[demonrail666]

Sort of stole the idea from Julian but anyway.

London - Born and raised here. Vast, expensive and unfriendly. Food is either terrible or great but you'll need plenty of money if you want the latter. Traditional 'greasy spoon' cafes are slowly being eased out by fast food restaurants and gastro-pubs. OK areas are Notting Hill, Bethnal Green, Shoreditch (for the uber-cool clubs and bars). Great for its social scene but very spread out. Excellent shops around Notting Hill and Soho. Places to avoid, Tottenham, parts of Bermondsey and Peckham, most of Tower Hamlets except Bethnal Green, all of Newham.

Paris - Tiny, surprisingly dangerous in its suburbs, relies heavily on its past to disguise the fact that fuck all seems to have happened there since the 60s. People here are even less friendly than in London.

Berlin - Excellent city. A cross between London and NY without being quite as good as either. Has a definite 'alternative' vibe to it. Music scene is dominated by Techno and Anarcho-Punk squatters. Fantastic bars but limited restaurants. A definite edgy feel to the place but overall pretty safe.

Amsterdam - Personally I don't like it. The Red Light district and the Coffee shops seem more for tourists these days. Food was awful, bars were OK but nothing special. Seemed pretty safe to walk around - although you might get hit by one of their stupid fucking trams.

Prague - When I visited it there seemed to be more Americans there than Czechs. Beautiful to walk around and still cheap (for non-Czechs anyway). Awesome bars but the food is pretty dire.

Budapest - Excellent city. Nothing like as touristy as prague. Ace food and ludicrously cheap drinks. Music scene seemed pretty good too. Generally safe. And, it has to be said, drop dead gorgeous women.

Istanbul - Good in a way, but fine food and architecture is no compensation for the very real likelihood of being ripped off at every turn whilst you're there. Can be unsafe at night, especially for women.

Warsaw - Fucking grim. Has a really shady quality to it. Never had any trouble but you get the feeling that it's there nonetheless. Very 'gangster'. Nondescript food and bars, club scene seems dominated by mafia types. To be fair, this was the early 90s so things might've changed since then, but i'm in no hurry to go back and find out.

Frankfurt - The old town is too small to compensate for the generally soulless nature of this city. OK if you like skyscrapers, but that's about it.

[Danny Himself]

I will do my usual star ratings:

Liverpool: **
London: **
Manchester: **
Oxford: ****
Glasgow:
etc uk shiz..

I don't remember specific towns but I've been to Crete and Zante, Northern France, Italy, and Spain. They're mostly **** places.

[Iain]

London - Great to have it there when you want to visit and cheers to National Express and Megabus for making it so cheap (if not comfortable or quick) to get there. Would I want to live there? Probably not...unless someone was offering somewhere super cheap to rent.

Glasgow - Pretty ace from what I saw and some really good record shops (this is pre volcanic tongue opening even)

Edinburgh - Nice looking but inferior record shops to Glasgow and too touristy for its own good. Fucking ace jacket potato shop though...best jacket potato I ever ate

Leeds - Pretty lively city centre on a weekend night. Seemed pretty happening but some of it a bit scummy....

Birmingham - Pretty boring and I couldn't find any decent record shops.

Krakow - Really, really nice place that was a pleasure just to be in. So many attractive women and hands down the best used bookshop I have been in (massolit books). Couldn't find many decent record shops though. Ace kebabs...cheap + good food. Unless you're vegetarian.

Berlin - See above. Really ace, loads of interesting stuff happening in squat type places and elsewhere. Some really ace bars indeed..

[pantophobia]

London - very busy, nice though, lots of good public transport, some really pushy people,especially those underground employees, maybe an anti-american response from some people on the streets

Taunton - the only other "city" i have been too, reminded me of Gaithersburg, Maryland, from the old downtown area, to the larger shopping area

[Danny Himself]

Originally Posted by pantophobia

London - very busy, nice though, lots of good public transport, some really pushy people,especially those underground employees, maybe an anti-american response from some people on the streets

Taunton - the only other "city" i have been too, reminded me of Gaithersburg, Maryland, from the old downtown area, to the larger shopping area

Yeah, English people are generally arrogant anti-american tossers. Why Taunton, of all places?

[pantophobia]

it was the last stop on the line, before the chalet i was in took a cab and headed to minehead for atp

[Danny Himself]

Ah, right.

[SpectralJulianIsNotDead]

I'm going to Rome, Venice, Naples, Marseille, Florence, Athens, Istanbul, and Ephesus this summer. I'll give my review when I get back.

[Danny Himself]

Good luck.

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by pantophobia

maybe an anti-american response from some people on the streets

That's definitely true but it's also the case pretty much throughout all of Europe. I have family in Spain and Portugal where there's hardly a square metre of wall space not covered with some anti-American slogan or another. On the whole, Europeans have always made it their business to find an excuse to dislike America(ns).

