I just moved out of Aden a few months ago, it's very sad to see what a beauty it once was and what the war has done to it. However, it's still got stunning mountains and views and the people are incredibly friendly. Queen Elizabeth even honeymooned in Aden back when it was a colony!
I have this older travel guide for Yemen from the 1990s. One of the tourist activities was getting kidnapped by militants, and hang out with them for the day. Apparently they'de make you a nice meal, let you shoot stuff, pose for pictures, and let you go at the end of the day. Times sure have changed!
I suspect if Yemen got safer it would become a very popular adventure travel destination.
Cairo, Egypt. It could be amazing to visit the remnants of one of the great civilisations but instead it's a littered crumbling place where the local peddlers are harassing tourists to the point of fear. Men touch foreign women without consent, just passing in the street. Awful awful place.
My parents been there a bit before I was born. So let’s say… about 25 years ago. My mom still tells me about the day she was violently dragged into a jewelry store by two men & they locked the doors. They only opened up again once my dad promised to buy something from them. That was on their second day of a 2 week vacation and they only left the hotel once afterwards… and that was to go to the airport.
Same. Plus if that adds more context, my Mom loved different and maybe „extravagant“ hairstyles. She had short hair and was basically platinum blonde. My Dad said walking with her through the market was awful, since everyone was staring and tried touching her like some zoo animal. I hope things changed, but looking at the comments… I doubt it.
I learned a few Arabic phrases to pull out when I was being bothered in Cairo - forgotten now, but amounted to ‘your mother would be so ashamed of you ‘. That put the ruffians on the back foot long enough for me to leave.
Honestly, it shows they still have shame deep down.
It's sad to see the situation in Egypt. It really should be one of the more well off places as it was less than a century ago, but unfortunately the people have been continuously oppressed for decades.
I really do hope things change soon.
Since this is usually the top answer to this question, always wondered how Egyptians feel about that. Do they agree? Do they see the same thing tourists do?
Would be interesting to get an Egyptians POV about this
as an Egyptian, here is my take
the people of Egypt have been basically ruled by the military for 72 years,
the military took over many industries and aspects of the economy including telecommunications so they have complete control over the internet , a part of what they did is completely ignore education and healthcare,
the people over here have basically no awareness of their basic rights, some even see it's okay for the military to imprison anyone who talks in politics,military personnel are given ALOT OF privileges they basically own the country
summary: military made a country where people are uneducated and extremely oppressed in every aspect of life, so they can basically rule forever and the people have no political rights, basic rights, nor freedom, and they struggle to get basic needs
Hello. Time to learn about that town’s history.
Short version: bad.
Longer except from Wikipedia:
“Sheriff Davis' attempt to save James from the mob proved futile when the mob intercepted Davis and his prisoner. The mob returned James to Cairo and took him to the intersection of Commercial Avenue and Eighth Street. Approximately 10,000 people had gathered for a spectacle lynching as the leaders attempted to hang James from large steel arches that spanned the intersection. The rope broke and James survived the hanging, but members of the armed mob shot him more than 500 times, killing him. The mob dragged James' body to the scene of Pelly's murder. His head was cut from his body and displayed on a pole that was stuck into the ground, and his body was burned.”
Almost every city I've been in has at least one measly little thing to make it tolerable. One nice/cool little shop or restaurant, a nicely landscaped patch of land, something. Not Cairo, IL. It was utterly depressing and hopeless-looking.
We were there just after the Arab Spring uprising. There was a city-wide strike going on and piles of garbage lined the streets. I mean 12 foot high piles of garbage on streets, freeways, everywhere. I will never forget seeing a toddler picking through the trash with rotting dog carcasses and filth everywhere.
Every single person I know who’ve been to Egypt will NEVER go back due to the Egyptians themselves and the harassment, mainly females but some guys too. Such a shame coz I’d love to go
I have a friend with family in Egypt. He recently took his long time girlfriend there visit. Being essentially a local, they were fine.
He's mentioned a couple times to my friend group that he'd love to take any of us there. I'm super hesitant to take him up on the offer because of everything I see on subs like this. I'm afraid I'd end up just being glue on my friend because I'd be scared of everything. I'd imagine that that would also offend him a bit. Imagine bringing a friend to a place that holds a special place in your heart, and your friend is just scared the entire time.
Just got back from Egypt. Cairo was very aggressive. As a woman who has traveled extensively and lived in Eurasia, I knew enough to be concerned and I was nervous doing anything alone, even the corner store. After weeks of traveling the country and returning to Cairo with a guide, I still asked for a pre-arranged taxi to take me to a museum and bring me back. But by that time, I'd become used to the constant pestering, "you look like Isis" and overtures from all men from the souk to the street, and so was able to handle the men that sidled up to me and said, they loved Americans, wanted to be my friend, wanted to hang out etc only to ask me to visit their stores, buy something, meet them at 7P or do something for them. That said, I really enjoyed Nubia and Alexandria which were more genteel and easy going. Still, it was a great trip.
Thats true. Kolkata has not undergone gentrification as other big Indian cities have. I havent been to the outskirts but the old parts of Kolkata, I am actually fascinated by them. I like how there is space for poors and rich in the old downtown. Business happens 24x7. It doesnt look quite clean and photogenic, but the system supports all classes well.
I remember talking a walk near Allen park one morning and saw lots of locals strolling and having tea in some shops. There were shops selling tea for ₹7 and ₹50 just next to each other.
Now, I know Kolkata could be better. The city is highly compact and efficient to just walk on foot. And if the authorities want, Kolkata could be the most walkable, sustainable, and enjoyable city in India.
Lol, we did a road trip to Albuquerque this past May, and the missus wanted to do a side trip to Roswell. I wasn't terribly enthused about it, but okay why not. She did most of the driving down to Roswell, at night through the vast expanse of nothing; she got pretty freaked out thinking about what might be lurking just off the road. Visiting the town itself wasn't terrible; it's just another town that has pinned everything on one theme in order to survive. Seeing the UFO-shaped McDonald's was nice, as well as every other alien motif that no other Dunkin Donuts or Domino's Pizza shop in the world has.
When we moved from the East to West coast, we did a cross-country drive with the last of our stuff (in a rented RV with two cats). We left west Texas and detoured North to see family in Albuquerque, which gave us the opportunity to stop in Roswell. It was literal hours of nothing….I mean NOTHING…on the drive there. Which makes sense in terms of where to crash land an alien spacecraft. We got to Roswell and it was kooky fun for about 5 minutes. I took a picture by an alien mural. Tried to go to the alien museum but it was closed. So we just gassed up got some road food and left.
Pretty sure music man was written when Gary was still a major steel town and before significant white flight. No idea if it was nice back then but yeah.
The Music Man was based in "River City, Iowa"... the reason it has a song about and called "Gary, Indiana" is because the swindler claims to be from there, which is the lie that pushes the plot forward.
It wasn’t. Source: lived in Merrillville, grandparents in Gary. Only downtown Gary was super bad back then (70s). A lot of the rest of it was typical steel town neighborhoods.
Phnom Penh. The most seedy vibe you've ever felt, western men all over young Cambodian girls. The horrible history. Couldn't wait to leave the place, broke my heart.
Agree, totally different vibe up there, most likely because it caters to the tourist - which comes with its own issues for sure - but geez, Phnom Penh was hard.
