Reverse Paris-syndrome

What are some places that positively surprised you? Since the world opened up again I've done some extensive travelling. Some places that made a very good impression on me are:

- Visby: The main city on the Swedish island Gotland. Serene, clean, no MENA, very cozy.
- Vienna: Spent most of the time in the central parts. Imperial. Clean. Great food. Beautiful parks and architecture. Festivals. Markets. Great museums. People were nicer than I had expected.
- Antwerp: Cool city. Kind people. Interesting art. Nice and calm.
- Vilnius: Very cozy city. Old town is small but the city offers enough for a good long weekend. Beautiful parks. Good restaurants. Kind people.
- Split / Hvar / Brac: Very nice port city in Croatia. The islands of Hvar and Brac are very nice. Great fish. People are kind. Felt very chill. Beautiful scenery. Felt alot better than Dubrovnik.

I have a few more places i'll add in the thread later.

What are some places that positively surprised you?

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  1. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Berlin

    Expected a German Paris. Found a vibrant and fun city, albeit run-down in places

  2. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Madrid. Expected some sort of a poorer Barcelona, got a very fun city with beautiful arts, history and especially great food. People were extremely nice as well.

  3. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    - Santa cruz de Tenerife. Capital on the northern part of the island. Blissful little gem. The beach: Playa de las Teresitas is a short distance from the city and is considered to be the most beautiful beach on the island, which I would agree to. Its very safe up north and you hardly see any tourists which you would on the southern parts, where they all charter. Great food, and very good service. A magical park in the middle of the city called: parque garcia sanabria. My wife was also very happy with this place.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      i love you anon, I went there for a foreigner school and everythiing you said is right 🙂

  4. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Bratislava
    morons on this board said it was boring and not worth visiting, but I found it to be very cozy, clean, a cute old town, good food, really nice people, the nearby castle of Devin is really cool, the blue church is really neat, overall it was totally worth a day trip from Vienna.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      i did the same as you and found utterly boring

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        I was really hungover and it was the perfect chill place to walk around in that state, and to just stop and rest at any cate I felt like. It was the middle of a Wednesday but the streets were still packed with locals, there was some French festival going on and everyone had the French flag painted on their cheeks and their was live music, it was really fun. I love how all of the embassies are so close to eachother too.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        same. best casino I've ever been to was there, they gave me a room for free after gambling for awhile, can smoke in the casino still, play cards, hot women dealers.. City was very boring though but czech people told me that it would be

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      i did the same as you and found utterly boring

      i've never been but i've heard there's a really good party hostel there
      wild elephants was the name

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      I'm seconding this, but also with the hedge that I think it's worth a 1 or 2 day side trip from Vienna at most, and should basically just be considered like a Haarlem to Vienna's Amsterdam
      (I'm aware that this way of looking at it will piss off people who live there: this is just a traveller's perspective)

      The castle is great though - I dont know if its changed but when I went the fort and grounds were free admission and open 24/7 - so basically just a public park. Its hard to find a castle experience that let's you just chill out and stroll around for free in Western Europe I found, and so I appreciated it. It also had a nice view of the Danube, being built up on an embankment above the river.

      The old town was very cozy as well - albeit Europe has no shortage of old towns, but Bratislava's gave me the unique feeling that I had stepped into Van Gogh's Cafe Terrace at Night.

      As for my own reverse Paris-syndrome: definitely Poland and specifically Krakow. I went in with my head full of "Poles can't do math memes" and ended up extending a 1 day stop through off Krakow into 2 weeks. Poland is a country I would commit an entire trip to in the future.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >The castle is great though - I dont know if its changed but when I went the fort and grounds were free admission and open 24/7 - so basically just a public park. Its hard to find a castle experience that let's you just chill out and stroll around for free in Western Europe I found, and so I appreciated it.

        There are way more than you think. Right now I can name at least 4, in Western and Northern Europe. The only difference is that you need to drive, and go to places with near impossible access without a car.

