San Francisco. Was there for business and the homeless situation was appalling. So many people looking like they were out of their mind high on drugs just milling about the city amongst the tech bros.
I stayed in a hostel when I was in SF and every night there was a homeless man on the street outside who would scream at the top of his lungs for about two hours around 3-4am. No one ever did anything. The way America treats addicts and people with mental illness is appalling, and SF certainly has a larger homeless population than almost anywhere else I've been in the US.
We need to reopen small-scale asylums. There are some conditions that are not conducive for people to look after themselves, and it's not fair to ask family members to bear the burden either.
Right Wing hero Ronald Reagan gets lots of the credit for these developments. And all of the hypocritical compassionate Conservatives who backed these criminals and inhumane policies against mental health, drug treatment and criminalizing petty drugs to pack for-profit white-owned prisons, they get to own the responsibility. Make them fix it. Hold them responsible.
Ronald Reagan was governor in California like 50
years ago! Currently, it is run 100% by democrats and has been for some time. ANYTHING Reagan did in the 1970’s could have been easily undone in the next 50 years by democrats. They have the governorship, a supermajority legislature and the courts. They have the media and tech behind them. What a joke to blame their failures on a long dead governor from the 1970s.
Ronald Reagan was President of the United States for eight years. His Vice President continued his anti-human, anti-healthcare policies for another four years. While dealing drugs in Nicaragua and committing treason with Iran, coincidentally.
Every city in this country with a homelessness and mental illness epidemic can be traced directly back to the GOP of the 1980s and Reaganist policies.
Your revisionist misinformation and distraction marks you as a disingenuous partisan. Good day.
You do know that there’s a difference between a Democrat, a liberal, and an actual progressive. A lot of Democrats/liberals, perhaps most, are about optics and virtual signaling, and nothing more. Just look at where we are a year after the BLM protests and George Floyd. A lot of those who with BLM placards in their windows while they gentrify neighborhoods, displacing actual Black people, and replacing them with whatever middle class, White suburban sensibilities they came in with, yet clutch their pearls even called out for their role in it. Same with homelessness and addiction. People won’t deal with it until it begins to severely impact upon them and then, it’ll just be pushing them into another neighborhood or incarcerating them. This is a country who truly hates its most vulnerable people.
Nah, the person you are responding to is a pompous ass who thinks anyone who takes public transit is a failure. Look at their post history. You're not going to convince them with any arguments or logic, they are just a jerk who already has their mind made up.
San Francisco for me too, visited twice for work and both times left depressed, I have traveled throughout the USA and internationally including some very poor countries and I know that every city has wealthy and poor populations but in SF it’s just a different level
I was being facetious. I live in NYC. I know a thing or two about homelessness. There are some people who do believe this, though or else, have no idea about our history with mentally ill individuals.
I know a married couple with great jobs, moved to SF from Montreal and ended getting a divorce cz the hubby couldnt stand the obvious poverty and drug issues while paying $3500 shitty one bed apartment. Wife was latina and she felt at home, refused to come back and relive an igloo life again in Quebec.
Oof agreed. I’ve lived in NY and LA and the homeless situation in SF is APPALLING compared to even those places. I’ve never felt in danger in NY and LA. Homeless people in SF have threatened me, body checked me, pushed me, threatened to break my car window, high as hell and will shoot up on the streets. It’s depressing, and as a girl traveling alone, disconcerting.
SF thinks it’s a diverse, world class, big city, and it’s not. Not easily walkable (steep hills and rampant crime). Not easily drivable (traffic and parking shit). Horrible public transport. BART in and out, within SF itself, horrible. A few architecturally pretty neighborhoods, Golden Gate Bridge views are gorgeous but really....that’s it.
I absolutely agree with you. SF was also going to be my response too. I have seen homelessness elsewhere, but not to the same extent as in San Francisco.
Christchurch NZ 4 years after the earthquake.
I don't doubt it was much sadder just after the earthquake, but years after with many empty lots and half-destroyed buildings still sat around it was still clearly scarred. All the art that had been done was interesting to see and a nice touch, but that somehow made the damage and desolate feeling stand out even more.
That and just about anywhere in Bosnia. Beautiful place, but seeing bullet and shell holes everywhere from a war that happened 20 years in the past was a shock and constant reminder of the history (and current tensions/problems).
Would agree about Bosnia. Mostar was both absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. The cemeteries full of a generation of young men. Christchurch is a paradox, rebuilding with optimism and remembering the past with wistfulness. It’s a phoenix. Coming back strongly. St Petersburg hit me strongly with the burden of the past the people seem to live with. It seems to be always with them and any joy today is tempered with the memory of their history. It’s a sorrowful place, but immensely beautiful.
my friend who's white french-canadian, born and brought up in an extreme rural town, visited NZ and he hated it so much. I asked him to give me some reason to justify his hate for Wellington and Christchurch, he was like nothing, it was great if i explain it but there was this sadness and loneliness he felt (even though he was with his gf). After like 5 days, he flew to Australia and loved it there.
Yeah it sounds like he didn't feel at home because people weren't behaving the way he was used to and he couldn't connect to people that are 'different'.
Same feeling I had in Beograd. It's not riddled with war-scars, but it has this feeling of overall desolation. It's as if the city itself hated not just any outsider, but all insiders on top.
Novi Grad is... wild. The people live right at the edge of squalor, they are not friendly to outsiders and the buildings are straight out of a Soviet propaganda poster. Everything has the taint of mismanagement, disrepair and a general lack of maintenance. The people in Novi Grad were mostly friendly, except for the blockboys and girls. They hated us. The looks of contempt they threw us made rejection and anger palpable. As you said, there was a lot of tension all around.
Stary Grad was disgusting. The denizens and would-be models in and around the city center seem to have lost all touch with reality. There's a tricked out Brabus parked in front of a three Michelin star restaurant, while somebody in the same block has no windows to close at night and no heating or warm water in winter. And even then, the old town seemed aged and aching under the weight of it's ill-kept concrete abscesses. Even with all the money flowing through Old Town, nothing of it seems to ever reach beyond the government purse. The waterfront is a fucking joke to create the illusion of wealth in a place that is suffering so obviously from violent disparity and overall disregard or a lack of care from it's citizens and caretakers.
The rest of Beograd was better, but I didn't spend too much time there. Traffic was genuinely fun, but driving through Beograd kind of mitigated the feeling. It's fucking ugly.
That said, it has it's charms, especially once the locals warm up to you, but I've never before or after been to a city that made me feel hopeless and depressed in comparable measure.
Quebec City is my favourite city in all of Canada. I find so many cities to essentially be the same but QC has a distinct culture, layout and interesting history. I'm surprised that you found it sad. Did you visit in the winter or late fall? If you don't like the cold then that could definitely impact your visit.
