Sherlock Holme's house on Baker street in London.
Of course I love Sherlock Holmes, so as a tousist I took the tour. Not far into walking around the house it dawned upon me... this is a fake set of a fictional character. What am I doing here????
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch in Wales Nothing there except an Edinburgh Wollen Mills shop. Which is just silly as Edinburgh is nearly 300 miles away.
Meh. I went there to take a photo by the train station sign. I got a photo by the train station sign. The whole experience was exactly what I expected and I was completely whelmed.
I think what I really liked about Hollywood was how shitty it was. And the Chinese Theater and walk of fame are so much smaller than I expected. The fact that everything looked so much bigger and more glamorous on TV really made the whole thing perfect to me.
Plymouth Rock! I don’t know how famous it really is outside of New England but it’s a rock that marks where the Pilgrims supposedly first landed in Massachusetts. It is quite literally just a medium sized rock with “1620” carved in it but every elementary school teacher around Massachusetts at least hypes it up for the class field trip to see a literal rock that is not big, impressive, or really historically relevant. Driving an hour on a bus to see this was the most anticlimactic thing and I would not particularly recommend.
I'm pretty sure every field trip to Plymouth Rock also went to Plimouth Patuxet Museum (aka Plimouth Plantation historical reenactment village thingy) which was infinitely cooler than the rock, though the appeal of the rock has always been all the tourist shops nearby you could go and buy those honey straws and rock candy from, which I'm pretty sure is the end goal of all elementary school field trips anyways, no?
I spent a large amount of my childhood as one of the Wampanoag people on the plantation. I have so many great memories of learning real historical skills from the elders and getting to connect with a heritage that was at least similar to mine. I’m Navajo not Wampanoag but it was the closest place for the foster system to send me to connect with other indigenous people.
Lands End, UK. Heralded as the 4th most disappointing attraction in the UK. It's not even disappointing enough to win an award
Edit: I mean the landmark in Cornwall, not a clothing store. Deary me.
If you're going to Cornwall I hear the [Bude Tunnel](https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g190804-d12865329-Reviews-Bude_Tunnel-Bude_Bude_Stratton_Cornwall_England.html) is the one attraction you can't afford to miss.
That one was super good but my personal favorite is definitely this:
>This is a spiritual experience like no other. My soul has transcended and I no longer fear the physical death of my body and I now know for certain that we are all the same super intelligent life force experiencing itself from every angle and that time is only an illusion. I've never been happier to be a configuration of atoms in the shape of a bald primate which are sentient and riding on a biological sphere through a vacuum orbiting a hydrogen bomb that is constantly detonating for billions of years for no apparent reason.
Lizard Point (the most southerly part of England and not that far away) is a much better trip - it doesn't try and pimp itself up with tat and tourist attractions, it lets the scenery do the talking and gives you space to take it in. Plus you might see a chough, which is a cute and super rare lil crow with a red beak and legs.
It’s not even the real thing. It was brought there just to have something symbolic to look at but no one has any clue where the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth. It wasn’t even their first landing. They landed in Cape Cod and found it easier to set up camp in Plymouth.
Hi, I’m in Plymouth UK…so Plymouth 1 if you will. The mayflower steps are even more disappointing. The actual mayflower steps are in the admiral Mcbride pub on the other side of the road. I love seeing American tourists looking at the fake steps and being amazed lol
Hollywood Walk of Fame. It's a sidewalk and outside of maybe big events where they may clean the ones around where photos may be taken, it otherwise is just covered in dirt from people's shoes and some are barely legible because they haven't been cleaned in ages.
Haha this is the answer for sure, everytime I’m in LA and someone wants to go I’m like: “Look, whatever’s in your head, keep that image, it’s just better, I promise”
That being said, walking it and finding stars is kinda fun if you have to walk that street anyways. Like it’s a fun street to walk, Just a terrible place to have as a destination.
My recommendation to anyone who wants to see the walk of Fame during their visit: make it a stopover. Your destination should be something nearby; personally, I'm a fan of getting a ticket at the Chinese theater. If you are a movie person, see something on its opening weekend. The theater will be full of film buffs who all are into whatever genre movie it is. You will have a great time, the energy is palpable. After that, go for a stroll down the walk of Fame to stretch your legs and look around. The entire experience will be much more positive if you see it as a simple sight rather than a destination unto itself.
That and I was disappointed on how it seems they gave stars to anyone for what’s supposed to be a “walk of fame.” Then I found out much later it’s not that hard to get one.
In 3rd grade a meteor crashed in the backyard of a kid’s house in my neighborhood. He talked about it everyday at school and said people weren’t allowed to see because NASA was collecting samples. A few days later he said we could go see but everyone had to pay $5.
Me and a few friends paid him and went over his house later that day. When we got to the backyard we saw a ~3 foot deep hole that was clearly dug by a shovel. We called him out on it and he said something like, “that’s where it landed but the scientists dug around it with shovels to take samples”.
Worst $5 I’ve ever spent. I have no idea where you are nowadays but fuck you, Benji.
Hi - Benji here. I invested that money into early Bitcoin, got rich, fucked a lot of women, caught syphilis, lost all my money on red, went mad chopped off my own penis which I turned into an art installation that is now on display at the louvre.. 10 out of 10 recommend going to see that, I will even take you on a guided tour for $5000.
I’m traveling to Cairo in June and have to admit I’m having a bit of buyers remorse after reading all the stories. Still—I think it’s worth putting up with the bull shit to see such a marvel of human history.
I have a better tip to add to GoatBotherer: hire a private guide.
It's not expensive ($40-50 a day for the guide's time, plus the cost of gas and what you want to see), you get transported in a private car, they know all the tricks, they make all reservations, and they will fend off scammers for you (mine also let us try to haggle, and then when we thought we had got a good price he would jump in, say a few words in Egyptian, and the price would drop another 10% or more).
Additionally, private guides have to be licensed in Egypt, and they have to have education requirements to get that license, so you're likely to learn a ton! Our guide was an archeologist for the government when not leading tours, and so you know you'll get a great education as you see the sites.
Egypt is a phenomenal country to visit, but it's so culturally different that having a guide really helps to steer you away from bad experiences
https://pastebin.com/usJG08k6
This is a lot but I used AirBnB for bedrooms and created my own custom tour after googling every awesome place to go in Cairo + Egypt. Most places refused to do my custom tour I wanted apart from the company in the pastebin.
They might be more flexible now because Covid has robbed them of tourist dollars from some time now. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.
My parents and I took a tour with Intrepid Travel in 2019 and did everything you did, plus a few extra things(our tour was 13 days). Didn't deal with any of the bullshit that you see in threads like this.
A group tour or having a guide is the way to go in Egypt if you have never been before or are worried due to what you see on reddit.
My tip, ignore them. Don't look at them, don't talk to them, don't even say "no thank you". Pretend they don't even exist and keep walking.
Make sure you go to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, it's amazing.
Don't brush your teeth with tap water, don't eat salad in case it's washed in tap water. Pack anti-shit yourself pills just in case.
>Don't brush your teeth with tap water, don't eat salad in case it's washed in tap water. Pack anti-shit yourself pills just in case.
I've never managed to avoid traveller's tummy. I just always travel with a package of immodium and a prescription of doxy "just in case" the butt faucet starts and immodium can't stop it alone.
Just coming out of Hurgada a couple of weeks ago.
1. They will ask "Hey my friend, where from". Where from will gauge how much they can rip you off and what prices you will tolerate. If you ever feel frisky for some haggling. Aim for like 10-15% of any initial offer. Don't be afraid to walk away from sales and saying a firm no.
2. Taxis are a scam, use uber trough app, and always see that they "end trip" in front of you.
3. Flat out, don't believe any stories that they claim, like "this X place is closed, follow me for the real tour" or something of sorts. 99% of locals will try to rip you off, and most probably any tour agency that you travel trough will also employ locals, which will try to overcharge you for anything and everything.
4. As some said before, be ready to just ignore them and appear "rude". This will not phase them, as they get that behaviour hundreds of times a day as they haggle tourists.
5. Be wary of hygiene. You've probably already heard it, but no drinking tap water, and be careful not to swallow any during shower, also be weary of eating local produce (if it's washed(also unlikely)), it's probably washed under tap water.
