably puts the CO slightly ahead. I guess, its another example of hype vs reality. And whats with a whole bunch of buses that end service at 9PM on Sunday? Sheesh, its a major city, not some backwoods small town. I still like Austin however, I just think it has a lot of building to do.

London: I mirror everyone else in saying that I felt so familiar, like it was the US, but not quite. Also, I was surprised at the small scale of everything. Its like a collection of thousands of little villages, and doesn't really have that many grand scale streets that show its immense size. I was amazed at how crowded the whole Regent St, Leicester Sq, Picadilly circus area was, despite its scale. Its like someone remade Boston into the size of NYC.

Montreal: I was wowed by this place, it had seamless urban neighborhoods full of unique character, an efficient, extensive subway, and plenty of pedestrian perks such as Benches, promenades, etc. It has everything you want in an extremely vibrant, urban city. What I enjoyed the most was legitimately gritty neighborhoods that felt seedy and shabby, but didn't have the air of violence and desperation that so many comparable neighborhoods in the US has. It also showed me how little US metro populations represent the size of the city. In the inner city, it feels twice as big as say, Houston, despite having 2 million less people.

Madison: This was an unexpected surprise too, it felt like a miniature Vancouver with a twist of DC. It benefits from its geography, so everything is packed within a tiny area. Within that area it feels like a neighborhood in a major city. I could see myself getting tired of it however. It plays tricks on you. After the second visit, I felt like I literally walked all the major streets.

[BrandonJXN]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I think outsiders would be surprised to find that a lot of U.S. northern big cities (if not most) have at least one beach within their municipal borders.

One other thing that I should mention about Chicago is how oppressive the heat is. I flew out of LA the night of July 4th and got to Chicago early morning the next day. To say it was hot would be putting it mildly. It was 104 but with 90% humidity it felt like 120. It was awful. I knew Chicago gets hot but that was unreasonable.

[MNMike]

Well, that isn't normal. It was a hot summer. The average high in Chicago in the summer is in the mid 80s...and it isn't always oppresively humid. Also, it couldn't have been 104 with 90% humidity, that isn't possible The highest the humidity can possibly be at 104 is around 50-55%. I know you were exaggerating, but I am a weather nerd...just a pet peeve of mine. It's the dewpoint you want to pay attention to, not the humidity. 104 with 35% humidity is very humid, just doesn't sound like it. Anyway...love chicago. This summer was a beast though, across most of the US.

Anyone been to Duluth? That surprises most people.

I was pleasantly surprised by Omaha, NE. End random post.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by ThreeHundred

One other thing that I should mention about Chicago is how oppressive the heat is. I flew out of LA the night of July 4th and got to Chicago early morning the next day. To say it was hot would be putting it mildly. It was 104 but with 90% humidity it felt like 120. It was awful. I knew Chicago gets hot but that was unreasonable.

yeah, we get those occasionally, they're called heat waves. however, the vast majority of our nation gets them from time to time, it is in no way a "chicago" thing. and this past summer was an absolute scorcher for everyone in the eastern part of the continent. not typical at all.

but they are blessedly infrequent. summers in chicago are typically wonderful, with temps in the lower-mid 80s.

[LSyd]

how beautiful and friendly Glasgow, Scotland is.

-

[Thundertubs]

Originally Posted by Marcu

Quebec Province: Montreal and Quebec City are beautiful, but the countryside between the two seems somewhat impoverished and run down. Rural areas tend to be poorer everywhere, but this seems particularly true in Quebec.

Huh, my experience in Quebec was the exact opposite. I was surprised how clean and semi-vibrant the smaller city downtowns were (Drummondville, Granby, St-Hyacynthe, Victoriaville, Sherbrooke). Even gritty, industrial Trois-Rivieres had a charming, clean downtown full of pedestrians, cafes, and regular stores (not just tattoo parlors, bail bonds, and check cashing places like you find in a lot of smaller American city downtowns).

Originally Posted by Segun

Madison: This was an unexpected surprise too, it felt like a miniature Vancouver with a twist of DC. It benefits from its geography, so everything is packed within a tiny area. Within that area it feels like a neighborhood in a major city. I could see myself getting tired of it however. It plays tricks on you. After the second visit, I felt like I literally walked all the major streets.

I lived in downtown Madison for a year. I've never been happier in terms of having walkable city and lakefront parkspace right outside my door. That said, at 24, I felt way too old. The city is way too dominated by undergrads and noisy football fans.

[dc_denizen]

+1 that downtown Austin was a little underwhelming. It's no Portland, too many parking lots. The area around 6th street suffered from a curious absence of newer residential housing, with the exception of a couple large towers. 80s towers still dominate the CBD. But I understand this is changing.

I found Austin's strength to be its beautiful in-city residential neighborhoods and single-family housing stock.

[ChrisLA]

Originally Posted by ThreeHundred

One other thing that I should mention about Chicago is how oppressive the heat is. I flew out of LA the night of July 4th and got to Chicago early morning the next day. To say it was hot would be putting it mildly. It was 104 but with 90% humidity it felt like 120. It was awful. I knew Chicago gets hot but that was unreasonable.

This reminds me of a experience one of my nephew's had when his girlfriend flew out for a weekend to visit him while he was living there. I must have been during a heatwave because he said the entire weekend she cried (no lie) because she had never felt heat like that living in LA. She actually lived in Venice Beach, so she don't experience the heat in the I.E. or the San Fernando Valley.

What surprised me is she is originally from Central America where it's my understanding it's get plenty hot, but I think she came here as a child. I also recall this young woman from Belize tell me L.A get too cold for her in the winter. My comment back to her was visit NYC or Chicago in January and get back to me. BTW I've heard people who moved here from the Philippines say this too.