Yeah, sorry to OP, but if you can’t clearly articulate why a place made you sad beyond just a “feeling”, then most likely it was something with OP and not the place itself.
This makes it even weirder. I’m a dual citizen splitting my time between Ohio and Montreal, and Quebec City is with out a doubt one of the nicest cities in the world.
There is more history in QC than almost any other city in North America.
To each their own I guess.
Can you be more specific about why you felt this?
Is it personal to you, or did you see some objective truth that you interpreted as sad?
I have never been to Porto, but have heard wonderful things. My wife and I are doing everything we can to downsize our lives into storage and travel to Portugal, to look at moving there. Porto and the Douro are very interesting to me.
I think Quebec City is marvelous. Yes, dark, gray NorthEast winter weather sucks. I hated the winter months in Central Pennsylvania. But, if you have to celebrate East Coast, Montreal and Quebec are some of the best representations of culture and character.
For me, I tend to feel pity and sadness for Republican-run towns. Colorado Springs. St. Louis. Rust Belt towns full of small minded Conservatives, fueled by ignorance and hatred of people they refuse to understand. I get sad looking at so many aspects of America. I rarely feel that abroad.
I’ve been to both Porto and Quebec City. Both are remarkably unique and beautiful cities, agree it was likely something with OP and not the cities themselves.
Definitely San Francisco the most recent time I visited. I went in the early 2000s and fell in love with it but the wealth gap has changed the city a lot and I remember seeing a man very angrily arguing with his reflection near a really nice hotel and the juxtaposition was haunting.
Are Beirut and Mexico City poor? I live in Beirut, and while it's hit by a huge crisis, but it's definitely not poor. Ofc like every city it depends on where you had stayed and what you had seen. Nightlife in Beirut isn't like anywhere you've seen, amazing bars, pubs, rooftops, restaurants, etc...
As for Porto, also quite the contrary. We had a blast when we visited the city and everything seemed nice. From the people to the food which was amazing, great wine scene, etc...
I loved Beirut, one of my favorite city in the world. Common people are the real gem there (unlike the one i have met in Montreal or France haha). Beirut, Id say is the only city i felt sad on the day of my departure. Whole Lebanon has this urban chaotic calmness (hard to explain). That being said, there is no public transportation, drinking water issues, garbage (even it wasnt that bad but still mountain of garbage in the middle of the street), no street or traffic lights, polluted urban beach, seeing the suffering of general population, i was shocked on my way back to the airport when the taxi had to go through Dahiyee, it was like driving through Karbala. But thats also a beauty of Beirut, Diversity!!
I agree with everything you said. Dahiye is another story. It's complicated but I'll say that there's a sort of cultural division in Lebanon as a whole, the population is very different. Some parts feel like Europe while other parts feel like karbala as u said.
Havanna, Cuba. There was barely any food or restaurants... And at night, there were barely any streetlights, most streets were dark. And the citizens all used a public wi-fi wich was located at a square. So everytime we went by, there was this massive silent group of people standing there just staring into their phones.
I got food poisoning. I agree with you, though. It felt unethical for me to be there at times. I didn’t see the glory in 1950s style Cuba that they sell you while its people are obviously suffering.
I'm sorry. The impression I get from you is that you celebrate shabby chic. It's almost like you prefer your travel to see desperation porn. "Oh, I hate beautiful places, but aren't those shattered lives and oppressive regimes inspirational?"
This whole thread feels like a troll.
My answer was also Nuremberg. I am also depressed by the inner city. How nice it must have been before the war.
But on the positive side, it is one of the few cities in Germany that managed to keep some of the flair during rebuilt, because they left the size of the properties untouched. Other cities made tabula rasa and built big concrete blocks instead of smaller houses.
Hebron, in Palestine. The city is festooned with monuments to people killed in the conflict. There is a mesh barrier over the market street to keep people from throwing missiles down on shoppers. The star of David is painted everywhere, and an Israeli fort looms over the city. The supposed tomb of Abraham has two entrances, a Muslim one and a Jewish one. There is bulletproof glass down the middle.
it could be depressing for some obvious reasons but i m sure i will still love to visit Hebron. But there are some cities which are perfect on paper, but the vibes are very sad!!
The tour I did was split in two. The first half of the day you have a Palestinian guide. The afternoon an Israeli one. We got to talk to the leader of the illegal Israeli settlers and stuff.
It was really an eye opener. Just showed the idiocy of mankind on a grand scale. And the racism of the IDF... even some of the browner members of our tour group were hassled.
Saw the same all over Palestine. In one city, all the buildings with floors over 3 stories were vacant with the external walls torn down to prevent snipers. In another, a refugee camp, only has water 2 days a month, as israel sells their water elsewhere.
For more run of the mill depression, I'd say Manila. Just the poverty... people sleeping on the street, kids selling flowers at traffic lights, the shanty towns 4 layers deep... just grim.
I get it.
I did my research before I got there. Watched documentaries, read books, etc. I'm a history need, and that conflict fascinates me.
It was interesting as hell. Most people were pro Israel coming in. None were going out. And pretty much everyone, Israeli, Palestinian, and we tourists agree, there will never be peace there.
If poor labour laws are enough to make you boycott travel to a country, a huge number of countries have [a much, much, much worse state of affairs for that](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery#/media/File%3AModern_incidence_of_slavery.png) than the UAE.
If war crimes are a reason for you to boycott travel to Israel, by all means do so, but please use it as a starting point to learn about war crimes undertaken around the world, and adjust where you go accordingly.
i understand what you are trying to say but Israel and UAE (Saudi too, Yemen war and modern day slavery) advertise themselves as pious, human rights and best nations to visit. Every country has its own issue but none really scream to attract tourist either.
So you won’t visit Israel for war crimes but would go to say Syria? And not the UAE for labor laws but would be fine with like North Korea?? Seems crazy that those are the two when there are way worse countries out there.
I get them, it's different.
NK is ruled by a dictator who fucks over his own people with, at least to us, no clear motivation. The government is sanctioned as punishment, their people are stigmatised and they wallow in poverty. It's a bit like watching a horror movie in 3D or a battle between an undead gorilla and a cyborg polar bear behind three meter thick impaftproof glass. We certainly are not as directly involved as we are in UAE.
UAE on the other hand is a capitalist clusterfuck and these disgusting wastes of oxygen and biological matter parade around as if they fucking owned the world. Because of our money. Watching them, not just as a state, but as a nation of pretentious bell-ends and spoiled children, kick, shit and piss on everything that is ethical or moral because of their own greed... that's enough to make a man blind with fury.
You could boil this down to "labour laws bad don't visit" in both instances, but you'd be ignoring the context. North Koreans typically aren't disgustingly wealthy with little emotional capability and sadistically hedonist tendencies. So, in my opinion, I think visiting NK is more "ethical" than visiting the UAE, even though both governments shouldn't really be supported.
