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Better than expected : Istanbul because I loved the old building and the historical places
worse than expected : Beirut it was too crowded and we did not have any good memories there too much pressure.
This city was much prettier, and the people much friendlier than I had anticipated. I had anticipated on the people being friendly in Switzerland, but even in the big city, they had no problem helping me out or giving me directions.
Much less than expected: Amsterdam
PACKED! Impossible to walk anywhere without running into anyone, driving took us around 2 hrs to make it maybe a mile or two; we tried to exit as soon as we saw the crowd, and then instead walk. While walking, the people just seemed quite rude and zombie-like, and I had two different shop owners lie right to me when I asked about their accepted payment methods. I also lost the car for a little over an hr because my phone didn't GPS mark it like I told it to, and every single street looks the same thanks to the canal layout. Right outside of Amsterdam, we stopped at a gas station. The people and the overall condition of the gas station reminded me of something you'd see in a Russian car crash video. We got bad vibes, didn't feel safe at any time in Amsterdam or immediately outside of the city and I really didn't care for the way some people were looking at my wife. Monnickendam, about 45 mins away though was amazing.
Last edited by Username00; 05-19-2016 at 04:50 PM..
Much more:
Sydney, San Francisco, Delhi, Mumbai, Petoskey, London
Worse:
Beijing, Istanbul, Detroit (I was expecting bad, but it was that much worse than expected), Oslo (this was largely because my Norwegian fellow flight passengers told me such great things about the city and I felt it didn't live up to the hype), New Orleans, Paris
Petoskey, Michigan? That's a random place to list with those other cities, haha. Nice town, though. Well, not so much the town but the scenery.
I knew going there it wasn't my style, but Las Vegas was terrible. Than again I went there straight from spending an extended amount of time in rural, impoverished Zambia so I'm sure culture shock played a role in my disdain.
I'd like to know the opinion of people on Capetown and Jo'Burg : overwhelming or underwhelming ? (whereas I'm conscious that the actual surprise there would be that some find Jo'Burg overwhelming)
I haven't spent all that much time in Joburg, but to me it's underwhelming. It isn't located on any natural features, and anytime I stay in the hostel they strictly recommend taking a taxi and not walking since I'm white. It's not a terrible place (hey it has a Spur Steak House - so thats a major bonus), but to me, Durban is 100 times better. I've never been to Capetown.
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