Tell Us About Where You Live!

[HelloAngel]

I love hearing about where people live. The Cicada thread below got me thinking about this more, and so thought maybe a cool thread could result, and maybe inspire some road trips this summer! So, let's all talk about where we live and what we about our cities/towns.

I'll go first!

I live in Tampa, Florida. I've lived in Florida all my life, so I don't really know anything different from hot hot hot weather, beaches and the whole tropical thing. I love hot weather, so this is all fine with me. I think today it was in the mid 90s.

Anyway, Tampa is pretty much famous for our nightlife in Ybor City with its many crazy bars and pubs. We also have Busch Gardens, which is a loved tourist attraction (since I live here, I don't ever go). Recently, our sports teams like the Lightning and Devil Rays have gotten more national coverage (even though I don't really keep up!)

I love my city and take pride in it. Which is novel for me since I moved here from Tallahassee two years ago where nothing happens! Another reason why I'm so fond of it other than so many fun things to do, is that we are so close to St Pete, Clearwater and Orlando; so it's really hard to be bored around here. If you feel like driving, you can be in South Beach with a martini in your hand in 5 hours (which I just did - and plan to do again with U2 come to town!)


Now you go!!

 

[Justified]

I live in Atlanta, Georgia. Born and raised in this fine city, which is a rare thing to say these days because most of the people who now call Atlanta home are from all over the country and around the world. It is a great city, I love it. It has lots to offer in terms of entertainment, a big and busy airport, professional sports, higher education (i.e. Universities) and of course recreation (provided the air quality is bearable) . Today has not been very pretty. It has been raining off and on which ruined my plans to go to the pool.

 

[Salome]

I live in Roosendaal

there's nothing here really

 

[nurse chrissi]

St. Louis - we have cows, baseball, some more cows, baseball, some world fair history, baseball, a root in jazz music, more cows, did I mention baseball? Of course this is a loaded statement but some of the best pizza (thin with provel chesse) in the world. We also have this big metal thingy downdown shaped like the popmart arch. All kidding aside some of the most decent people you will find - just realize that in St. Louis where you went to college is nice but where you went to high school is most important- don't ask it just is. Did I mention the baseball and cows? there is alot of support for both

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

i live in memphis, tennessee. it's not too bad here really, except it sucks because most of the good acts don't come here. like U2, who last played here in popmart. it became infamous because it was one of the several cities where they fucked up sats and the attendance was crappy, supposedly. i still got nosebleed seats.

the 'burbs really suck because they're overcrowded, but i'm about to move to the downtown/uptown area which is a lot better. they're improving the public transportations and there's trolleys to get you to most of downtown. there's also peabody place, memphis redbirds (minor league baseball, but a huge stadium and it's always packed), memphis grizzlies , beale street, the orpheum (for plays, and some music acts play there too). there's more too but i just can't think of anything right now.

as for the weather, it's hot and humid. in the summer it doesn't rain too much, but in the winter/spring it rains every weekend, virtually guaranteed. it'll start friday and be done sunday night. did i mention it's hot? it's almost 8 pm but it's 82 degrees. it helps to have a pool at your house or apartment, since there are NO waterparks around here or any public pools. however, one casino (that's right, i forgot to mention we're half an hour away from tunica, mississippi - the third largest gambling town in america) in tunica is building a waterpark, which is due to open in 2006, i think.

 

[Saracene]

I've been living in Melbourne for the last 8.5 years and I love it here. Beaches, trams, gazillion great places for eating out or listening to live music, plenty choices for shopping, entertainment and recreation in general. Although inner-city Melbourne has a pretty boring-looking coastline compared to Sydney, there are still plenty of naturally beautiful spots around it. The weather... well if you like nice dull steady weather Melbourne is not for you, but if like me you enjoy having four seasons in one day/week it's great, Going to tennis Australian Open is a must every year; and Melborne is pretty much obsessed with sports in general although I still do not get either footy or cricket.

