U is for...

I really want U to be for Ulaanbaatar. I do. It's a capital city, so it deserves a mention but, well, no-one goes to Mongolia for a city break. Mongolia is about snow and mountains and plains and yurts. And Ulaanbaatar is largely incidental to that.

Utrecht on the other hand. Now that's a city you can city break too. It's bursting with Dutch character, somehow seeming way more Dutch than Rotterdam, and way more exciting than The Hague (as an aside, I always feel a bit daft calling it The Hague - Den Haag seems far more Right - but let's stick with the British names for the purposes of this distraction, otherwise madness lies: W for Vienna, K for Cologne, and etc).

Maybe I'm biased, I had a chum live in Utrecht for a bit, so I know it a fair bit better than Ulaanbaatar, but the whole (un)point of this is bias. So there.

U is for Utrecht.

V is for...

So Europe and Asia, neck and neck on two cities. Vienna and Varanasi are on the table, which one will take the lead?

Will it be the city that I visited at the end of backpacking round Eastern Europe, where I spent more in two days than I had in the previous two weeks? Well no. You left a bad taste in my mouth, Vienna. I appreciate that that was my fault and not yours. If I visited you now I would probably think you were ace. But I didn't. I visited you in my early twenties and thought you were expensive. And a bit dull.

Varanasi on the other hand... monkeys on the roof and burning bodies on the river banks. Great food, great lassi, loads of weird. One of my favourite cities in India. But it was busy. Unpleasantly busy. 

Oh hello Valparaiso. Look at you with your Chilean charm. With your culture and your poetry amd your funicular railways. I did like exploring you. Okay, you can stay. Looks like a new continent has entered the game.

V is for Valparaiso.

I should mention Vancouver, but I've not been, so it's not in the list.

W is for...

Wellington and Washington. Two cities that have some really interesting bits - two of the best museums in the world (well the Smithsonian is like ten of the best museums on its own, but you know what I mean) - but ultimately feel a bit suited, a bit diplomatic and ultimately a bit soulless.

Which pretty much leaves Warsaw out there on its own. That's a city with soul - don't get me wrong, it's not as pretty as Wellington and it's not got the seen-that-on-telly familiarity of Washington but it's got that thing that you can't quite put your finger on.

W is for Warsaw.