        That being said, having done most of Europe (including Eastern), Bratislava is not worth it unless you really do have an extra day to kill in Vienna, and it can complete German-Austrian history if you’re a history buff.
        I still remain on my position: Bratislava is not worth it if you have done a lot of Europe (including Eastern). If you haven’t done any Eastern or Central Europe, ut can be your first immersion in a former commie country. But even compared with Prague or Budapest, it’s underwhelming.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          It was worth it to go to Devin and see this 1500 year old loaf of bread

  5. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >Vienna, Antwerp, Vilnius, Split

    They don't have a bad reputation in the first place.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      One can still be positively surprised seeing as how most countries on earth are shitholes in 2022.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Vienna is known for unfriendly people. The others are generally unknown.

      For me it’s Tbilisi, comfy and sulfur baths was a great couples activity.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        The sulfur baths were great. Even got a HE from the person giving me a scub down.

  6. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Actually…Brussels. Fun bars, great beer, fantastic architecture, nice people too, I preferred it to Brugge.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      I loved Brussels too anon, i went during the 2018 world cup and it was a blast. Most delicious beer I've ever had too

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      I loved Brussels too anon, i went during the 2018 world cup and it was a blast. Most delicious beer I've ever had too

      I as well had a great time in brussels. Seems really dependant if you can find some cool spots to hang out in/at or not. Some parts of the city did seem pretty bland/desolate but not the area I was in.

  7. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Chicago is a really nice city, despite there being crackheads outside our motel, the downtown is gorgeous

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Yeah..still not visiting

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        It's worth a stop if you're doing a cross country road trip

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      I was gonna add Chicago as well. The downtown is really cool, beautiful buildings, river flowing into a lake. Looks like an ocean-front city though its inland. Great food. Encountered almost zero ghetto behavior in the good parts of town despite expecting it to basically be nig central. Also doesn't seem globohomosexual like NYC does, e.g. restaurants don't give a shit about accommodating vegans and the like. It was actually very refreshing.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Baltimore and Detroit too, wonderful cities, even safe at night. Don't listen to fearmongers and poltards

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          >Baltimore
          >safe at night
          Look it is a really cool city but there is a risk of being a victim of crime everywhere at night, including Fed Hill, Fells Point, and the inner harbor. I wouldn't walk around alone.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          I've had good times in Baltimore, but don't kid yourself; it's a dump

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          homie we waitin fo ya ayyyyoooo

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            >homie we waitin fo ya
            yew*

  8. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Bilbao. I thought it would be some kind of run down shithole but it was really clean, functional, and with great food.

  9. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Berlin - Expected a boring german city with turks, ended up having a threesome with 1 twink and a sjw chick out of berghain club, crazy place in terms of clubbing and lifestyle, everyone dresses up in all kinds of costumes, irl cosplay world

    Manila - was expecting only filth and tin houses, was impressed by the tall skyscrapers and hotels, had a luxury hotel room for 200$ a night overlooking sea, 2 large rooms, bed, big tv, spa pool buffet etc. The clean areas beat some asian cities

  10. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Paris actually

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      unironically this
      i read so much things about Paris, "it's dirty", "it's not safe" " Parisians are rude" ...
      I've been in Paris 2 weeks ago and it's was nice actually

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Yes; it is a big European city not a theme park. People will be rude and smoke.

      Reverse was Glasgow. Reputation for being full of poverty and violence. Had a blast and was not even threatened once. Meant to have gentrified massively in recent years

  11. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Venezuela didn’t feel unsafe and was more beautiful than the Caribbean

  12. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >Salzburg
    No wonder Hitler built his retreat right next to this place.

  13. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Moscow

    people were helpful, it wasn't nearly as dirty as I imagined, and it was easy to move around.

