Skellig Gra
Member
Maybe
but it's still true and Vatican City in general is basically 1 big tourist trap whereas Rome you can actually find lots of awesome stuff not riddled with tourists.
Worst City You've Ever Been To?
- Thread starter Andrew Korenchkin
- Start date
Maybe
but it's still true and Vatican City in general is basically 1 big tourist trap whereas Rome you can actually find lots of awesome stuff not riddled with tourists.
Reptars Revenge
Member
The Chiraq part of Chicago.
Where in the city were you at?
zer0blivion
Member
I've been to Montreal three or four times and had a great time every time. I could definitely see myself living there. It's probably the best city I've ever been to.
Martinski43
Member
lol
The whole world is a dump then pretty much if you weigh in posts here.
The whole world is a dump then pretty much if you weigh in posts here.
Charles Brandon
Member
Not one vote for London
Seriously.
EazyWeazy3
Member
We go back because we have family there. So we'll stop by for the occasional party or two.
It is a shit place though.
BannedEpisode
Member
Don't get me wrong. Venice has a lot to offer, tourist locations just tend to get that mix of crowds, scammers, and cheap retail setups that make the experience stick out.
It's pretty understandable why so many tourist cities are being mentioned. Dumpy cities aren't memorable because you expect them to be dumpy.
You can argue though that travelers/tourists should know what they are getting into as well. And as such, they should weigh their experience against that.
In my case I usually avoid the tourist mega centers when traveling but I was meeting a friend from Rome in Venice.
I still enjoyed myself a great deal because I got to go to La Biennial Art Festival, but man the poop bags were hard to dismiss.
We went pretty much everywhere in Manhattan. But our hotel was close to Times Square even though we only spent like one hour there.
For example, we grabbed a coffee at Starbucks when we left our hotel in the morning and even though we said "hello" with a smile, the person didn't even respond or even look at us. We really felt like walking wallets to them.
Another example was when we stopped at a random store to buy cheap sunglasses. The cashier was really nice at the beginning and then all I could understand was that she was trying to sell us an extra article at a discount, but we didn't understand it clearly. My wife said "excuse me I didn't understand" with a thick french accent and at that very moment, the cashier stopped looking at us, she litterally turned her head away, didn't respond when we said goodbye. We were treated like actual shit.
I've never experienced such blatant rudeness in a store in France.
Also I feel like American people make no effort to try to understand less than perfect english. I know that in Paris, most stores make an effort to communicate even if the stranger's english is garbage.
Revolutionary
Member
Guatemala City. Most people are nice, but seeing police officers casually walking around with shotguns pretty much tells you all you need to know about the crime rate in the city.
Oh and the cement + broken glass walls for gated communities sure are pleasant on the eyes lol
Oh and the cement + broken glass walls for gated communities sure are pleasant on the eyes lol
A Starbucks and some random store looking for cheap sunglasses. I mean...
SolidSnakeUS
Member
Detroit and Baltimore. Fuck both of these cities.
Not one vote for London
Wrong. Somebody shat on it early in the thread. It was apparently the worst part of their trip to various cities.
Those are just examples. And shouldn't I be treated with respect anywhere ?
If I have to go to expensive stores to get as much as a "hello" then fuck that city.
Like I said, I never experienced something like that in France.
Strangelove77
Member
Jesus, some of you are really defensive. This isn't some sort of ranking of worst cities ever, it's about what city you've actually been to that you think is awful. Doesn't matter if there are worst places or if someone didn't stay there long enough or if they went to the wrong places, etc. they had the experience they had and that's that.
Any who, Laredo, TX is really boring.
Any who, Laredo, TX is really boring.
The Albatross
Member
Franklin only has a population of like 8,000 people, so the only thing that makes it a city is just that it has a mayor and city council, otherwise it'd be a town by any other estimation. My grandmother was born in Franklin, her parents having emigrated from Poland in the early 1900s, and I drove through it on a trip up to the White Mountains last summer, and it was sad kind of driving through. I was expecting more of a quaint New Hampshire town, mostly from her descriptions (her father was the town shoe maker and owned a farm), but it reminded me a lot of the former Massachusetts mill towns in the Pioneer Valley, like Athol, Mass... Rows of empty factory buildings, a tired main street with more "for lease" signs than "open" signs.
I think Nashua is fine though. No parts of Nashua look bombed out if you've been to a city that would have properly been called 'bombed out' in the 80s or 90s.
Skellig Gra
Member
You know there are 300 million of us. I've been treated rudely by plenty of people in France. I don't judge the entire country based on that. I personally always try to help people, granted I speak enough of about 8 different languages to give people directions but I'm sure there are others like me.
You go to any random Starbucks anywhere in the country here and you probably have a high chance of interacting with rude people. It's a US problem, not specific to New York. People in low end retail here are treated and paid like absolute shit, and their attitudes reflect that.
NYC if full of COUNTLESS restaurants, cafes, hip shops (not all expensive), bars, etc. Not to mention the museums, broadway shows, music, comedy shows, and constant special events. Judging the city based on your interaction with a couple of shitty stores seems very closed minded.
...And you're not going to be getting gunned down in any touristy part of any major American city, so this is a non-sequitur.
