Cities you'd never return to

Schadenfreudia

Well, if I was a Tech Summit.....Dublin

mynameis905

Pisa

greentea is just wrong

Vienna... I used to wonder what happened to all the nazis when WW2 ended... then I went to Vienna. Never met such rude people in all my life

whatdoicare

Los Angeles - absolute ****e hole of a place. I was mad to go there and convinced the husband to take me for a week. I was absolutely stunned by how awful the place was.

My worst memory was waiting for a bus to get back to our kip of a hotel and at 6pm everyone just disappeared off the street - we were standing there going WTF is going on here? Next thing we know the whole street is filled with homeless people and not just any kind - I'm talking crazy cat lady, trolley full of rubbish guy and a guy roaring into a banana kind of homeless people.
It was just insane.

I reckon, unless you're famous or rotting in money, LA is just a place you don't want to be!

I didn't think much of the tourist spots either. Nothing wowed me about LA.


Everywhere else in America we went to - fupping awesome!

Reiketsu

^ I'm off to LA in just over a months time :pac:. Only for a couple of days though, heading to a few cities.

I said Paris and Warsaw in this thread when it started. I have been back to Paris since and hated it even more than the first time I was there. I'd like to add Brussels and Antwerp to the list. Cant think of any redeeming qualities.

JillyQ

whatdoicare wrote: »

Los Angeles - absolute ****e hole of a place. I was mad to go there and convinced the husband to take me for a week. I was absolutely stunned by how awful the place was.

My worst memory was waiting for a bus to get back to our kip of a hotel and at 6pm everyone just disappeared off the street - we were standing there going WTF is going on here? Next thing we know the whole street is filled with homeless people and not just any kind - I'm talking crazy cat lady, trolley full of rubbish guy and a guy roaring into a banana kind of homeless people.
It was just insane.

I reckon, unless you're famous or rotting in money, LA is just a place you don't want to be!

I didn't think much of the tourist spots either. Nothing wowed me about LA.


Everywhere else in America we went to - fupping awesome!

Couldn't agree more about LA an absolute and utter hole.

Clankatron

Been to Paris over twenty or so times and I die a little more inside every time I set foot in the place. Not the worst city I've ever been to, but I could live a long, happy life without ever seeing it again.

InTheTrees

whatdoicare wrote: »

My worst memory was waiting for a bus...!

Bus? There's buses in los angesles?

What was wrong with your car?

fuzzypickle

Middlesbrough and some of northeast UK. The other half is from there and he thinks it's miserable and says he's glad to be rid. I did get cornered by people looking for money a lot which freaked me out. I found the people to be usually really nice and polite although he said some of it was sarcasm that I wasn't picking up on. :P
He absolutely abhors it so I probably wont be going back there any time soon.

Other than that I haven't been around (unless you count Paris but that was just Disneyland as a child ).

Ice Storm

Lots of negativity about LA here!

I was there about a week ago. I had to pass through the city but I decided to spend just the one night there as I hadn't heard anything good about it.

So I had very low expectations of the place but it actually surprised me and I wish I'd spent more time there. Its such an iconic city and if you're into music, so many bands have their roots in LA. I really enjoyed seeing famous places like The Troubadour, Whisky a Go Go, The Viper Room etc.

I wouldn't rule out returning and if I do, I'll make it a longer visit.

StonyIron

Kilkenny - since the government abolished it.

whatdoicare

InTheTrees wrote: »

Bus? There's buses in los angesles?

What was wrong with your car?

My car that I didn't have?

Saipanne

Bangkok. I've been there a few times. I thought it was the best place ever when I was 24. Now I think its a filthy, rat infested ****hole. Full of people who swear they discovered Thailand. ****.

Shall not return.

JohnCleary

Saipanne wrote: »

Bangkok. I've been there a few times. I thought it was the best place ever when I was 24. Now I think its a filthy, rat infested ****hole. Full of people who swear they discovered Thailand. ****.

Shall not return.

We're going back for a 3rd time to Thailand (and surroundings) this Dec, really looking forward to returning to BKK. Funny though, I was 23 when I first went and thought it was amazing.... now returning as it's where the plane lands, but still looking forward to it.

BKK really is what you make of it... get exploring outside Kao San Rd. and it's a pretty cool city.

Saipanne

JohnCleary wrote: »

We're going back for a 3rd time to Thailand (and surroundings) this Dec, really looking forward to returning to BKK. Funny though, I was 23 when I first went and thought it was amazing.... now returning as it's where the plane lands, but still looking forward to it.