 

[meegannie]

I live in Nottingham. There are foxes....foxes who steal from the rich to give to the poor. Sometimes it rains here, sometimes it doesn't.

 

[beli]

I live in Perth, Australia ie not the Scottish one.

Umm its hot and dry in summer, hot and dry in spring, hot and dry in Autumn. We get our annual rain allotment in winter, on July 7th, my birthday. Usually when Im getting out of the car trying to get into the restaurant.

The seafood and fruit are good here. Lots of grapes, olives, wines, crayfish, prawns, etc. Its a meditterean climate here.

Its reasonably clean and safe and very suburban. Theres are 2 million people in the state and most of them are in Perth. But it doesnt seem like it. Not a lot to see though.

We have one of those really big aquarium thingies. And a zoo with an award winning primate breeding section.

and ummm. Did I mention the food is good.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

i also forgot about memphis in may! how could i forget about that? and the 60 mins is up so i couldn't edit.

 

[ILuvLarryMullen]

I live in Riverside County, California also known to some as the Inland Empire. It is basically in between Orange County and San Diego, but a little further inland. I have lived in Southern California my whole life and specifically here since i was 7. I go to school at the University of California Riverside.

It is really lame and boring here. It is ugly and smoggy. It's a conservative suburban area, which is very not my thing. My city has about 70,000 people. The only things to do are to go to the movies or bowling alley (which are expensive) or to the mall, unless you want to drive to san diego or anaheim which take about at hour to get to. I LOVE southern california, but not here. I am going to move after I graduate next year.
The vegitation here is basically scrub brush and some grass which is dead because of the heat most of the year, it's really not attractive. There used to be Oak Trees here but they cut most all of them down. There are some imported Palm Trees and Eucalyptus in the built up areas which grow well. I'm about 30 minutes away from the beach which i really love going to.

 

[Schmeg]

unless you want to drive to san diego

Which you do, when three online acquaintences who could be a band of psychokillers want to meet you and get you stuck in the parking lot for an hour or so.

I live in Rhode Island, the "Biggest Little State in the Union," as the old ad campaign sang, and it's a different world from the rest of the country. Our government is totally corrupt (Plunderdome, anyone?). Three degrees of separation is a way of life around here...everyone you know knows someone you know, even when you don't know a lot of people.

We have our own language. When you're thirsty at the mall, you get a drink from the bubber (pronounced bubbluh). When you're hungry, you can go down to the New York System (not found in New York, much like Rhode Island) and get some hot dogs loaded with stuff, which have a weird name that has completely slipped my mind...bellybusters or gaggers (bellybustiz and gaggiz) or something. Then you can have some coffee milk and debate which is better- Autocrat or Eclipse (Autocrat, definitely). Don't forget your chowda and clamcakes at Iggy's, or your Del's lemonade (NEVER drink your Del's with a straw or eat it with a spoon!!!)!

We also have the WORST regional accent in the entire English language. The letter R? Nevah heud ovvit, unless it's on the end of a word that doesn't actually have an R (pizzer, soder, Thereser...). Our O's? Atrocious. Example: Hot dog is pronounced hawt doowg. There's actually a whole book a local columnist wrote about the Rhode Island dialect; it's hilarious.

The best part is that there's about 80 miles of coastline and the beach is never far away. Newport is a fun place to go on a daytrip and visit some ridiculous mansions and eat at some of the best restaurants.

 

[arw]

I'm from Minnesota. Born and raised. I live in the Minneapolis side of the Twin Cities but I probably spend just as much time cruising around St Paul as I do Minneapolis. I live in the land of 10,000 lakes. Seriously. There's lakes everywhere you go and everyone jumps at the chance to get to one as often as possible. In the summer everyone goes "up north" or to "the lake." No one ever really specifies where they are going other than north or which lake.

It's unbelievably cold in the winters and 6 months later it hotter than hell. Some of our winters are really light with decent temps and the snow isn't too bad. The weather does not get in the way of anything around here and hardly anything ever closes, at least in the cities, due to cold weather or heavy snow.