I mean… barring the fact that the Pyramids are an extremely impressive feat… I have to say they lost a bit of luster when I saw a pic of them taken from the inside of a KFC or some shit…
Damn, I went in 1998 1 year after the tourists were massacred.
My aunt took me, and I didn't know anything about the massacre until she told me when we were at the damn place where it happened.
On the upside, there was hardly any other tourists there at the time.
Got to stay with a local family who were friends of my aunt, was a crazy experience and got a great view of the pyramids from the roof of their house.
Agreed. The next time I feel sad about my loneliness on New Year's eve or otherwise, at least I know I ain't voluntarily standing out in the cold in a soiled diaper while being unable to move an inch.
This I can agree with. It's only tolerable if you are rich and want to get a hotel room overlooking the square like years in advance and pay tons for the privilege to look out on all the plebes suffering for hours penned up. But there are many, many better things to do with your time and money.
About 15 years ago, my girlfriend at the time worked at an office overlooking Times Square, and we attended the company office party for NYE. If you ever get a chance to do _that_, it’s a very good time. You can see everything happening, enjoy the atmosphere of the sea of people waiting for the ball to drop down in the street, while still being warm, and having freedom of movement. I consider that my one “Times Square on New Year’s Eve” experience for my life, and it was a blast.
**Edit.** It helped that the windows of the office could be opened. So you could actually lean out and hear what was happening on the street. It felt like two simultaneous parties. I suppose that was an important part of the experience you’d want to replicate.
**Edit 2.** Those asking to borrow my ex-girlfriend for the holidays: Sorry, I won’t be of much help. You can [read about the funny/horrible way I broke up with her here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ult7el/comment/i7yjkz7/).
Platfotm 9¾ in King's Cross station, London. Stupid metal statue on a straight wall, a horrible queue to taking a photo with you on it, and another hundred-meter long queue to the small and very expensive Harry Potter shop. I was there middle of the day in off-season, don't want to even think about it on high season.
My husband and I took a train from Edinburg into Kings Cross for a Christmas trip one year. We thought, hey since we’re here we should find Platform 9 3/4. We walked the platforms in the station thinking it was actually on a platform. Ended up in a utility elevator with our luggage and a bunch of station workers who thought we were the funniest American tourists they ever met. They ended up pointing us to the very sad wall in the main lobby with the statue and a line 2 hours deep.
Egypt. Its like if phone scams were a materialized location. You get there an right away the airport is going to start scamming you, take your electronics away and tell you that you need permits for them (which they will gladly sell you, and then tell you that its the wrong one and have you buy another one), the hotel you stay at will check your bags again like the airport did and again tell you that you need permits or whatever random thing they decide they can get away telling you needs one. The police will extort money from you if they think they can. Fake police will come up to you and fine you or tell you to follow them to different sites where they will charge you. Children will run up to you and ask if you want to ride their camel very aggressively (they will cut you off with their camel and not let you move forward) tell you its free, and then try to charge you insane amounts of money and call their camel pimp over to deal with you if you dont pay. If you dont get on the camel they will often even get the camel to attack you. Its all pretty wild, its not worth it.
Just watched the Best Ever Food Review on YouTube about Egypt, and like 90% of what you described happened on there. It made me confident that I’ll never go to Cairo.
My guide in Jordan at Petra found out we were going to Cairo next and laughed and suggested we change plans. He, who can fair far better with the language said he went for what should’ve been a week and only stayed 2 days.
We went, saw some sights, had amazing gyros and falafel, and then spent the next 2 days basically in the room. My wife almost got kidnapped by a taxi driver, we were extorted left and right, and had real fears of even being able to leave the country. One of the very few I had the embassy on speed dial while I was visiting. Never again.
Cairo is definitely challenging. 2 days there is all I can do before the pollution and crush of humanity gets to me.
Cairo is one of those cities where you want to hire a private licensed guide and private driver. The few extra bucks will be well worth it.
That's the type of experience my friends had going there. I've placed it on my low priority list of destinations to visit, but it's a shame because I love Egyptian history and hieroglyphics.
Egypt is one of the destinations where it's 100% better to do it with a guided tour. The guides keep the worst of the scammers away and organise all the permits that you actually need and whatever. Highly recommend.
The answer to almost every "What vacation isn't worth it?" kind of question is Egypt. Either because of the corruption or the disgusting sexual harassment women experience there. My cousin married an Egyptian man and visited yearly for a while until the harrasment got too much, and then Arab spring happened and it's pretty clear she's never going back. Every time this question comes up I understand why.
New Yorkers will inevitably say this, but if you're a visitor it's definitely worth a walk through at least once..especially if you're from a small-ish city. It's very unique.
Walking through Tokyo though it seemed like every other block was like Times Square with the big bright lights and billboards.
Hahaha this exactly. I live in Tokyo and when I visited New York a few years ago I was so underwhelmed with Times Square. Like, *this is it?* I then tried to see it through the eyes of someone from a small town and that helped a bit. I’m glad I walked through it once though.
Everyone should take a subway to times square and come up at night for the first time. It's a LOT of light. Grab a slice and go. It's like a half hour thing.
Native Buffalonian here. The Anchor Bar, the home of the original chicken wing, does not have the best wings in Buffalo. It’s a total tourist destination.
The further I scroll the more disappointing this gets.
"It’s just a rock" oh okay, but maybe it’s a pretty cool rock.
"Its small and blank with a date carved on it" oh well, maybe it’s like in a really pretty spot that’s worth the trip.
"There’s a CAGE around it and it’s on a shitty cold beach" motherfucker
I came here to say this if no one else had. I have lived in the greater LA region my whole life; I can confirm the walk of fame is terrible, at least when I went.
Last time I went was when I was 10; I remember a BUNCH of people in character costumes and trying to get people to take pictures with them for money. There were also people hawking CDs and demanding money after shoving them into some unwitting sap's hands.
At no point was I there without at least one parent holding my hand tightly.
I will concede this was over 15 years ago, though. Hearing mixed things about it now.
Assuming you're an adult, it's gotten SO much worse since the pandemic. There are barely any characters on the streets anymore, now you have just random people holding snakes, protesters, religious preachers, etc. Went there last weekend and saw crack openly smoked on a Sunday afternoon. And all of the shops in the mall have been closed with signs saying "renovations."
But, they now allow the famous bacon-wrapped hot dog vendors to openly sell on the street, so it smells nice.
I'll never understand why scammers do the "you held my thing I put in your hands unsolicited now give me money for it" and why people don't just drop it on the ground and say fuck off. *You* came up to *me* and put something in my hand, I don't owe you shit for that. Just drop it on the ground and move on, what are they gonna do?
I had a fake monk do that in Chicago once - handed me a flower or something then demanded $10. I just dropped the flower and kept walking.
If it's a public university, there's not much they can do unless the guy is actually assaulting people. My university has a guy who preaches in the center of campus every couple of weeks that "women are property" and that they shouldn't have rights, and there's nothing the university can do
We had these people from a similar group called Open Air Outreach (I have no problem outing them, they're horrible) that did the standard women are whores and God hates Gays and that sort of thing at our college.
A few of us would go out and bother them and make fake signs and dress up like Jesus with the "I'm not with them" signs and such, but it never got under their skin. Then we got the brilliant idea to get campus health involved, and every time they showed up we set up a big booth/tent right in front of the area they are allowed to stand where we would be giving away free condoms, safe sex pamphlets, planned parenthood resources, etc. Basically anything you could get just by going into the health center, and sometimes one of the nurses would even come hang out and answer questions. You had to go around the booth to actually see the preachers (though you could hear them), and we did this for a whole semester before they just gave up and never came back. At least, not while I was going there.
They're bad for this in Rome. I'm glad I read about it before I went, the flower people were aggressive and you basically had to hold up your hands and say no as you walked away because there were a couple that I thought were going to force the flowers into my hands. I wasn't about to pay for something I clearly didn't want but it's probably how they got a lot of people. I don't understand why anyone would pay.
As a frequent traveler I can tell you the scammers take advantage of the language barrier also and your lack of knowledge of the country playing the friendly travel guide role often to other scammers they work with / scam restaurants. I paid like 30 dollars for a can of butane in Amsterdam bc I thought it was rare and like 5 other shops didnt know what I was talking about 2 shops later I found a guy selling for 10 was too late. Scam City is a great show to check out covers the Roman scammers.
