For me it was Brasov in Romania. It was more beautiful than I had expected and really liked the vibes of this medieval city.
Seoul. I was barely 18 and got stationed there. I was expecting grass huts and donkey carts based off MASH or other movies I’ve seen.
But I was legitimately shocked. Like you know in movies when someone goes through Tokyo for the first time and they are starting struck, that was me in Seoul.
What year did you go?
2002
Merida in Mexico. It’s not a tourist city, but I was there during a weekend and there were all sort of family events organized at the market, it was really fun and inclusive. We sat down to watch a kids play and got brought into the play as “ghosts” (we’re white) so the kids would run up to us and pretend to be scared (we’d play it up), and at the end everyone gathered around us and thanked us for being sports. The rest of the day was just an immersion in actual Mexican culture and friendliness.
Not what I expected just dropping into the city on the way to see ruins, we stayed an extra couple days just to enjoy it. Maybe it’s gotten more urban and stand-offish, this would have been a decade ago.
When I went to Brussels, Belgium I was shocked to find out there are no fast food restaurants in the entire city, even the airport.
Nice to see them support small businesses.
Aren’t there hundreds of independent fritures (small places that serve traditional Belgian fries)?
I’m sure on the specific thing, but there were a lot of chip shops.
Osaka Japan. I love it there. There’s so much to see and do, and beautiful parks and shrines everywhere.
Sarajevo in BiH. Fascinating history, great weather and food. Met some lovely people.
San Antonio. I was going to visit family and honestly was dreading it, but the downtown core is surprisingly pleasant. Extremely walkable, semi easy to get around, and the river walk is honestly pretty nice. (Not nice nice, I’d say it’s like a Vegas lite, everything is a little garish, but not too much).
Getting outside of SA was annoying though, car centric hellhole, endless sprawl, no way to get around. But - downtown is nice.
People think Buffalo is gritty and cold but it’s so much more than that and actually has amazing food and drink and things to do and shopping and simply spectacular architecture. I’d rather go there than anywhere else in the US anymore. I always have a fantastic time.
Fyi going as a tourist is completely different than living in these places. The initial beauty you see in most places quickly fades away by your bills and other responsibilities plus some annoying problem in the city you didn’t noticed until you decided to live there.
Kuala Lumpur. Had to go there on short notice for a three day work trip, and I knew next to nothing about the country in particular or the region in general. Gorgeous city. Friendly people, awesome street food, and beautiful architecture. 10/10, looking forward to going back.
Everyone talks about the rain in Seattle. No one warns you about the hills.
San Diego, I was expecting a fishy/port city smell and it had none of that.
NYC was different than I expected in that while I was there, I saw practically no cars on the street, but the sidewalks were packed and it was actually harder to walk anywhere due to the sheer number of people also walking down the sidewalk.
Came here to say Brașov. Apart from being really beautiful (I went in summer) I was surprised at how walkable it was. Romania is good in that regard in general but Brașov was seriously fun to walk around.
Funny enough for me it was also a Romanian town - Constanta.
Actually a fairly nice city with even nicer surroundings.
Nice place.
Despite the really bad reviews by the famous Roman poet Ovid, who was banned to Constanta, it is a really nice city.
Lol. Didn’t know about Ovid. Another reason to hate the guy.
Tbh, I stayed at efforie, a bit further south.Also absolutely lovely place.
I had a trip to Constanta and the danube delta scheduled… But then Covid happened and the war - sadly there is zero chance to persuade the wife to go to the Delta while the Ukrainian side is under fire.
Anyway, I will be back. (I live close to the beginning of the Danube and that would be fairly interesting to see the end. Additionally we are often in the Delta of the Po which is quite similar - and we love it there)
I was in the Delta this year. It’s really beautiful. Had a nice little boat tour ans saw a lot of birds. The Saint George arm (that is completely in Romania) is still mostly safe but aquatic mines were already spotted near the very end at Sulina, so we obviously did not go there. The captain of my boat told me that in earlier phases of the war you could see the russian drones attacking the Ismail grain terminal on the Ukrainian side from Tulcea.
