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I'll take your NYC subway and raise you the Boston green line. While it's nice that you can take it for free from Logan to downtown, dang, it's a pit of an underground rail system.
is it free?
The best subway system is Tokyo's. Super clean, efficient and surprisingly easy to navigate.
The second is London's underground.
The third is the Paris metro. If you are in Paris, you are never more than 7 minutes from a metro station. No city has that.
NYC's subway system is a complete mess. Dirty, loud, dilapidated, confusing.
I live in Paris and unfortunately I must admit that what Hedgeyourinvestments is saying is totally true. As a commuter I see everyday the way people here just relish living in their own garbage, I even made it a hobby to remove plastic bottles cans and other worse things which litter my (middle class ) neighborhood (and I don't even talk about the leaflets vomited from letterboxes and flyers strewn everywhere. The advertisement industry is also a big visual scourge here.
I think NYC is way dirtier than Paris. NYC's subway is known for being rat-infested.
NYC is dirty...but not really. I was there in May and the sidewalks and streets are very clean. You can walk for miles and not step in poop. That's certainly not the case in Paris.
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As to London, the Thames is surprisingly dirty as well. I didn't find London to be cleaner than Paris whatsoever.
You'd be the first person I've ever encountered who said that London wasn't cleaner than Paris. I even noticed this in my first European trip when I was 8...the first thing I noticed about Paris was how dirty and smelly it was and I preferred London to it as a result.
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Well, I am not surprised. Americans don't like Paris/France, largely because America/American English is often considered uncouth and looked down upon there. hahaha.
Again on that dumb language point. Sorry, but it's just not true. I never use English when I travel, I either speak in the local language for countries where the language is easy (French, Italian, Spanish, German) or I learn basic words and then try to defer to Spanish then to English. In France, I speak 100% French (mediocre French, my only true secondary language is Spanish, but I have a educated knowledge of the other 3 languages mentioned) and the language has nothing to do with my dislike for Paris. It's simply the fact that it's just nothing special compared to so many superior places in Europe.
Yes, I do like the smaller cities, but I love Rome and London, which are both bigger than Paris, and Vienna, Budapest and Hamburg are also cities that I prefer to Paris. Hamburg is not beautiful, but it has wonderful museums and stunning women for when I was a single fella.
I live in Paris and unfortunately I must admit that what Hedgeyourinvestments is saying is totally true. As a commuter I see everyday the way people here just relish living in their own garbage, I even made it a hobby to remove plastic bottles cans and other worse things which litter my (middle class ) neighborhood (and I don't even talk about the leaflets vomited from letterboxes and flyers strewn everywhere. The advertisement industry is also a big visual scourge here.
Are you talking about the City of Paris or the Banlieu?
Admittedly I don't live in Paris but only spent a week there. Walk extensively and didn't find it "dirty" - only the 19 and 20th arrondissement are a bit dirty.
NYC is dirty...but not really. I was there in May and the sidewalks and streets are very clean. You can walk for miles and not step in poop. That's certainly not the case in Paris.
Yes, I do like the smaller cities, but I love Rome and London, which are both bigger than Paris, and Vienna, Budapest and Hamburg are also cities that I prefer to Paris. Hamburg is not beautiful, but it has wonderful museums and stunning women for when I was a single fella.
Fine. I guess our experiences are different. There was one time I find a section of Broadway was literally filled with garbage on the streets.
I actually just came back from Rome, and I can't start to stack it up against Paris. Vienna imo is exactly like Paris, just smaller and less busy and probably more conservative. London of course is wonderful and fun but isn't as pretty as Paris.
Anyway, I will quit arguing about Paris since the difference is apparently irreconcilable. So far my top three European cities in terms of beauty and charm are Paris, Prague and Istanbul.
The Pyramids at Giza. I cannot believe how unmaintained that whole area is. It has to be the single most iconic of all the world wonders, but guides and businesses seem to encourage you to litter. The landscape around the pyramids is absolutely hideous because of the human garbage and tacky souvnier kitsch.
The pyramids, the Taj, etc....this is what you get when you don't learn the history of the subject before viewing it. This is what you get when you take an organized bus tour full of senior citizens and stop at The Pyramids between stops at the carpet shop and "authentic jewelry" stop. This is what you get when you take a tour from a cruise ship for a one day stop. Take your picture, dodge the touts, ride on the camel, leave and return to your floating hotel ("heading to Istanbul tomorrow, chalk Egypt off")....
