Top 5 - Cities

1. Qingdao - a little piece of Germany on the Chinese coast. Despite its 7 million inhabitants, you feel like you're in a small town when you're down by the sea. I got out off the train early in the morning and couldn't believe how close I was to the water. The food is fantastic, the Tsingtao brewery means cheap beer, there is some 60 kms of coastal walkways, and the architecture never gets boring.

2. Tbilisi - a small, mountainous Caucasian hamlet. When you think "Caucasian Capital," Tbilisi most likely represents the images running through your head. It's a great place to go to relax in the comfortable street cafes, to drink the best wine in the region, and eat some amazing pork kebab. The icing on the cake is the hostel run by this incredibly kind Georgian woman.

3. Kolkata - a giant metropolis on the Ganges delta. I fell in love the second I got off the train. From the human train in the Howrah station, to the dilapidated ferries carrying people across the Hooghly River, to the delectable Bengali cuisine, to the immaculately restored 18th and 19th century buildings, Kolkata has it all.   

4. Krakow - Warsaw's attractive and fun cousin. Perhaps it was the drinking culture, or maybe it was the succulent grilled meats in the Christmas market, but there's just something about Krakow that makes you want to keep coming back. It's a great place to have fun in a short period of time.

5. Ulaanbaatar - Mongolia's gateway to the world. It's not the prettiest or the most developed or the cleanest, but Ulaanbaatar as an exoticness that is lacking in most of the cities I've been to. It's truly in the middle of nowhere, but I think that's what makes it so fascinating. What puts it on this list, though, is the delicious foreign food (especially Chinese) and surprisingly exciting nightlife.