Share where you think is the best place to live, work, study etc. For now my favourites are Vienna and the Netherlands. I'm totally inlove with Vienna, this country is so amazingly awesome it makes me sad I don't speak German.
Saint John New Brunswick
and only cause of the really good friends I have there. The setting could always be changed with little impact the characters can't.
Juarez, Mexico.
My favorite place to visit would be England, though it's been a while.
Not sure I'd want to live there, though. The best place to live is Tucson. It's paradise.
Austin.
Liberal oasis with plenty of southern hospitality. World's largest urban bat colony. Gay cowboy bars. 6th street. Lots of parks and lakes that make you almost forget you're in the middle of a major city. Kayaking on the river downtown. Local folk hero is a homeless transvestite named Leslie.
I love this place.
Leslie is still wandering? how old is that guy now?
San Diego is not bad for the weather, if you like 70'F pretty much year-round. Not that hard to find a job here, either. Housing is pretty much ok, atmosphere, it's what you make it. I haven't really had a city in CA that said YOU MUST LIVE HERE other than Santa Barbara. But it's $$$ there, so I wouldn't say it's "the best," I just REALLY like it.
I like Lyon, France, too.
A house.
Lyon is terrible to travel to and from, though. Unless you like endless toll roads charging you a small pittance each, but as a group bleeding you dry. It's no cheaper travelling there by train, either.
St. Thomas.
It combines all the best aspects of a tropical island (great beaches, great weather, hot girls, great beaches) with all of the "best" aspects of a banana republic port city (massive amounts of crime, drugs, corruption, political intrigue, racial tension, and crime), subsidized by America's federal government and using America's currency (which really just adds a whole new sleazy dimension to the corruption and intrigue).
Quote from: Cain on August 16, 2010, 09:09:38 PM
Lyon is terrible to travel to and from, though. Unless you like endless toll roads charging you a small pittance each, but as a group bleeding you dry. It's no cheaper travelling there by train, either.
I had a Eurail pass at the time, so yeah, my knowledge of that place is sorta limited. But I LOVED the week I spent there way back when.
Quote from: Iptuous on August 16, 2010, 08:59:16 PM
Leslie is still wandering? how old is that guy now?
Yeah, he's still around. He's in his 60's, I think.
In a similar vein to ECH, I suggested Ciudad del Este. Second largest city in Paraguay, on the border with Argentina and Brazil, has a sizeable immigrant population from Asia and the Middle East, and is the third largest tax-free commerce zone in the world. Due to its location and economic importance, it is the site of much corruption and intrigue, with groups as diverse as Hezbollah and the PLA's 2nd Dept having a large presence in the area.
I would like to live abroad sometime while my kiddos are young. i wonder what some good places for that would be...
Quote from: DiscoUkulele on August 16, 2010, 09:21:49 PM
Yeah, he's still around. He's in his 60's, I think.
wow... that's a rough 60, cause he looked like late sixties when i was there ten years ago.
the tu-tu doesn't really cover up his age, though, i guess...
The Colorado Rockies.
Quote from: Charley Brown on August 16, 2010, 09:55:12 PM
The Colorado Rockies.
^ THIS.
Monterey Bay in California. Lovely weather, best aquarium in the country, proximity to both LA and SF, better atmosphere than both. Expensive, though.
Redwood City. I guarantee you that the forecast in that city on any given day was:
Cool and foggy in the morning, with mild wind and cloudless sunshine and low humidity in the afternoon.
And it's far enough from light pollution that you can usually see the stars.
And Emerald Hills has the best motorcycling roads I've ever been on.
And Sancho's Taqueria has better fish tacos than anyone.
Quote from: Charley Brown on August 16, 2010, 09:55:12 PM
The Colorado Rockies.
HELL no. Those motherfuckers are out to get me. If I'm ever the guy with my finger on the button, I'm turning those asshole rockpiles into the Colorado saltpan.
Quote from: Exit City Hustle on August 17, 2010, 01:38:47 AM
Quote from: Charley Brown on August 16, 2010, 09:55:12 PM
The Colorado Rockies.
HELL no. Those motherfuckers are out to get me. If I'm ever the guy with my finger on the button, I'm turning those asshole rockpiles into the Colorado saltpan.
Well fuck you then, you coastal spag!
Oh, I love mountains. Alot. Just not THOSE mountains. They're literally trying to kill me.
What did they do?
And what did you do to them to make them hate you so?
