My Top 5 Cities of the World

1. Mexico City

Nope, not New York: Calle Francisco I. Madero, Centro Histórico.

Mexico City, my hometown, is my number one pick.
The former Tenochtitlán, ancient capital of the Aztec empire, built literally over a big big lake.
A city that get's shaken from time to time by earthquakes and by it's lively inhabitants.

Zócalo capitalino.

I would describe my city as contrasting, heterogeneous, vast.
With 22 million souls living inside it, this city boils with life, movement and party. It obviously never sleeps, and every single day of the year there is something good going on somewhere around.

A cemetery in Mixquic.

You can see impressive pyramids next to colorful colonial architecture, markets the size of towns and the tallest high-rise buildings in Latin-America.

Catedral metropolitana y bandera monumental.

In Mexico City you have everything. Literally, everything. I will just strongly recommend you to come and discover it yourself. You WILL NOT be disappointed.

There are wonderful colonial churches full of gold waiting to be discovered.

Pros: diversity, precolonial mysticism, the best nightlife, gargantuan colonial churches, enormous markets where you can see and find everything, hard-core folklore, wonderful cuisine that can be found from the streets to the top-end restaurants, fabulous museums, a forest in the middle of the city, very chic neighborhoods, festivals... (I would never finish if I keep on going with this list).

Mercado de Sonora.

Cons: undeserved bad reputation, although there is crime in some dangerous neighborhoods (as in every city), heavy traffic, infrastructure.

The impressive city of Teotihuacán, with it's two massive pyramids.

In Mexico, death is venerated and you can see it represented everywhere.

Alameda Central.

In Mexico City you see literally everything.

Museo Soumaya

Chapultepec.

Ángel de la Independencia.

Palacio de Correos, Eje Central.

Palacio de Bellas Artes

Pulquería típica del centro.

2. Berlin

Today, Berlin is à la mode. It's a huge and diverse city, with probably the best electronic music scene in the world, and it's very affordable, definitely one of the cheapest destinations in Western (or Eastern?) Europe. Probably my favorite place in Europe.

The nightclubs here are the big draw. Some of them, like the Berghaim, have become legends. Party animals will find their element here.

Berlin is a very liberal city, anything can happen, you can see/do everything and anything on it's streets. There are huge gigs with extraordinary music every day of the year. Berlin is underground.

Berlin is a contrasting city as well, each neighborhood has it's own vibe. There is amazing food as well (and very affordable). Berliners are among the nicest people I've ever met, open-minded and original.

Walking it's streets, you can realize how much the city has been through. You can see some abandoned remnants of the pre-Cold War period as well, like the abandoned Tempelhof Airport that you can visit, among many other cool places.
There are amazing museums as well, and sooooo many things to do.

Famous Potsdamer Platz.

Tacheles, unfortunately closed last year definitively.

In a sunny day, every park in Berlin looks like this.

Multiculturalism: no, it's not Istanbul, it's Neukoln.

The abandoned Tempelhof Airport.

Pros: best nightlife ever, enormous parks, cool architecture, history, great museums,  excellent public transport system, big apartments, affordable prices, Berliners, beer, good food and Jägermeister everywhere 24h/7, Club Mate, abandoned places, great place to visit by bike, wonderful vibe, interesting people.
Cons: ever increasing number of tourists, weather, increasing housing prices, very big.

Brandenburgertor

3. Paris
Paris is esthetically perfect. It's probably the most visited city in the world, and you have surely visited it at least once. The city of lights, romantic, and all that. I wont repeat things everybody says about this city here.

Palais de l'opéra.

"Paname" (as some Frenchmen call it) is friggin' expensive. It's one of the most expensive places in Earth, but if you can afford it, Paris is delicious. Good food (but expensive), incredible architecture, very good museums, really cool nightlife. Each arrondissement (district) has a different vibe, and every one of them is worth discovering -each single one.

The famous Pont des Arts.

Just one piece of advise: stay out of the touristy places after having visited them once. Many people come to this city several times and never wonder off the touristy sights. It's a shame, Paris has so much to offer, and the best is always off the tourist attractions.

View of Notre Dame de Paris from les Marais.

Just walking Paris's streets is one of the biggest highlights of the city. There are many beautiful parks where to chill out as well. I will recommend to visit the famous landmarks (Tour Eiffel, Montmartre, Champs Elysées, etc.), but I will recommend even more to get lost and discover it's streets, it's cafés, it's bistrots and nightclubs that lie in places far less visited.

la Cour de cassation next to the beautiful Seine.

