As a counterpoint to this thread, what cities have you been pleasantly surprised by? You know, the kind of place you were expecting to be a real dump, but ended up pleasantly surprising you.
I’ll kick off with Mexico City. I visited it near the end of a six-month world trip, and I was already rather jaded from travelling. I had just spent some time in Whistler, BC, where I hooked up with friends from home for a week’s skiing, and I would have happily gone back home with them. The more I read about Mexico City the more I didn’t want to go there. I was going to get robbed the moment I stepped out of the airport, the pollution was going to kill me, I was going to eat a dodgy taco and spend days on the toilet…
It wasn’t like that at all. It was beautiful, it was friendly and it was fascinating. The food was excellent, the air was breathable (if not too sweet after Whistler!) and only one guy tried very half-heartedly to threaten me for cash. I went to see the pyramids at Teotihuacan, I took the train out to the suburbs (Xochimilco was beautiful), and most of all I just spent ages wandering the streets.
My boyfriend (at the time) and I stopped to check out Walt Whitman’s house, which was closed (Memorial day, duh), so we were directed to his grave, where upon arrival my boyfriend dropped to the ground and proposed. Neat experience, even though we didn’t end up getting married.
That said, I was astounded by the visual poverty of the place. I grew up in Houston, TX and have lived in or near Louisville, KY since I was 11 (a couple of years excepted) and I was just not used to the industial look of parts of the Northeast.
Poona, India, where I now live actually! The intention was always to move here, but I hated the thought of leaving Bombay. 10 years later, in retrospect, I don’t regret the move one bit!
Cleveland. I went there in 2000 for a wedding. It was the first time I had been east of the Mississippi, and I was expecting an absolute shithole, but boy was I wrong. It’s really a very attractive city.
I’ll go with El Paso, TX. While I would never actually plan a vacation there, passing through the city is necessary on cross country I 10 drives. I expected it to be an absolute shanty town. It was surprisingly nice. The minor league baseball stadium was fun. The downtown area was decent enough. The Sun Bowl and UTEP were worth a quick visit.
I thought it’d be totally hicksville. But they’re working on a little Riverwalk type area similar to San Antonio’s and we were there for a regatta for their newly built river park. And the downtown was charming with a lot of older buildings (and their buffalos statues painted by local businesses on every corner).
It’s not that I really thought it was a dump, but what I knew of it consisted of it being freakishly liberal, very windy, and it had Alcatraz. It would have probably landed about 40th on my list of cities to see.
So, I went and loved it. Great walking, neat things to see both touristy and some of the hidden, local type attractions. Just a super neat city with a great vibe, great food, and more than enough to attract the eye and the mind.
But yeah, based on the protest march going on while I was there, the freakishly liberal part did ring true.
I vote for El Paso also. The food was incredible. I made the “holy pilgrimage” to the State Line for a carnivore feast (Texas barbecue, Fred Flintstone sized racks of ribs etc), and the usual TexMex food (also excellent), and was happy.
Pittsburgh. I was expecting Buffalo with more rivers, but liked the new downtown, the River parks, the funicular, the universities, and the Carnegie museums.
Kinda OT, I’m glad I visited Detroit, too, because it made me grateful that I grew up in the Bronx during the Fort Apache years.
Got stuck there with my buddy back in the eighties. Planes couldn’t fly because of fog in Iceland. So we had a day to kill.
Spent four hours in the local museum. It was great. Walked around the city, and was impressed with the locals.
Spent the evening down in a cave carved out of the rocks in a Greek restaurant. I could speak a little German, my friend could speak a little French, but we both could speak “menu Greek.” By the end of the evening, the owner was sitting at our table buying us free Mataxa. But, maybe that colors my memory.