We have winter festivals where a gigantic ice castle is built out of blocks of ice from the Mississippi river and summer fairs where people compete to sell the strangest food item they can think of to be eaten on a stick. We drink pop around here, not soda. Our sports teams rarely come in first but some of them go pretty far (go Wolves!). We still take pride in them anyways. We also have the country's biggest shopping mall, the Mall of America. It has an amusement park in the middle of the mall, a huge movie theater, the top floor is all night clubs, and then there's the hundreds of stores to shop in.

Minnesota is a beautiful place to be in all seasons. It's white half the year and then it's a beautiful rich green with tons of gorgeous trees and flowers everywhere in the spring and summer and then that turns to orange in the fall. We live by the seasons and there's always somthing going on in each season that's a big deal and something to look forward to.

 

[Schmeg]

^I'm looking forward to going there in August.

 

[Kariann]

Me too.

I'm from smack in the middle of Ohio right outside of Columbus. It's basically your average American city...nothing really too exciting but it has come a long way in the past few years. There isnt much to make it stand out really. I find it's best in the spring and summer when you can go to the various festivals and do the gallery hop in the Short North. We do have some good restaurants. The Columbus Zoo is pretty nice...Jack Hanna if anyone has seen him on TV is the director.

Most everyone around here lives and breathes Ohio State Buckeye Football. I am considered an oddity because I could care less. It is insane on Saturday's in the Fall. I have only been to the Horseshoe as they call it once and that was for Popmart.

Columbus is also host to the Memorial Golf Tournament which is going and it always rains at some point...that is a running joke around here.

Can't really think of anything else right now.

 

[beegee]

i live in a small town outside of las vegas, nevada, near the colorado river.

on clear nights i can see the glow of the lights from the strip.

it's the middle of the desert, and temperatures have gone as high as 125. the only time we see rain is during monsoon season when we get sudden and violent electrical storms.

i'm sure you can imagine what we do here. we drink, we gamble and we enjoy water sports. canoeing, boating, jet skiing - that kind of thing.

seriously, i can't imagine living anywhere else in the world.

 

[Angela Harlem]

I live abut 30kms out of Sydney in Penrith (or near enough). Behind here are The Blue Mountains which is where I grew up. It snows, is full of hippies, tourists and assorted ferals. And trees. Fires. And snakes. And spiders. Lots of them. Unlike up there, here is stinking hot. It's probably one of the hottest areas in the Greater Sydney area, and only beaten by places like Bourke, out in the real sticks. We only say "Bloody hot, eh" in conversation when it is over 40. The hottest I remember was near 48. We have a river which still allows jet skiis, farming and rural down the road, and the city in the other direction. It is one giant basin which has no rain, virtually no wind and a dry dry heat.

 

[Danospano]

I spend half of every week in Stillwater, Oklahoma and the other half in Tulsa, Ok. I mention both because they've each dominated my life in the past 3 years and have nothing in common.

Stillwater is a mid-sized town (roughly 40,000) that lies about 50 miles north-east of Oklahoma City (everyone simply calls it "The City") or 65 miles west of Tulsa (which everyone calls "Tulsa"). Yes, we all speak slowly around here, but I doubt it's indicative of our intellegence. Everyone believes that common sense prevails, and it's rare to find someone who isn't friendly. However, lots of them keep to themselves unless conversation is required.

This is home of the Oklahoma State Cowboys. We went to the NCAA Final Four this past April and missed the Championship by 2 or 3 points. Nobody, not even our most adament fans believe we would have beat UConn, however, when we lost to Georgia Tech the town went silent for a couple of days. During football season there's nothing else to talk about. Basically, the only time we must win is when we play OU. We've won 2 or the last 3 years...and the saying goes, "The Road to the National Title goes directly through Stillwater", meaning that OU can't win it all without beating us.

