Berlin has so many lakes and waterways that there are more bridges in Berlin than in Venice - plus lots and lot of huge parks, a world-class zoo and and aquarium.
They have great museums and galleries and theaters and concert halls.
A wild and amazing nightlife.
Unlike most of Europe, Berlin is a real 24 hour city - some bars never close.
Young artists and musicians from around the world live in Berlin and thrive in the environment due to fairly cheap housing and cost of living if you are thrifty (ie poor).
Berlin is a very liberal, tolerant city and is proud of the fact.
Other than the fact that the weather sucks big time, it is truly a wonderful place to live/visit.
It really is a toss-up between Wolverhampton and Argenteuil. Although Argenteuil does have a terrific little Carrefour, so that might give it the edge, I think.
If you haven’t been back to Prague lately, I’d suggest you don’t. Even in the 14 or so years since I first visited, it’s changed a heck of a lot. I took my wife there a couple of years ago on our “Quick, let’s see as much of Europe as we can before we have kids” tour, and she admitted to being a little disapoointed. It’s very touristy and feels a bit Disneyfied these days.
We saw some other fantastic places, though. Budapest, as mentioned. Sarajevo - a spur-of-the-moment decision to add it to our route but it turned out to be one of the highlights. Split - ridiculously picturesque and with glorious islands in easy reach. We also took a bus from Prague to a little town called Melnik and had a very fun afternoon wine-tasting in a castle. (That’s me pondering the next bottle )
Yeah well Dublin says you’re over rated. MY favourite European city other than the one I live in is Galway. My favourite real city to visit was probably Berlin. Least favourite was Barcelona.
We don’t intend to return to Europe. We both saw it long enough ago to have great memories of it, and the advent of the iPhone has ruined a lot of things that were once peaceful and serene. I should have mentioned Seville and Ronda in Spain and Obidos in Portugal, Salzburg in Vienna, and Bruge in Belgium. The small towns are much quieter and less tourist-ridden.
Istanbul is sort of on the cusp between Europe and Asia, I guess, but it’s one of my very favorite cities on the continent.
Galway - Friendliest town I’ve ever been in, great traditional and other music, loads of gigs, great little pubs, and some fantastic restaurants, all in a compact and picturesque city centre. Great for accessing other scenic parts of Ireland like Co. Clare and Connemara.
Berlin - It’s almost 10 years since I was there so perhaps it’s changed but I liked the pace of life, it’s a big city but didn’t have that big city imperative you get elsewhere. Good restaurants and lots of funky pubs/clubs. Fascinating history and some great architecture. It’s also very reasonably priced for most things by comparison with here.
I love Berlin. So much visible recent history and a great energy to the place, while not overly sterilzed. Also relatively cheap compared to other major cities. I lived and worked in Frankfurt for 4 years and kept trying to get them to move me to Berlin. I moved back to the US 3 years ago but if they had moved me to Berlin I would almost certainly have stayed.
Cellphones in general. Yapyapyapyapyapyapyap. Not just Europe. Anywhere there are people, it seems they just can’t shut the fuck up about every trivial detail of their sordid lives.
I have not traveled extensively; my experiences are thus limited. But Prague and Vienna were both delightful; Prague perhaps takes the edge by being cheap. Was Prague a bit touristy? I suppose, but I think places are as touristy as you let them be. God knows there weren’t any tourists hanging out in the crazy dive bars I wound up in with this guy from the Prague Hash House Harriers… Seeing all the love for Budapest here makes me want to go back–it was the last stop on my little tour last year, and I think I was getting tired and might not have given it a fair shake.
St. Petersburg, while not quite the same as the above, has a spot in my heart. It’s dirty, and there’s all too often something sort of… I dunno, chintzy about Russian stores and so on. But after a little while, and the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, it starts to look adorably scruffy… and that’s to say nothing of the pleasures of wandering the halls of the Hermitage for literally hours on end. (And seeing the Hermitage cats in the courtyard outside… and glintwine in the winter… and walking down Nevsky Prospekt with a cold Baltika… well, maybe not that latter, Baltika being Russian Budweiser and all… Stopping into Dom Knigi… the head-rests in the men’s room at Dikkens, hehe…)
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Stopping into Dom Knigi… the head-rests in the men’s room at Dikkens, hehe…)