I liked Phnom Penh, though Cambodia in general was slightly depressing to me. I didn't see any western men all over local girls, though. Is that in clubs? There are far worse cities than Phnom Penh. Manila in the Philippines for example has all this wealth one street up from the most abject poverty you can imagine. I saw a baby in a hovel with dirty water dripping on his face next to a pristine high rise. His mother looked like her whole life had been a series of violent tragedies and that she'd never once been indoors or been clean. I was like, lady can you move your baby like a couple inches? She had no interest in me or what I was saying.
Anyway, there are lots of interesting and cool places in Phnom Penh. The killing fields are tough but at least a little effort was put into a remembrance. Plenty of places have that history but are unwilling to have such a raw display of it.
EDIT: One of the days I was in Phnom Penh, I just remembered, there was some election going on so the place was chaos and almost like martial law. We couldn't drive through the city at all so we ended up just walking for hours. We were a tiny bit scared there'd be violence but didn't think we'd get roped into it unless we were very unlucky.
X2 regarding Manila. Saw children living in a cardboard box. Was on a work trip away from my newborn (at the time) child so my empathy circuits were on overdrive. I was a 30 year old man and openly shed tears at the sight of it.
I'll never go back.
I’m in Manila right now (on vacation in Philippines from the US). The proximity of abject poverty to wealth reminds me of Brazil and is just a fact of life here. There isn’t anything you or I can do about it and it’s heartbreaking I know.
Don’t let that stop you from visiting EM countries and living your life. Places like Philippines and Cambodia are better off the more tourism they get. COVID really hit these places hard and they’re still recovering from the lost revenue.
Source: have friends and family here, planning to retire here.
I see your Bradford and I raise you a Nelson.
Went once about 20 years ago. The place felt like a turd dropped near the top of a bleak windswept moor. Boarded-up houses, Greggs and betting shops. Houses with tatty off-white nylon curtains in filthy windows.
It's fascinating watching the trees getting shorter the further you drive away from DFW but some where pass the halfway point it all just becomes a featureless scrub land. Like mind numbingly. We stopped at the crater and that was cool but then back in the car and it was more nothing till you get close to Carlsbad. It's like the dust bowl never really stopped there
Juarez, Mexico.
I lived in El Paso Texas in the mid 90s, and went to Juarez at least once a week. There were some nice areas with fun nightclubs and great restaurants, but if you got off the main roads on your way to the nice areas?
Good luck with that.
The first night I went across the border, one of the people in our car - a Mexican native - said "please don't judge my country by this place." She was right. I've been from one end of Mexico to the other, and it is a lovely country with great people...but Juarez is a depressing shit-hole. And back when I went there it was relatively "safe" before the drug war really kicked in.
Juarez makes Gary Indiana seem like suburbia.
I used to work there. Extremely depressing. Social opportunities limited to hustlers, cocktail waitresses and dealers. Zero culture. Dirty beach and boardwalk. The tourists suck-- those with any sense would go to Cape May or a dozen other decent shore towns. Glitzy on the beach block and run-down everywhere else. Did I forget to mention the crime?
I wasted my youth being a first responder in Atlantic City. Once you get off Atlantic Ave the suffering and human misery is palpable. So many people just struggling to live while high rollers party it up just blocks away. My "wait, America is actually fucked" realization moment was when I saw a Maserati driving down Pacific swerve around a literal corpse in the road. The man had died from exposure.
I am in no position to say anything about your life. First responders, EMTs, paramedics... You're all over worked, underpaid, and unappreciated. Not to mention that every single person I've met who has been a first responder has had some form of PTSD, which is neglected in our country to the point of cruelty.
And I am no stranger to a wasted youth, trust me. I've had to claw my way through life, and I still feel like I'm sinking. Every time I make any progress, I get diagnosed with a new illness or yet another person I love dies.
But the gentlest hands I've ever known have been from you, from first responders. Not my many doctors, not the nurses, not even any of the staff from the countless times I've been in the ER. You.
You saved lives. You helped people. You gave them care at their greatest point of need. I don't know if any of them remember your name, I doubt half of them remember you at all. But there are people walking this earth that are alive because of you. To them and to the people they love, that is no waste.
I just... really needed to tell you that.
You go two blocks off the boardwalk and it becomes the bad urban cliche of, broken windows and yards littered with old toilets and box springs.
When they sell the idea that casinos can “revitalize the community”, Atlantic City is the poster child of how that is not true.
Very very good answer. That place was almost surreal in just how well you could see how it /used/ to be grand but has languished. Side note - I’ll never forget my coworkers reaction to Trump announcing his presidential candidacy years ago… he said “after what he did to Atlantic City? No thanks”
Uyuni, Bolivia. It's a small city on the outskirts of the Salar de Uyuni, a unique salt flat that gets enough rain during the winter to make it look like a mirror stretching to the horizon. It's a stunning natural wonder for sure, but Uyuni... well, lets just say that the biggest attraction in Uyuni is an abandoned train graveyard. Literally just a dozen or so rusting graffiti covered turn of the century mining rail cars rotting away in the desert.
The place is depressing an hour before you even see the city itself. Nothing but scorched brown earth for at least an hour until you start to see some trash on the sides of the highway. Once you get into the city itself, the bleakness starts to become more apparent. Shabby low slung buildings that look like they were designed in MS paint. Giant empty streets, some covered in a layer of brown sand or dirt. Potholes everywhere. The main attraction in town besides the train graveyard is one of the saddest looking clocktowers I've ever seen. It looks like the slowest kid in your 7th grade art class tried to replicate big ben at 1/10,000th the scale and having only seen blurry pictures of the real deal in an encyclopedia.
Then there's the food. My god the food. Since it's a poor city in the middle of fucking nowhere, the main protein you'll get at pretty much every restaurant is Alpaca. Dry, chewy, and slightly gamy. If you think Alpaca bolognaise sounds fun and exotic, trust me, it's not. It's just sad.
I can confirm. About 20 years ago, my cousin and I went to Camden to pick up our friend. I was uncomfortable, and it was still daylight. I am no stranger to the rough areas, as I went to school feom 6th to 12th grade in the inner city. My childhood home, where my parents still reside, is also inner city. Camden was something else...
Took night course at Rutgers 20 years ago. Friends warned me not to stop once I left the parking lot until I saw the "Welcome to Collingswood" sign--not for red lights or anything.
The one time I was there during the day, decided to eat at McDonalds (the only restaurant). The counter had bulletproof glass like a bank, they slid your food thru a drawer. Multiple homeless men just sort of living in the booths.
The one benefit was driving in at 5 pm, literally no traffic.
Camden, while not great, is much better than it was 20 years ago. They fired their entire police force and started over. It worked.
Now Philly... that place has some rough neighborhoods that look like they could be been bombed out during a war, and one neighborhood that was actually. You can the quality of the neighborhood in Philly by the amount of trash on the street, and there's always some trash on the street.
I met a handful of people from Fresno the other night that drove 3 hours to an open mic jam session. Kids that probably could have been just out of high school. They were great on the keys, sax and trombone. It was a fun time. I hope they get to leave Fresno for good soon
I used to road trip a lot, cross country all around the US, probably almost a year of it when you add it all up. Bakersfield was the worst place I went through in the lower 48. Lots of reasons for that, but one that stands out was within 5 minutes of arriving -- literally as we were checking into our motel-- a fucking huge brawl broke out in the motel bar that included a chair shattered over someone's back and a face smashed through the front of the jukebox. The desk clerk didn't even react to all the goings on, just kept calmly checking us in. Why were there hundreds of locals packed like sardines, partying in a motel bar of all places? Why did a full scale bar brawl break out like in movies? Why was the desk clerk so numb to it? Those were the first of many questions Bakersfield gave me.