Now, Tulsa is to Stillwater as "The Joshua Tree" is to "Achung Baby". It's trying desperately hard to be appear modern...and usually succeeds. We don't have any major sports teams, we rarely see major concert tours, and very little is mentioned of us on the nightly news. It's a beautiful green metro area, but highly segregated. Blacks mostly live in the north, Latinos in the east, whites in the south and west, and everything in between lives in -mid-town.---that's where my parents currently live.

Whereas several years ago you wouldn't find anything cool to do at night, now the downtown area is quickly catching up with the nightlife that has made OKC so popular. Tons of cools bars and nightclubs, eatting establishments and art gallerys are making me proud.

The weather is normally hitting the extremes, but compared to the desert of Nevada or the northern regions of Minnesota, it's probably quite pleasurable. We hardly get a spring, yet summers have been rather comfortable (85-95 degrees). Winters can be brutal for a few weeks, but mostly reaches the low 20's.

 

[~*Buffalo*~]

I live about 30 minutes north of Brisbane, Australia, in a shire called Pine Rivers. There's lots of pine trees, but only two rivers (the North and South Pine Rivers). It's pretty, on the urban-rural fringe. I live right in the middle of suburbia in a house built in the 1970s - a typical Queenslander style that was built up on stilts. In time a downstairs area has been added.

It gets pretty hot in summer but we always have thunderstorms in the afternoons which cools things down a bit. It's pleasant in winter, dry and sunny during the day and quite chilly at night.

There's been a lot of new development in suburbs surrounding mine, places with names like North Lakes, Warner Lakes, Norfolk Lakes ... you get the idea. Pine Rivers is the second fastest growing local council area in Australia, because people keep needing to buy new houses in these new estates. I like my old house close to the shops, the railway station, the library, my old school ... it's more convenient.

It's good being close to the city, but still close enough to mountains, farming areas, and not too far from the beaches either. Brisbane city is getting to be more interesting (new museums, walkways along the river, and things like that) and it's still got a nice mix of historic buildings amidst all the gleaming skyscrapers. It's more friendly than Sydney or Melbourne, much smaller in size than either of those two but, it seems, just as many people!

And I'm leaving it all behind ... to go to Slovakia. Does anyone know anything about that country?

 

[HelloAngel]

This is seriously so cool! I LOVE hearing about all of you!!!!

 

[DrTeeth]

I was looking for some info on Zwolle, Netherlands where I live, then I found out there's also a Zwolle in Louisiana!!

 

[meegannie]

I was looking for some info on Zwolle, Netherlands where I live, then I found out there's also a Zwolle in Louisiana!!

How weird! So you may have been living in Louisiana this whole time and you never knew!!

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

I live in a small town in Nebraska that's not too far south of Omaha (a little ways southwest of Lincoln, too). I've only lived here since last September, so I'm not an expert on the area or anything, but I have learned a few things about the area that are rather interesting-lots of history here. Some of the oldest buildings in Nebraska are in my town-this whole area's been here since before the Civil War days...I think it's gonna be turning 150 years old this year. And there's one building here that was part of the Underground Railroad.

Also, Lewis and Clark took part of their expedition in this area (this town is right next to the Missouri River). And this town is responsible for starting Arbor Day (needless to say, we've got trees galore here). This town also prides itself on its various foods made with apples (there's some apple orchards out in the countryside).

Seeing as this is a small town, there's not tons of stuff to do, aside from checking out all the historic stuff, but hey, that's what Omaha and Lincoln are for (and those cities are only about 45 minutes to an hour away from here, so it's not that bad a drive).

As far as the weather goes...we don't get much snow here in the wintertime on average-our best chances of seeing some mesurable snowfall are in January and February, and even then, it's usually nowhere near what places farther north get. It gets cold, but again, not nearly as cold as places north of us can get (all of this is a downside for me, seeing as I am a big winter person).

