London vs Sydney vs Toronto vs New York City (club, shop)
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This post is probably going to get me enemies on this forum, but this is what I think:
Sydney is ok for about three days, once you see the opera house, and the harbor, bondi beach you kind of run out of things to see/do. I mean there are places to do things but it is not quite unique and you can find these things elsewhere.
Toronto is less impressive than Sydney. Toronto is flat like a pancake, the lake is aight but nothing that will blow you away. The highlight is the tower which is nothing to fall over backwards, you also have some nice spots here and there but quickly toronto turns into yet another north American city with that monotonous grid and zoning that make the city kind of steryle.
London is ok, the thing about London is that I often feel London tries too hard to be cool, unique, eclectic. London is like that person that is continuously trying to be cool, and it tries so hard that it comes across as cheesy.
A lot of the main attractions are downright overpriced tourist traps and the British are very good at mystifying places, like the Zebra line crossed by the Beatles 55 years ago, the King's jewels, tower of london, or the Madame Tussaud wax figure museum. They also have god awful cheesy crap like explore the streets where Jack the ripper killed its victims 150 years ago, to me it's largely artificial.
I know I am going to be called a troll by easthome and the other English man, but having 3 or 4 michelin restaurants hardly make London a gastronomical haven! Gastronomical havens are places with enormous local culinary scenes full of markets where you can try amazing local food. (Tokyo, Osaka, Bangkok, Mexico city, Madrid, Marrakesh) Those are gastronomical havens. London is curry take outs, fast food from the US, and a random ethnic restaurant that might or might not be good.
Sorry boys, but I am not getting out of my way to go to London.
I mean, when London gets a local cuisine (like Mexico city, Osaka, or Bangkok) have, then call yourself a gastronomical paradise. Other than that, having tons of rastaurants and take aways in immigrant communities does not make you a gourmet town.
Why do I like NYC?
Because it's rough, blue collar, it doesn't have to try (unlike London) to shock you or to amuse you.
A ride into Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and you are in a unique universe with craploads of ethnic places and neighborhoods that no one knows about but that offer unique stuff. In Queens for a couple of bucks you can have a feast.
I agree with some of the stuff you are saying. I think you are selling Toronto a little short though. Toronto is a very green city, with the largest ravine (created by ice age) park system in the world. In the summer time Toronto is a cool place with all the side walk cafe's, the blue lake majesty of lake Ontario, baseball, and the beauty of Toronto Islands. Now I would take where I live over everything, in the Los Angeles area. Close to Laguna Beach, and our incredible spectacular mountains. I can find great sports, restaurants, night clubs, theatre, shopping, concerts, museums, weather, etc. What the heck else could I possibly want?
This post is probably going to get me enemies on this forum, but this is what I think:
Sydney is ok for about three days, once you see the opera house, and the harbor, bondi beach you kind of run out of things to see/do. I mean there are places to do things but it is not quite unique and you can find these things elsewhere.
Toronto is less impressive than Sydney. Toronto is flat like a pancake, the lake is aight but nothing that will blow you away. The highlight is the tower which is nothing to fall over backwards, you also have some nice spots here and there but quickly toronto turns into yet another north American city with that monotonous grid and zoning that make the city kind of steryle.
London is ok, the thing about London is that I often feel London tries too hard to be cool, unique, eclectic. London is like that person that is continuously trying to be cool, and it tries so hard that it comes across as cheesy.
A lot of the main attractions are downright overpriced tourist traps and the British are very good at mystifying places, like the Zebra line crossed by the Beatles 55 years ago, the King's jewels, tower of london, or the Madame Tussaud wax figure museum. They also have god awful cheesy crap like explore the streets where Jack the ripper killed its victims 150 years ago, to me it's largely artificial.
I know I am going to be called a troll by easthome and the other English man, but having 3 or 4 michelin restaurants hardly make London a gastronomical haven! Gastronomical havens are places with enormous local culinary scenes full of markets where you can try amazing local food. (Tokyo, Osaka, Bangkok, Mexico city, Madrid, Marrakesh) Those are gastronomical havens. London is curry take outs, fast food from the US, and a random ethnic restaurant that might or might not be good.
