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I think DC is an interesting place to visit, but I hated living there.
Actually, I quite like Ottawa. It's small, but it has Parliament and some nice museums, it's wonderful for outdoor activities, it's got a great university vibe, some good restaurants, the people are friendly, the bilingual atmosphere is refreshing... and if you need something more active, it's a short trip to Montreal!
I was pleasantly surprised by Ottawa as well, and might even say I like it better than DC. I do like to have the smaller capitals though. It's nice to have more compact areas with decent outdoor spaces that aren't quite as plentiful in the huge cities. I think there is still some status pushing in DC, but not nearly to the level that you'd see in NYC or LA/SF. I imagine that the feeling is somewhat the same about Toronto, which seemed to me just to be a big bland city.
Interesting. I also found Dublin extremely disappointing. I liked the Georgian architecture, but it felt that so much of the city (at least the central part) was filled with crappy "Irish-style" pubs catering to tourists. It felt like half the city had moved to the US at some point, opened up McNasty's Irish Pub in some strip mall somewhere, and then shipped everything back to Temple Bar. The fact that the place was crawling with blotto, 20-something Eurotrash tourists didn't help.
I will say that outside of the main tourist areas, I did like Dublin better.
Get out of Temple Bar!
I admit I've gone there late at night because it's lively, but it's not the "real" Dublin.
In many busy central parts of Paris, the shopkeepers go out first thing in the morning and wash the sidewalks in front of their shops/cafes/etc.... and they do it for a reason.
OTOH... my first trip to Paris, one of the first things I saw was wine bottles lying in a gutter. Struck me as quintessentially Parisian. Even the debris there has a decadent, Parisian quality.
The most underwhelming national capital I've been to is Seoul. It was a long time ago though.
I was in Seoul 20 years ago and again a year ago. 20 years ago, it looked like an Eastern Block country with all that drab architecture. It did the Asian city thing. They knocked it all down and replaced it with a modern glitzy city. If you're into that look, it's fine. I prefer cities with more of a sense of history but Seoul didn't have a heck of a lot to preserve.
The national capitals I've been to that I wouldn't spend my own money to go as a tourist to only spend time in that city are Santiago, Chile, Seoul, Taipei, and Ottawa.
I've been in Brussels a lot. It's not one of my top-5 European capitals but it's not underwhelming.
Seoul has some merit. It is very walkable, great public transportation system, nice parks, fairly clean/safe, that nifty river dealie they built running through town is pretty cool, and there is some solid tourism stuff related to the Korean War that is both in town and within easy reach at DMZ.
I was in Seoul 20 years ago and again a year ago. 20 years ago, it looked like an Eastern Block country with all that drab architecture. It did the Asian city thing. They knocked it all down and replaced it with a modern glitzy city. If you're into that look, it's fine. I prefer cities with more of a sense of history but Seoul didn't have a heck of a lot to preserve.
The national capitals I've been to that I wouldn't spend my own money to go as a tourist to only spend time in that city are Santiago, Chile, Seoul, Taipei, and Ottawa.
I've been in Brussels a lot. It's not one of my top-5 European capitals but it's not underwhelming.
I found it boring mostly because there was nothing too special about it in comparison with Taipei, where I live, and I hate Korean food.
Same goes with Hong Kong, it's like an extremely expensive version of Taipei with extra unhappy people.
I find Taipei really boring too, so the three of them are just three resounding 'eh' cities imo.
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