And as for spring/summer weather-well, this town is in Tornado Alley, and our weather pattern is similar to that of Missouri and Kansas, so if you can figure out what their average spring and summer is like, you'll know what it's like for us. We also have a chance of tornadoes in the fall sometimes, too, but it's much more likely in the spring. As of late, it's certainly been noisy in this part of the state...we've had a few rather nasty storm systems come through here-just got done with one last night, as a matter of fact. The weather can change quite often here, too.

I think that's about it. I'm not a fan of the weather pattern here, but other than that, this really isn't a bad place to live-it's fairly quiet here crime-wise (it's a very different story up in Omaha and Lincoln, though), the people here are pretty friendly (this is considered a prarie town, so any of you who've been through prarie towns will know how the people in them tend to act), there's some beautiful scenery here what with all the trees and bluffs and hills, and it's not too far from the towns that I used to live in up in Iowa-I can go back and visit my old state anytime, which is nice. .

So if you're into history, like small-town life, and are willing to live in the Plains and deal with the kind of weather we can get here and all that, well...this would be a good place for ya, then. .

Angela

 

[Laura M]

I live in Belfast, Northern Ireland, there are about 1.5 million people living here and it's probably most famous for its troubled past, the "troubles" began here in 1969 which resulted in many people losing their lives. In 1994 the paramiliatary groups such as IRA called ceasefires. During this time important folk such as George Mitchell and Bill Clinton came here. In 1998 the Good Friday agreement was reached. More important folk such as Tony Blair, the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and even Bono told people to vote "Yes" to the agreement. One thing the agreement signifies is the fact that people born here could freely call themselves either British/ Irish and that one day we may have a united Ireland if that is what the people here vote for. Ireland is full of history and its turbulent past is a subject that a lot of people are interested in, many bookshops here have about half the shop dedicated to the history and politics of Ireland. I am really interested in the Irish War of independence, the Easter Rising in 1916 and The Irish Civil War, in Dublin there are many places that you can see that have something to do with these periods in history but that is not everyones cup of tea and most people might find this a boring description of Ireland so I would just like to say that nowadays the political situation here is much more stable.

Where I live there isn't anything exciting apart from a Zoo and Belfast Castle, we live near a mountain called Cavehill which is quite nice to walk up because you have a great view of the city. we have lots of pubs and the "craic" is always great and the people are always very friendly, our weather isn't up to much, we have nice food such as stew, we do eat a lot of potatoes here, we also have nice breads like soda bread and potato farls.

I like to spend a lot of my time watching gaelic football games as it's something I played for a long time, many games are played throughout the year mainly at Croke Park in Dublin or Casement Park in Belfast, hurling is also a wildly popular gaelic game. The All-Ireland finals take place every September at Croke Park. The atmosphere is always electric before/ during and just after agame and the Dublin pubs are always crammed with people celebrating.

There are lots of nice places like the Giants Causeway, Stormont, City Hall, Queen's University and the Waterfront Hall that people like to visit here. It was and still is an industrial city and a lot of people visit the docks where you can see the massive cranes Samson and Goliath at the Harland and Wolff shipyard where the Titanic was built. Dublin is probably the most popular destination for tourists visiting Ireland. Apart from its troubled past Ireland is probably most famous for Guinness, it's great bands , famous poets and writers like Yeats, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce and being full of green fields. We do not say "top o' the mornin to ya" or have leprachauns.

 

[bammo2]

I live in Nottingham. There are foxes....foxes who steal from the rich to give to the poor. Sometimes it rains here, sometimes it doesn't.

I live in Mansfield, 14 miles north of Nottingham. we have a big tree that supposedly Robin Hood and his merry men lived in/around.

there is nothing to do in Mansfield. Nottingham is good though Me and my mum went to the underground caves in nottingham today. They were man made about 1000 years ago and people used to live in them. [random fact] There are more caves under Nottingham than any other place in the UK [/random fact]. There is an underground tannery there that was in use in the 1500's, and people also used to shelter in the caves during WWII. It was interesting - and you should go, Meggie - you'd like it

In Nottingham there are also lots of nightclubs and pubs, but none of them are particularly exciting. Oh, and apparantly there are 5 women for every man in Nottingham, which I suppose is great if you're a man That's why we get so many bloody stag nights descending upon our city at weekends

here ends my drivel about Nottinghamshire.