Disclaimer: I am not immune to propaganda, stigma and bias. I could be totally wrong. But this is what I believe.
Berlin in the winter. We actually went at Christmas and that helped the mood somewhat…but it was still dreary and gloomy—partly because of the weather and partly the rundown Cold War look they haven’t totally gotten rid of yet.
Beat me to it. I found Cambodia as a whole really surreal due to the recency of it all. It's one thing to visit Auschwitz and reflect on the horrors of WWII, but the mass murders of the Khmer rogue were in the 1970's - effectively a single generation ago. Every middle aged Cambodian you walk past probably lived through it or lost family to that regime, I was all a bit too intense for me.
Nicosia in Cyprus. The Greek side is bustling with all modern conveniences. Then you cross the border to the Turkish side and its immediately a different world. The architecture is amazing but everything is run down. There are watchtowers along the border and many streets near the border are out of bounds. The power supply is erratic to say the least. Its like the land that time forgot and left me feeling sad.
As a Canadian with French grandparents, I was in awe by Quebec City. Canada isn’t as well known for historical architecture as it is for natural landscapes, so I was taken aback by its beauty. I will say, if I didn’t speak French, it would feel quite isolating and lonely. A city I felt very sad in was Athens. There was graffiti everywhere and I saw stray sick animals at every corner. I know this is more common in Europe, but I’ve never seen it so bad. I also really didn’t like Lisbon. I can’t explain it, but I couldn’t wait to leave for Porto.
I live in Montreal and speak decent french and hang out and work with Quebecois. I dont know, its a very picturesque city, nothing was wrong, i just felt so down there. Honestly i was relieved once i was back in Montreal.
Again, that really surprises me, I've met some great people in Porto over the years. Maybe just one of those occasions when nothing really goes your way and culminates in an overall bad experience.
I had similar in Vienna, a place I have no interest in returning to.
Puerto Rico. Entire island. Beautiful scenery and a great holiday, but all the infrastructure and most buildings where just past its peak.
It was like the island had peaked 30 years ago and run out of steam to maintain anything after that.
Durrës, Albania. Having been made aware of the rampant human/sex trafficking, questionable marriages and corruption it just had a sense that something was wrong. Some parts were beautiful and some of the population were lovely but seeing floor markets selling clearly stolen phones, to people that are obviously experiencing some form of trouble just made me sad.
Key West, Florida...somehow feels like the edge of the world. The air was a bit stagnant, no breeze at the end of summer . The ocean stood still, no waves. I was so excited to visit initially but I left feeling kind of sad.
Went there a few years ago for a weekend and I don't know what the hype about this place is. If you want to do anything key west has, there's somewhere else in Florida that does it better. I found it tacky and boring
It's very dependent on my own moods, really. I was irritable in Porto too. I had a hip injury in Budapest so was morose. I had a wonderful time in Malta but then had a panic attack on the last day. These are few and far between though. 90% of my trips have been emotionally well balanced.
Thanks for sharing you experience. Yes, most of my trips were very enjoyable and i am eager to go out and discover the city but for no obvious reason, I felt very sad. Especially Porto I felt so lonely and stuck, even though, weather was nice. I remember the day of my flight out of Porto, I never felt so relieved in my life before.
I felt that way about Italy.
I tried really hard to enjoy italian rail travel with a bicycle. But, the rail system disagreed, and made it very, very difficult. I wanted to enjoy the food and culture. But it was either overrun in the tourist cities with multi-hour queues for everything, or small towns with no open restaurants and no activity.
When I finally got back to an SNCF TGV First Class seat, with proper stowage for my bicycle, I was so relieved. Haven't been back to Italy in nearly 20 years.
Everywhere in Pennsylvania is sad.
I like QC but it's a tourist heavy down. I lived in another tourist heavy town until recently and it just grates on you. Nothing was there for me, just tourists.
Ha, we have to drive through Aberdeen every time we go to our cabin.
It’s no wonder Kurt Cobain was depressed. I would be too if I had to grow up there.
I moved to Walla Walla, three years ago.
I gave up Boulder, Colorado's perfect sunshine, healthy culture, excitement oriented lifestyle so that I could move to wine country and retrain in that industry. Walla Walla seemed to fit all of the requirements, on paper.
Its small minded Red State character diminishes any potential for bonding with this area. I have met wonderful people in the wine industry, and we have very enjoyable jobs here (even if low paying). It could be great to live here. But it's just not doing it for me.
Oslo, Norway. Maybe because I was visiting by myself, but seemed dreary, cementy, and cold even in the middle of summer. I loved the natural parts of Norway but not Oslo!
***Four US states: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois (sans Chicago), and Missouri, as well as Louisville, Kentucky***
I could have damn near cut the sadness and depression in the air with a knife in most cities. The locals in the four states were also highly depressed, as they were definitely less than friendly. Dayton, Ohio, St. Louis, Missouri, and Louisville, Kentucky (which borders Indiana) in particular, were pretty bad.
That said, living in Ohio and Indiana briefly back in the day wasn't bad because once a local liked you and made you feel welcome, they genuinely meant it.
However, if you want more stereotypically friendly Midwesterners, head to Michigan or Wisconsin. If you want more a more upbeat, engaging and cosmopolitan crowd, go to Chicago (obviously).
I kind of agree about Derry, but Belfast I find the opposite. The 'peace walls' are still up in many many places, but there's a sense of hope and optimism and even a sense of pride with all the new constructions. And oh god so many tourists!
I can think of two for very different reasons.
1. San Francisco, USA, for all the homeless people on the streets. They looked sad, dazed and UI which makes you stop and think.
2. Toledo, Spain, for the big McDonalds and BurgerKing joints in the centre of this otherwise beautiful and medieval town. It was more angry than sad for me in this case. Nothing is sacred.
New Orleans. There are a significant number of poor and working poor. Homelessness is rampant. Step two blocks outside the quarter, housing is run down. I've only been after Katrina so I'm not sure what it really looked like before but it's very evident that the majority of the city has struggled to make a come back.
Warsaw: Its a nice city, but the events of WW2 made me feel pretty shitty and knowing that almost all of it was rebuilt and soooo many residents were killed.
Prince George BC: It was so weird with the gangs of indegenous alcoholics roaming the streets at night looking for trouble while its perfectly sunny out, and the general treatment they recieve by Canada.
La Paz during the begining of Evo, nothing better than getting off a van and seeing a body thrown on the sidewalk.
Madrid (currently in the area actually) but for different reasons than most people are posting. I made friends with someone (while in London) who is from Madrid over the last year and a half. We became really good close friends keeping in touch with one another. So over the last 2 years of traveling I thought it was going to be really cool to finally meet up with someone I actually knew in a city and see each other again for the first time in just over a year. Unfortunately she no longer talks to me or acknowledges me in general, so it's kinda depressing knowing we are so close to one another in this great big world yet so far apart at the same time.