Monarch Pass has tried to kill me twice (surprise snowstorm once and blown transmission stranding me at almost 12000 feet in the freezing dark), and very nearly succeeded both times. And I do mean VERY nearly. last spring they enlisted the help of their buddies, the Wyoming Rockies, and (taken utterly by surprise) THOSE treacherous assholes came as close to killing me as anything ever has that wasn't a bullet. I came over a crest into a temperature inversion which has caused a micro-blizzard on the eastern slope of the crest coating I-80 with 2 inches of snow and ice which I hit at 60mph (thank god I was going slow due to climbing the hill or I'd have been all done) with 4WD not engaged. The sides of the freeway were literally littered with the wreckage of what must have been 40+ vehicles and every state cop in western Wyoming was on the scene along with every wrecker. I've honestly never seen anything like it. The 18-wheeler in the lane next to me lost control and started to jackknife into me and I was lucky enough to see it and clearheaded enough to stomp on the gas and gain just enough speed to get out in front of it with literally two feet or less to spare before it's trailer swung into the space where I'd have been had I maintained speed. Then I just had to white-knuckle it for another mile or so and was dumb lucky enough to keep it pointed straight until I got to the bottom and bare pavement even though I had just about zero traction at that point.
Nothing that hairy has ever happened to me in the Cascades, the Sierras, the Blues, the Beartooths (Bearteeth?), the Olympics, the Coast Range, the Siskyous, the Wasatch Range, the Uintas, the Whites, the Greens, or the Presidential Range. Just the Rockies, and specifically the Colorado Rockies and their asshole buddies in Wyoming.
Seriously, fuck those guys.
That said....the Black Canyon of the Gunnison is one of the most stunningly beautiful pieces of landscape I've ever seen anywhere, as is the stretch of US-50 between Canyon City and Salida. But I don't wanna live there.
It's also depressingly devoid of crime, corruption, political intrigue, and nice beaches.
Girdwood or Talkeetna, Alaska.
Girdwood is quiet, cozy. A very small town at the foot of some moderately epic mountains. In the summer every inch of the place is green with little cabins and houses nestled in the trees.
In the winter it's like a pleasant dream.
It's 45 minutes away from Anchorage, but unfortunately the only way to get there is a fairly narrow twisted road with ice cold water on one side and sheer cliff on the other.
Talkeetna is spaced out, plenty of room and privacy. It also has a quaintness to it, "downtown" is a tourist trap.
The name means three rivers and its where they meet. You can see the Denali mountain range and mt. Mckinley. It's three hours from anchorage and sooo quiet.
Of course, with both these places come no work and the ever-present stench of hippie. Which smells an awful lot like a skunk.
Oh and talkeetna is sufficiently far north to be too motherfucking cold.
Still. Quiet.
Well, I would be lying if I said it's here in São Paulo. The city has its qualities though, the are just not worth the bad stuff
From all the places I visited, the best one to live would be Barcelona....oh what a place, and whats with that Catalan food, amazing! Love France also, mainly because of the food (not because its french food but because people actually care to make everything perfectly, or they don't do it...at least at the places I went), but the living cost would probably make me hate that place reeealy fast.
Turku, Finland. Very nice place. I like Amsterdam and Utrecht, too.
Quote from: Exit City Hustle on August 17, 2010, 04:35:40 AM
Monarch Pass has tried to kill me twice (surprise snowstorm once and blown transmission stranding me at almost 12000 feet in the freezing dark), and very nearly succeeded both times. And I do mean VERY nearly. last spring they enlisted the help of their buddies, the Wyoming Rockies, and (taken utterly by surprise) THOSE treacherous assholes came as close to killing me as anything ever has that wasn't a bullet. I came over a crest into a temperature inversion which has caused a micro-blizzard on the eastern slope of the crest coating I-80 with 2 inches of snow and ice which I hit at 60mph (thank god I was going slow due to climbing the hill or I'd have been all done) with 4WD not engaged. The sides of the freeway were literally littered with the wreckage of what must have been 40+ vehicles and every state cop in western Wyoming was on the scene along with every wrecker. I've honestly never seen anything like it. The 18-wheeler in the lane next to me lost control and started to jackknife into me and I was lucky enough to see it and clearheaded enough to stomp on the gas and gain just enough speed to get out in front of it with literally two feet or less to spare before it's trailer swung into the space where I'd have been had I maintained speed. Then I just had to white-knuckle it for another mile or so and was dumb lucky enough to keep it pointed straight until I got to the bottom and bare pavement even though I had just about zero traction at that point.
