London, United Kingdom

London is built less of skyscrapers and more of a sort of living sprawl, with plenty of brown brick and green space hidden beneath all that fog. Maybe it's all the movies that have been set here, maybe it's the pictures I've seen on Instagram, maybe it's just that I've read the Harry Potter series so many times, but there's something about the city that feels familiar. In many ways, it is an older, British cousin of NYC (with a similarly dysfunctional public transportation system)--a city that has been both producer and witness of Western culture and tradition almost since its inception. All that age makes a difference. Whether it be in the Gothic grandeur of the House of Parliament or the unpretentious charm of its still-running old markets, it is this sense of lived history that makes London unique and absolutely worth visiting.