[Danny Himself]

Screw the bastards! USA! USA! USA!

[Sonic Youth 37]

Out of 5 stars

Venice-Great views and it has really nice Renaissance feel. A bit too touristy though-****

Florence-for me, the the ideal Italian city. I loved the setup, the plazas, and the all around feel *****

Nice-A good ocean side city. but once you get on the back streets, ie off the Promenade Anglais, it can get trashy ***

Monaco/Monte Carlo-too expensive and touristy, but has great views ***

Paris-a great, great, great Metropolitan city. It has the perfect mix of everything. If I was to choose a place to live, this would be it! *****

Eze-a small hilltop village near Nice. I suggest a stop here just to look around if you want to see a real Medieval village. ****

[floatingslowly]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

On the whole, Europeans have always made it their business to find an excuse to dislike America(ns).

granted, there's a lot of hate on america right now, but I didn't experience any when I went to spain. then again, I guess I don't really scream OMGAMERICAFUCKYEAH.


on topic:

London ****

I've only been in Gatwick and Heathrow Airports but it made me wish I was staying longer than a layover. I was mostly won over by the dry sarcasm of one of the airport workers as he directed the idiots into two lines.

"yeah I know, two lines are a hard concept".

Barcelona *****

I spent a week there last summer and it was the time of my life. I've been to quite a few places across the americas, but nowhere that was as cool as that.

in fact, the most memorable aspect was how friendly the people there were too me. maybe it was my half-ass attempt at spanish (even though they don't speak the same "mexican dialect" that I know of).

the food, the sangria, the art nouveau architecture, the sangria and the sangria are other things that stand out in my mind as trip-makers.

I caught one day of Primavera Fesival 2006 and I can easily say that Parc del Forum is the most beautiful music venue I've ever seen. I'm still mad that I missed The Brian Jonestown Massacre play.

[SpectralJulianIsNotDead]

Originally Posted by Danny Himself

Good luck.

I'm going to wear hockey jerseys all the time and say the word about as "aboot" and add "eh" onto everything I say. That way they won't judge me for being from the US, they'll just be like "he's canadian."

[Sonic Youth 37]

Originally Posted by SpectralJulianIsNotDead

I'm going to wear hockey jerseys all the time and say the word about as "aboot" and add "eh" onto everything I say. That way they won't judge me for being from the US, they'll just be like "he's canadian."

Haha! That's the funniest thing I've read all day.

[sonicl]

London
It's more or less home. I love it.

Paris
A wonderful place to wander around.

Venice
I want to go again. And again.

Nice
Not as classy as it makes out.

Monte Carlo
Slightly less classy than Nice, but lots of expensive cars

Naples
Shithole

Barcelona
Amazing views

Bruges
Excellent for chocolate and food. Very nice market.

Berlin
A slightly bizarre place that seems to be eager to wipe its most interesting feature (its past) off the face of the map. But I'd go back.

Heidelberg
I'm not sure if it's a city or not, but it's beautiful, especially when it's just snowed.

St Petersburg
One of the most incredible places I've ever been. The architechture.... wow!

Moscow
Pretty dull outside of the Kremlin.

[Tokolosh]

Britain
London*****
Newcastle***
Birmingham**
Bath**
Leeds*
York****
Durham*
Brighton*

Netherlands
Amsterdam*****
The Hague***
Groningen***
Utrecht*
Haarlem****
Delft**
Arnhem***
Breda*
Middelburg**
Alkmaar*
Leeuwaarden**
Tilburg*
Nijmegen*
Maastricht*

Belgium
Brussels**
Antwerp***
Hasselt*
Geel*

Spain
Madrid**
Segovia****
Toledo***
Denia**
Valencia***

France
Paris*****
Nice**
Le Havre**
Caen*
Rouen*
Reims*

Germany
Frankfurt***
Dresden**
Leipzig***
Hannover**
Kassel**
Halle**

Italy
Rome****

Portugal
Lisbon*
Faro*

Bulgaria
Sofia**

Still really want to visit Berlin, Barcalona, Athens, Copenhagen, Vienna, Dublin, Warsaw, Prague, Venice.

* Good
* Bad

[sonicl]

I didn't want to get carried away saying anything about English cities, but seeing as Tokolosh has mentioned Brighton, I'll just say that's probably the one place that I would rank above London as far as English cities go. It has great shops, great places to eat, a beautiful pier, the sea, a good music scene, everything that I could possibly want out of a city.

The residents can sometimes be a bit on the pretentious side though.

[screamingskull]

Originally Posted by Iain

Birmingham - Pretty boring and I couldn't find any decent record shops.

There are 3, swordfish, tempest and reddingtons. If you come back here contact me and i will show you around

[Iain]

Originally Posted by screamingskull

There are 3, swordfish, tempest and reddingtons. If you come back here contact me and i will show you around

Thanks! I heard about Swordfish but only after the last time I was in Birmingham.