European cities
Oct. 25th, 2002 12:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
guslBarcelona, Santiago de Compostela, Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin. These are cool places.
I have to confess that during this trip, every place I go, I have been asking myself
"How would I like to live here?"
This is partly insanity, as I *have* considered staying in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania after college (it's very easy to stay where you are). But it's also a good thing to do: I don't have a fixed residence right now.... I am young and free, and I can live wherever I want (never mind the immigration bureaucrats).
First, the places where I wouldn't want to live:
Firenze
loud motorcycles, too many tourists and crooks, obnoxious police (they persecute street performers)
Porto
rather small, lacks coolness
Cap D'Agde
this is a beach town. Nothing interesting besides the nudists.
Heidelberg
Very pretty, and rather good weather. But kinda small. Resembles Central Pennsylvania.
People don't speak English. And things close early. And nothing opens on Sunday. And Germany has laws about everything. And it's not cheap.
Munich
Not very green. Not that artisty. Rather lifeless.
Halfway-cool cities:
Nice
The biggest city in the French Riviera, it has its share of museums and attractions. Yet, it's not big enough or interesting enough. Going to the beach may be the best thing to do there, even if it's a sandless, pebble beach.
**COOL CITIES**:
Barcelona
very cool: abounds with street performers and artists. People are reasonably friendly, and many people speak 3 languages, English being one of them. The weather is very good, and it's close to the nice Mediterranean coast. You see many hustlers around, but that's a sign of a wealthy city.
Santiago de Compostela
despite the year-round rainy weather, this town is full of students, and because of tourists, it is reasonably artsy and has good nightlife. It is the capital of Galicia, where the language is a dialect of Portuguese (arguably). They play their own brand of Celtic music (which is just about all that there is left of their Celtic heritage).
Paris
Dirty, expensive, full of crooks, and people are rude. It is said that Parisians believe themselves to be individually superior to outsiders. However, I did appreciate the friendliness of North Africans who live there, and I enjoyed the artsiness and glamour of Paris (I wouldn't for very long, though). Yet, I had friends there, and made a few more, who would probably make my life much more interesting, should I stay there.
Amsterdam
At a first glance, it's the city of potheads and mushroomheads. If you look deeper, it's the city of logicians: nowhere else in the world is there a higher percentage of logicians in the population. The Dutch are known for their engineering: it's said that God created the Earth, but the Dutch created the Netherlands. Perhaps logically, they are one of the economically-freest nations in Europe. Everybody speaks English, most people very well.
Tall people, the Dutch most closely approximate Ayn Rand's characters.
Dublin
Do you think Canadians are friendly? Do you know where they came from? Here, I feel at ease approaching anyone, as though I'm in Spain. This is not the case in France, Germany, the Netherlands or Britain, though I will be trying Britain again soon.
Here, everybody speaks English natively, and Irish Gaelic is confined to small towns in the country.
Dublin is truly a cosmopolitan city. I really hadn't expected to see so many Italians, Spaniards, Indians, Koreans, etc.. Things are very cheap compared to the rest of Europe. In the area around Trinity College, one can see a bustling, multi-cultural student life. When I visited a college cafeteria, it really looked like a scene right out of an American College.
Plus, the Irish seem to smoke a lot less than most of the other Europeans, and many people are crazy about soccer!
I have to confess that during this trip, every place I go, I have been asking myself
"How would I like to live here?"
This is partly insanity, as I *have* considered staying in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania after college (it's very easy to stay where you are). But it's also a good thing to do: I don't have a fixed residence right now.... I am young and free, and I can live wherever I want (never mind the immigration bureaucrats).
First, the places where I wouldn't want to live:
Firenze
loud motorcycles, too many tourists and crooks, obnoxious police (they persecute street performers)
Porto
rather small, lacks coolness
Cap D'Agde
this is a beach town. Nothing interesting besides the nudists.
Heidelberg
Very pretty, and rather good weather. But kinda small. Resembles Central Pennsylvania.
People don't speak English. And things close early. And nothing opens on Sunday. And Germany has laws about everything. And it's not cheap.
Munich
Not very green. Not that artisty. Rather lifeless.
Halfway-cool cities:
Nice
The biggest city in the French Riviera, it has its share of museums and attractions. Yet, it's not big enough or interesting enough. Going to the beach may be the best thing to do there, even if it's a sandless, pebble beach.
**COOL CITIES**:
Barcelona
very cool: abounds with street performers and artists. People are reasonably friendly, and many people speak 3 languages, English being one of them. The weather is very good, and it's close to the nice Mediterranean coast. You see many hustlers around, but that's a sign of a wealthy city.
Santiago de Compostela
despite the year-round rainy weather, this town is full of students, and because of tourists, it is reasonably artsy and has good nightlife. It is the capital of Galicia, where the language is a dialect of Portuguese (arguably). They play their own brand of Celtic music (which is just about all that there is left of their Celtic heritage).
Paris
Dirty, expensive, full of crooks, and people are rude. It is said that Parisians believe themselves to be individually superior to outsiders. However, I did appreciate the friendliness of North Africans who live there, and I enjoyed the artsiness and glamour of Paris (I wouldn't for very long, though). Yet, I had friends there, and made a few more, who would probably make my life much more interesting, should I stay there.
Amsterdam
At a first glance, it's the city of potheads and mushroomheads. If you look deeper, it's the city of logicians: nowhere else in the world is there a higher percentage of logicians in the population. The Dutch are known for their engineering: it's said that God created the Earth, but the Dutch created the Netherlands. Perhaps logically, they are one of the economically-freest nations in Europe. Everybody speaks English, most people very well.
Tall people, the Dutch most closely approximate Ayn Rand's characters.
Dublin
Do you think Canadians are friendly? Do you know where they came from? Here, I feel at ease approaching anyone, as though I'm in Spain. This is not the case in France, Germany, the Netherlands or Britain, though I will be trying Britain again soon.
Here, everybody speaks English natively, and Irish Gaelic is confined to small towns in the country.
Dublin is truly a cosmopolitan city. I really hadn't expected to see so many Italians, Spaniards, Indians, Koreans, etc.. Things are very cheap compared to the rest of Europe. In the area around Trinity College, one can see a bustling, multi-cultural student life. When I visited a college cafeteria, it really looked like a scene right out of an American College.
Plus, the Irish seem to smoke a lot less than most of the other Europeans, and many people are crazy about soccer!