As an example - the Pyramids isn't simply this huge pointy shape masonry structure adjacent and almost overrun by an overcrowded and polluted city. It's not simply a photo stop to say "been there, done that". Go beyond that. Learn the history, learn the background, learn the relevance. Do your homework before you visit a place. And then, visit all the other sites in Egypt to put it in perspective. Egypt is amazing...and there are hundreds of site to rival the historical significance of The Great Pyramids. And then, I promise you, you will come out with a different perspective. The same holds for the Taj (and India, I admit, is not for the faint of heart, you have to work at enjoying it).
Yes, I do like the smaller cities, but I love Rome and London, which are both bigger than Paris, and Vienna, Budapest and Hamburg are also cities that I prefer to Paris. Hamburg is not beautiful, but it has wonderful museums and stunning women for when I was a single fella.
Rome is not bigger than Paris. Paris is much bigger.
There are 12 million inhabitants in Paris metropolitan area and there are 4 million inhabitants in Rome metropolitan area.
The museums are mediocre, the Louvre is the most overrated museum in the world. Munich, St. Petersburg, Amsterdam, Florence, Rome, etc. all have better museums.
I have never been to the Louvre but have always heard great things about it. What museums in Rome and Florence would you say are better ?
The pyramids, the Taj, etc....this is what you get when you don't learn the history of the subject before viewing it. This is what you get when you take an organized bus tour full of senior citizens and stop at The Pyramids between stops at the carpet shop and "authentic jewelry" stop. This is what you get when you take a tour from a cruise ship for a one day stop. Take your picture, dodge the touts, ride on the camel, leave and return to your floating hotel ("heading to Istanbul tomorrow, chalk Egypt off")....
As an example - the Pyramids isn't simply this huge pointy shape masonry structure adjacent and almost overrun by an overcrowded and polluted city. It's not simply a photo stop to say "been there, done that". Go beyond that. Learn the history, learn the background, learn the relevance. Do your homework before you visit a place. And then, visit all the other sites in Egypt to put it in perspective. Egypt is amazing...and there are hundreds of site to rival the historical significance of The Great Pyramids. And then, I promise you, you will come out with a different perspective. The same holds for the Taj (and India, I admit, is not for the faint of heart, you have to work at enjoying it).
Great post!
All too often, on this travel forum on CD, I have read folks dismiss the Taj Mahal as if it were a run of the mill tourist trap. Just tells me that many people don't have the slightest idea of what they are talking about.
The pyramids, the Taj, etc....this is what you get when you don't learn the history of the subject before viewing it. This is what you get when you take an organized bus tour full of senior citizens and stop at The Pyramids between stops at the carpet shop and "authentic jewelry" stop. This is what you get when you take a tour from a cruise ship for a one day stop. Take your picture, dodge the touts, ride on the camel, leave and return to your floating hotel ("heading to Istanbul tomorrow, chalk Egypt off")....
As an example - the Pyramids isn't simply this huge pointy shape masonry structure adjacent and almost overrun by an overcrowded and polluted city. It's not simply a photo stop to say "been there, done that". Go beyond that. Learn the history, learn the background, learn the relevance. Do your homework before you visit a place. And then, visit all the other sites in Egypt to put it in perspective. Egypt is amazing...and there are hundreds of site to rival the historical significance of The Great Pyramids. And then, I promise you, you will come out with a different perspective. The same holds for the Taj (and India, I admit, is not for the faint of heart, you have to work at enjoying it).
I'm not a fool and very much understand the historical importance of the pyramids, that's PRECISELY why I find it so offensive that the specific Egyptians who run their businesses (and probably some tourists) in and around the site have made such a travesty of the environment around it.There was utterly no respect for the site. Litter everywhere. I refuse to chalk this one up to 'cultural differences' as the library of Alexandria is in great condition and very well maintained and respected, which I'm sure you know is also in Egypt. Up until I visited Giza, every other major world-renowned wonder, artifact, or natural landscape has been treated with the utmost respect, but the pyramids were a total different story. It's nice that you can see past that, but it's a problem that shouldn't be.
I have been to India and actually skipped the Taj because it didn't interest me as much as other things I decided to do. I'm not a package, photo-snapping, Hilton-loafing tourist. I do a ton of reading and research before I visit a new place, unless I end up there by accident or something.
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