Greetings from Ljubljana, Slovenia. A country with far more wireless internet than say... Italy.

I thought of trippist recently as I stood at a bustop on the outskirts of this fine city, nevermind how I ended up in the middle of nowhere in a very crappy hostel, that's a whole other typical travel story.

But as I'm standing at the bus stop talking with my travel companion from Chicago, we start comparing the European Union to the United States in terms of cities. He joked that Ljubljana was something between El Paso and Portland. Which eventually got us to talking about Amsterdam.

I suggested that Amsterdam is like the EU's San Francisco; mostly thinking about the tremendous counter culture, openness, and creativity.. not to mention the simple beauty. All these things remind me of San Fran for whatever reason.

He highly disagreed. "Chicago" he said without having to think for another second. "It has the spirit of Chicago in both the creative and the practical sense."

Myself, I've never been to Chicago, but I'll take his word for it. But what about you lurking readers... is Amsterdam comparable to a city in the US? If so.. which one? Is it Boston or Austin? Eugene or New Orleans? Leave your comparison in the comments.