Sorry boys, but I am not getting out of my way to go to London.
I mean, when London gets a local cuisine (like Mexico city, Osaka, or Bangkok) have, then call yourself a gastronomical paradise. Other than that, having tons of rastaurants and take aways in immigrant communities does not make you a gourmet town.
Why do I like NYC?
Because it's rough, blue collar, it doesn't have to try (unlike London) to shock you or to amuse you.
A ride into Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and you are in a unique universe with craploads of ethnic places and neighborhoods that no one knows about but that offer unique stuff. In Queens for a couple of bucks you can have a feast.
I do agree with a lot of what you said. But what the best quality of NYC is for me are the outer boroughs. Nothing like them. Manhattan I could live without... I like Brooklyn the most. Queens and the Bronx are 2/3. SI and Manhattan are meh.
My biggest gripe is you are selling Toronto a wee bit Short. I went to school on Lake Ontario, and it was awesome. Toronto is on the better side of the lake.
London is ok, the thing about London is that I often feel London tries too hard to be cool, unique, eclectic. London is like that person that is continuously trying to be cool, and it tries so hard that it comes across as cheesy.
A lot of the main attractions are downright overpriced tourist traps and the British are very good at mystifying places, like the Zebra line crossed by the Beatles 55 years ago, the King's jewels, tower of london, or the Madame Tussaud wax figure museum. They also have god awful cheesy crap like explore the streets where Jack the ripper killed its victims 150 years ago, to me it's largely artificial.
I know I am going to be called a troll by easthome and the other English man, but having 3 or 4 michelin restaurants hardly make London a gastronomical haven! Gastronomical havens are places with enormous local culinary scenes full of markets where you can try amazing local food. (Tokyo, Osaka, Bangkok, Mexico city, Madrid, Marrakesh) Those are gastronomical havens. London is curry take outs, fast food from the US, and a random ethnic restaurant that might or might not be good.
Sorry boys, but I am not getting out of my way to go to London.
Yet more nonsense and constant trolling Irene.
London has hundreds of free museums and interesting history beyond that of some zebra crossing.
The city has over 2,000 years of history and is a lot more than visiting Abbey Road, although NYC has plenty of film and music sites, and Paris has the grave of Jim Morrison.
Furthermore all cities have tourist traps and souvenirs whether it's t-shirts with 'I Love NYC' on them or statues of the Statue of Liberty or Eiffel Tower, or the current Disneyesque light display at Time Square, indeed it's laughable to suggest, that NYC doesn't have to try (unlike London) to shock you or to amuse you.
As for blue collar, I think the East End of London, with it's Cockney inhabitants and dock workers who huddled together in order to survive the WW2 blitz, and the London of writers such as Charles Dickens, was quite blue collar.
Perhaps instead of visiting Abbey Road you should go to Little Venice, and the Regents Canal, or actually get a proper London guide or go on line and look at the numerous festivals and events that happen in London all the time.
Incidentally Freddie Mercury's house has largely been stopped from becoming a shrine, and there is merely a simple small monument to him at Golders Green cemetery, and the same is true of the sight where Marc Bolan tragically died in a car crash at Barnes Common or where Hendrix died or where Keith Moon died etc etc.
You can get amazing food at numerous markets, and London has fantastic restaurants, as well as shopping and entertainment, including one of the best theatre districts in the world.
In terms of food I have already pointed out in my earlier posts the diversity of food, and the fact that London has tens of thousands of restaurants and numerous street food, and has a similar number of michelin starred restaurants to NYC, as well as an impressive array of five star hotels. Whilst in terms of random ethnic restaurants London has all kinds of distinctive ethic areas, with lots of ethnic restaurants, something I have previously pointed out in this thread.
New York has five three star Michelin restaurants, whilst London has five three star Michelin restaurants, and a further two three star Michelin restaurants just outside of London at Bray near Windsor.
Last edited by Brave New World; 08-08-2021 at 02:39 AM..