Nothing that hairy has ever happened to me in the Cascades, the Sierras, the Blues, the Beartooths (Bearteeth?), the Olympics, the Coast Range, the Siskyous, the Wasatch Range, the Uintas, the Whites, the Greens, or the Presidential Range. Just the Rockies, and specifically the Colorado Rockies and their asshole buddies in Wyoming.
Seriously, fuck those guys.
That said....the Black Canyon of the Gunnison is one of the most stunningly beautiful pieces of landscape I've ever seen anywhere, as is the stretch of US-50 between Canyon City and Salida. But I don't wanna live there.
It's also depressingly devoid of crime, corruption, political intrigue, and nice beaches.
Damn dude.
And, yes, the Black Canyon area is incredibly beautiful, and the second coldest places in the nation because of Blue Meas lake.
I can't speak too highly about the east coast.
Connecticut is a nice place to live, but it comes in two distinct flavors - yuppie and ghetto. The "big" cities in Connecticut (Hartford and New Haven) both have a lot of stuff going on, but they're also kinda rough. I prefer mid-sized cities. Stamford is just right for me. It's clean, it has nightlife, and the people are relatively friendly. This means that when they bust you putting up a poster, they laugh and make conversation as opposed to lecturing you or glaring at you.
I am not a fan of New York City. Once cities reach a certain size, they take on a certain character I don't like. It's like a bee hive. You have to put yourself on an island, mentally, because it's the only way to cope with living in such close proximity to so many other humans. If you took the time to say you were sorry to every person you bumped over the course of a day, you'd be saying it a million times. And while everything in NYC is expensive, human relations are cheap. It's like, you can meet so many people, why put any stock in any one of them? Everybody is expendable, disposable, throwaway. There's tons of stimulus, so much stuff to do, it all becomes noise. That's why brooklyn hipsters seem so jaded and cynical, they're living in one of the most fast paced cities in the world and they're bored with it. Furthermore, anything outside of the city is hicksville and bumpkins as far as New Yorkers are concerned. So fuck that place.
Right now I'm living in a little burgh called Tarrytown. It's where the Legend of Sleepy Hollow (the Headless Horseman story) takes place. And I am loving it. It's a small town, it's immediately adjacent to the city, so you can go if you want, but there are actually tarrytown activities. When I lived in Yonkers, that wasn't the case - Yonkers night life is whack, precisely because its so close to the city. If you want to do something in the evening, you just hop a train, you wouldn't hang around in Yonkers with the crackheads and wasteoids.
Quote from: Cramulus on August 17, 2010, 02:34:09 PM
Yonkers night life is whack, precisely because its so close to the city. If you want to do something in the evening, you just hop a train, you wouldn't hang around in Yonkers with the crackheads and wasteoids.
I've always been happy that you lived in a place called Yonkers because "Cramulus' Adventures in Yonkers" sounds like a kids show I would have watched. Except I imagine it with no crackheads and only half the wasteoids.
Maine. Seriously. If you can acclimate to the snow and cold, it's actually a pretty decent place to live. And there are different sections of Maine depending on what you want. Do you want the New England City experience without all of the traffic jams and people? The Portland area is a great place for that. As a bonus, Boston is only 2 hours away. Portland has a pretty decent Arts District and there are bars all over the place, so the night life is pretty active. There is a minor league baseball team, hockey team, and basketball team. So you can enjoy some sportage at a lower price.
If you like the outdoorsy stuff you're all set too. There are several ocean-side, decent sized communities. If you like skiing and hiking, the Western and Mountain regions are the place for you. We have a good college system, public and private, as well as community colleges in the various sections of the state. And if you want to raise a family in a safe environment, you can't go wrong in Maine minus a few urban areas.
As wacky and weird as this place can be, it's a pretty good place to live and I see myself staying here until they put me in the ground, or throw me into the ocean, or whatever they do with me.
I love Maine and would probably call it the best place to live in the continental US if it weren't for the utterly awful climate 6 months of the year. Snow is fine and dandy, but near and below-zero temps are ridiculous.
And of course by "Maine" I mean everything east of the Kennebec. But Northern Massachusetts has some nice places as well.
Barcelona, Spain
Bueno Aires, Argentina
Greenough, Montana
I can only assume that you enjoy Buenos Aires for the same reasons I enjoy STT and that Cain suggested Ciudad del Este.