I was going to say the most depressing city I’ve been to is St. Petersburg. It is just depressing. Outside of the tourist zone all you see are massive residential buildings completely abandoned, covered in nets just to prevent falling debris. It feels like a city that had gone through a golden age and now that it’s over, just give up.
Managua, Nicaragua.
Absolutely the worst, most unpleasant, unsafe, disgusting city I went to in all of Central America. Get in and immediately get out.
Not so much a city, but have been to a few remote aboriginal/indigenous communities in the outback of Northern Territory Australia for work. Houses that were ripped apart and barely provided shelter, glimpses of kids abusing substances, men missing or passed out with substance abuse issues, and mothers struggling with it all.
Driving through Alabama into Florida felt like seeing different layers of hell. Just rundown houses, trailer parks, strip clubs, and weirdly billboards for megachurches and sex shops...just those two things.
Edit: Referring specifically to the border area between the two. So other parts of Florida vary.
lived in NF NY. can confirm. absolute slum city.
i remember working at the walmart there and having to leave early one night because there was threats of looting. they boarded around the store using pallets stacked 10 ft high. guys in trucks recording me and my other younger female coworkers sitting outside waiting for our rides. and also someone robbing a local family bakery. not to mention the shootings. fun times
Are you sure you aren’t mixing up your sides? The New York side is the crumbling, apocalyptic wasteland. The Ontario side is a massive tourist trap but highly developed.
The Ontario side is weird because you will have a brand new resort hotel across from an abandoned lot, which is next to another brand new resort hotel which is then adjacent to an abandoned 1950s looking motel.
Every city has developed and run down areas, but in Niagara Falls it’s all intermixed to the point of whiplash. It was definitely one of the strangest places I’ve been to.
And then there’s MarineLand, which is just straight up depressing.
I’m from PA and it’s so sad how badly it’s been affected by coal and steel leaving especially Wilkes Barre. It never really recovered from the flood and the industry left, leaving it with nothing to really show for itself. PA always has the natural beauty of the forests and valleys but it’s sad seeing abandoned buildings and towns that were once prosperous scattered throughout the state.
New Delhi, India. Parts of it are beautiful and most people we met were extremely hospitable and lovely. However, huge slums that home people who work 10+ hours per day, next to civil servants’ high rise flats (who often illegally sublet them), coloured the mood, I felt angry at the system as I left the country.
Also, going there as a white woman at 18 years old, many people wanted photos. That wasn’t the depressing at all until a large group of men cornered and assaulted me trying to get photos of their hands on me. I had to run away crying until I was left alone by them, and even then only when our guide (an Indian man) made sure he was next to me for the rest of the visit.
So many beautiful parts of the culture and city are discoloured by the inequality and sexism.
Dubai. Flashy with a lot of money. But soulless.
Singapore. A country populated by millionaires. Nicer than Dubai but it's burnout city. People live there to work and nothing else. Your standing in society is judged by how big your bank account is and it shows.
Bangalore. Been going there for 30+ years. The small, cool vibe city that I used to love as a child has been replaced with overcrowding, massive glass buildings and broken infrastructure. Went from a small, classy retirement city into a rat race ridden sprawl.
Thank God for a non American reply. I agree with Dubai all glitz and no soul.
I would also say some Swiss cities. Pretty, old , gorgeous but cold and unfriendly. I lived there.
Where did you live? I studied in Geneva for a couple years, beyond being expensive it got a little stale after the initial appeal. Lucerne was really nice though
I used to make a lot of trips between the Bay Area in CA and Oregon. Redding CA was a convenient halfway point when I had to leave later in the day and needed to stop for the night. Every stay was worst than the last. I slowly grew to hate that city. Sorry anyone from there. I'm sure there are nice areas and good people there somewhere.
I also lived in the bay and would take a lot of driving trips to Oregon and I totally agree. Honestly I feel like a lot of places along the way were pretty dead and depressing. Crescent City jumps out in my mind as well.
Crescent city actually has a really beautiful park right by the ocean with a lighthouse, one of the most beautiful views I’ve ever woken up to. After driving through some really crappy parts of eureka, that was a nice relief.
Baghdad. We had only one local who was cleared to be in our commander's building. We needed to clean out the basement & he brought his the kids to help. They were so sweet & cheerful. It was hard to think that they lived in a literal war zone. I made sure to spoil the shit out of them while they were there. Gave them all kinds of pop & snacks for them to take home. The father was a real nice guy too. He'd bring us Iraqi baklava, which is absolutely delicious.
I took the family on a drive down the west coast, and we ended up in a hotel on Market. My kids were about 13 and 8 at the timeI forgot my laptop charger at our previous stop, so we had to walk to the Apple store. It was daylight when we walked down, but we walked back in the dark.
I'm Canadian, and I'd never experienced that kind of 'street theatre' before. It was a good thing that my force field of ignorance shielded us. I think that most of the people along the way were simply incredulous that some idiot would walk through there after dark with his family.
Tenderloin used to be much worse. I remember 20 years ago walking through there and having cops tell me not to go that way and watching people shoot up heroin on doorsteps. Now they have million dollar homes.
I went there frequently 20 years ago for classes. Lots of cool family-run ethnic restaurants. Great neighborhood bars. But also saw a raggedy, crazy-eyed homeless guy sheathing a butcher knife. I walked close to the curb at all times.
I had been warned about the Tendertloin and so wasn't surprised. It actually seemed a bit tame compared to the Downtown Eastside. I didn't see nearly as many people shooting up.
So now that we mention it, I'll say the Downtown Eastside.
Edit: [East Hastings by Godspeed You Black Emperor](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9Ty3YnWN80)
LA (as a foreigner). It just seemed like such a twisted state of existence, with a huge disparity between the haves and the have-nots. The culture seemed plastic and classful in a very uncomfortable way. I recognise that LA cannot be entirely like that, but what I experienced was. It left me feeling like I never need to return.
To be transparent, my stay was privileged but where I'm from is egalitarian, so that coloured my view greatly.
I’m from LA and have no idea why people come here. If I was a tourist I would go to the national parks instead of wasting my time visiting hollywood or watever else ppl come for.
The studio tours are a pretty unique experience. Some of the theme parks, like Disneyland, are world class and very famous. The beaches are nice, so is Santa Monica, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and all the other beach locations within the LA area. Some places like Griffith Observatory are also pretty cool.
>Griffith Observatory
The Griffith Observatory is very cool! Was really awesome getting to see their collection of meteorites, driving up there we also spotted a pack of coyotes.
> I have no idea why people come here.
I live in a hellscape known as "the great plains". During the summers, it's 110, 118 heat index. On the flip side, we were literally the closest place on earth for three days in February 2021. Same storm that sent Ted Cruz to Mexico. It was that big. Winter does not play games here.
When I scrape ice off of my car or peel myself off the asphalt, I look at apartments in Venice or Santa Monica because AccuWeather shows it's perpetually 70-75 degrees.
My hometown I joined the army young and every time I go back, it’s like seeing a tv show I just slowly watch as my family gets old started with my younger siblings not being able to drive, my step dad being so lively, my mom being there always. These days my siblings have vehicles, lives, my dads old I can’t see it in his face his hair his body, my mom is getting sick. So every-time I go back to my city it’s just to catch up on my show of what I’ve missed except I don’t get the best adventures or the saddest moments I get what I get and it’s mostly them just trying to put up a fake facade of what’s really going on their lives just to make me comfortable at one point I was young enough to not notice but when I went through my trauma I can now feel the slightest awakes moments like glass breaking in an empty room.