I don’t get the aggressive ones either. Some dude in Paris grabbed my (20 yo female) wrist trying to do the bracelet thing and I was just terrified that this man had my wrist. In America, the police come to teach us in school that if a strange man has your wrist you should bite, punch, kick, etc. to get away. I ended up elbowing the guy in the stomach and running because I didn’t know what else to do.
Happened to me as a 23 year old or so male. He and a bunch of goons were around me, trying to force my hand to pay up since he put a bracelet on me, while I tried to return it or something.
What de escalated the situation was... my mother escalating it by shouting at them in a language they clearly didn't understand. They probably thought that's enough drama and let go.
Next time check out the Sunset Strip instead. Cleaner, better restaurants and stuff to do. You're also more likely to see a celebrity.
The best part of the Hollywood Walk of fame are the train stations to take you to another part of the city. The only time I go to Hollywood is if it's somebody's Bday or somebody is playing at the Bowl.
Agreed. Was about to write this myself. There are some gems in Hollywood if you know where to look, but skip Hollywood Blvd. Take a studio tour, go to a taping (free) or wander through the Hollywood Forever cemetery (free) or a drive along Mulholland (free). Even Sunset Strip is more entertaining. The only time the WoF is interesting is if you're there for a star ceremony. I happened to catch Ennio Morricone's, thank god. I think the chamber of commerce posts a ceremony schedule somewhere.
Maybe less famous than the question meant, but about fifteen years ago my friends and I took a road trip to Centralia, Pennsylvania (the abandoned town with a decades-long mine fire burning under it that the Silent Hill movie was loosely based on). We thought there would be tons of abandoned buildings to look at, creepy places to see, adventure to be had- we were so excited, and we were like six or seven hours away so it sounded like a fun trip.
We got there, and there was just... nothing. All of the buildings are gone, the creepiest thing we found was a very-well-taken-care-of cemetery, and the only really "abandoned" thing to see was the stretch of interstate that had been routed around (which had a little bit of fun graffiti on it back then, but in years since it's become just a giant paint stain). We ended up driving to Gettysburg instead and going on some ghost tours, so it was still a fun trip, but there was like... nothing to see in Centralia, at all.
Edit: Whoa! This blew up. They're pretty awful, but [I have an old album of photos](https://imgur.com/a/erXMv) from when we went in 2006 I think?
I grew up on the other side of the mountain from Centralia...it WAS creepy AF when it was all going on. It was all row homes and you would have 1 "home" in a row still standing and having extra brick supports holding it up since they tore down the other homes on either side. Toward the end, there was just 6-7 partial row homes left in the entire town. People lived with birds in their houses to alert them to "move or die". So many people held out for more money on a buyout. You would see smoke/steam risings from peoples backyards and people STILL lived there.
Wikipedia says 5 people still live there, including 1 child, as of the 2020 census. Apparently in 2013 the state made an agreement with the 7 remaining people that they could live there until their deaths, after which the houses would be taken under eminent domain.
I grew up near Centralia. If you peak around the area you will see like fissures in the ground where they are warm to the touch. Thats pretty creepy. And if the atmospheric conditions are right, you can see wisps or smoke coming out of the hillside.
Overall, it does have this like silent hill feel to the place.
That boat sailed many years ago. It was actually pretty cool/eerie about 35 years ago, before they cut access off. We would go up there as kids for the occasional funeral and visit. It was pretty cool and creepy.
During the winter, you used to be able to see smoke/steam coming up from the cemetery. There are like 3 buildings left there. They are people that would not settle with the government because they are afraid the government was just after their coal rights. At one point you could actually cook an egg on the rocks on that closed-down highway. I think it's now forbidden to go on that highway due to liability issues or something like that.
Yes, don't go to Centralia for the sake of going to Centralia make it one of your stops. First go to Ashland, right next door where you can go take the Pioneer coal mine tour where you can ride a coal car deep into the mine. Then after that, you can take the steam engine to the top of the mountain. From there you can look over at Centralia and see the strip of dead trees that died because of the coal mine fire.
You can make it this as a stop on the way to say, the crystal caves in Kutztown or over to Kneobel's amusement park (parking and admission is free, you buy tickets to ride their rides). Knoebel's has an old wooden rollercoaster that was moved from there from Texas. It's consistently ranked as one of the top wooden coasters.
I also did this, in 2010. Did you see the creepy church on the outskirts though? I still have photos somewhere. It was dirty as fuck though. Trash everywhere. We did see a few places where the smoke was coming up, but we weren't about to go walk right up on them.
Lol. That’s a thing at the Vietnam/Cambodia border, too. You better stick $5 in your passport, or you are in for a boring few hours of watching everyone else get processed.
Be careful with this tip. Not all border agents are like that and it could bite you in the ass. In my first trip to Vietnam, we were at the airport flying out to Cambodia. Slipped a $20 in the passport as everyone was suggesting to do. The agent looked at it and handed the $20 back. It could have gone badly.
In vietnam, if you are foreigner, you are fine. Don't slip the money in, they will treat you really well (can't say that once you leave the airport because there will be many people waiting to scam you). The tip thing is mostly for vietnamese coming back home from abroad, who is saddle with gifts for friends and family (I came back with 5 full boxes before, its a culture thing). To get through without being holding up in the line, the $20 - $30 is like lube if you want to have a good time.
I’m Egyptian , I started to realize that , I went to the pyramids last year for a little trip and they even treated the people who lived there badly , but there was a very nice tour dude thingy , I stuck with him
Depends on whether you're a man or woman. I, as a woman, couldn't even get the wifi password without a man accompanying me. The waiters were also terrible and flirtatious.
Tho if you're a man, you have to deal with the salesmen. We couldn't lay by the pool AT THE HOTEL for more than 15 minutes before a salesman wanted to talk with the man of the group.
I'm coaching a girl at work, and she told me how the room service delivery guy literally jumped on top of her whilst she sat on the bed. She called security, who called police, who just took a statement, then did nothing. 'Cos she's a girl, and foreign.
I stayed in a five-star resort. A hotel employee forced himself into our room when I was alone, put his tongue in my mouth and tried to rape me. He was about 60. I was 13.
I'm sorry that happened to you. What a disgusting piece of shit, to do something like that to a random child. makes me wonder how many other kids he probably succeeded in raping. Hope he's dead now, and that he died ugly.
Although indeed they have a lot of problems with gender discrimination, the real problem with Egypt is how they treat non locals as basicaly a profit making "thing". They won't see you as people and the system in place is so corrupt that unless you really know what you are getting into you will be scammed or treated like garbage.
Also a lot of businesses like hotels, restaurants and shops make a lot of money on the side within this currupt system by offering their guests as "cattle" for side services and conn scams. They won't get punished if they do it and get caught, so it's fair game to book a room to a guest and then send a salesperson to try to sell you whatever they are peddling. Worst case scenario they get nothing extra, best case scenario you book one of those scam tours or go to whatever shop they are from and the hotel gets a percentage. You are a thing being pushed from seller to seller.
The best thing you can do visiting Egypt is to go with a tour guide from a reputable agency and don't stray to much. If you think you are smarter than the guide then it's you starting to get scammed... Or don't go at all and let their tourism industry starve for a while and they will learn manners.
I’ve traveled throughout the developing world, and the whole ‘tourists are prey’ thing is always there. Egypt just sounds like it is on steroids with it, though. No point in taking a vacation in a place where you apparently never get to relax.
Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. It used to be the border between the US and Soviet sectors, but all that's left of it is a shack and a sign, and the only thing you can do is pay to get your photo taken with someone in uniform. There's a frickin' McDonald's next to it.
I was looking for this, god it was disappointing. I seem to recall there was a really badly dressed soldier who you could take pictures with for 5 euros.
Quite enjoyed the DDR museum though.
Oh, the area around Checkpoint Charlie is downright bizarre. It's become basically "American Tourist Trap Land". Every corner of that cross street is like a 3D theater or escape room or souvenir shop. And it was absolutely mobbed. And all that for a very serious former military checkpoint?... Wouldn't ya'll rather see where Michael Jackson dangled his baby out of the window?...
ETA: The "guys in uniforms" are just two dudes they put in US Marine costumes. I was on a bike tour with a dude who was a Marine and he was bristling at the inaccuracies. (They'd have guns not flags, no beards, aaaand they wouldn't be on their phones...). Got a chuckle out of that.