Just walk, walk where you don't see any tourists. It is worth it, and if you can find a Parisian that shows you around is even better.

Tour Saint-Jacques in Chatelet.

Pros: Probably the most beautiful city in the world esthetically speaking, Paris at night, nightlife, incredible places to chill, haute cuisine, cafés, art, walking along the Seine at day/night, great shopping (but very expensive), the rive gauche, just being there.

Cons: Prices (very, very expensive), overwhelming number of tourists, rich snobs from many countries in the world, rude waiters, heaps of vigilance.

Y'all know what this is, right?

Pont Alexandre III and Les Invalides.

La Madeleine in luxurious Rue Royale.

Sun sets in Marais.

Tuileries, Concorde`s Obelisk and Arc du Triomphe.

The Bastille column.

4. Tokyo
When you get to Tokyo, you get to the future. As soon as you get out of your plane, you fell you've come to 2100. It's a city as big as New York or Paris, but unlike cities in Occident, it has a total Oriental identity, entirely different from every big city in America or Europe.

Shibuya

Its an amazing place to visit. And very fun too. Japanese culture is very rich, and in Tokyo you can fully experience it. It is a futuristic, incredible city.

Ginzo.

Shinjuku.

Asakusa.

There is an infinite number of restaurants, bars, nightclubs, karaokes, cafés, that range from typical to the most eccentric. Tokyo is the biggest city in the world, and you realize that as soon as you get there. While you're there you'll encounter very few other foreigners; Tokyo is one of the most homogeneous big cities in the world. 100% Japanese.

There will always be something new to see, something new to visit, to taste. It is very, very expensive though. Food is delicious here, nowhere you will be able to find so many different options to eat.

Some metro stations are as big as shopping malls in the USA, there are department stores that are more than 20 stories high, a neighborhood where they only sell comics and you can actually see the characters walking on the streets, amazing places to go out at night. Great music. And so much more.

Pros: Japanese culture, markets, nightclubs, an infinite number of good bars and restaurants, 24h activity on the streets, karaoke bars, vertical department stores, parks, skyscrapers everywhere, sensation of being in the future, Tsukuji market, sake, the sheer size of the city, shopping, impressive temples, very low crime rate, hyper-polite Japanese people.

Cons: ridiculously expensive to fly/move/live/eat/drink, ridiculously huge city, you can very easily get lost in metro stations, virtually nobody speaks English, heavy traffic and earthquakes.

5. Jerusalem
This is the holiest city on Earth. The holiest place for all Christians, the second most holy place for all Muslims and the holiest place for all Jews. This is Jerusalem, year-round heaps of people come from all over the world to visit the holy sites of their respective religions. It has a super strong energy charge and an unmatched vibe that cannot be felt anywhere else in the world. You'll see why its the Holy City.

Visiting each religion's most sacred places is a must (even if you are not religious). Just think that hundreds of millions of persons around the world still see religion as the most important thing in their existence, and it is mind-blowing to see and visit this sacred places and to see the fervor of the people that travel thousands of kilometers and spend their lifetime savings to visit this city.

Pilgrim prays in the Saint Sepulcher, Jesus's tomb.

The Lamentations Wall, The Al Aqsaa Mosque or the Holy Sepulcher number among the hundreds of interesting places to visit in this city. There is amazing food as well. The monuments are gargantuan, and magnificent. You can see historic monuments from every historic period. You need to visit this city at least once in your life.

Pros: A hell lot of spirituality, really cool and interesting places to visit, abundant pilgrimages and pilgrims from every corner of the world, unique vibe, multicultural, so many places to visit in one single and not-very-big city, markets.
Cons: Arab-Jew perpetual tensions, very occasional terrorist attacks, it is expensive to get there, big military and police presence in Arab sites, if you have the Israeli tampon in your passport you cannot visit several Arab countries, that ain't cool.

View of the Dome of Rock and Al Aqsaa Mosque, second most holy place in the Islam.

*I don't have all of my photos of Jerusalem available, I'll be uploading them later.
*No tengo disponibles todas mis fotos de Jerusalem, las voy a subir luego.
*J'en ai malheureusement pas toutes les photos de Jerusalem en disponibilité, je les mettrai après.


(Please, don't copy my pictures without notifying me first / SVP, n'enregistrez pas mes photos sans me le notifier avant / Por favor, no copien las fotos sin decirme antes, GRACIAS)
*All photos were taken by me.