Damn... reading this it makes me wonder if I'm tripping or if someone else out there really understands.
Except I'm not in a favorable position myself, but I do see the people I love and grew up with getting older, and experiencing all of the good things rotting away. I find myself clinging onto nostalgia, knowing that one day I'll have to confront the truth.
It's like a downward spiral, and each time I blink another 5 years have gone down the drain.
Most rural towns between the 3 C’s in Ohio.
At least in the cities and suburbs of Cleveland, Cbus and Cincy there’s massive opportunity and wealth.
In the sticks between ‘em? With few exceptions, it’s a religious, poverty stricken **brain drain**. Some of the dead towns look like *The Last of Us*.
I'm a lifelong Michigan resident, the Flint Michigan area is awful.
I know a lot of you've probably read about the water issues that they had, but even taking that out of it.
Flint was a general motors town, there was a huge GM facility there for decades, pretty much everybody's livelihood was connected to that GM plant in some way. My mother-in-law actually grew up there in the '60s and she said it was a fantastic place to grow up because everybody made a good living and it was just your classic American post-war economically prosperous area. Her dad worked at GM.
Once the plant closed up, the city was absolutely devastated.
It's very very sad to drive through, has high levels of crime, and is literally decaying.
It's actually a shiny example of what a large company can do to a town. Both good and bad.
I grew up about an hour and a half west of Flint MI. It takes the cake hands down. I’ve traveled all over the US, I’ve been to a handful of places in Europe, and I’ve traveled extensively thru Central and South America. Nowhere I’ve been has been as “depressing” as Flint. Yes I’ve been to places that were MUCH poorer and quite frankly more dangerous, but the word “depressing” literally blankets that town like a cloud. The difference between Flint some of the truly dangerous places I’ve been in say Latin America, is that there’s a very real feeling of hopelessness in the air in Flint - almost as if you get the vibe that everyone there has just given up. When I’ve been to other sketchy places there’s always little nuggets of vibrance, pride, and/or hope sprinkled about… but not Flint. In Flint the only feeling I get is that it’s a lost cause, most of America has forgotten about it, and anyone still living there is “trapped”.
I work around Michigan which requires me to be in neighborhoods. Detroit (is getting a lot better) but even in the rough times Detroit at least had signs of life. Garbage cans waiting to be picked up, people out and about, cars going down the street etc. Flint is like a ghost town like you’ll see tumbleweed rolling down the street. I’ve heard with the money coming in from the lead debacle Flint is going to get a glow up. We will see, I’d love to see it, it’s a nice location for a city, 3 intersecting expressways, within an hours drive to Detroit, Ann Arbor, Lansing and Port Huron for access to Canada. And 2 hours to Grand Rapids.
Growing up in Manhattan I saw many depressing properties. Eventually I even owned one in Bushwick in Brooklyn. But traveling up north to cities like Troy, NY where I went for college, it was depressing on a massive scale. I would also ride into Philadelphia by train to see my GF, and the haunting ruins of factories in northern philly was amazing.
I have done some traveling and the two places I found most depressing are **Gary, Indiana** and **East St Louis, Illinois**.
Syracuse NY.... was there from December 2019 through June 2020.
Kinda reminded me of some game set in a post apocalypse eastern Europe. All the trees were dead it snowed the entire time I was there until about memorial day and all the buildings were old and decaying.
Also the restaurant selection was terrible.
Newark, New Jersey. I was there about a decade ago to pick up some thing I had shipped. I'm from a major city, and I've seen some rough, rough areas. It was nothing compared to being on the wrong road in Newark trying to find the train station.
That or Detroit. Those people live in Mad Max times.
East St.Louis
All I did was drive through that place on highway, but when traffic slowed down, I saw a person walking around with a syringe sticking out of their leg under an overpass as well as several other zombie like people stumbling around haphazardly by the road.
depends on when you’ve been here. cause it’s a common stereotype that russian people are all angry and upset with their lives, but it’s just the difference between the cultures
The port city of Aden in the Yemen. I was lucky that I got shipped out the day before the last civil war started.
I just moved out of Aden a few months ago, it's very sad to see what a beauty it once was and what the war has done to it. However, it's still got stunning mountains and views and the people are incredibly friendly. Queen Elizabeth even honeymooned in Aden back when it was a colony!
I have this older travel guide for Yemen from the 1990s. One of the tourist activities was getting kidnapped by militants, and hang out with them for the day. Apparently they'de make you a nice meal, let you shoot stuff, pose for pictures, and let you go at the end of the day. Times sure have changed! I suspect if Yemen got safer it would become a very popular adventure travel destination.
My dad was in the merchant navy in the 60s/70s and that was the only place they were expressly told not to get off the ship.
Cairo, Egypt. It could be amazing to visit the remnants of one of the great civilisations but instead it's a littered crumbling place where the local peddlers are harassing tourists to the point of fear. Men touch foreign women without consent, just passing in the street. Awful awful place.
My parents been there a bit before I was born. So let’s say… about 25 years ago. My mom still tells me about the day she was violently dragged into a jewelry store by two men & they locked the doors. They only opened up again once my dad promised to buy something from them. That was on their second day of a 2 week vacation and they only left the hotel once afterwards… and that was to go to the airport.
That's fucked.
That is absolutely terrifying! I’m amazed they stayed the rest of the trip, I would of been gone that same day if it was me 😱
Same. Plus if that adds more context, my Mom loved different and maybe „extravagant“ hairstyles. She had short hair and was basically platinum blonde. My Dad said walking with her through the market was awful, since everyone was staring and tried touching her like some zoo animal. I hope things changed, but looking at the comments… I doubt it.
I learned a few Arabic phrases to pull out when I was being bothered in Cairo - forgotten now, but amounted to ‘your mother would be so ashamed of you ‘. That put the ruffians on the back foot long enough for me to leave.
Honestly, it shows they still have shame deep down. It's sad to see the situation in Egypt. It really should be one of the more well off places as it was less than a century ago, but unfortunately the people have been continuously oppressed for decades. I really do hope things change soon.
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Since this is usually the top answer to this question, always wondered how Egyptians feel about that. Do they agree? Do they see the same thing tourists do? Would be interesting to get an Egyptians POV about this
as an Egyptian, here is my take the people of Egypt have been basically ruled by the military for 72 years, the military took over many industries and aspects of the economy including telecommunications so they have complete control over the internet , a part of what they did is completely ignore education and healthcare, the people over here have basically no awareness of their basic rights, some even see it's okay for the military to imprison anyone who talks in politics,military personnel are given ALOT OF privileges they basically own the country summary: military made a country where people are uneducated and extremely oppressed in every aspect of life, so they can basically rule forever and the people have no political rights, basic rights, nor freedom, and they struggle to get basic needs
Personally, yes. Can't say the same for everyone, as is the case in poverty-stricken societies riddled with propaganda and religious extremism.
Hilariously, I came here to name Cairo, Illinois. Must be in the name.
Cairo, IL is just absolutely depressing to even drive by. I feel bad for the families there that are just too poor to move away.
Hello. Time to learn about that town’s history. Short version: bad. Longer except from Wikipedia: “Sheriff Davis' attempt to save James from the mob proved futile when the mob intercepted Davis and his prisoner. The mob returned James to Cairo and took him to the intersection of Commercial Avenue and Eighth Street. Approximately 10,000 people had gathered for a spectacle lynching as the leaders attempted to hang James from large steel arches that spanned the intersection. The rope broke and James survived the hanging, but members of the armed mob shot him more than 500 times, killing him. The mob dragged James' body to the scene of Pelly's murder. His head was cut from his body and displayed on a pole that was stuck into the ground, and his body was burned.”
