NYC vs DC

Before I moved here, I was no fan of D.C. Some of the neighborhoods around here have started to grow on me, but I'm still not a fan of the city's general character. Sure, the mall is great, but once you stroll out of the museums and memorials, the downtown area is just one big collection of concrete buildings.

One of my friends put it this way: D.C. is thick, not tall. And it's this I'll never be able to get past. Especially when I wander around through Manhattan for a day and return to D.C.

Sure, it's never fair to compare anywhere to Manhattan. But it's just so much nicer, for me, to wander around New York where the defining characteristic is vertical steel rather than horizontal concrete and where every block has a different shop or establishment to discover. At least here the museums are free.