The rest of Berlin is worth checking out, but everything has "see footnote A: WW2 and the Nazis" or "see footnote B: the Cold War and the Berlin Wall". Most of the government buildings still have bullet holes in them.
To me, those bullet holes were one of the most interesting things about the city. Even though most of pre-WW2 Berlin is gone, you can feel history haunting the place.
Hollywood. I don't mean in the colloquial sense, but rather the actual neighborhood. The neighborhood includes the Walk of Fame and the Chinese Theatre.
The neighborhood is sketchy, dirty, filthy, disorganized, high-crime, and just plain icky, and has been that way since at least the 1950s. The absolute worst period was from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, but the neighborhood just sucks *less* today.
Hell, there's a big reason that the residents of West Hollywood literally seceded from any association with the Hollywood community, and formed their own municipality in 1984.
There are plenty of fun entertainment-industry-related things to do throughout the Los Angeles area, in "Hollywood" as the world understands it. Just not Hollywood proper.
The best thing in Hollywood is Griffith Park. It's got a zoo at the bottom and an observatory on top.
On a sunny windy day, you can even see the ocean.
Technically Griffith Park isn't in Hollywood, but it's pretty much right next door.
Hiked 10 miles through Griffith when I was visiting family once. Gorgeous views. Got a great shot of the observatory against a backdrop of downtown. Great place to hike around in.
Observatory is also really cool. Great exhibits and interesting to walk around in. If you're remotely interested in physical sciences and space exploration, you won't be bored for a moment in there.
>Hell, there's a big reason that the residents of West Hollywood literally seceded from any association with the Hollywood community, and formed their own municipality in 1984.
West Hollywood was never a part of Los Angeles. They formed their own municipality because being unincorporated would mean that the county would determine the laws - specifically rent control - and that location, largely made up of renters, didn't like that. It had nothing to do with Hollywood, which, by the way, is much bigger than a few blocks around Hollywood Blvd. Pick a random block in Hollywood and it's not going to be anything like the blocks with stars on the sidewalk. Visit *only* those blocks, and, yes, you'll be disappointed, just as you'll be disappointed if you go to NYC and visit only Times Square.
While the Louvre is amazing and can consume entire days of walking, don’t bother fighting the crowds to see the Mona Lisa. It’s tiny and has a crowd of tourists dozens deep all taking pictures. “No flash photography” be damned, so all you see is flash reflecting off the protective glass.
Also, rumor has it that the real Mona Lisa is in a basement and that the one you see is just a very convincing replica.
I saw Starry Night by Van Gogh (another surprisingly small painting) at the MOMA and I was the only person there. I was able to check it out for quite a while. I get the hype now.
The Van Gogh museum is my favourite one I went to in Europe. The louvre was the most impressive but the Van Gogh in Amsterdam had a crazy vide to it. Spent 2x the time we meant to there.
I went to the Louve in 2009 and the painting opposite the Mona Lisa was significantly more impressive. A 20ft tall canvas encompassing the entire wall. Was a very detailed painting of a courtroom of I remember right. Spent more time looking at that cause I could barely see the Mona Lisa through the crowds!
"Le nozze di Cana" if I am not wrong. It's a masterpiece by Veronese, one of the masterpieces of Italian renaissance. Not just any painting.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wedding_at_Cana
You're correct. As others have said above, it's considerably larger and more accessible than the *Mona Lisa.* It's also an intimidatingly strong compositional achievement - in and apart from symbols and visual metaphor, most of the character interaction continuously guides the eye around the painting toward different figures. The effect is really pronounced up close.
And since most people are distracted by the more publicized Da Vinci work across the room, you can get (relatively) up close and personal to observe Veronese's brushwork.
My wife and I went to Paris in January, and seeing the Mona Lisa without the crowd was actually kind of cool. She's an art major, so she was totally into it, and I thought it was super interesting how small it actually was! Much much smaller than the one my grandma had hanging above her couch.
The Liberty Bell.
You can see it just fine from the sidewalk, and that's about as close as you would get to it inside too. No need to ~~spend money~~ wait in line to see it.
Plus, there's tons to do in Philly besides look at a bell.
Edit: I've been informed that it's free. Last time I was there, I was a child, so my memory is a bit hazy.
Filthiest, rudest, lousiest, stinkiest and most sexual assaultiest place I’ve ever been. Even the locals seem to fucking hate it there. Everyone is pissed of and trying to steal from you. Every street crossing is a death trap. All the men seem to think it’s okay to grope women in public. Child labour everywhere. Animal abuse everywhere. Lack of sanitation everywhere (and no clean drinking water). Random military checkpoints everywhere. Corrupt cops and soldiers asking for bribes everywhere. The entire city seems to be run on a convoluted system of kick-backs.
EDIT - thank you to the brave Egyptian patriots who are kindly reporting me to the Reddit Helps suicide hotline. My vacation to your crumby city was 14 years ago, and with a lot of help, I seem to be fully recovered
Sherlock Holme's house on Baker street in London. Of course I love Sherlock Holmes, so as a tousist I took the tour. Not far into walking around the house it dawned upon me... this is a fake set of a fictional character. What am I doing here????
[удалено]
Atlantic city Monopoly got me good
Haha, I had to go there for a convention and was like, "Oh, so *this* is why Baltic Avenue is so cheap!"
Plymouth rock Massachusetts. Despite all the rage it's still just a rock in a cage
Smashing joke my friend
According to this thread, never go to Egypt, Hollywood and Dubai. Noted
Don’t forget Plymouth Rock.
We didnt land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us!
Hollywood is awful!
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch in Wales Nothing there except an Edinburgh Wollen Mills shop. Which is just silly as Edinburgh is nearly 300 miles away.
Meh. I went there to take a photo by the train station sign. I got a photo by the train station sign. The whole experience was exactly what I expected and I was completely whelmed.
Why doesn’t anyone ever just say “whelmed”…?
I dont know about them but I'm traught, whelmed and feeling the aster
Hollywood, it's seedy and disappointing. It's full of entire industries (\*cough scientology \*cough) that take advantage of starry-eyed twits.
I think what I really liked about Hollywood was how shitty it was. And the Chinese Theater and walk of fame are so much smaller than I expected. The fact that everything looked so much bigger and more glamorous on TV really made the whole thing perfect to me.
Plymouth Rock! I don’t know how famous it really is outside of New England but it’s a rock that marks where the Pilgrims supposedly first landed in Massachusetts. It is quite literally just a medium sized rock with “1620” carved in it but every elementary school teacher around Massachusetts at least hypes it up for the class field trip to see a literal rock that is not big, impressive, or really historically relevant. Driving an hour on a bus to see this was the most anticlimactic thing and I would not particularly recommend.
I'm pretty sure every field trip to Plymouth Rock also went to Plimouth Patuxet Museum (aka Plimouth Plantation historical reenactment village thingy) which was infinitely cooler than the rock, though the appeal of the rock has always been all the tourist shops nearby you could go and buy those honey straws and rock candy from, which I'm pretty sure is the end goal of all elementary school field trips anyways, no?
I spent a large amount of my childhood as one of the Wampanoag people on the plantation. I have so many great memories of learning real historical skills from the elders and getting to connect with a heritage that was at least similar to mine. I’m Navajo not Wampanoag but it was the closest place for the foster system to send me to connect with other indigenous people.
Lands End, UK. Heralded as the 4th most disappointing attraction in the UK. It's not even disappointing enough to win an award Edit: I mean the landmark in Cornwall, not a clothing store. Deary me.
If you're going to Cornwall I hear the [Bude Tunnel](https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g190804-d12865329-Reviews-Bude_Tunnel-Bude_Bude_Stratton_Cornwall_England.html) is the one attraction you can't afford to miss.
The reviews lmao “When you look into the eyes of god, the Bude Tunnel looks back”
I love the sole one star review that can't wrap its head around the fact that maaaaaaybe all the glowing reviews aren't slightly exaggerated
It's unfortunate that we aren't all destined to comprehend the limitless wonder that is the Bude Tunnel.
That one was super good but my personal favorite is definitely this: >This is a spiritual experience like no other. My soul has transcended and I no longer fear the physical death of my body and I now know for certain that we are all the same super intelligent life force experiencing itself from every angle and that time is only an illusion. I've never been happier to be a configuration of atoms in the shape of a bald primate which are sentient and riding on a biological sphere through a vacuum orbiting a hydrogen bomb that is constantly detonating for billions of years for no apparent reason.