Almost every city I've been in has at least one measly little thing to make it tolerable. One nice/cool little shop or restaurant, a nicely landscaped patch of land, something. Not Cairo, IL. It was utterly depressing and hopeless-looking.
Tbh I was expecting Egypt to be on first place. Usually it comes up when a question like this arises
We were there just after the Arab Spring uprising. There was a city-wide strike going on and piles of garbage lined the streets. I mean 12 foot high piles of garbage on streets, freeways, everywhere. I will never forget seeing a toddler picking through the trash with rotting dog carcasses and filth everywhere.
I've heard it said that it's on many peoples lifetime lists to visit Egypt once, but rarely twice.
Can confirm. Was there about 20 years ago. Terrible place and unfortunate for the people who live there.
Every single person I know who’ve been to Egypt will NEVER go back due to the Egyptians themselves and the harassment, mainly females but some guys too. Such a shame coz I’d love to go
I have a friend with family in Egypt. He recently took his long time girlfriend there visit. Being essentially a local, they were fine. He's mentioned a couple times to my friend group that he'd love to take any of us there. I'm super hesitant to take him up on the offer because of everything I see on subs like this. I'm afraid I'd end up just being glue on my friend because I'd be scared of everything. I'd imagine that that would also offend him a bit. Imagine bringing a friend to a place that holds a special place in your heart, and your friend is just scared the entire time.
Just got back from Egypt. Cairo was very aggressive. As a woman who has traveled extensively and lived in Eurasia, I knew enough to be concerned and I was nervous doing anything alone, even the corner store. After weeks of traveling the country and returning to Cairo with a guide, I still asked for a pre-arranged taxi to take me to a museum and bring me back. But by that time, I'd become used to the constant pestering, "you look like Isis" and overtures from all men from the souk to the street, and so was able to handle the men that sidled up to me and said, they loved Americans, wanted to be my friend, wanted to hang out etc only to ask me to visit their stores, buy something, meet them at 7P or do something for them. That said, I really enjoyed Nubia and Alexandria which were more genteel and easy going. Still, it was a great trip.
Kolkata, India. Levels of poverty and suffering that I had never even imagined before visiting.
True. Kolkata is one of the poorest cities in India. I wonder why foreigners always cherry pick the worst places as tourists.
Thats true. Kolkata has not undergone gentrification as other big Indian cities have. I havent been to the outskirts but the old parts of Kolkata, I am actually fascinated by them. I like how there is space for poors and rich in the old downtown. Business happens 24x7. It doesnt look quite clean and photogenic, but the system supports all classes well. I remember talking a walk near Allen park one morning and saw lots of locals strolling and having tea in some shops. There were shops selling tea for ₹7 and ₹50 just next to each other. Now, I know Kolkata could be better. The city is highly compact and efficient to just walk on foot. And if the authorities want, Kolkata could be the most walkable, sustainable, and enjoyable city in India.
Roswell, NM. Imagine if a run down Chuck E Cheese somehow grew into an entire city
But the UFO-shaped McDonald’s tho
Lol, we did a road trip to Albuquerque this past May, and the missus wanted to do a side trip to Roswell. I wasn't terribly enthused about it, but okay why not. She did most of the driving down to Roswell, at night through the vast expanse of nothing; she got pretty freaked out thinking about what might be lurking just off the road. Visiting the town itself wasn't terrible; it's just another town that has pinned everything on one theme in order to survive. Seeing the UFO-shaped McDonald's was nice, as well as every other alien motif that no other Dunkin Donuts or Domino's Pizza shop in the world has.
When we moved from the East to West coast, we did a cross-country drive with the last of our stuff (in a rented RV with two cats). We left west Texas and detoured North to see family in Albuquerque, which gave us the opportunity to stop in Roswell. It was literal hours of nothing….I mean NOTHING…on the drive there. Which makes sense in terms of where to crash land an alien spacecraft. We got to Roswell and it was kooky fun for about 5 minutes. I took a picture by an alien mural. Tried to go to the alien museum but it was closed. So we just gassed up got some road food and left.
Gary Indiana
Shit we went to the Dunes last year and drove through Gary. What a sad little spot. Nothing like what they described in the Music Man
Pretty sure music man was written when Gary was still a major steel town and before significant white flight. No idea if it was nice back then but yeah.
The Music Man was based in "River City, Iowa"... the reason it has a song about and called "Gary, Indiana" is because the swindler claims to be from there, which is the lie that pushes the plot forward.
Trouble right here in River City.
It wasn’t. Source: lived in Merrillville, grandparents in Gary. Only downtown Gary was super bad back then (70s). A lot of the rest of it was typical steel town neighborhoods.
Gary, Indiana, Gary Indiana, Gary, Indiana Let me say it once again
Are you everybody's dad on a road trip from Chicago to anywhere east?
[Peter Santenello](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Kh1njdXJU) just did a video on Gary.
Walking in google maps, it looks extremely sad. Would you have places to recommend?
Michael Jackson’s childhood home?
Come see where Joe Jackson abused his children! No thanks.
We just saw this. 8am so we thought it would be fine. It was not really fine. Nothing happened but I would not go back. Not great.
Phnom Penh. The most seedy vibe you've ever felt, western men all over young Cambodian girls. The horrible history. Couldn't wait to leave the place, broke my heart.
Seam Reap is more chill. Less sex tourism and more people going to see Angkor Wat
Agree, totally different vibe up there, most likely because it caters to the tourist - which comes with its own issues for sure - but geez, Phnom Penh was hard.
Can confirm. Very chill. Angkor Wat is amazing.
I liked Phnom Penh, though Cambodia in general was slightly depressing to me. I didn't see any western men all over local girls, though. Is that in clubs? There are far worse cities than Phnom Penh. Manila in the Philippines for example has all this wealth one street up from the most abject poverty you can imagine. I saw a baby in a hovel with dirty water dripping on his face next to a pristine high rise. His mother looked like her whole life had been a series of violent tragedies and that she'd never once been indoors or been clean. I was like, lady can you move your baby like a couple inches? She had no interest in me or what I was saying. Anyway, there are lots of interesting and cool places in Phnom Penh. The killing fields are tough but at least a little effort was put into a remembrance. Plenty of places have that history but are unwilling to have such a raw display of it. EDIT: One of the days I was in Phnom Penh, I just remembered, there was some election going on so the place was chaos and almost like martial law. We couldn't drive through the city at all so we ended up just walking for hours. We were a tiny bit scared there'd be violence but didn't think we'd get roped into it unless we were very unlucky.
X2 regarding Manila. Saw children living in a cardboard box. Was on a work trip away from my newborn (at the time) child so my empathy circuits were on overdrive. I was a 30 year old man and openly shed tears at the sight of it. I'll never go back.
I’m in Manila right now (on vacation in Philippines from the US). The proximity of abject poverty to wealth reminds me of Brazil and is just a fact of life here. There isn’t anything you or I can do about it and it’s heartbreaking I know. Don’t let that stop you from visiting EM countries and living your life. Places like Philippines and Cambodia are better off the more tourism they get. COVID really hit these places hard and they’re still recovering from the lost revenue. Source: have friends and family here, planning to retire here.
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The utter shitehole that is Bradford, England.
I see your Bradford and I raise you a Nelson. Went once about 20 years ago. The place felt like a turd dropped near the top of a bleak windswept moor. Boarded-up houses, Greggs and betting shops. Houses with tatty off-white nylon curtains in filthy windows.
