this is a good option imo. and since I have a strong aversion to spending money in red states lately, going to suggest Atlanta and Savannah while GA still sort of qualifies.
Iāll buy you a beer in MPLS.
Off to the dominican for 10 days on Wednesday. 4am car service pickup lmao. How do I even prepare for that I go to sleep at midnightā¦
how are you going to pull off such a surprise? tell her you are going to disneyworld and not say anything until you land?
Iāve always maintained that flaws give a city charm and personality.
Cities that rank high on those quality of life indices often come off as insanely boring to me. Zurich is the quintessential example of this. Itās impeccably clean and has amazing infrastructure. Yet, Iām almost afraid to touch anything for fear of breaking something.
To me, Vienna was a largely forgettable city. Still nice but thereās definitely better out there.
I really donāt know how it can beat Istanbul. I was getting full meals for $3-4 there. Paid around $20/night for a place to stay.
Well I wasnāt including Istanbul, but itās hard to imagine you get more for less in any other city in the world (maybe Buenos Aires is in the ballpark). But both are largely the result of their currencies getting hammered. Istanbul is incredible though and probably my fave city in the world.
Budapest still quite cheap though. You can get a pretty filling goulash for $3, metro tickets are 80 cents, etc
Also searching on Airbnb for a place for the month or October, both cities come in near an average price of $2500 for the month. So very similar for places to stay. Iād guess that Istanbul will be about 25% more expensive if/when the currency stabilizes, but itās such an awesome city that Iād still rate it as better value.
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Savannah, Georgia was beautiful. Restaurants/bars and parks all over. Lots of walking. There are no giant oak trees and rivers with shipping vessels where Iām from. That stuff was endlessly fascinating to me (not USAian).
Boston
I was very impressed with Budapest as well, and was interested to hear your take. Itās not a megacity, but itās a legit big city with tons of interesting stuff going on, and the Buda district on the western side of the river is a really unexpected change of pace.
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Budapest was my favorite city in Central Europe. Great vibe, a lot of character, I couldnāt believe how many people were drinking/pre-gaming in the parks on the weekends. Coming from the US where thereās usually no drinking in public spaces, it was kinda fun.
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Yah, Europe seems lacking in megacities. Iād say Athens is at the top of the ābig cityā category with a metro population of bout tree fiddy.
That would leave the megacities as Rome, Milan, Barcelona, Madrid, Berlin, Paris, London, and Istanbul (Ruhr area has a high population, but is kinda a different thing imo).
And itās debatable if 4-6 million population is even a megacity or just merely a very big city. Which would further limit it to just 4 cities. Of course there are other considerations besides just population. Barcelona feels like a lot less of a megacity than Rome despite slightly higher population.
The benefit of these cities though is that you can get to other big cities in the snap of a finger, which is a big advantage to me. Iād snap live in any of them if I could figure out residency. Maybe except London, which would be a bit out of our budget. We felt that even Paris would work, but weād really have to penny pinch in almost every way. Although it helps thatād weād both do almost anything to live there.
One other thing about Budapest is that it just feels like an insanely fun city. Walking around we saw ads for about a dozen events or concerts that weād love to go to. Vienna probably has a stick too far up their ass to allow 90% of those events to go off in their city. It seems like everything is just classical or high culture related there.
Budapest also has a large variety pedestrianized streets with inviting bars, cafĆ©s, and restaurants, and the vibe really draws you in. We arenāt huge into nightlife, but felt like we had to hit up Szimpla Kert and then Gozsdu for a couple drinks. We passed a half dozen other bars with varying themes that weād also love to frequent.
Food has been pretty good, but as far as Hungarian cuisine, seems quite limited. Luckily we love goulash, so that helps.
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I also really liked Budapest when I (briefly) visited, but I knew a guy who lived there and hated it. Corruption, right wing politics etc. Probably depends what youāre going while living there.
thanks for suggestions everyone. just a couple of comments
- I love chattanooga, but weāve been there twice in the last three months, and have a business trip there in november. FWIW, I would put it in the āmid-sized cityā bucket, but just barely.
- Pittsburgh is a pretty good suggestion, Iāve had it on my list for a while but never really gotten around to it. Had a couple of work trips there a billion years ago but they were all one-day back-and-out deals and just hitting offices in the burbs so I really havenāt seen the city at all.
- Probably going to do Portland sometime next year, I want to take a bit longer up there, will probably rent a car and get out of the city.
- Savannah and Charleston are both on our list but Iām a bit constrained because Iām trying to use an Amex Delta certificate that expires soon, it has some restrictions on fare classes and thereās nothing in those buckets to southern coastal destinations that works (these are big fall break travel spots).
Kinda narrowed it down a bit to either SLC or a few rust belt towns.
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I was in SLC and recommend it for a few days.
Going through all the Mormon shit is a trip.
Make sure to see something at the Tabernacle. Either the daily organ concert or the choir on Sunday. We went every day we were there.
Plus this:
Shoutout @anon10387340 for the Sonoma rec, Gloria Ferrer vineyard for a glass of sparkling wine:
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Back from the big TO. I did have some peameal bacon with cornmeal, but I think the most Canadian thing I experienced was a dude on a street corner in a Blue Jays jersey playing Tom Sawyer on an electric guitar
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If youre still in sonoma, El Molino Central is a superb mexican casual restaurant
Might have asked it before, but has anybody here been to Serbia? Seems interesting but Iām looking for day trips outside of Belgrade.