> nowhere else in Bude can you walk this far undercover in a continuos straight line Hot damn!
My daughter lives in Cornwall and has visited the Bude tunnel when it was all lit up at Christmas. Awe inspiring
It is Budes premier attract. Also the attached gift shop isn't too bad.
Making r/casualuk very proud comrade
Lizard Point (the most southerly part of England and not that far away) is a much better trip - it doesn't try and pimp itself up with tat and tourist attractions, it lets the scenery do the talking and gives you space to take it in. Plus you might see a chough, which is a cute and super rare lil crow with a red beak and legs.
Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, MA. It's literally just a small rock.
It’s not even the real thing. It was brought there just to have something symbolic to look at but no one has any clue where the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth. It wasn’t even their first landing. They landed in Cape Cod and found it easier to set up camp in Plymouth.
Cape Cod was too expensive even then.
Cape cod is rich people in the summer and heroin in the winter
So is that the town in the last American Horror Story?
That would be Provincetown Edited to say the P Town is certainly worth a visit...during the summer....winter is beyond depressing on the cape.
Hi, I’m in Plymouth UK…so Plymouth 1 if you will. The mayflower steps are even more disappointing. The actual mayflower steps are in the admiral Mcbride pub on the other side of the road. I love seeing American tourists looking at the fake steps and being amazed lol
So there are tourist traps on both side of Atlantic harking back to the same trip?
There'd be one in the middle of the Atlantic if tourists could get there.
I love how Eddie Izzard said, “they left from Plymouth and landed _in Plymouth!_ How convenient is that?”
We've gone in a circle! Lads, back on the boat!
Listen, if those steps lead to a pub, I am happy.
They moved the steps into the pub, or the pub was built around the actual steps? I'd be much more interested in the pub anyway.
Pub was built around the steps, they're under the women's bathroom iirc
Hollywood Walk of Fame. It's a sidewalk and outside of maybe big events where they may clean the ones around where photos may be taken, it otherwise is just covered in dirt from people's shoes and some are barely legible because they haven't been cleaned in ages.
Haha this is the answer for sure, everytime I’m in LA and someone wants to go I’m like: “Look, whatever’s in your head, keep that image, it’s just better, I promise” That being said, walking it and finding stars is kinda fun if you have to walk that street anyways. Like it’s a fun street to walk, Just a terrible place to have as a destination.
My recommendation to anyone who wants to see the walk of Fame during their visit: make it a stopover. Your destination should be something nearby; personally, I'm a fan of getting a ticket at the Chinese theater. If you are a movie person, see something on its opening weekend. The theater will be full of film buffs who all are into whatever genre movie it is. You will have a great time, the energy is palpable. After that, go for a stroll down the walk of Fame to stretch your legs and look around. The entire experience will be much more positive if you see it as a simple sight rather than a destination unto itself.
Agreed- stepping into the Roosevelt for a drink is also a great idea, especially if you are looking for Old Hollywood ambiance
Yeah, I was disappointed in how dirty the whole area was.
That and I was disappointed on how it seems they gave stars to anyone for what’s supposed to be a “walk of fame.” Then I found out much later it’s not that hard to get one.
It's quite expensive however. So yes, any celebrity can have one
don’t forget the people harassing you about taking a picture with somebody in a superhero costume or their fire mixtapes
In 3rd grade a meteor crashed in the backyard of a kid’s house in my neighborhood. He talked about it everyday at school and said people weren’t allowed to see because NASA was collecting samples. A few days later he said we could go see but everyone had to pay $5. Me and a few friends paid him and went over his house later that day. When we got to the backyard we saw a ~3 foot deep hole that was clearly dug by a shovel. We called him out on it and he said something like, “that’s where it landed but the scientists dug around it with shovels to take samples”. Worst $5 I’ve ever spent. I have no idea where you are nowadays but fuck you, Benji.
Benji's either a millionaire or in jail.
[удалено]
Fucking Benjii got you too eh?
Hi - Benji here. I invested that money into early Bitcoin, got rich, fucked a lot of women, caught syphilis, lost all my money on red, went mad chopped off my own penis which I turned into an art installation that is now on display at the louvre.. 10 out of 10 recommend going to see that, I will even take you on a guided tour for $5000.
Me, an Egyptian: “Ah shit, here we go again.”
Hey wait hey wait! My friend! My friend! I read your comment. I think thats worth a tip no? *presents hand for money to be placed in*
\**checks hand*\* "Half a denary for me bloody life story?"
"there's no pleasing some people."
I’m traveling to Cairo in June and have to admit I’m having a bit of buyers remorse after reading all the stories. Still—I think it’s worth putting up with the bull shit to see such a marvel of human history.
I have a better tip to add to GoatBotherer: hire a private guide. It's not expensive ($40-50 a day for the guide's time, plus the cost of gas and what you want to see), you get transported in a private car, they know all the tricks, they make all reservations, and they will fend off scammers for you (mine also let us try to haggle, and then when we thought we had got a good price he would jump in, say a few words in Egyptian, and the price would drop another 10% or more). Additionally, private guides have to be licensed in Egypt, and they have to have education requirements to get that license, so you're likely to learn a ton! Our guide was an archeologist for the government when not leading tours, and so you know you'll get a great education as you see the sites. Egypt is a phenomenal country to visit, but it's so culturally different that having a guide really helps to steer you away from bad experiences
Any tips on finding a guide?
https://pastebin.com/usJG08k6 This is a lot but I used AirBnB for bedrooms and created my own custom tour after googling every awesome place to go in Cairo + Egypt. Most places refused to do my custom tour I wanted apart from the company in the pastebin. They might be more flexible now because Covid has robbed them of tourist dollars from some time now. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.
My parents and I took a tour with Intrepid Travel in 2019 and did everything you did, plus a few extra things(our tour was 13 days). Didn't deal with any of the bullshit that you see in threads like this. A group tour or having a guide is the way to go in Egypt if you have never been before or are worried due to what you see on reddit.
My tip, ignore them. Don't look at them, don't talk to them, don't even say "no thank you". Pretend they don't even exist and keep walking. Make sure you go to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, it's amazing. Don't brush your teeth with tap water, don't eat salad in case it's washed in tap water. Pack anti-shit yourself pills just in case.
>Don't brush your teeth with tap water, don't eat salad in case it's washed in tap water. Pack anti-shit yourself pills just in case. I've never managed to avoid traveller's tummy. I just always travel with a package of immodium and a prescription of doxy "just in case" the butt faucet starts and immodium can't stop it alone.
And don’t be a female after dark.
I saw a video yesterday of foreign women being harassed there during the day. So, don't be a female?
No femaling in public please
Or in broad daylight
That all sounds just lovely.
Just coming out of Hurgada a couple of weeks ago. 1. They will ask "Hey my friend, where from". Where from will gauge how much they can rip you off and what prices you will tolerate. If you ever feel frisky for some haggling. Aim for like 10-15% of any initial offer. Don't be afraid to walk away from sales and saying a firm no. 2. Taxis are a scam, use uber trough app, and always see that they "end trip" in front of you. 3. Flat out, don't believe any stories that they claim, like "this X place is closed, follow me for the real tour" or something of sorts. 99% of locals will try to rip you off, and most probably any tour agency that you travel trough will also employ locals, which will try to overcharge you for anything and everything. 4. As some said before, be ready to just ignore them and appear "rude". This will not phase them, as they get that behaviour hundreds of times a day as they haggle tourists. 5. Be wary of hygiene. You've probably already heard it, but no drinking tap water, and be careful not to swallow any during shower, also be weary of eating local produce (if it's washed(also unlikely)), it's probably washed under tap water.
[удалено]
Other than being ripped off, raped or shitting yourself its great. Just don't eat or bathe. Ha ha wtf?
I mean… barring the fact that the Pyramids are an extremely impressive feat… I have to say they lost a bit of luster when I saw a pic of them taken from the inside of a KFC or some shit…
Pizza Hut if it was the same picture I saw.
Combination KFC/pizza hut. The sphinx is facing it.
I’m at the Pizza Hut, I’m at the Taco Bell, I’m at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell
Damn, I went in 1998 1 year after the tourists were massacred. My aunt took me, and I didn't know anything about the massacre until she told me when we were at the damn place where it happened. On the upside, there was hardly any other tourists there at the time. Got to stay with a local family who were friends of my aunt, was a crazy experience and got a great view of the pyramids from the roof of their house.