BKK really is what you make of it... get exploring outside Kao San Rd. and it's a pretty cool city.

I did get outside the Khao San road. In fact I visited it once last time. Cheers.

munchkin_utd

Clankatron wrote: »

Been to Paris over twenty or so times and I die a little more inside every time I set foot in the place. Not the worst city I've ever been to, but I could live a long, happy life without ever seeing it again.

Ive been there slightly less times than yourself.

Normally stayed on the verges and found it fairly grim. A couple of times had reason to be further out in the suburbs where all the ethno types are coralled, and mother of moses thats another level of grimmness. My wife on a different visit to the suburbs came across a Roma camp and human excrement everywhere, and once that was done with just general hassle from North African types who got an über horn seeing white females in their area and they got the feeling that they were 1 step away from being violently sexually assaulted.

But I stayed once near the Louvre and that was nice. Also stayed south of the river once and it was like being in some sort of a film about the legendary Paris of the 30s than the reality in most of the city nowadays. It was lovely and WAY cleaner and safer than the more dodgy (affordable) parts of town.

But indeed, if you stay in one of the pockets of touristy nice areas in Paris its nice, but the levels of general grimness in the rest of the city can be pretty bad.

PowerToWait

Ice Storm wrote: »

Lots of negativity about LA here!

I was there about a week ago. I had to pass through the city but I decided to spend just the one night there as I hadn't heard anything good about it.

So I had very low expectations of the place but it actually surprised me and I wish I'd spent more time there. Its such an iconic city and if you're into music, so many bands have their roots in LA. I really enjoyed seeing famous places like The Troubadour, Whisky a Go Go, The Viper Room etc.

I wouldn't rule out returning and if I do, I'll make it a longer visit.

You and I obviously have no idea and are uncultured oafs. I was there 20 years back and had a great time down by Venice and Santa Monica. Great bars and many, many oddballs.

Wompa1

PowerToWait wrote: »

You and I obviously have no idea and are uncultured oafs. I was there 20 years back and had a great time down by Venice and Santa Monica. Great bars and many, many oddballs.

Venice Beach does have a lot of oddballs, alright. It's also wall to wall with people trying to hustle you. There's far nicer beaches along the Pacific Coast highway like Hermosa Beach.

Los Angeles has some great bars and great restaurants but overpriced. Actually some of the best restaurants in the world BUT it's still a crappy place. Driving there is a bag of crap. The airports are awful, have had a few domestic flights to LAX and Bob Hope. Long Beach is one of the ugliest places I've ever been to.

The Hollywood walk of fame is pretty underwhelming.

The drivers are probably the worst and most rude in the US.

But in fairness. I've only been there once for leisure. The other times were for work. So, maybe it's a great place to just visit. It's not a great place to work. I couldn't imagine living there. When I stayed out in Burbank my hotel room had a view of the freeway. I was jetlagged so, I woke around 3am. By 4am traffic was already building. What an awful way to live.

macscoob

Perth......most boring kip iv ever been.

PowerToWait

Wompa1 wrote: »

Venice Beach does have a lot of oddballs, alright. It's also wall to wall with people trying to hustle you. There's far nicer beaches along the Pacific Coast highway like Hermosa Beach.

Ah I was only there for 2 nights after a month in the wilds of the South West before heading home. It was a diversion. And far from unpleasant.

I wouldn't live there in a fit. Even then the smog was so bad you couldn't see more than maybe a mile. Prob a good bit less.

Wompa1

PowerToWait wrote: »

Ah I was only there for 2 nights after a month in the wilds of the South West before heading home. It was a diversion. And far from unpleasant.

I wouldn't live there in a fit. Even then the smog was so bad you couldn't see more than maybe a mile. Prob a good bit less.

When I went on my own time. I drove from Phoenix to Los Angeles and then up the Pacific Coast highway to Santa Barbara. Had heard great things about the likes of Huntington Beach...don't get it. You're looking out at these big ugly wells. Santa Barbara was gorgeous but is a bit like Scottsdale...very fake looking.

I'd take Northern California over Southern California any day. Even San Diego is kinda blah

Makassar in Indonesia - I've never been there but if I did go I probably won't go back.

mzungu

Dar Es Salaam - Too humid and very little to see and do.

Mombassa - See above

Ralf and Florian

dreamers75 wrote: »

Warsaw its like the Cork of Poland.

That's a bad thing?