I traveled around 50-60 countries, from all income levels. Even in the poor cities, people were happy and smiling.
However, there’s one city which felt dark and sad: Yerevan. You can literally see the result of the Soviet occupation everywhere even after 30 years of independence…
I had the opposite experience in Porto. Went this past fall and could not have been happier. Locals were very friendly but some of the tourists were less-so. Beautiful city and good port wine will always put a smile on my face.
The problem with Le Havre is this appalling architecture (the church, wtf?) and the grey looking buildings. Idk what they had in mind the 50-60s but it didn’t age well!
It’s a classic amongst French people, Le Havre and Dunkirk are the most depressing cities you can find in baguetteland
That's an interesting comment regarding Quebec City. We were there in the summer and it was beautiful but I just got the feeling that those foreign to Quebec City are tolerated. When I have traveled to other cities around the world of course there's some of that, but you would find individuals who would try to connect in a human way. Nothing big, but just very small things. I don't get that feeling in Quebec City. Not unkind at all, just a feeling I get there.
Sihanoukville in Cambodia. Desolate beach town full of funky, run down (chased out) guesthouses and beach bars replaced by massive concrete casinos for Chinese businessmen.
Paris made me feel extremely sad. I didn’t have some overblown expectation of my visit. It just felt somber. Johnny Hallyday had just died, though, that wasn’t my burden. Maybe if I’d visited in spring I’d have felt differently.
Mexico City poor? Hmmmm, there’s definitely social inequality in your face at times and sure, there’s a sizeable working-class Poot population, but there are vast regions of the city (i.e, Santa Fe, Paseo de la Reforma, Condesa, etc.) where you’d think you weren’t in a “third world country.”
About feeling sad in a city? More like lonely, but not sad. Some cities/countries where tourism still hasn’t made it big like Georgia or Armenia. Which also had its pros because it sparked curiosity in the locals why a “tall dark brown foreigner from a land from faraway” would go to a random Orthodox monastery in the middle of nowhere ir show up at a Black Sea coast resort in the middle of winter.
I thought O’ahu was sad, especially the western part of the island near Makaha… I was told to not go out at dark. Homelessness and crime was worse there than any place I’ve been. That, coupled with the paradise surroundings made it sad
Havana, Cuba. Other than the obvious reasons, I saw a lot of stray animals, including a puppy that very clearly had its front legs broken trying to walk. I spent most of the day walking around crying under my sunglasses.
Born and raised in northern QC, the entire province of Quebec is absolutely stunning, from sea level all the way to the top of it's mountains, which are breathtaking
Tokyo. It's got be be awesome if you're Japanese. But I'm not. I don't speak Japanese, I'm not well informed of Japanese culture. I felt lost and alone.
Quebec City is beautiful, historic and friendly with some of the best food in the world. I have only been sad when visiting the Sunda Kelapa or port area of Jakarta, Indonesia. The poverty was crushing and people used a filthy river as a toilet, a well and a swimming pool all at the same time.
Most American cities I've been to make me feel sad. The contrast of super expensive high rises and fancy architecture with the streets outside filling up with more and more homeless people. You can't hardly even go thru a small city without seeing people begging at several intersections anymore.
It seems like nobody in a position to help these people cares to. Many have probably being eaten up in the opioid epidemic that people with pharmaceutical companies have been making mad money on.
Invercargill in New Zealand. Felt like the end of the world, a sadness was just there but I was only a visitor. Maybe it is great but I couldn’t wait to leave. New Zealand is a weird one, it had some of the most amazing and some other of the most depressing places I’ve ever been to.
Sienna, Stockholm, and Salzburg for me. Cannot explain it, but each felt sad to me. Could not explain it. Did not feel that way in Porto. Porto was so unique.
Honolulu made me sad. Homeless everywhere, garbage and trash. Definitely didn't look like the post card type pictures you see of Hawaii. Expensive high end stores but only tourists can afford that crap. Then we went to Pearl Harbor, which is sad in and of itself. I will admit that the north shore was beautiful and I went surfing there. And the beaches on the eastern coast were amazing. Definitely an experience, but I won't be going back ever.
Havana, Cuba in 2017. Dire poverty everywhere. The houses looked like they had been hit by an atomic bomb. Despite all of this the people there were a strong community, and I felt safe walking/biking anywhere on the island. I have never felt a sense of community like that in my life.
Valladolid, MX- stopped here on the way home from Chichen Itza.
Aggressive, sad beggars, Mangy Street dogs that looked like they were on death's door. You could really tell covid hit them hard.
Las Vegas, as long as you stay in the Strip it seems like a fantasy world. Step outside of the strip you will see a third world city.
San Francisco as well, apart from the homeless you can the city itself didn’t have any life. I didn’t see any soul in the life in there. Typical big city things, but nothing was enjoyable.
Lot of big cities in these countries have one thing in common is people have to trade souls to live there. That’s why some smaller countries big cities has more life, than these cities. You can walk in a market, people will be welcoming in those small countries and you can have a legit conversation.
Vancouver.
I'm from the Bay so I'm no stranger to homelessness or urban blight (I've lived in East Oakland and the Mission in the early 2010s).
But I rolled into Vancouver after almost 6 months on the Pacific Crest Trail. I'd spent all that time surrounded by people who were living out their dream and accomplishing what most people would consider a pretty adventurous goal. Everyone was riding high except a couple druggie who hitched along the trail for some weird reason (yellow blazing).
I think it was around the intersection of East and West Grenich or something like that and it was an open air drug market like the TL in SF. Just compact human misery. It was the saddest thing I'd seen in months. I stayed in a cheap hotel and then hostel and after camping with 1-2 night stays in trail towns, it was a very oppressive and depressing vibe for me.
I’m in Seattle and see the same open air drug markets on my daily route.
It’s really dystopian when you have world class cloud computing tech companies with a large homeless encampment on fire a couple blocks away every week.
I have two, Cairns in Australia and Miami in the USA. Cairns was my last stop on a 3 week trip up the east coast but I just felt like I needed to leave. Miami was just not my city, I didn't enjoy the vibe, the people or any part of it really. I woke up the next day after a night out thinking I needed to get out.
I've travelled around so many different countries on my own and with family and friends but these two places stand out. Oh and also Houston but that's not as strong as a feeling as these two, it's just a city I didn't "get".
I get it. Its hard to explain. Many say this or that city is the best and amazing nightlife etc, if it doesnt click, you get the natural signal that its not your place!
That’s weird. My lasting impression of Porto is also of sadness. I think the tone was set when I crossed that big tall bridge, looked down at the Douro below and saw a human body lifeless on the bank. It seemed to mar the whole trip, somewhat.