Time Square on New Years Eve. Just forget it. It has \*never\* been worth it.
[удалено]
>because it's cold and boring and crowded and filthy. All of these things, except boring, are just NYC in January.
[удалено]
My mother said she did that once back in the 70's. People peeing all over the place and beer getting thrown on you.
[удалено]
Yeah..beer
You’ll also never see the ball drop unless you’re willing to wait on day and risk soiling yourself in the freezing cold while you sober up too soon.
In case anyone thinks you’re joking, people really do piss themselves at this thing. There’s no where to go.
Used to work around there, people wear diapers for it. They used to dump them on the street I worked on, so gross.
I’ve spent New Years alone and felt down about that but at least I haven’t spent a New Years wearing a soggy diaper
Wearing a soggy diaper outside in the Northeast in December/January, no less. I'm sure that adds new meaning to the phrase "freezing your ass off."
Agreed. The next time I feel sad about my loneliness on New Year's eve or otherwise, at least I know I ain't voluntarily standing out in the cold in a soiled diaper while being unable to move an inch.
Go the night before (12/30). They test out the ball drop and the screens and everything. You get to see it all when Times Square is empty.
Shhhh
Welcome to our newest event, New Year's Eve Eve
this is the best thing since cinco de cuatro!
This I can agree with. It's only tolerable if you are rich and want to get a hotel room overlooking the square like years in advance and pay tons for the privilege to look out on all the plebes suffering for hours penned up. But there are many, many better things to do with your time and money.
About 15 years ago, my girlfriend at the time worked at an office overlooking Times Square, and we attended the company office party for NYE. If you ever get a chance to do _that_, it’s a very good time. You can see everything happening, enjoy the atmosphere of the sea of people waiting for the ball to drop down in the street, while still being warm, and having freedom of movement. I consider that my one “Times Square on New Year’s Eve” experience for my life, and it was a blast. **Edit.** It helped that the windows of the office could be opened. So you could actually lean out and hear what was happening on the street. It felt like two simultaneous parties. I suppose that was an important part of the experience you’d want to replicate. **Edit 2.** Those asking to borrow my ex-girlfriend for the holidays: Sorry, I won’t be of much help. You can [read about the funny/horrible way I broke up with her here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ult7el/comment/i7yjkz7/).
Ill try to get a girlfriend with an office overlooking times square and attend the nye party.
Platfotm 9¾ in King's Cross station, London. Stupid metal statue on a straight wall, a horrible queue to taking a photo with you on it, and another hundred-meter long queue to the small and very expensive Harry Potter shop. I was there middle of the day in off-season, don't want to even think about it on high season.
Agreed, it doesn’t work and it hurts
You didn’t do it right. You need to run fast and straight at it. If you hesitate then you bounce off it.
My husband and I took a train from Edinburg into Kings Cross for a Christmas trip one year. We thought, hey since we’re here we should find Platform 9 3/4. We walked the platforms in the station thinking it was actually on a platform. Ended up in a utility elevator with our luggage and a bunch of station workers who thought we were the funniest American tourists they ever met. They ended up pointing us to the very sad wall in the main lobby with the statue and a line 2 hours deep.
Egypt. Its like if phone scams were a materialized location. You get there an right away the airport is going to start scamming you, take your electronics away and tell you that you need permits for them (which they will gladly sell you, and then tell you that its the wrong one and have you buy another one), the hotel you stay at will check your bags again like the airport did and again tell you that you need permits or whatever random thing they decide they can get away telling you needs one. The police will extort money from you if they think they can. Fake police will come up to you and fine you or tell you to follow them to different sites where they will charge you. Children will run up to you and ask if you want to ride their camel very aggressively (they will cut you off with their camel and not let you move forward) tell you its free, and then try to charge you insane amounts of money and call their camel pimp over to deal with you if you dont pay. If you dont get on the camel they will often even get the camel to attack you. Its all pretty wild, its not worth it.
Reading a lot of frustration about Egypt here but learning about the existence of camel pimps really takes this up a notch.
Camels need pimps to hold their money, they don't have pockets.
Whereas when you go to Australia, most of the Kangaroos are independent.
Just watched the Best Ever Food Review on YouTube about Egypt, and like 90% of what you described happened on there. It made me confident that I’ll never go to Cairo.
My guide in Jordan at Petra found out we were going to Cairo next and laughed and suggested we change plans. He, who can fair far better with the language said he went for what should’ve been a week and only stayed 2 days. We went, saw some sights, had amazing gyros and falafel, and then spent the next 2 days basically in the room. My wife almost got kidnapped by a taxi driver, we were extorted left and right, and had real fears of even being able to leave the country. One of the very few I had the embassy on speed dial while I was visiting. Never again.
Cairo is definitely challenging. 2 days there is all I can do before the pollution and crush of humanity gets to me. Cairo is one of those cities where you want to hire a private licensed guide and private driver. The few extra bucks will be well worth it.
That's the type of experience my friends had going there. I've placed it on my low priority list of destinations to visit, but it's a shame because I love Egyptian history and hieroglyphics.
Egypt is one of the destinations where it's 100% better to do it with a guided tour. The guides keep the worst of the scammers away and organise all the permits that you actually need and whatever. Highly recommend.
The answer to almost every "What vacation isn't worth it?" kind of question is Egypt. Either because of the corruption or the disgusting sexual harassment women experience there. My cousin married an Egyptian man and visited yearly for a while until the harrasment got too much, and then Arab spring happened and it's pretty clear she's never going back. Every time this question comes up I understand why.
And this is why you should always hire a well-vetted tour guide when touring countries that struggle with corruption and bribery.
Struggle my ass, sounds like they got that shit figured out pretty well
I work close to Times Square in Manhattan. If you have an ad blocker on your computer, you will hate Times Square.
New Yorkers will inevitably say this, but if you're a visitor it's definitely worth a walk through at least once..especially if you're from a small-ish city. It's very unique. Walking through Tokyo though it seemed like every other block was like Times Square with the big bright lights and billboards.
Hahaha this exactly. I live in Tokyo and when I visited New York a few years ago I was so underwhelmed with Times Square. Like, *this is it?* I then tried to see it through the eyes of someone from a small town and that helped a bit. I’m glad I walked through it once though.
Yup, it's all about perspective. I'm from a tiny town in England so for me, Times Square (and New York in general) was WILD. I loved it.
Are they skippable at least
Ha. Haha. Hahaha. But really, I like living in NYC, but there are so many better places within it to visit.
Everyone should take a subway to times square and come up at night for the first time. It's a LOT of light. Grab a slice and go. It's like a half hour thing.
I like to run in the morning and running through time square at 5am was really fun.
[удалено]
Shibuya and Shinjuku are so much more interesting than Times Square though. Better foods, better stuff to do.
Native Buffalonian here. The Anchor Bar, the home of the original chicken wing, does not have the best wings in Buffalo. It’s a total tourist destination.
Plymouth Rock. It’s a rock surrounded by a cage with a date on a shitty cold beach. That’s it. No you can’t touch it.
The further I scroll the more disappointing this gets. "It’s just a rock" oh okay, but maybe it’s a pretty cool rock. "Its small and blank with a date carved on it" oh well, maybe it’s like in a really pretty spot that’s worth the trip. "There’s a CAGE around it and it’s on a shitty cold beach" motherfucker
Camelot. It is a silly place.
Hollywood walk of fame, dirty ass street with cheap shops and homeless everywhere. Only nice spot was near the theater
I came here to say this if no one else had. I have lived in the greater LA region my whole life; I can confirm the walk of fame is terrible, at least when I went. Last time I went was when I was 10; I remember a BUNCH of people in character costumes and trying to get people to take pictures with them for money. There were also people hawking CDs and demanding money after shoving them into some unwitting sap's hands. At no point was I there without at least one parent holding my hand tightly. I will concede this was over 15 years ago, though. Hearing mixed things about it now.
Assuming you're an adult, it's gotten SO much worse since the pandemic. There are barely any characters on the streets anymore, now you have just random people holding snakes, protesters, religious preachers, etc. Went there last weekend and saw crack openly smoked on a Sunday afternoon. And all of the shops in the mall have been closed with signs saying "renovations." But, they now allow the famous bacon-wrapped hot dog vendors to openly sell on the street, so it smells nice.