 

[najeena]

Vashon Island, Washington, a fifteen minute ferry ride from Seattle. It's small and rather isolated, but we do have several nice B&Bs. Sure, it rains here all winter, but the summer days are gorgeous. Tall evergreen forests, blue water, beaches...

 

[shari schultz]

I live in the burbs of Milwaukee. A village called Greendale. In Greendale we are known as being the home of Reiman Publishing. Taste of Home Magazine, Birds & Blooms, Light & Tasty and many others. We jokingly refer to ourselves as reimanville instead of Greendale. Downtown, if you can call it that has many little shops, a deli, A yummy pizza joint called Ricardos and a village hall that somewhat resembles Independence Hall in Philadelphia. On the Memorial Day and the Fourth of July flags line the street and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

As for the Milwaukee part we have many, many, many, many, many....well you get the idea, festivals. The season kicks off with Summerfest www.summerfest.com........ So much music so little time. Also lots of incredible food and a fabulous view of our lakefront. Italian Fest. Polish Fest. Mexican Fest. German Fest and others. There is also Irish Fest-my favorite !!!!!
http://www.irishfest.com/festivalinfo/index.htm Incredible music, good food, shopping and a dog show with some of the biggest Irish Wolfhounds you have seen.

The art museum was designed by Santiago Calatrava

and is gorgeous!
The Bucks and Admirals play at the Bradley Center-U2s concert venue for the Elevation tour. The Brewers play at a beautiful ball park-Miller Park-and they seem to have gotten the whole leaking roof thing under control. We also have some excellent college teams around here-Marquette Goden Eagles(in my heart they will always be The Warriors), Panthers and the Badgers in Madsion. To the north are a little team called the Green Bay Packers-

We also have an amazing zoo and public museum. The winters last for what seems forever but all of a sudden you look up and it is all green and blooming-Spring. Summers can be a wee bit hot and humid, but ya deal with it. Autumn, although it is not my favorite season, is quite a beautiful thing around here.

All in all, I guess I love my city.

 

[BluRmGrl]

I live on the southeast coast of North Carolina in Wilmington/New Hanover County. The county's population is about 80,000, and most of that is Wilmingtonians. We're right on the Atlantic Ocean & have some wonderful quaint, clean beaches; very family-oriented, not tourist-oriented like Myrtle Beach, SC. We're situated between the NE Cape Fear River & the ocean, so there's always lots of water activities. Downtown's cute with a lot of bars, cafes, antiques shops, etc. and I've always loved the historic homes in that area. Plenty of Civil War history and some Revoluntionary War stuff, too. The University of NC Wilmington is here, so there's always a lively bar scene to keep the college crowd happy.
I'm a life time local, which is not that easy to find anymore, as we've had such a large influx of transplants to the area - mostly from Ohio & Pennsylvania, for some reason.... Anyway, with the exception of 2 1/2 yrs in KY, this has always been my home & I love it - even with the awful humidity and lack of topography (it's sooo FLAT here!). Temps range from an average low in the winter of 40F to about 90F in the summer. But with the humidity the winter's can be tough because it's a "wet" cold & the summers??? Jeez, 90F can easily feel like 100F.
My overall biggest complaint besides lack of proper traffic/streets planning is that in a city this size, with a constant supply of ready and willing ticket buyers is that we have only one SMALL concert venue & that's the coliseum on UNCW's campus. If we want to see any decent shows, it's either a 2-, 3-, or 4-hour drive to Raleigh, Greensboro, or Charlotte. We desparately need someone to build a concert hall here - it could sell out ANY type of concert: rock, pop, country, hip-hop, etc.....and then I wouldn't have to always make a road-trip to see U2!!!
Even with those gripes, I still love it & can't imagine being happy anywhere else.

