Fyi going as a tourist is completely different than living in these places. The initial beauty you see in most places quickly fades away by your bills and other responsibilities plus some annoying problem in the city you didn’t noticed until you decided to live there.

Amsterdam. I don’t know what I expected, but it was overwhelmingly better in every way than I anticipated. The cycling infrastructure that allowed me to bicycle around was amazing, I felt safe on the road even without a helmet. The public transportation was so convenient and easy, there were some delays, some cancellations, but it was still a highlight of my trip and I was able to use a clean restroom on a public train which blew my mind. The parks are everywhere and beautiful. There are so many “third places” where you can just go and hang out. The shops, the museums, the weed cafes, all top notch. I saw Wu-tang clan and NAS while I was there at the Ziggo-dome, and it was such an amazing experience. Ever since visiting, I’ve wanted to move there.

Singapore is a tropical city above ground with an underground city beneath it. Great food, great people, just do not chew gum on the subway.

Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. In my prejudiced mind, everything east of Germany was still sad, grey, former commie land.
But Ljubljana is one of the nicest cities I’ve been to in Europe.
You could just walk around the canals and at every corner, there’d be a public concert, an open air library with hammocks strung up to lie down and read, a traditional market, an art gallery, etc.

Paris. I’ve always heard how rude and unfriendly Parisians are towards English speakers but that was not my experience.

Merida in Mexico. It’s not a tourist city, but I was there during a weekend and there were all sort of family events organized at the market, it was really fun and inclusive. We sat down to watch a kids play and got brought into the play as “ghosts” (we’re white) so the kids would run up to us and pretend to be scared (we’d play it up), and at the end everyone gathered around us and thanked us for being sports. The rest of the day was just an immersion in actual Mexican culture and friendliness.

Not what I expected just dropping into the city on the way to see ruins, we stayed an extra couple days just to enjoy it. Maybe it’s gotten more urban and stand-offish, this would have been a decade ago.

When I went to Brussels, Belgium I was shocked to find out there are no fast food restaurants in the entire city, even the airport.

Nice to see them support small businesses.

San Antonio. I was going to visit family and honestly was dreading it, but the downtown core is surprisingly pleasant. Extremely walkable, semi easy to get around, and the river walk is honestly pretty nice. (Not nice nice, I’d say it’s like a Vegas lite, everything is a little garish, but not too much).

Getting outside of SA was annoying though, car centric hellhole, endless sprawl, no way to get around. But - downtown is nice.

The whole of Spain. I grew up with a lot of people who loved Europe but had never been to it or really anywhere else. Spain for some reason got a lot of love and attention in my social circles but I didn’t engage with it meaningfully so I didn’t understand it. I started my international travels in “the east” and had a wonderful time. By the time I visited Spain I expected a normal travel experience but definitely not the elevated grandeur my highschool years would have had me believe. I had average expectations.

Then I got there and every meal was bomb. Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona - I couldn’t go wrong I loved the local food. Worse, I loved at least Madrid and Barcelona’s ability to recreate other cuisines too. Some of the best sushi I’ve ever had was in Madrid and I make a point of getting quality sushi where ever I go (including practically gorging myself into a food coma in Japan).

Then I went to an art museum and it moved me, found some artisanal stores, got fresh orange juice at multiple grocers, saw a movie in a decent theater, you know the normal like “show me what it’s like to live uniquely here” stuff. Ya, Madrid stole my heart for what it was and Spain as a whole surprised me.

NYC was different than I expected in that while I was there, I saw practically no cars on the street, but the sidewalks were packed and it was actually harder to walk anywhere due to the sheer number of people also walking down the sidewalk.

Seoul. I was barely 18 and got stationed there. I was expecting grass huts and donkey carts based off MASH or other movies I’ve seen.

But I was legitimately shocked. Like you know in movies when someone goes through Tokyo for the first time and they are starting struck, that was me in Seoul.

Osaka Japan. I love it there. There’s so much to see and do, and beautiful parks and shrines everywhere.

Hull, England for me! I went up as a student and stayed another year, partly because I loved the city and wasn’t ready to go home.

There was a great vibe, music venues, free museums and galleries, felt safe, and loved wandering.

I saw the rougher bits too, but it didn’t seem to different to most places. On the whole, the centre was way nicer than I expected, and there was a lot of cool community things people were running.

Kuala Lumpur. Had to go there on short notice for a three day work trip, and I knew next to nothing about the country in particular or the region in general. Gorgeous city. Friendly people, awesome street food, and beautiful architecture. 10/10, looking forward to going back.

I went to Phoenix, AZ, completely expecting sand dunes, because it’s a desert. It was then I learned there are different types of desert.