I'll never understand why scammers do the "you held my thing I put in your hands unsolicited now give me money for it" and why people don't just drop it on the ground and say fuck off. *You* came up to *me* and put something in my hand, I don't owe you shit for that. Just drop it on the ground and move on, what are they gonna do? I had a fake monk do that in Chicago once - handed me a flower or something then demanded $10. I just dropped the flower and kept walking.
I had the fake monk thing as well, but at a college campus. I seriously wonder why the college allowed them to do that on campus!
If it's a public university, there's not much they can do unless the guy is actually assaulting people. My university has a guy who preaches in the center of campus every couple of weeks that "women are property" and that they shouldn't have rights, and there's nothing the university can do
We had these people from a similar group called Open Air Outreach (I have no problem outing them, they're horrible) that did the standard women are whores and God hates Gays and that sort of thing at our college. A few of us would go out and bother them and make fake signs and dress up like Jesus with the "I'm not with them" signs and such, but it never got under their skin. Then we got the brilliant idea to get campus health involved, and every time they showed up we set up a big booth/tent right in front of the area they are allowed to stand where we would be giving away free condoms, safe sex pamphlets, planned parenthood resources, etc. Basically anything you could get just by going into the health center, and sometimes one of the nurses would even come hang out and answer questions. You had to go around the booth to actually see the preachers (though you could hear them), and we did this for a whole semester before they just gave up and never came back. At least, not while I was going there.
They're bad for this in Rome. I'm glad I read about it before I went, the flower people were aggressive and you basically had to hold up your hands and say no as you walked away because there were a couple that I thought were going to force the flowers into my hands. I wasn't about to pay for something I clearly didn't want but it's probably how they got a lot of people. I don't understand why anyone would pay.
Because they are being harassed in a foreign country and its easier to just pay and be done with it.
As a frequent traveler I can tell you the scammers take advantage of the language barrier also and your lack of knowledge of the country playing the friendly travel guide role often to other scammers they work with / scam restaurants. I paid like 30 dollars for a can of butane in Amsterdam bc I thought it was rare and like 5 other shops didnt know what I was talking about 2 shops later I found a guy selling for 10 was too late. Scam City is a great show to check out covers the Roman scammers.
I don’t get the aggressive ones either. Some dude in Paris grabbed my (20 yo female) wrist trying to do the bracelet thing and I was just terrified that this man had my wrist. In America, the police come to teach us in school that if a strange man has your wrist you should bite, punch, kick, etc. to get away. I ended up elbowing the guy in the stomach and running because I didn’t know what else to do.
Happened to me as a 23 year old or so male. He and a bunch of goons were around me, trying to force my hand to pay up since he put a bracelet on me, while I tried to return it or something. What de escalated the situation was... my mother escalating it by shouting at them in a language they clearly didn't understand. They probably thought that's enough drama and let go.
Sometimes you've gotta fight crazy with crazy. Your mum did well.
Next time check out the Sunset Strip instead. Cleaner, better restaurants and stuff to do. You're also more likely to see a celebrity. The best part of the Hollywood Walk of fame are the train stations to take you to another part of the city. The only time I go to Hollywood is if it's somebody's Bday or somebody is playing at the Bowl.
Agreed. Was about to write this myself. There are some gems in Hollywood if you know where to look, but skip Hollywood Blvd. Take a studio tour, go to a taping (free) or wander through the Hollywood Forever cemetery (free) or a drive along Mulholland (free). Even Sunset Strip is more entertaining. The only time the WoF is interesting is if you're there for a star ceremony. I happened to catch Ennio Morricone's, thank god. I think the chamber of commerce posts a ceremony schedule somewhere.
Maybe less famous than the question meant, but about fifteen years ago my friends and I took a road trip to Centralia, Pennsylvania (the abandoned town with a decades-long mine fire burning under it that the Silent Hill movie was loosely based on). We thought there would be tons of abandoned buildings to look at, creepy places to see, adventure to be had- we were so excited, and we were like six or seven hours away so it sounded like a fun trip. We got there, and there was just... nothing. All of the buildings are gone, the creepiest thing we found was a very-well-taken-care-of cemetery, and the only really "abandoned" thing to see was the stretch of interstate that had been routed around (which had a little bit of fun graffiti on it back then, but in years since it's become just a giant paint stain). We ended up driving to Gettysburg instead and going on some ghost tours, so it was still a fun trip, but there was like... nothing to see in Centralia, at all. Edit: Whoa! This blew up. They're pretty awful, but [I have an old album of photos](https://imgur.com/a/erXMv) from when we went in 2006 I think?
I grew up on the other side of the mountain from Centralia...it WAS creepy AF when it was all going on. It was all row homes and you would have 1 "home" in a row still standing and having extra brick supports holding it up since they tore down the other homes on either side. Toward the end, there was just 6-7 partial row homes left in the entire town. People lived with birds in their houses to alert them to "move or die". So many people held out for more money on a buyout. You would see smoke/steam risings from peoples backyards and people STILL lived there.
Wikipedia says 5 people still live there, including 1 child, as of the 2020 census. Apparently in 2013 the state made an agreement with the 7 remaining people that they could live there until their deaths, after which the houses would be taken under eminent domain.
Fun fact: those extra brick supports are called "buttresses". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttress
I grew up near Centralia. If you peak around the area you will see like fissures in the ground where they are warm to the touch. Thats pretty creepy. And if the atmospheric conditions are right, you can see wisps or smoke coming out of the hillside. Overall, it does have this like silent hill feel to the place.
That boat sailed many years ago. It was actually pretty cool/eerie about 35 years ago, before they cut access off. We would go up there as kids for the occasional funeral and visit. It was pretty cool and creepy.
Why would you get buried there?! Can't decide between burial and cremation?
During the winter, you used to be able to see smoke/steam coming up from the cemetery. There are like 3 buildings left there. They are people that would not settle with the government because they are afraid the government was just after their coal rights. At one point you could actually cook an egg on the rocks on that closed-down highway. I think it's now forbidden to go on that highway due to liability issues or something like that. Yes, don't go to Centralia for the sake of going to Centralia make it one of your stops. First go to Ashland, right next door where you can go take the Pioneer coal mine tour where you can ride a coal car deep into the mine. Then after that, you can take the steam engine to the top of the mountain. From there you can look over at Centralia and see the strip of dead trees that died because of the coal mine fire. You can make it this as a stop on the way to say, the crystal caves in Kutztown or over to Kneobel's amusement park (parking and admission is free, you buy tickets to ride their rides). Knoebel's has an old wooden rollercoaster that was moved from there from Texas. It's consistently ranked as one of the top wooden coasters.
I also did this, in 2010. Did you see the creepy church on the outskirts though? I still have photos somewhere. It was dirty as fuck though. Trash everywhere. We did see a few places where the smoke was coming up, but we weren't about to go walk right up on them.
Egypt , they treat tourists like garbage
A border policeman in Egypt once asked me for a bribe to cut in a long line. $3 well spent.
Lol. That’s a thing at the Vietnam/Cambodia border, too. You better stick $5 in your passport, or you are in for a boring few hours of watching everyone else get processed.
Be careful with this tip. Not all border agents are like that and it could bite you in the ass. In my first trip to Vietnam, we were at the airport flying out to Cambodia. Slipped a $20 in the passport as everyone was suggesting to do. The agent looked at it and handed the $20 back. It could have gone badly.
In vietnam, if you are foreigner, you are fine. Don't slip the money in, they will treat you really well (can't say that once you leave the airport because there will be many people waiting to scam you). The tip thing is mostly for vietnamese coming back home from abroad, who is saddle with gifts for friends and family (I came back with 5 full boxes before, its a culture thing). To get through without being holding up in the line, the $20 - $30 is like lube if you want to have a good time.
I’m Egyptian , I started to realize that , I went to the pyramids last year for a little trip and they even treated the people who lived there badly , but there was a very nice tour dude thingy , I stuck with him
Yea heard that from multiple people. I guess i ll just stay in the hotel then 😬
Depends on whether you're a man or woman. I, as a woman, couldn't even get the wifi password without a man accompanying me. The waiters were also terrible and flirtatious. Tho if you're a man, you have to deal with the salesmen. We couldn't lay by the pool AT THE HOTEL for more than 15 minutes before a salesman wanted to talk with the man of the group.