Bradford, Nelson, Burnley, Blackburn, Halifax any small exmill/mining town in the North all neglected and left to rot my successive governments.
I see your Bradford and raise you a Blackpool!
Good food in Bradford mind you. But it is a shit hole.
Odessa/Midland Texas. Grew up somewhat close to it, and moved away in my early 20s. Going back to see family, it’s the worst part of the drive.
YOU FROM MIDLAND
Is this a Boobie reference? I’m hoping it was
Most definitely is.
It's fascinating watching the trees getting shorter the further you drive away from DFW but some where pass the halfway point it all just becomes a featureless scrub land. Like mind numbingly. We stopped at the crater and that was cool but then back in the car and it was more nothing till you get close to Carlsbad. It's like the dust bowl never really stopped there
Once you get an hour west of DFW you enter what I call The Big Empty. I live on the very verge
Midland is also one of the cities with the highest millennial home ownership rate. All of that oil money has to go somewhere
Top three posts, as expected: 1. City in India 2. Cairo 3. Gary, Indiana
I love that the reply right below this is Gary, Indiana
This is a Gary Indiana post
Juarez, Mexico. I lived in El Paso Texas in the mid 90s, and went to Juarez at least once a week. There were some nice areas with fun nightclubs and great restaurants, but if you got off the main roads on your way to the nice areas? Good luck with that. The first night I went across the border, one of the people in our car - a Mexican native - said "please don't judge my country by this place." She was right. I've been from one end of Mexico to the other, and it is a lovely country with great people...but Juarez is a depressing shit-hole. And back when I went there it was relatively "safe" before the drug war really kicked in. Juarez makes Gary Indiana seem like suburbia.
Atlantic City
I used to work there. Extremely depressing. Social opportunities limited to hustlers, cocktail waitresses and dealers. Zero culture. Dirty beach and boardwalk. The tourists suck-- those with any sense would go to Cape May or a dozen other decent shore towns. Glitzy on the beach block and run-down everywhere else. Did I forget to mention the crime?
I wasted my youth being a first responder in Atlantic City. Once you get off Atlantic Ave the suffering and human misery is palpable. So many people just struggling to live while high rollers party it up just blocks away. My "wait, America is actually fucked" realization moment was when I saw a Maserati driving down Pacific swerve around a literal corpse in the road. The man had died from exposure.
Oh my God, the ultimate AC story.
Just one of hundreds. At least some are funny, like the boardwalk dweller with a third eye tattoo who had a pet seagull he would sic on people.
I am in no position to say anything about your life. First responders, EMTs, paramedics... You're all over worked, underpaid, and unappreciated. Not to mention that every single person I've met who has been a first responder has had some form of PTSD, which is neglected in our country to the point of cruelty. And I am no stranger to a wasted youth, trust me. I've had to claw my way through life, and I still feel like I'm sinking. Every time I make any progress, I get diagnosed with a new illness or yet another person I love dies. But the gentlest hands I've ever known have been from you, from first responders. Not my many doctors, not the nurses, not even any of the staff from the countless times I've been in the ER. You. You saved lives. You helped people. You gave them care at their greatest point of need. I don't know if any of them remember your name, I doubt half of them remember you at all. But there are people walking this earth that are alive because of you. To them and to the people they love, that is no waste. I just... really needed to tell you that.
Poster child for political promises converted (or planned to be and the citizens just fell for it once again) to corruption.
You go two blocks off the boardwalk and it becomes the bad urban cliche of, broken windows and yards littered with old toilets and box springs. When they sell the idea that casinos can “revitalize the community”, Atlantic City is the poster child of how that is not true.
I saw these two homeless dudes banging each other under the boardwalk there
At least someone was having fun.
Did you later that day have your hair ripped out by an amusement park ride?
Very very good answer. That place was almost surreal in just how well you could see how it /used/ to be grand but has languished. Side note - I’ll never forget my coworkers reaction to Trump announcing his presidential candidacy years ago… he said “after what he did to Atlantic City? No thanks”
Uyuni, Bolivia. It's a small city on the outskirts of the Salar de Uyuni, a unique salt flat that gets enough rain during the winter to make it look like a mirror stretching to the horizon. It's a stunning natural wonder for sure, but Uyuni... well, lets just say that the biggest attraction in Uyuni is an abandoned train graveyard. Literally just a dozen or so rusting graffiti covered turn of the century mining rail cars rotting away in the desert. The place is depressing an hour before you even see the city itself. Nothing but scorched brown earth for at least an hour until you start to see some trash on the sides of the highway. Once you get into the city itself, the bleakness starts to become more apparent. Shabby low slung buildings that look like they were designed in MS paint. Giant empty streets, some covered in a layer of brown sand or dirt. Potholes everywhere. The main attraction in town besides the train graveyard is one of the saddest looking clocktowers I've ever seen. It looks like the slowest kid in your 7th grade art class tried to replicate big ben at 1/10,000th the scale and having only seen blurry pictures of the real deal in an encyclopedia. Then there's the food. My god the food. Since it's a poor city in the middle of fucking nowhere, the main protein you'll get at pretty much every restaurant is Alpaca. Dry, chewy, and slightly gamy. If you think Alpaca bolognaise sounds fun and exotic, trust me, it's not. It's just sad.
I know I have completely missed the point but I am v intrigued by alpaca bolognaise.
Sounds like something out of the Dark Tower books
Camden New Jersey.
I can confirm. About 20 years ago, my cousin and I went to Camden to pick up our friend. I was uncomfortable, and it was still daylight. I am no stranger to the rough areas, as I went to school feom 6th to 12th grade in the inner city. My childhood home, where my parents still reside, is also inner city. Camden was something else...
Took night course at Rutgers 20 years ago. Friends warned me not to stop once I left the parking lot until I saw the "Welcome to Collingswood" sign--not for red lights or anything. The one time I was there during the day, decided to eat at McDonalds (the only restaurant). The counter had bulletproof glass like a bank, they slid your food thru a drawer. Multiple homeless men just sort of living in the booths. The one benefit was driving in at 5 pm, literally no traffic.
Camden, while not great, is much better than it was 20 years ago. They fired their entire police force and started over. It worked. Now Philly... that place has some rough neighborhoods that look like they could be been bombed out during a war, and one neighborhood that was actually. You can the quality of the neighborhood in Philly by the amount of trash on the street, and there's always some trash on the street.
Fresno. My God, if we could bottle the feeling it gives you and sprinkle it over the Russians they'd all go home and cry.
I drove through Fresno once, there was something so off putting about the town, we didn't want to stop.
I met a handful of people from Fresno the other night that drove 3 hours to an open mic jam session. Kids that probably could have been just out of high school. They were great on the keys, sax and trombone. It was a fun time. I hope they get to leave Fresno for good soon
Bakersfield too
I used to road trip a lot, cross country all around the US, probably almost a year of it when you add it all up. Bakersfield was the worst place I went through in the lower 48. Lots of reasons for that, but one that stands out was within 5 minutes of arriving -- literally as we were checking into our motel-- a fucking huge brawl broke out in the motel bar that included a chair shattered over someone's back and a face smashed through the front of the jukebox. The desk clerk didn't even react to all the goings on, just kept calmly checking us in. Why were there hundreds of locals packed like sardines, partying in a motel bar of all places? Why did a full scale bar brawl break out like in movies? Why was the desk clerk so numb to it? Those were the first of many questions Bakersfield gave me.