I spent a whole year in my entire life in the USA, visited many cities ... So I have some experience. Again it's MY experience and YMMV.
I'm not saying the whole country is rude though. Just saying they could be a little more tolerant when it comes to non english speaking persons.
And my examples about rude people were during my time in NYC.
This thread is about "the worst city you've visited".
Well mine is NYC because people were rude to us. Simple as that.
Too bad I didn't meet more people like you though. Guess it's bad luck.
Charles Brandon
Member
Goddamit. I need that post expunged.
I found that if you approach the people in French and ask "tu parle anglais", they would be a hundred times friendlier. Really enjoyed my time in Montreal - delicious food, nice atmosphere, a lot to see and do, and Stereo is one of the world's greatest venues for the type of music I listen to.
Worst city I've ever been to? Hmm, probably Buffalo 10 years ago. Some beautiful architecture that's going to pot, a deadbeat city council who can't make their minds up on anything, tons of post industrial rot, a downtown that's deserted after 5pm, and lots of crime. I went back last year and they FINALLY started to fix downtown up, by revitalizing their harbor. So I dunno if it would qualify as worst anymore.
I'm not saying EVERY single human interaction was bad ! Just saying it occured frequently enough to taint my perception of the city.
SDCowboy
Member
Unfortunately, the cities you mentioned aren't just a quick drive away.
pirateluigi
Member
Not really edgy at all... Venice really isn't a nice place to visit. I would never call it the worst place, but there are so many better cities in Italy.
In Iceternal's defense there are plenty of people who really are completely lost when it comes to anything non-American. So I'm not surprised that he ran into people that heard a foreigner speak English and just gave up. And boy do I feel when these people who have English as a second language have to communicate people who go heavy on the slang. Then they are like poor little lambs. There are definitely drastic differences in the States from person to person and establishment to establishment. Take McDonald's. I think about how incredibly varied the customer service is just going from one to another that might be only 10 miles away. 1 could be tip top with normal service and communication where things function. And then the next one you wonder if the people even know how to read and count. You wouldn't see such drastic shift within the same fast food place in most western European countries.
Though this goes more towards the effects of general education which we know has problems in the States. In terms of funding.
Though this goes more towards the effects of general education which we know has problems in the States. In terms of funding.
| Praxis |
Banned
Yeah UK. I am fortunate enough to have never visited Doncaster.
When I visited San Francisco a couple of times I had a number of people that were rude to me, but overall I really enjoyed the city and surrounding area. People being dicks didn't make me decide that the city is shit. Just the people I interacted with were dicks. I'm just a visitor in their city in the end, I don't take it personally.
Skellig Gra
Member
I hear you. I'm not trying to diminish your personal experience. Just don't like you generalizing hundreds of millions of people.
Pandora012
Member
Weird seeing people call New Yorkers rude. Usually when I'm on the subway and streets I see people all the time helping tourists. Like even if you live there and just ask for directions, I haven't found someone that wouldn't help.
That's a bit weird about you guys and that cashier. But I guess it happens sometimes.
As for your perfect english comment, it's not really like that. We get loads of people from all over the place, with varying degrees of accents. But like you did that day, you'll find some people that aren't vary patient with that.
That's a bit weird about you guys and that cashier. But I guess it happens sometimes.
As for your perfect english comment, it's not really like that. We get loads of people from all over the place, with varying degrees of accents. But like you did that day, you'll find some people that aren't vary patient with that.
My experience too, but it's a massive city, so it's reasonable that you'll run into unfriendly people as well.
Again it's MY experience from my time there in May 2016. Maybe I was just unlucky or I picked a wrong period to go. But it doesn't mean anyone who goes to NYC will have the same perception.
Mysterious
Banned
ITT: People trying to be edgy. Even Ottawa, as boring as it is, is no where close to the "worst city".
Squirrel Killer
Member
I hate these kinds of discussions because it just feeds this idea that the only places worth living are NYC, LA, SF, and a handful of other major cities which becomes a self fulfilling prophecy that creates absurd living and housing costs.
Whoa, did not expect to see that one. I kind of liked it, although to be fair, I was mostly in the old town area, and a section near it that had just few enough Stalin-era-esque buildings to not destroy the character of it.
SDCowboy
Member
You are aware this thread is about the worse city one has visited, right?
SirMossyBloke
Member
Liverpool.
It has/had a really bad stigma for being full of thieves and scum and whatnot, mainly due to TV, but I didn't believe that.
Only went there once, parked for two hours, car broken into and radio stolen :/
It has/had a really bad stigma for being full of thieves and scum and whatnot, mainly due to TV, but I didn't believe that.
Only went there once, parked for two hours, car broken into and radio stolen :/
And I'm definitely sorry you drew the short straw on your time here. Sucks for sure.
NYC is a place that's absolutely bewildering and aimless if you don't have someone who lives there to take you around. There's lots of greatness, but lots of trash too.
Chairmanchuck
Member
Venice.
Smelled like shit when I was there, the normal price supermarkets are totally hidden, you cant take your own food/drinks to the St. Marks Square and sit on a PUBLIC square to consume them there.
Smelled like shit when I was there, the normal price supermarkets are totally hidden, you cant take your own food/drinks to the St. Marks Square and sit on a PUBLIC square to consume them there.
Or a lack of perspective