Riding Through Other Part of Twin-City's.

Got an invite to a party way over in the other Twin city, so I hopped on Zippy.  As I made my way into that into that city, I am reminded how different they are.  

Zipping down East (Mississippi)River Road.

I was born in Minneapolis and have lived most of my life inside it's boundary's.  It's a part of my DNA.  But there is a city just across the river that often seems to me, to be a foreign land.  That would be St. Paul.  While have spent a lot of time in St. Paul and even lived there, it has always be a bit of mystery to me.  A place that I wouldn't call home.  I'm not saying it's less than Minneapolis, just different.  Newcomer's to the Twin Towns often don't notice the difference, but it's there.  Can't you see it?

This will all be very green soon.

Without trying to get into the rivalry between the cities, here are some of the bigger differences.    St. Paul is the capital of Minnesota, while Minneapolis is the center of business.  St. Paul is a provincial city.  It is kind of like a big small town that is more traditional .  Minneapolis is cosmopolitan, thus more connected to the outside world.  St. Paul is quiet(Absolutely, dead after dark!), while Minneapolis is brash, busy and loud.  St. Paul was traditionally the Catholic town, with Minneapolis being the Protestant(Lutheran) one.  

Cool flats on Summit Ave.

Because St. Paul hasn't had the development pressures for a long time, that Mpls. has, it has kept a lot more of it's beautiful old buildings.  I think that STP's downtown has a much prettier than present day Minneapolis.  Except again, that there almost no hipness to the place and it's usually a ghost town in the evenings.  Things just move slower in St. Paul.  

St. Paul is also has a lot more hills.

I could go on and on about the differences, but in the end, I should just be happy there is a town right across the river that I can come to mellow out and enjoy the simpler things in life.