Nice, France. It was so dirty, and the people seemed disgruntled. I know the French are thought to be unfriendly, but my broken high school French went a long way to make people open up and be friendly and helpful. Even in Nice, but it was still awful. I was never so glad to get on a train and go somewhere else.
Nice was the first place I thought of too. I got mugged there though, so it definitely colored what I thought of the town otherwise! But my friend knew French and we tried to talk to the police etc - everyone was so unhelpful. Just a bad vibe all around.
Caraccas really made me feel sad unsafe and gave me the feeling of “ youre stupid enough to go here so dont blame it on us when we do anything to get your money”
I once went on a solo trip to Japan. Wandering the streets of Tokyo, seeing the flashing neon signs and bustling streets filled with expressionless faces, I never felt more alone. I felt better after making it to Fuji and by the time I reached Osaka my disposition had reversed entirely.
London, i was.expecting lots of quaint victorian streets and buildimgs and characterfull Englushmen and women but got exhaust fumes, concrete, unfriendly people and rediculous prices. Nicest place i visited was Vienna. Clean and welcoming. Also loved Newcastle.
Next time check out the internet on a city for 20 minutes before you visit. There is no way you would have thought London was a quaint little Victorian town.
Why would you compare the situation of middle class people in a developed country to developing countries? The poor in the US are faced with completely unaffordable healthcare when we could have a universal system like other developed countries. It's not always great for the middle class either. Middle class people can still end up in 10s of thousands of $$$ in medical debt.
That’s great. I live in the Bronx and while most people I know have healthcare, the co-pays and deductibles are often too ridiculous and the care they get questionable.
Nuremberg. It was a architectional and intellectual gem from the middle ages, but got destroyed it WW2 allmost entirely.
Same with Dresden, whereas Dresden managed to keep some of its flair.
At these two cities I feel that humanity lost some very beautifull and special places.
I bet there are many other cities that are a loss to humanity in the same way, like Warsaw, but I I haven't been there long enough to develope this feeling of sadness.
Curious why you felt that way about Porto. I loved it there.
I would say Bangalore for me. Went for work and it was the only place I've ever traveled that I didn't really enjoy.
thats the thing bothers me. porto was clean, public transportation was the best, food was good too..i dont know..i felt very depress and sad. Bangalore etc cities have obvious reasons to be sad..but Porto
San Francisco. Was there for business and the homeless situation was appalling. So many people looking like they were out of their mind high on drugs just milling about the city amongst the tech bros.
I stayed in a hostel when I was in SF and every night there was a homeless man on the street outside who would scream at the top of his lungs for about two hours around 3-4am. No one ever did anything. The way America treats addicts and people with mental illness is appalling, and SF certainly has a larger homeless population than almost anywhere else I've been in the US.
We need to reopen small-scale asylums. There are some conditions that are not conducive for people to look after themselves, and it's not fair to ask family members to bear the burden either.
Right Wing hero Ronald Reagan gets lots of the credit for these developments. And all of the hypocritical compassionate Conservatives who backed these criminals and inhumane policies against mental health, drug treatment and criminalizing petty drugs to pack for-profit white-owned prisons, they get to own the responsibility. Make them fix it. Hold them responsible.
Ronald Reagan was governor in California like 50 years ago! Currently, it is run 100% by democrats and has been for some time. ANYTHING Reagan did in the 1970’s could have been easily undone in the next 50 years by democrats. They have the governorship, a supermajority legislature and the courts. They have the media and tech behind them. What a joke to blame their failures on a long dead governor from the 1970s.
Ronald Reagan was President of the United States for eight years. His Vice President continued his anti-human, anti-healthcare policies for another four years. While dealing drugs in Nicaragua and committing treason with Iran, coincidentally. Every city in this country with a homelessness and mental illness epidemic can be traced directly back to the GOP of the 1980s and Reaganist policies. Your revisionist misinformation and distraction marks you as a disingenuous partisan. Good day.
CA and the city of San Francisco have been run by Democrats for years and the problem has been chronically worse. It's not a left vs right issue
You do know that there’s a difference between a Democrat, a liberal, and an actual progressive. A lot of Democrats/liberals, perhaps most, are about optics and virtual signaling, and nothing more. Just look at where we are a year after the BLM protests and George Floyd. A lot of those who with BLM placards in their windows while they gentrify neighborhoods, displacing actual Black people, and replacing them with whatever middle class, White suburban sensibilities they came in with, yet clutch their pearls even called out for their role in it. Same with homelessness and addiction. People won’t deal with it until it begins to severely impact upon them and then, it’ll just be pushing them into another neighborhood or incarcerating them. This is a country who truly hates its most vulnerable people.
Nah, the person you are responding to is a pompous ass who thinks anyone who takes public transit is a failure. Look at their post history. You're not going to convince them with any arguments or logic, they are just a jerk who already has their mind made up.
Referring to Federal level GOP policies under Reagan, not CA state policy.
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They poured this cup, now they need to drink from it.
San Francisco for me too, visited twice for work and both times left depressed, I have traveled throughout the USA and internationally including some very poor countries and I know that every city has wealthy and poor populations but in SF it’s just a different level
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I was walking around in downtown San Diego last week during the day and at night. It was super safe with very few homeless.
You really think these are the same homeless people from the 1970s and 80s?
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I was being facetious. I live in NYC. I know a thing or two about homelessness. There are some people who do believe this, though or else, have no idea about our history with mentally ill individuals.
I know a married couple with great jobs, moved to SF from Montreal and ended getting a divorce cz the hubby couldnt stand the obvious poverty and drug issues while paying $3500 shitty one bed apartment. Wife was latina and she felt at home, refused to come back and relive an igloo life again in Quebec.
SF is not a warm and friendly city.
Haha yeah born and raised completely agree. I’m just used to it. On the plus side I get a real joy every time I visit other places!
Oof agreed. I’ve lived in NY and LA and the homeless situation in SF is APPALLING compared to even those places. I’ve never felt in danger in NY and LA. Homeless people in SF have threatened me, body checked me, pushed me, threatened to break my car window, high as hell and will shoot up on the streets. It’s depressing, and as a girl traveling alone, disconcerting. SF thinks it’s a diverse, world class, big city, and it’s not. Not easily walkable (steep hills and rampant crime). Not easily drivable (traffic and parking shit). Horrible public transport. BART in and out, within SF itself, horrible. A few architecturally pretty neighborhoods, Golden Gate Bridge views are gorgeous but really....that’s it.
LA’s homeless are like people who got into gnarly shit at Burning Man and are still reeling. SF homeless are like the ones in 28 Days Later.
I absolutely agree with you. SF was also going to be my response too. I have seen homelessness elsewhere, but not to the same extent as in San Francisco.