Lollipops23

Had a 2 hours stopover in Detroit while bussing to Chicago from Toronto.

Obvs it wouldn't have a great rep these days, but it was a ghost town. Defo wouldn't be going back any time soon.

FTA69

Dhaka in Bangladesh. I went to Bangladesh as I worked in a largely Bengali community centre in East London for a few years and wanted to explore more about the culture and origins of the people I worked with. I had some fantastic experiences there but also some utterly f*cking nutty ones.

When I arrived in January I was picked up by a friend of a friend who drove me to my hotel. The dual carriageway had people driving down the wrong lanes in the wrong directions, swerving everywhere. I saw a 15 year old lad riding an elephant down the hard shoulder who then got off and took a massive sh*te in full view of passing traffic.

As look would have it, I arrived in time for the "hartal" or political strike whereupon mobs would take to the street for a bit of burning and rioting. Two people were killed by the cops outside my hotel the first night I was there. There are literally no foreigners in the country so people stare at you like a zoo exhibit; the lads in the hotel wouldn't let me leave as they thought it was too dangerous.

I snuck out after one day and saw some poor bastard get shot in the face point-blank with a rubber bullet before his mates dragged him off, blood p*ssing everywhere. Also while in a café I witnessed a mob attack a lawyer's social club full of supporters of the opposition and proceed to drag people out the windows and batter them with bamboo canes. I can still hear the sound of stick beating off people's skulls.

Piece de resistance was seeing the police drag the body of a dead homeless man off a 20 foot pile of rubbish with a rope around his foot.

Zillah

So, C+ at most?

For my own: San Francisco was a filthy, intimidating, drug-ridden, homeless person-besieged sh1thole. I think I might want to go back in the hopes of seeing the nice end of it, but what I saw was 90% horrendous.

Stojkovic

Zillah wrote: »

So, C+ at most?

For my own: San Francisco was a filthy, intimidating, drug-ridden, homeless person-besieged sh1thole. I think I might want to go back in the hopes of seeing the nice end of it, but what I saw was 90% horrendous.

You went to the wrong places.
I loved it and will go back.

ohnonotgmail

FTA69 wrote: »

Dhaka in Bangladesh. I went to Bangladesh as I worked in a largely Bengali community centre in East London for a few years and wanted to explore more about the culture and origins of the people I worked with. I had some fantastic experiences there but also some utterly f*cking nutty ones.

When I arrived in January I was picked up by a friend of a friend who drove me to my hotel. The dual carriageway had people driving down the wrong lanes in the wrong directions, swerving everywhere. I saw a 15 year old lad riding an elephant down the hard shoulder who then got off and took a massive sh*te in full view of passing traffic.

As look would have it, I arrived in time for the "hartal" or political strike whereupon mobs would take to the street for a bit of burning and rioting. Two people were killed by the cops outside my hotel the first night I was there. There are literally no foreigners in the country so people stare at you like a zoo exhibit; the lads in the hotel wouldn't let me leave as they thought it was too dangerous.

I snuck out after one day and saw some poor bastard get shot in the face point-blank with a rubber bullet before his mates dragged him off, blood p*ssing everywhere. Also while in a café I witnessed a mob attack a lawyer's social club full of supporters of the opposition and proceed to drag people out the windows and batter them with bamboo canes. I can still hear the sound of stick beating off people's skulls.

Piece de resistance was seeing the police drag the body of a dead homeless man off a 20 foot pile of rubbish with a rope around his foot.

The boy or the elephant?

In fairness you were there during civil unrest. Thats never going to show a place in the best light.

jmayo

greentea is just wrong wrote: »

Vienna... I used to wonder what happened to all the nazis when WW2 ended... then I went to Vienna. Never met such rude people in all my life

Jeeze, were you never in France.
I thought Vienna was ok.

whatdoicare wrote: »

Los Angeles - absolute ****e hole of a place.

My worst memory was waiting for a bus to get back to our kip of a hotel and at 6pm everyone just disappeared off the street - we were standing there going WTF is going on here? Next thing we know the whole street is filled with homeless people and not just any kind - I'm talking crazy cat lady, trolley full of rubbish guy and a guy roaring into a banana kind of homeless people.
...

You can't do LA without a car.
Hell you can't do most of America without a car.
And only really poor and insane people take the bus.

Actually now that you remind me. I remember one drunken night trying to find my way back to my motel in town south of Orlando, where I ended up sitting on pavement chatting to homeless guy pushing a shopping trolley.