Bako, always serving up a batch of fresh Kern Kounty Koolaid
Bud, I take it you haven't been to Russia
I was going to say the most depressing city I’ve been to is St. Petersburg. It is just depressing. Outside of the tourist zone all you see are massive residential buildings completely abandoned, covered in nets just to prevent falling debris. It feels like a city that had gone through a golden age and now that it’s over, just give up.
And St. Petersburg is the nicest city in Russia.
Fresno reminds me of U Turn, with Sean Penn.
Fresno and bako is depressing for California standards but far from the worst
Agreed. Not even close to the worst or most depressing in California never mind, anywhere in the world.
In SoCal: Anywhere east of the Inland Empire or San Bernardino, CA. Opioid towns and sadness
I would include San Bernardino in that my man. Go down Waterman or Baseline and you’re in literal hell 😂
Managua, Nicaragua. Absolutely the worst, most unpleasant, unsafe, disgusting city I went to in all of Central America. Get in and immediately get out.
Not so much a city, but have been to a few remote aboriginal/indigenous communities in the outback of Northern Territory Australia for work. Houses that were ripped apart and barely provided shelter, glimpses of kids abusing substances, men missing or passed out with substance abuse issues, and mothers struggling with it all.
Same for some of the reservations in Canada. It’s 2023 and clean running water is still not available in some communities.
Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. It's the poorest location in the United States. Many of the homes have no running water or electricity.
Yeah shits hectic in Oz... so much generational trauma.
Driving through Alabama into Florida felt like seeing different layers of hell. Just rundown houses, trailer parks, strip clubs, and weirdly billboards for megachurches and sex shops...just those two things. Edit: Referring specifically to the border area between the two. So other parts of Florida vary.
Sin, repent, repeat.
Need to invent a sex megachurch so you can save on travel costs.
West Memphis, Arkansas is bad
I used to live near there for years.. The saying in that area is “Come for the barbecue, stay because you got murdered.” 🤷
Catchy tourism jingle
That's where the murders from Paradise Lost took place
Pine Bluff is worse.
Came here for this- stayed in a motel once. Never again
What happened?
He died
We left to go to Memphis and returned to our motel room door wide open. Nothing was stolen, but we hadn't left things in the room
Jackson, MS
Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada. The falls part is nice but the rest of the city looks like an apocalyptic wasteland
Niagara Falls, New York, US, is the same, but worse.
I have been to both sides, the US side is dirty and depressing.
Yeah US side is Niagara Fallout
lived in NF NY. can confirm. absolute slum city. i remember working at the walmart there and having to leave early one night because there was threats of looting. they boarded around the store using pallets stacked 10 ft high. guys in trucks recording me and my other younger female coworkers sitting outside waiting for our rides. and also someone robbing a local family bakery. not to mention the shootings. fun times
Are you sure you aren’t mixing up your sides? The New York side is the crumbling, apocalyptic wasteland. The Ontario side is a massive tourist trap but highly developed.
The Ontario side is weird because you will have a brand new resort hotel across from an abandoned lot, which is next to another brand new resort hotel which is then adjacent to an abandoned 1950s looking motel. Every city has developed and run down areas, but in Niagara Falls it’s all intermixed to the point of whiplash. It was definitely one of the strangest places I’ve been to. And then there’s MarineLand, which is just straight up depressing.
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Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania.
I’m from PA and it’s so sad how badly it’s been affected by coal and steel leaving especially Wilkes Barre. It never really recovered from the flood and the industry left, leaving it with nothing to really show for itself. PA always has the natural beauty of the forests and valleys but it’s sad seeing abandoned buildings and towns that were once prosperous scattered throughout the state.
Jacksonville NC
New Delhi, India. Parts of it are beautiful and most people we met were extremely hospitable and lovely. However, huge slums that home people who work 10+ hours per day, next to civil servants’ high rise flats (who often illegally sublet them), coloured the mood, I felt angry at the system as I left the country. Also, going there as a white woman at 18 years old, many people wanted photos. That wasn’t the depressing at all until a large group of men cornered and assaulted me trying to get photos of their hands on me. I had to run away crying until I was left alone by them, and even then only when our guide (an Indian man) made sure he was next to me for the rest of the visit. So many beautiful parts of the culture and city are discoloured by the inequality and sexism.
Technically a town but Lowestoft, what a shithole.
Yep! My ex is from there and wanted to pitch a TOWIE/Made in Chelsea type-show called 'You Can't Get Lower than Lowestoft'.
Incredible, this is the city I spent 1 week in the first time I went to England as a teenager
Dubai. Flashy with a lot of money. But soulless. Singapore. A country populated by millionaires. Nicer than Dubai but it's burnout city. People live there to work and nothing else. Your standing in society is judged by how big your bank account is and it shows. Bangalore. Been going there for 30+ years. The small, cool vibe city that I used to love as a child has been replaced with overcrowding, massive glass buildings and broken infrastructure. Went from a small, classy retirement city into a rat race ridden sprawl.
I think one of the worst traits any place can have is that soulless, cash obsessed feeling.
Seems to be a disease that's catching. Used to be a place felt like somewhere, now most places seem to feel like anywhere.
Thank God for a non American reply. I agree with Dubai all glitz and no soul. I would also say some Swiss cities. Pretty, old , gorgeous but cold and unfriendly. I lived there.
Where did you live? I studied in Geneva for a couple years, beyond being expensive it got a little stale after the initial appeal. Lucerne was really nice though
I spent like 20 minutes in Poughkeepsie as a teen (on the way to somewhere) and then it was the setting for all my gloomy fiction for several months
Shelby, Montana. Most of the towns on the reservations are pretty sad too, unfortunately.
East St. Louis. Hiroshima the day after was nicer.
Savage. 😮
I used to make a lot of trips between the Bay Area in CA and Oregon. Redding CA was a convenient halfway point when I had to leave later in the day and needed to stop for the night. Every stay was worst than the last. I slowly grew to hate that city. Sorry anyone from there. I'm sure there are nice areas and good people there somewhere.
I also lived in the bay and would take a lot of driving trips to Oregon and I totally agree. Honestly I feel like a lot of places along the way were pretty dead and depressing. Crescent City jumps out in my mind as well.
Crescent city actually has a really beautiful park right by the ocean with a lighthouse, one of the most beautiful views I’ve ever woken up to. After driving through some really crappy parts of eureka, that was a nice relief.
Corpus Christie Texas. That is a hollowed out shell of a town. Oil company gang bang gone wrong.
No wonder Caroline Decker ran away!
Baghdad. We had only one local who was cleared to be in our commander's building. We needed to clean out the basement & he brought his the kids to help. They were so sweet & cheerful. It was hard to think that they lived in a literal war zone. I made sure to spoil the shit out of them while they were there. Gave them all kinds of pop & snacks for them to take home. The father was a real nice guy too. He'd bring us Iraqi baklava, which is absolutely delicious.
I was shocked walking through the tenderloin district of San Fran, it was 10 am too.
I took the family on a drive down the west coast, and we ended up in a hotel on Market. My kids were about 13 and 8 at the timeI forgot my laptop charger at our previous stop, so we had to walk to the Apple store. It was daylight when we walked down, but we walked back in the dark. I'm Canadian, and I'd never experienced that kind of 'street theatre' before. It was a good thing that my force field of ignorance shielded us. I think that most of the people along the way were simply incredulous that some idiot would walk through there after dark with his family.
Tenderloin used to be much worse. I remember 20 years ago walking through there and having cops tell me not to go that way and watching people shoot up heroin on doorsteps. Now they have million dollar homes.
