Several times. Been to San Francisco and New York. Stark difference there, actually loved San Fran (Berkeley to be specific.) Big broad streets, friendly people, nice weather. And the college area in Berkley, holy. fuk. Literally never seen so many attractive girls crammed into one small area before. Too bad I was a teenager at the time.
New York was vastly different, more urban to say the lest. Got a distinct 'dog-eat-dog' vibe from there. Like most people were on edge and just a general menace simmering beneath the surface, hard to explain. I actually almost threw hands with some athletic and explosive gentlemen over some dumb shit, but when I made it clear I'd touch em with the jab and fill the subway with uppercuts, nothing came of it. It I still liked it there though, fascinating place.
What I hear though, Americans, while welcoming as hell (
One +120 kg black lady told me I had eyes like Brad Pitt, I told her she looked like Beyonce and the pack all went crazy hootin' and hollering , I can promise you you won't have a lot of such exchanges in Scandinavia.) but fairly superficial. I have had friends living over there for +10 years and still don't feel like they have a true friend. People up here is more difficult to make friends with, but if you do, you will have one for life. Loyal as fuk. Something I value very much.
One thing I will say for USA though - Firearms being legal is insanity for a society like that. I like the idea, and would love to own them my self, but looking at it objectively, it's illogical. I know the old "but criminals have guns to we have to defend our self." Over here, the criminals might have some guns, but that's only the organized gangs, and those don't really go after civilians. I have literally 0 fear of getting shot over here. The police is also A LOT less trigger happy (When they aren't constantly in fear of losing there own life to gunsfire) thus leading to situations like the recent one discussed in the other thread becoming a non issue. I realize there's a lot of other factors involved in creating that scenario, and I don't have time to go over them, but look at these numbers:
http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/denmark
http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states
We throw hands to solve our differences over here. It sounds cliché and dumb, but it works a lot better than having access to firearms. One individual overreacting, being intoxicated and so forth and you have a tragedy on your hands.
All factors taken into consideration, I'd say Scandinavia is probably one of the best places in the world to live. Free health insurance, benefits, not having to literally live on the street if something goes wrong.. so on and so forth. Gets a little boring for me though. Too safe. Would love to live in the states sometimes. Weather sucks a fat one up here too.