 

[tiny dancer]

I live in a small town in Southwestern Pennsylvania, about 50 miles of Pittsburgh. My town is call Indiana, and we have a state college here with about 15,000 students from all over the country and world. One thing in this town there are a lot of bars and pizza places. When things get dull around here, there is always Pittsburgh to go to. The summers are hot and the winters can be very nasty here.

 

[anitram]

This might be long...

I live in Toronto, Canada, which, along with the Greater Toronto Area has a population of around 6 million, I believe. It's the 5th largest city in North America and the most multicultural city in the world, according to the UN. There are neighbourhoods for virtually every culture, and it's really easy to get your hands on some great ethnic food. There are also 3 huge universities, 2 of which are in the downtown core, so it's a busy city.

Winters can be bad, but there are lots of things going on in the summer, and plenty of attractions nearby. In the city, we have the Skydome, the CN Tower (manmade penis), the Casa Loma castle, the distillery district, High Park, Little Italy, Little Portugal, Little India, the 2nd largest Chinatown after San Francisco, etc, etc. In the summer we have the Gay Pride Parade, the Taste of the Danforth, Caribana, the annual buskerfests, etc. You can also go out to the Toronto islands if you take the ferry, and if you want to go out of the city, you've got places like Niagara Falls nearby.

Image of the city from Centre Island:

Some other places I have lived in:

Osijek, Croatia is a small town (100,000 people) in the Pannonian Plain, in northeastern Croatia. Very nice place and was the 2nd most destroyed city in Croatia during the war in the early 90s, but it's been fixed up almost completely since.

Picture of the old part of the city, the Tvrda fort:

Pasman, Croatia is a tiny, tiny island in the mid-Adriatic, and I spent about 6 months there:

I also lived for about 6 months in Southern Dalmatia, which had awesome Mediterranean weather and great food to boot if you're a seafood lover. You can see a photo of Korcula below:

Then it was on to Zagreb, Croatia, the capital city of about 1 million people. Very nice, much more cosmopolitan.

The city square:

Then it was Slovenia, on to Kranjska Gora, which is basically a tourist town, as you can tell by the photo:

On to Burgenland, which is the southeastern part of Austria, where I lived near the town of Eisenstadt. Really beautiful countryside, very clean, very friendly people.

I took the pic out, it screwed up the margins.

Then I lived in Vienna, which I really liked because there were lots of things to do and it was very old European, which I like. And it's on the Danube, which passed a few kilometres east of Osijek Croatia and I always felt a little like I was tied to it no matter where in Europe I lived. This is a picture of the national library:

That's it for all the places where I stayed for any extended period of time. I'm a bit of a lost soul and I like to wander.

 

[cass]

I live in northeastern NSW, Australia. I absolutely love it.
I live about 30 kms from a small rural city called GRAFTON in the CLARENCE Valley.
Don't ya just love it?
I sure do. Maybe only I see it? A slight U2ey connection?
Grafton Street, Clarence Hotel?
The Clarence is a beautiful big river that is the lifeblood of the area. It is traditionally a forestry and cattle-raising area, but now it is moving into tourism. We have had some long dry spells lately, so it's nice sunny weather for holidaying and such, but no good for growing crops. But then again, all of a sudden the rain can arrive and the Clarence can go into major flood. It has no particular pattern.
If you like rural life and beautiful beaches, you'd like it here. If you prefer nightclubs and the facilities that cities have to offer, you may find it a bit quiet. It isn't that far to drive to the Gold Coast and Brisbane though, if you do want to catch up with those things.
I love it and feel I won some sort of life lottery when I was born to this region.
I really love the town where I was born...you know that. I actually was having a think just last night about it and tears came to my eyes just remembering it. I kinda wish I could live back there, but I also love the place I live now.
Can we post pics? You know I like posting pics too I'll see what I can find.