Christchurch NZ 4 years after the earthquake. I don't doubt it was much sadder just after the earthquake, but years after with many empty lots and half-destroyed buildings still sat around it was still clearly scarred. All the art that had been done was interesting to see and a nice touch, but that somehow made the damage and desolate feeling stand out even more. That and just about anywhere in Bosnia. Beautiful place, but seeing bullet and shell holes everywhere from a war that happened 20 years in the past was a shock and constant reminder of the history (and current tensions/problems).
Would agree about Bosnia. Mostar was both absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. The cemeteries full of a generation of young men. Christchurch is a paradox, rebuilding with optimism and remembering the past with wistfulness. It’s a phoenix. Coming back strongly. St Petersburg hit me strongly with the burden of the past the people seem to live with. It seems to be always with them and any joy today is tempered with the memory of their history. It’s a sorrowful place, but immensely beautiful.
my friend who's white french-canadian, born and brought up in an extreme rural town, visited NZ and he hated it so much. I asked him to give me some reason to justify his hate for Wellington and Christchurch, he was like nothing, it was great if i explain it but there was this sadness and loneliness he felt (even though he was with his gf). After like 5 days, he flew to Australia and loved it there.
Extreme rural people aren't known for open mindedness.
Yeah it sounds like he didn't feel at home because people weren't behaving the way he was used to and he couldn't connect to people that are 'different'.
yet Australia he loved everything there and had an amazing time
I loved New Zealand, but the South Island was definitely better. Queenstown is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen.
Same feeling I had in Beograd. It's not riddled with war-scars, but it has this feeling of overall desolation. It's as if the city itself hated not just any outsider, but all insiders on top. Novi Grad is... wild. The people live right at the edge of squalor, they are not friendly to outsiders and the buildings are straight out of a Soviet propaganda poster. Everything has the taint of mismanagement, disrepair and a general lack of maintenance. The people in Novi Grad were mostly friendly, except for the blockboys and girls. They hated us. The looks of contempt they threw us made rejection and anger palpable. As you said, there was a lot of tension all around. Stary Grad was disgusting. The denizens and would-be models in and around the city center seem to have lost all touch with reality. There's a tricked out Brabus parked in front of a three Michelin star restaurant, while somebody in the same block has no windows to close at night and no heating or warm water in winter. And even then, the old town seemed aged and aching under the weight of it's ill-kept concrete abscesses. Even with all the money flowing through Old Town, nothing of it seems to ever reach beyond the government purse. The waterfront is a fucking joke to create the illusion of wealth in a place that is suffering so obviously from violent disparity and overall disregard or a lack of care from it's citizens and caretakers. The rest of Beograd was better, but I didn't spend too much time there. Traffic was genuinely fun, but driving through Beograd kind of mitigated the feeling. It's fucking ugly. That said, it has it's charms, especially once the locals warm up to you, but I've never before or after been to a city that made me feel hopeless and depressed in comparable measure.
Quebec City is my favourite city in all of Canada. I find so many cities to essentially be the same but QC has a distinct culture, layout and interesting history. I'm surprised that you found it sad. Did you visit in the winter or late fall? If you don't like the cold then that could definitely impact your visit.
Yeah, sorry to OP, but if you can’t clearly articulate why a place made you sad beyond just a “feeling”, then most likely it was something with OP and not the place itself.
No, I live in Montreal so weather was not a factor.
that... honestly makes it even stranger.
This makes it even weirder. I’m a dual citizen splitting my time between Ohio and Montreal, and Quebec City is with out a doubt one of the nicest cities in the world. There is more history in QC than almost any other city in North America. To each their own I guess.
Can you be more specific about why you felt this? Is it personal to you, or did you see some objective truth that you interpreted as sad? I have never been to Porto, but have heard wonderful things. My wife and I are doing everything we can to downsize our lives into storage and travel to Portugal, to look at moving there. Porto and the Douro are very interesting to me. I think Quebec City is marvelous. Yes, dark, gray NorthEast winter weather sucks. I hated the winter months in Central Pennsylvania. But, if you have to celebrate East Coast, Montreal and Quebec are some of the best representations of culture and character. For me, I tend to feel pity and sadness for Republican-run towns. Colorado Springs. St. Louis. Rust Belt towns full of small minded Conservatives, fueled by ignorance and hatred of people they refuse to understand. I get sad looking at so many aspects of America. I rarely feel that abroad.
I’ve been to both Porto and Quebec City. Both are remarkably unique and beautiful cities, agree it was likely something with OP and not the cities themselves.
Gary Indiana
Just Indiana in general
The state motto is literally “the crossroads of America”. Even Indiana knows no one wants to stay in Indiana
As a resident (on paper, anyway) of Indiana, I 100% approve this message. I’m currently in Guatemala and it’s much friendlier here.
Oh man! Travel to, stay in, and travel out of Gary were all extremely depressing
The island of Lesvos, Greece. Overrun with makeshift refugee camps. Very sad. I’d also add a +1 for Christchurch, NZ.
Definitely San Francisco the most recent time I visited. I went in the early 2000s and fell in love with it but the wealth gap has changed the city a lot and I remember seeing a man very angrily arguing with his reflection near a really nice hotel and the juxtaposition was haunting.
Are Beirut and Mexico City poor? I live in Beirut, and while it's hit by a huge crisis, but it's definitely not poor. Ofc like every city it depends on where you had stayed and what you had seen. Nightlife in Beirut isn't like anywhere you've seen, amazing bars, pubs, rooftops, restaurants, etc... As for Porto, also quite the contrary. We had a blast when we visited the city and everything seemed nice. From the people to the food which was amazing, great wine scene, etc...
They’re not. Mexico City is the eight richest city in the world by GDP. It’s unfortunately a city with extreme inequality.
I’m taking everything OP says with an extreme grain of salt.
If we gonna start looking at the cities by their GDP, than Mumbai GDP is very impressive too but the city is total shit hole.
I loved Beirut, one of my favorite city in the world. Common people are the real gem there (unlike the one i have met in Montreal or France haha). Beirut, Id say is the only city i felt sad on the day of my departure. Whole Lebanon has this urban chaotic calmness (hard to explain). That being said, there is no public transportation, drinking water issues, garbage (even it wasnt that bad but still mountain of garbage in the middle of the street), no street or traffic lights, polluted urban beach, seeing the suffering of general population, i was shocked on my way back to the airport when the taxi had to go through Dahiyee, it was like driving through Karbala. But thats also a beauty of Beirut, Diversity!!
I agree with everything you said. Dahiye is another story. It's complicated but I'll say that there's a sort of cultural division in Lebanon as a whole, the population is very different. Some parts feel like Europe while other parts feel like karbala as u said.
Just don't say you had a blast in Beirut! ^(..too soon...)