  14. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    People told me I would get my butt grabbed and stuff in Panama but they were idiots as it turns out, regardless, I needed to cross it off my bucket list. The Panamanian people exuded warmth and hospitality and the men were perfect gentlemen. Five gals and hardly anything bad happened, if anything some of the local guys had to watch out for us >:) Hard to see the inequality though, likely a sign of the failings of the capitalist model and the corrupt ruling elite. I recommend Panama to all my girlfriends and digital nomad friends as well. The canal is also a UNESCO heritage site as are many other breathtaking sites, the whole place oozes with historic significance.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      I'm male but also felt that way about the place.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >failings of the capitalism model
      Yeah, surely things would be better under a different system. There certainly wouldn’t be worse inequality and even more corrupt elite like there has been in every attempt to replace capitalism literally ever.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Wow it's like I'm really listening to Dasha. Nice stolen personality

  15. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Slovenia
    I didn't really know anything about it before I went
    Bled and Bohinj are stunning - i know bled is a bit of a travel meme but it really is great
    Ljubljana is very comfy, although it is very small and not much goes on there

  16. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Jutland, Denmark - comfy and interesting
    Dakhla, Western Sahara - comfy and serene, beautiful women
    Omaha, Nebraska - world-class art museum, food and beautiful surroundings

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Thx anon

  17. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Surprisingly, Paris, but that was in 2014 - I went on a Europe tour and had low expectations of this city after having been impressed by Germany, Austria and Switzerland. I had no idea the Eiffel Tower shimmered at night and the Louvre wasn't disappointing at all. This was long before I heard about the Paris syndrome and the crises that followed...

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      did you go to the hall of mirrors?

  18. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    China
    Not grey and miserable like I expected, very nice, friendly people.

  19. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Seward, Alaska.
    I was a bit let down by Anchorage so I expected Seward to be not much better.
    It ended up being this beautiful seaside town that was super comfy.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Every town that is not Anchorage or Wasilla is comfy in Alaska.

  20. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Matsue

    I just wanted to take a ferry and been to Fukuoka enough, next place was Mastue. A bit farther trip, but very beautiful and a lot to see and do. I didn't get to everything. Look around the general area, the port city Sakaiminato is based around a cartoon, and Tottori has some sand dunes. I think it is an underrated destination in Japan.

    Almaty, I am going soon and it honesty looks pretty cool, a beautiful country in general, yet I think few people ever think about going to Kazakhstan.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Did you go to my boy Lafcadio's museum? Matsue has long been on my list, if only to pay homage to the original weaboo.

  21. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Copenhague was a really nice visit. I expected nothing and loved it, I genuinely think it would be a very good city to live in, not too big while not looking like a northern village.

  22. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Grand Canyon, Sedona

  23. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Kas, Turkey because it’s highly rated and I’d wanted to go for a long time. It lived up to my expectations, even though (or maybe because?) I was there during the off season. One of the comfiest places on earth.

  24. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Venice. I expected an expensive tourist trap but I discovered a beautiful city with nice history, some relax neighborhood/islands and cool bars. It probably did help that I went there off season to meet a friend and his italian gf

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Same here, went in 2020 so it was pleasently empty

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      I had a bit of Paris syndrome there, still enjoyed myself.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      I also loved Venice despite low expectations. Even in the tourist-flooded zones you’re never far from a local alley, the history is fascinating and all over the place, and the physical setting is uniquely beautiful. Would go again without hesitation.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      this. truly lovely town, even with the throngs of tourists it is simply gorgeous and absolutely enchanting.

  25. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Zadar... Honestly, all of Dalmatia in general was welcoming and unexpected. I took a 30EUR flight on a whim.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      You must be dutch

  26. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Jerusalem
    lots of tourist attractions to see if you're autismo about religion like I was
    only issue is all the gay checkpoints but that's to keep stone chuckers out

  27. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Prague.
    Some homosexuals will disagree, and they wont be wrong. The main Wenceslas drag is tourist central, smells like hot rat trash, and is covered with Soviet style block bullshit.
    But the old buildings truly are beautiful. The font and the art are amazing. The old gothic churches inspire awe, and nearly every single statue alcove had an amazing statue in it. Czechs are decently nice, everywhere accepts a Visa, and the beer is just as good as Germany's but cheaper.
    I got sick my first day because I closed their tiki bar and got blackout drunk, but i thought it was a beautiful place. Plus, pork knuckle and goulash are delicious and the women are nice to look at.