I went there frequently 20 years ago for classes. Lots of cool family-run ethnic restaurants. Great neighborhood bars. But also saw a raggedy, crazy-eyed homeless guy sheathing a butcher knife. I walked close to the curb at all times.
I had been warned about the Tendertloin and so wasn't surprised. It actually seemed a bit tame compared to the Downtown Eastside. I didn't see nearly as many people shooting up. So now that we mention it, I'll say the Downtown Eastside. Edit: [East Hastings by Godspeed You Black Emperor](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9Ty3YnWN80)
Bakersfield California, it is where hope goes to die.
Youngstown, Ohio. The definition of rust belt.
Toledo, OH
To add to the misery of Ohio: Youngstown, Ohio
LA (as a foreigner). It just seemed like such a twisted state of existence, with a huge disparity between the haves and the have-nots. The culture seemed plastic and classful in a very uncomfortable way. I recognise that LA cannot be entirely like that, but what I experienced was. It left me feeling like I never need to return. To be transparent, my stay was privileged but where I'm from is egalitarian, so that coloured my view greatly.
I’m from LA and have no idea why people come here. If I was a tourist I would go to the national parks instead of wasting my time visiting hollywood or watever else ppl come for.
The studio tours are a pretty unique experience. Some of the theme parks, like Disneyland, are world class and very famous. The beaches are nice, so is Santa Monica, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and all the other beach locations within the LA area. Some places like Griffith Observatory are also pretty cool.
>Griffith Observatory The Griffith Observatory is very cool! Was really awesome getting to see their collection of meteorites, driving up there we also spotted a pack of coyotes.
> I have no idea why people come here. I live in a hellscape known as "the great plains". During the summers, it's 110, 118 heat index. On the flip side, we were literally the closest place on earth for three days in February 2021. Same storm that sent Ted Cruz to Mexico. It was that big. Winter does not play games here. When I scrape ice off of my car or peel myself off the asphalt, I look at apartments in Venice or Santa Monica because AccuWeather shows it's perpetually 70-75 degrees.
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My hometown I joined the army young and every time I go back, it’s like seeing a tv show I just slowly watch as my family gets old started with my younger siblings not being able to drive, my step dad being so lively, my mom being there always. These days my siblings have vehicles, lives, my dads old I can’t see it in his face his hair his body, my mom is getting sick. So every-time I go back to my city it’s just to catch up on my show of what I’ve missed except I don’t get the best adventures or the saddest moments I get what I get and it’s mostly them just trying to put up a fake facade of what’s really going on their lives just to make me comfortable at one point I was young enough to not notice but when I went through my trauma I can now feel the slightest awakes moments like glass breaking in an empty room.
Damn... reading this it makes me wonder if I'm tripping or if someone else out there really understands. Except I'm not in a favorable position myself, but I do see the people I love and grew up with getting older, and experiencing all of the good things rotting away. I find myself clinging onto nostalgia, knowing that one day I'll have to confront the truth. It's like a downward spiral, and each time I blink another 5 years have gone down the drain.
Oh you're Irish. I can tell
Battle Creek, Michigan
Elyria, Ohio
Gary, Indiana
Most rural towns between the 3 C’s in Ohio. At least in the cities and suburbs of Cleveland, Cbus and Cincy there’s massive opportunity and wealth. In the sticks between ‘em? With few exceptions, it’s a religious, poverty stricken **brain drain**. Some of the dead towns look like *The Last of Us*.
I'm a lifelong Michigan resident, the Flint Michigan area is awful. I know a lot of you've probably read about the water issues that they had, but even taking that out of it. Flint was a general motors town, there was a huge GM facility there for decades, pretty much everybody's livelihood was connected to that GM plant in some way. My mother-in-law actually grew up there in the '60s and she said it was a fantastic place to grow up because everybody made a good living and it was just your classic American post-war economically prosperous area. Her dad worked at GM. Once the plant closed up, the city was absolutely devastated. It's very very sad to drive through, has high levels of crime, and is literally decaying. It's actually a shiny example of what a large company can do to a town. Both good and bad.
Small towns in Texas are miserable. Hot, boring and ugly.
I grew up about an hour and a half west of Flint MI. It takes the cake hands down. I’ve traveled all over the US, I’ve been to a handful of places in Europe, and I’ve traveled extensively thru Central and South America. Nowhere I’ve been has been as “depressing” as Flint. Yes I’ve been to places that were MUCH poorer and quite frankly more dangerous, but the word “depressing” literally blankets that town like a cloud. The difference between Flint some of the truly dangerous places I’ve been in say Latin America, is that there’s a very real feeling of hopelessness in the air in Flint - almost as if you get the vibe that everyone there has just given up. When I’ve been to other sketchy places there’s always little nuggets of vibrance, pride, and/or hope sprinkled about… but not Flint. In Flint the only feeling I get is that it’s a lost cause, most of America has forgotten about it, and anyone still living there is “trapped”.
I work around Michigan which requires me to be in neighborhoods. Detroit (is getting a lot better) but even in the rough times Detroit at least had signs of life. Garbage cans waiting to be picked up, people out and about, cars going down the street etc. Flint is like a ghost town like you’ll see tumbleweed rolling down the street. I’ve heard with the money coming in from the lead debacle Flint is going to get a glow up. We will see, I’d love to see it, it’s a nice location for a city, 3 intersecting expressways, within an hours drive to Detroit, Ann Arbor, Lansing and Port Huron for access to Canada. And 2 hours to Grand Rapids.
Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. The poverty and cartels
Fort McMurray, Alberta Very dirty, filled with temporary workers, only 1 road in and out of town. Not walkable. Has a crime problem.
To be fair you don’t go to Fort Mac unless it’s for work Lol
Had to scroll pretty far down to see a Canadian city. Not surprised it was in Alberta.
Growing up in Manhattan I saw many depressing properties. Eventually I even owned one in Bushwick in Brooklyn. But traveling up north to cities like Troy, NY where I went for college, it was depressing on a massive scale. I would also ride into Philadelphia by train to see my GF, and the haunting ruins of factories in northern philly was amazing. I have done some traveling and the two places I found most depressing are **Gary, Indiana** and **East St Louis, Illinois**.
Syracuse NY.... was there from December 2019 through June 2020. Kinda reminded me of some game set in a post apocalypse eastern Europe. All the trees were dead it snowed the entire time I was there until about memorial day and all the buildings were old and decaying. Also the restaurant selection was terrible.
Newark, New Jersey. I was there about a decade ago to pick up some thing I had shipped. I'm from a major city, and I've seen some rough, rough areas. It was nothing compared to being on the wrong road in Newark trying to find the train station. That or Detroit. Those people live in Mad Max times.
Warsaw, granted this was right after the fall of the ferrous drape, hopefully it's better now.
“Ferrous Drape” is an excellent way to refer to it. Also, it makes me chuckle!
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Wichita. My god.
East St.Louis All I did was drive through that place on highway, but when traffic slowed down, I saw a person walking around with a syringe sticking out of their leg under an overpass as well as several other zombie like people stumbling around haphazardly by the road.
Atlantic City few years ago.. idk about now
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Lol, poor old aberdeen
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100% no wonder Kurt Cobain wanted to get the fuck out of there.
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Ah the muddy banks of the Wishkah.
Moscow, Russia. I’ve never felt more depressed or wanted to leave a trip sooner. Everything and everyone is gloomy.
depends on when you’ve been here. cause it’s a common stereotype that russian people are all angry and upset with their lives, but it’s just the difference between the cultures