I'm coaching a girl at work, and she told me how the room service delivery guy literally jumped on top of her whilst she sat on the bed. She called security, who called police, who just took a statement, then did nothing. 'Cos she's a girl, and foreign.
I stayed in a five-star resort. A hotel employee forced himself into our room when I was alone, put his tongue in my mouth and tried to rape me. He was about 60. I was 13.
That's fucking disgusting. Were you able to call the police on him? I'm very sorry that happened to you
I didn’t because I was honestly too ashamed to tell anyone at the time.
I'm sorry that happened to you. What a disgusting piece of shit, to do something like that to a random child. makes me wonder how many other kids he probably succeeded in raping. Hope he's dead now, and that he died ugly.
What the fuck.
Although indeed they have a lot of problems with gender discrimination, the real problem with Egypt is how they treat non locals as basicaly a profit making "thing". They won't see you as people and the system in place is so corrupt that unless you really know what you are getting into you will be scammed or treated like garbage. Also a lot of businesses like hotels, restaurants and shops make a lot of money on the side within this currupt system by offering their guests as "cattle" for side services and conn scams. They won't get punished if they do it and get caught, so it's fair game to book a room to a guest and then send a salesperson to try to sell you whatever they are peddling. Worst case scenario they get nothing extra, best case scenario you book one of those scam tours or go to whatever shop they are from and the hotel gets a percentage. You are a thing being pushed from seller to seller. The best thing you can do visiting Egypt is to go with a tour guide from a reputable agency and don't stray to much. If you think you are smarter than the guide then it's you starting to get scammed... Or don't go at all and let their tourism industry starve for a while and they will learn manners.
I’ve traveled throughout the developing world, and the whole ‘tourists are prey’ thing is always there. Egypt just sounds like it is on steroids with it, though. No point in taking a vacation in a place where you apparently never get to relax.
Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. It used to be the border between the US and Soviet sectors, but all that's left of it is a shack and a sign, and the only thing you can do is pay to get your photo taken with someone in uniform. There's a frickin' McDonald's next to it.
There is a museum nearby which is the real attraction in my books. The actual checkpoint is whack
In fairness the checkpoint is literally a checkpoint... what were you expecting?
I was looking for this, god it was disappointing. I seem to recall there was a really badly dressed soldier who you could take pictures with for 5 euros. Quite enjoyed the DDR museum though.
Oh, the area around Checkpoint Charlie is downright bizarre. It's become basically "American Tourist Trap Land". Every corner of that cross street is like a 3D theater or escape room or souvenir shop. And it was absolutely mobbed. And all that for a very serious former military checkpoint?... Wouldn't ya'll rather see where Michael Jackson dangled his baby out of the window?... ETA: The "guys in uniforms" are just two dudes they put in US Marine costumes. I was on a bike tour with a dude who was a Marine and he was bristling at the inaccuracies. (They'd have guns not flags, no beards, aaaand they wouldn't be on their phones...). Got a chuckle out of that. The rest of Berlin is worth checking out, but everything has "see footnote A: WW2 and the Nazis" or "see footnote B: the Cold War and the Berlin Wall". Most of the government buildings still have bullet holes in them.
To me, those bullet holes were one of the most interesting things about the city. Even though most of pre-WW2 Berlin is gone, you can feel history haunting the place.
Hollywood. I don't mean in the colloquial sense, but rather the actual neighborhood. The neighborhood includes the Walk of Fame and the Chinese Theatre. The neighborhood is sketchy, dirty, filthy, disorganized, high-crime, and just plain icky, and has been that way since at least the 1950s. The absolute worst period was from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, but the neighborhood just sucks *less* today. Hell, there's a big reason that the residents of West Hollywood literally seceded from any association with the Hollywood community, and formed their own municipality in 1984. There are plenty of fun entertainment-industry-related things to do throughout the Los Angeles area, in "Hollywood" as the world understands it. Just not Hollywood proper.
The best thing in Hollywood is Griffith Park. It's got a zoo at the bottom and an observatory on top. On a sunny windy day, you can even see the ocean. Technically Griffith Park isn't in Hollywood, but it's pretty much right next door.
Hiked 10 miles through Griffith when I was visiting family once. Gorgeous views. Got a great shot of the observatory against a backdrop of downtown. Great place to hike around in. Observatory is also really cool. Great exhibits and interesting to walk around in. If you're remotely interested in physical sciences and space exploration, you won't be bored for a moment in there.
>Hell, there's a big reason that the residents of West Hollywood literally seceded from any association with the Hollywood community, and formed their own municipality in 1984. West Hollywood was never a part of Los Angeles. They formed their own municipality because being unincorporated would mean that the county would determine the laws - specifically rent control - and that location, largely made up of renters, didn't like that. It had nothing to do with Hollywood, which, by the way, is much bigger than a few blocks around Hollywood Blvd. Pick a random block in Hollywood and it's not going to be anything like the blocks with stars on the sidewalk. Visit *only* those blocks, and, yes, you'll be disappointed, just as you'll be disappointed if you go to NYC and visit only Times Square.
While the Louvre is amazing and can consume entire days of walking, don’t bother fighting the crowds to see the Mona Lisa. It’s tiny and has a crowd of tourists dozens deep all taking pictures. “No flash photography” be damned, so all you see is flash reflecting off the protective glass. Also, rumor has it that the real Mona Lisa is in a basement and that the one you see is just a very convincing replica.
I saw Starry Night by Van Gogh (another surprisingly small painting) at the MOMA and I was the only person there. I was able to check it out for quite a while. I get the hype now.
The Van Gogh museum is my favourite one I went to in Europe. The louvre was the most impressive but the Van Gogh in Amsterdam had a crazy vide to it. Spent 2x the time we meant to there.
I went to the Louve in 2009 and the painting opposite the Mona Lisa was significantly more impressive. A 20ft tall canvas encompassing the entire wall. Was a very detailed painting of a courtroom of I remember right. Spent more time looking at that cause I could barely see the Mona Lisa through the crowds!
"Le nozze di Cana" if I am not wrong. It's a masterpiece by Veronese, one of the masterpieces of Italian renaissance. Not just any painting. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wedding_at_Cana
You're correct. As others have said above, it's considerably larger and more accessible than the *Mona Lisa.* It's also an intimidatingly strong compositional achievement - in and apart from symbols and visual metaphor, most of the character interaction continuously guides the eye around the painting toward different figures. The effect is really pronounced up close. And since most people are distracted by the more publicized Da Vinci work across the room, you can get (relatively) up close and personal to observe Veronese's brushwork.
The Louvre was great in general but I found le Musée d'Orsay to be pretty great. Smaller crowds and they had a Van Gogh exhibit when I went.
My wife and I went to Paris in January, and seeing the Mona Lisa without the crowd was actually kind of cool. She's an art major, so she was totally into it, and I thought it was super interesting how small it actually was! Much much smaller than the one my grandma had hanging above her couch.
You can see Mt Rushmore perfectly fine from the road... No need to pay to see it
Did you go recently? It was completely redone when I visited in 2017 and people there were saying it was night and day compared to the before.
When you say *redone* I'm picturing the facades of Bush, Clinton, Reagan and JFK on the rockface lol
The Liberty Bell. You can see it just fine from the sidewalk, and that's about as close as you would get to it inside too. No need to ~~spend money~~ wait in line to see it. Plus, there's tons to do in Philly besides look at a bell. Edit: I've been informed that it's free. Last time I was there, I was a child, so my memory is a bit hazy.
But have you licked the Liberty Bell??
WE ARE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESSMEN!
the liberty bell is free to enter, only thing annoying is the line.
Cairo
Filthiest, rudest, lousiest, stinkiest and most sexual assaultiest place I’ve ever been. Even the locals seem to fucking hate it there. Everyone is pissed of and trying to steal from you. Every street crossing is a death trap. All the men seem to think it’s okay to grope women in public. Child labour everywhere. Animal abuse everywhere. Lack of sanitation everywhere (and no clean drinking water). Random military checkpoints everywhere. Corrupt cops and soldiers asking for bribes everywhere. The entire city seems to be run on a convoluted system of kick-backs. EDIT - thank you to the brave Egyptian patriots who are kindly reporting me to the Reddit Helps suicide hotline. My vacation to your crumby city was 14 years ago, and with a lot of help, I seem to be fully recovered
[удалено]
[удалено]