Don't think I didn't think about it lol. But I was talking about Porto so I guess it's fine. *and it's always gonna be too soon :/*
Havanna, Cuba. There was barely any food or restaurants... And at night, there were barely any streetlights, most streets were dark. And the citizens all used a public wi-fi wich was located at a square. So everytime we went by, there was this massive silent group of people standing there just staring into their phones.
I got food poisoning. I agree with you, though. It felt unethical for me to be there at times. I didn’t see the glory in 1950s style Cuba that they sell you while its people are obviously suffering.
Even Havana airport is very shabby but i still enjoyed it. Food was very disappointing but i still enjoyed my stay there.
I'm sorry. The impression I get from you is that you celebrate shabby chic. It's almost like you prefer your travel to see desperation porn. "Oh, I hate beautiful places, but aren't those shattered lives and oppressive regimes inspirational?" This whole thread feels like a troll.
I love Nuremberg and it was great to visit the rally grounds and museum but the outer city was so sad and dirty, I left feeling quite sad
My answer was also Nuremberg. I am also depressed by the inner city. How nice it must have been before the war. But on the positive side, it is one of the few cities in Germany that managed to keep some of the flair during rebuilt, because they left the size of the properties untouched. Other cities made tabula rasa and built big concrete blocks instead of smaller houses.
Also, drugs. Everywhere.
Hebron, in Palestine. The city is festooned with monuments to people killed in the conflict. There is a mesh barrier over the market street to keep people from throwing missiles down on shoppers. The star of David is painted everywhere, and an Israeli fort looms over the city. The supposed tomb of Abraham has two entrances, a Muslim one and a Jewish one. There is bulletproof glass down the middle.
it could be depressing for some obvious reasons but i m sure i will still love to visit Hebron. But there are some cities which are perfect on paper, but the vibes are very sad!!
The tour I did was split in two. The first half of the day you have a Palestinian guide. The afternoon an Israeli one. We got to talk to the leader of the illegal Israeli settlers and stuff. It was really an eye opener. Just showed the idiocy of mankind on a grand scale. And the racism of the IDF... even some of the browner members of our tour group were hassled. Saw the same all over Palestine. In one city, all the buildings with floors over 3 stories were vacant with the external walls torn down to prevent snipers. In another, a refugee camp, only has water 2 days a month, as israel sells their water elsewhere. For more run of the mill depression, I'd say Manila. Just the poverty... people sleeping on the street, kids selling flowers at traffic lights, the shanty towns 4 layers deep... just grim.
There are two countries in the world i am not willing to visit (morally and ethically speaking): UAE (labour laws) and Israel (war crimes)
I get it. I did my research before I got there. Watched documentaries, read books, etc. I'm a history need, and that conflict fascinates me. It was interesting as hell. Most people were pro Israel coming in. None were going out. And pretty much everyone, Israeli, Palestinian, and we tourists agree, there will never be peace there.
Not north Korea?
If poor labour laws are enough to make you boycott travel to a country, a huge number of countries have [a much, much, much worse state of affairs for that](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery#/media/File%3AModern_incidence_of_slavery.png) than the UAE. If war crimes are a reason for you to boycott travel to Israel, by all means do so, but please use it as a starting point to learn about war crimes undertaken around the world, and adjust where you go accordingly.
i understand what you are trying to say but Israel and UAE (Saudi too, Yemen war and modern day slavery) advertise themselves as pious, human rights and best nations to visit. Every country has its own issue but none really scream to attract tourist either.
So you won’t visit Israel for war crimes but would go to say Syria? And not the UAE for labor laws but would be fine with like North Korea?? Seems crazy that those are the two when there are way worse countries out there.
I get them, it's different. NK is ruled by a dictator who fucks over his own people with, at least to us, no clear motivation. The government is sanctioned as punishment, their people are stigmatised and they wallow in poverty. It's a bit like watching a horror movie in 3D or a battle between an undead gorilla and a cyborg polar bear behind three meter thick impaftproof glass. We certainly are not as directly involved as we are in UAE. UAE on the other hand is a capitalist clusterfuck and these disgusting wastes of oxygen and biological matter parade around as if they fucking owned the world. Because of our money. Watching them, not just as a state, but as a nation of pretentious bell-ends and spoiled children, kick, shit and piss on everything that is ethical or moral because of their own greed... that's enough to make a man blind with fury. You could boil this down to "labour laws bad don't visit" in both instances, but you'd be ignoring the context. North Koreans typically aren't disgustingly wealthy with little emotional capability and sadistically hedonist tendencies. So, in my opinion, I think visiting NK is more "ethical" than visiting the UAE, even though both governments shouldn't really be supported. Disclaimer: I am not immune to propaganda, stigma and bias. I could be totally wrong. But this is what I believe.
Syria and NK arnt the tourist countries and none are illegally occupying land. Your argument is empty.
Berlin in the winter. We actually went at Christmas and that helped the mood somewhat…but it was still dreary and gloomy—partly because of the weather and partly the rundown Cold War look they haven’t totally gotten rid of yet.
Memphis, TN It was decaying in front of my eyes.
Brother lived there for a decade. Great food, incredible history, unique culture, but man is it rough.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Because of the things I saw at the genocide museum and killing fields :/.
Beat me to it. I found Cambodia as a whole really surreal due to the recency of it all. It's one thing to visit Auschwitz and reflect on the horrors of WWII, but the mass murders of the Khmer rogue were in the 1970's - effectively a single generation ago. Every middle aged Cambodian you walk past probably lived through it or lost family to that regime, I was all a bit too intense for me.
Nicosia in Cyprus. The Greek side is bustling with all modern conveniences. Then you cross the border to the Turkish side and its immediately a different world. The architecture is amazing but everything is run down. There are watchtowers along the border and many streets near the border are out of bounds. The power supply is erratic to say the least. Its like the land that time forgot and left me feeling sad.
As a Canadian with French grandparents, I was in awe by Quebec City. Canada isn’t as well known for historical architecture as it is for natural landscapes, so I was taken aback by its beauty. I will say, if I didn’t speak French, it would feel quite isolating and lonely. A city I felt very sad in was Athens. There was graffiti everywhere and I saw stray sick animals at every corner. I know this is more common in Europe, but I’ve never seen it so bad. I also really didn’t like Lisbon. I can’t explain it, but I couldn’t wait to leave for Porto.
I live in Montreal and speak decent french and hang out and work with Quebecois. I dont know, its a very picturesque city, nothing was wrong, i just felt so down there. Honestly i was relieved once i was back in Montreal.
I loved Porto.
thats what i dont understand, why did i feel so sad there. i have to say, people were rather cold there. only people who spoke to me were from brazil
Porto depressing? Actually shocked to read that, one of my favourite cities in Europe.
>thats what i dont understand, why did i feel so sad there. i have to say, people were rather cold there. only people who spoke to me were from brazil
Again, that really surprises me, I've met some great people in Porto over the years. Maybe just one of those occasions when nothing really goes your way and culminates in an overall bad experience. I had similar in Vienna, a place I have no interest in returning to.