  28. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    I'm going to Paris next week. What's wrong with it?

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      begins with n and ends with s and there's many of them

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        this and rats + garbage
        even the frenchs are unbearable in Paris

  29. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Croatia is one of the most overvisited tourist countries in the world with 20 mil tourists on 4 mil people

    How it can surprise you is weird

  30. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >Florence
    had basically never heard of it before i went with my parents
    one of the best and most beautiful cities ive ever gone too
    >spain
    gf used to always go there in car trips with her parents kept talking it up but i wasnt having mainly due to ingraned rivalry and hatred towards them
    turns out the country is beautiful and fantastic and we alwys eat very well and very much for very cheap and the culture going out and enjoying the city and their appreciation for their history and patrimony is something to look up to
    so yeah turns out the country is great and i just dont like the spanish themselves though they do some things very right
    >milan
    kept hearing how shit it is and that 1 day there was more than enough because there was nothing there and thats its beyond expensive
    the city was beautiful and magnanimous and wouldve stayed there for 3 days if i had had the chance (couldve gone to lake como too for example)
    also not overly expensive well with normal range whay we found

    been to other places that i liked more than i wouldve though too but these are the ones where i either had not expectation or somewhat poor ones though i always go expecting the best

  31. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Ottawa is really good for two/three days. Gatineau park is top tier and so are the museums, architecture is good for north american standards, prevalent french canadian culture around but without the pressure to be a primary french speaker, lots of young people and imo good nightlife for canada

  32. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Missoula Montana. I thought it would be just some Podunk mountain town, but it was actually amazing. They had free outdoor music festivals going all week, great breweries and restaurants, a whitewater rafting park in the middle of downtown, and an awesome farmer's market. Everything was really upscale and fancy. There were vegan food trucks. I really didn't expect that type of thing in Montana.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >vegan
      you are disgusting

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      It is really deeply flawed long-term. The university is in dire trouble, the fires and smoke are getting way more intense and it has been covering a lot of civic issues with the booming property values. The latter is a dynamic that has decidedly cooled and is now beginning to reverse around Montana now that people are confronting the reality of seventh month winters and summers that can be cut in half by fire season.

      And the kind of college town atmosphere you're talking about lives and dies with the university, a university that is hemorrhaging enrollment. As Missoula starts becomes less economically centered around its dying university it will stop having this kind of cultural flair.

      Glad you enjoyed it, though. Move there at your own peril.

  33. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    I was fairly surprised by Brno, Czech Republic. I expected a shit like prague where everything is tourist friendly and people are not natural. I was completely wrong and I am happy it is so. People barely speak English but can speak German. The level of unfriendlyness is the same of Vienna and this makes me feel home.

  34. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Saudi Arabia Jeddah city and Riyadh.
    Beautiful country

  35. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Ironically, Paris. Lived up to the hype and more. Will visit again some day.

  36. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    visit greece

  37. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Heard a lot of wild stories about Milan and how it was a shithole. Quite the opposite, the city was an interesting combination of old and modern and the amount of mass tourism was just about right.

  38. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >What are some places that positively surprised you
    Hue, Vietnam.
    Richmond, Virginia.
    Cannakale, Turkey.
    Shrewsbury, England.
    Belfast, Northern Ireland.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      What was good about Belfast?

  39. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Albi, France, ridiculously beautiful medieval city at the river Tarn, not too many tourists and if then they are upper class French, people actually live and work in the old town, nice market, great café's, postcard picture France.
    Stralsund, Germany. no bomb damages, no GDR commie blocks, just a pristine Hanse town at the Baltic, nice food, nice beer, east Germany prices.
    Leipzig, Germany. what Berlin used to be in the late 90s and early 2000s. Shabby chic grand old Saxonian town, complete with GDR vibes, fricktons of history, cheap prices, ultra comfy saxonian coffee houses and vibrant night life.

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