Irene won't fool the children of the revolution
No, Irene won't fool the children of the revolution
No, Irene won't fool the children of the revolution
No, Irene won't fool the children of the revolution, no way, yeah, wow
London has hundreds of free museums and interesting history beyond that of some zebra crossing.
The city has over 2,000 years of history and is a lot more than visiting Abbey Road, although NYC has plenty of film and music sites, and Paris has the grave of Jim Morrison.
Furthermore all cities have tourist traps and souvenirs whether it's t-shirts with 'I Love NYC' on them or statues of the Statue of Liberty or Eiffel Tower, or the current Disneyesque light display at Time Square, indeed it's laughable to suggest, that NYC doesn't have to try (unlike London) to shock you or to amuse you.
As for blue collar, I think the East End of London, with it's Cockney inhabitants and dock workers who huddled together in order to survive the WW2 blitz, and the London of writers such as Charles Dickens, was quite blue collar.
Perhaps instead of visiting Abbey Road you should go to Little Venice, and the Regents Canal, or actually get a proper London guide or go on line and look at the numerous festivals and events that happen in London all the time.
Incidentally Freddie Mercury's house has largely been stopped from becoming a shrine, and there is merely a simple small monument to him at Golders Green cemetery, and the same is true of the sight where Marc Bolan tragically died in a car crash at Barnes Common or where Hendrix died or where Keith Moon died etc etc.
You can get amazing food at numerous markets, and London has fantastic restaurants, as well as shopping and entertainment, including one of the best theatre districts in the world.
In terms of food I have already pointed out in my earlier posts the diversity of food, and the fact that London has tens of thousands of restaurants and numerous street food, and has a similar number of michelin starred restaurants to NYC, as well as an impressive array of five star hotels. Whilst in terms of random ethnic restaurants London has all kinds of distinctive ethic areas, with lots of ethnic restaurants, something I have previously pointed out in this thread.
So glad you mentioned the great Jim Morrison. They played the Door's famous "L.A. Woman" last night at my local bar, got all of our old bums off the bar stool to dance.
So glad you mentioned the great Jim Morrison. They played the Door's famous "L.A. Woman" last night at my local bar, got all of our old bums off the bar stool to dance.
The band 'The Doors' were named after Aldous Huxley's 'The Door's of Perception' and Huxley also wrote Brave New World.
The band 'The Doors' were named after Aldous Huxley's 'The Door's of Perception' and Huxley also wrote Brave New World.
Who ultimately saw the light and moved to Los Angeles! I think the US is so large that it would make sense for there to be more than just NYC in there. I think if we're setting Anglophone, developed, and Sydney/Toronto as essentially minimum sizes then it should be
Australia
- Melbourne
- Sydney
Canada
- Toronto
Singapore
- Singapore
UK
- London
US
- NYC
- Los Angeles
- Chicago
- Dallas
- Houston
- Washington DC
- Miami
- Philadelphia
- Atlanta
- Phoenix
- Boston
- San Francisco
Now that would give the US a lot more entrants, but that would also disperse a lot more of the US-biased votes and London would likely come out firmly ahead.
The band 'The Doors' were named after Aldous Huxley's 'The Door's of Perception' and Huxley also wrote Brave New World.
One of my great regrets is not seeing The Doors at the legendary Whisky a Go Go, on Sunset Blvd. Although I did see the great English band Led Zeppelin play The Whisky, when they were just starting out.
ho ultimately saw the light and moved to Los Angeles! I think the US is so large that it would make sense for there to be more than just NYC in there. I think if we're setting Anglophone, developed, and Sydney/Toronto as essentially minimum sizes then it should be
Huxley, pacifist most likely moved to the US to escape the clouds of war in Europe.
However his pacifism ensured that he never took US citizenship, and he is buried near Guildford in Surrey in England.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vindag
One of my great regrets is not seeing The Doors at the legendary Whisky a Go Go, on Sunset Blvd. Although I did see the great English band Led Zeppelin play The Whisky, when they were just starting out.
Sadly, given that Morrison died aged 27, a lot of people didn't get to see The Doors play, however seeing Led Zeppelin live at the Whisky would be amazing and I am sure you have some great memories.
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