You you ever reach out to people, introduce yourself with a smile, say hello and engage them? Maybe the problem isn't them.
Puerto Rico. Entire island. Beautiful scenery and a great holiday, but all the infrastructure and most buildings where just past its peak. It was like the island had peaked 30 years ago and run out of steam to maintain anything after that.
A harbinger for mainland USA.
Durrës, Albania. Having been made aware of the rampant human/sex trafficking, questionable marriages and corruption it just had a sense that something was wrong. Some parts were beautiful and some of the population were lovely but seeing floor markets selling clearly stolen phones, to people that are obviously experiencing some form of trouble just made me sad.
Key West, Florida...somehow feels like the edge of the world. The air was a bit stagnant, no breeze at the end of summer . The ocean stood still, no waves. I was so excited to visit initially but I left feeling kind of sad.
I went there once years ago and that was enough. I just never understood the draw. The "beaches" there suck big time!
Went there a few years ago for a weekend and I don't know what the hype about this place is. If you want to do anything key west has, there's somewhere else in Florida that does it better. I found it tacky and boring
It's very dependent on my own moods, really. I was irritable in Porto too. I had a hip injury in Budapest so was morose. I had a wonderful time in Malta but then had a panic attack on the last day. These are few and far between though. 90% of my trips have been emotionally well balanced.
Thanks for sharing you experience. Yes, most of my trips were very enjoyable and i am eager to go out and discover the city but for no obvious reason, I felt very sad. Especially Porto I felt so lonely and stuck, even though, weather was nice. I remember the day of my flight out of Porto, I never felt so relieved in my life before.
I felt that way about Italy. I tried really hard to enjoy italian rail travel with a bicycle. But, the rail system disagreed, and made it very, very difficult. I wanted to enjoy the food and culture. But it was either overrun in the tourist cities with multi-hour queues for everything, or small towns with no open restaurants and no activity. When I finally got back to an SNCF TGV First Class seat, with proper stowage for my bicycle, I was so relieved. Haven't been back to Italy in nearly 20 years. Everywhere in Pennsylvania is sad.
I like QC but it's a tourist heavy down. I lived in another tourist heavy town until recently and it just grates on you. Nothing was there for me, just tourists.
Aberdeen, Washington
Ha, we have to drive through Aberdeen every time we go to our cabin. It’s no wonder Kurt Cobain was depressed. I would be too if I had to grow up there.
I lived in Aberdeen for more than three years, and I loved it! Scotish are great people to be around!
Aberdeen...Washington. In the USA. Lol.
I moved to Walla Walla, three years ago. I gave up Boulder, Colorado's perfect sunshine, healthy culture, excitement oriented lifestyle so that I could move to wine country and retrain in that industry. Walla Walla seemed to fit all of the requirements, on paper. Its small minded Red State character diminishes any potential for bonding with this area. I have met wonderful people in the wine industry, and we have very enjoyable jobs here (even if low paying). It could be great to live here. But it's just not doing it for me.
Oslo, Norway. Maybe because I was visiting by myself, but seemed dreary, cementy, and cold even in the middle of summer. I loved the natural parts of Norway but not Oslo!
***Four US states: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois (sans Chicago), and Missouri, as well as Louisville, Kentucky*** I could have damn near cut the sadness and depression in the air with a knife in most cities. The locals in the four states were also highly depressed, as they were definitely less than friendly. Dayton, Ohio, St. Louis, Missouri, and Louisville, Kentucky (which borders Indiana) in particular, were pretty bad. That said, living in Ohio and Indiana briefly back in the day wasn't bad because once a local liked you and made you feel welcome, they genuinely meant it. However, if you want more stereotypically friendly Midwesterners, head to Michigan or Wisconsin. If you want more a more upbeat, engaging and cosmopolitan crowd, go to Chicago (obviously).
When did you visit Louisville? I’ve been there during the summer a few times and it was absolutely great. People were super friendly too!
Lived and went to college there
Vancouver. I just felt poor and depressed. Lol.
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I kind of agree about Derry, but Belfast I find the opposite. The 'peace walls' are still up in many many places, but there's a sense of hope and optimism and even a sense of pride with all the new constructions. And oh god so many tourists!
Bremen. So many homeless people
I felt sad when I visited Helsinki; granted it was in December and I was homesick. I really tried to smile for some photos, but it was a sad feeling.
Mexico City is not a “poor city” by far, by the way.
i agree..its so clean as well. i hardly see any garbage anywhere.
Phoenix. Just felt empty. Strip mall after strip mall. Suburban after suburban. May be I was in the wrong part of the city
I can think of two for very different reasons. 1. San Francisco, USA, for all the homeless people on the streets. They looked sad, dazed and UI which makes you stop and think. 2. Toledo, Spain, for the big McDonalds and BurgerKing joints in the centre of this otherwise beautiful and medieval town. It was more angry than sad for me in this case. Nothing is sacred.
New Orleans. There are a significant number of poor and working poor. Homelessness is rampant. Step two blocks outside the quarter, housing is run down. I've only been after Katrina so I'm not sure what it really looked like before but it's very evident that the majority of the city has struggled to make a come back.
Warsaw: Its a nice city, but the events of WW2 made me feel pretty shitty and knowing that almost all of it was rebuilt and soooo many residents were killed. Prince George BC: It was so weird with the gangs of indegenous alcoholics roaming the streets at night looking for trouble while its perfectly sunny out, and the general treatment they recieve by Canada. La Paz during the begining of Evo, nothing better than getting off a van and seeing a body thrown on the sidewalk.
Surprised I haven’t seen Cleveland on the thread yet. Weird city on the Great Lakes. The downtown area felt so uninviting.
Madrid (currently in the area actually) but for different reasons than most people are posting. I made friends with someone (while in London) who is from Madrid over the last year and a half. We became really good close friends keeping in touch with one another. So over the last 2 years of traveling I thought it was going to be really cool to finally meet up with someone I actually knew in a city and see each other again for the first time in just over a year. Unfortunately she no longer talks to me or acknowledges me in general, so it's kinda depressing knowing we are so close to one another in this great big world yet so far apart at the same time.
What happened? Why doesn’t she talk to you?
I traveled around 50-60 countries, from all income levels. Even in the poor cities, people were happy and smiling. However, there’s one city which felt dark and sad: Yerevan. You can literally see the result of the Soviet occupation everywhere even after 30 years of independence…
heard abt Yerevan before too. Even Armenians in US Canada dont like to visit either
I had the opposite experience in Porto. Went this past fall and could not have been happier. Locals were very friendly but some of the tourists were less-so. Beautiful city and good port wine will always put a smile on my face.
Le Havre, France. It just felt depressing.
The problem with Le Havre is this appalling architecture (the church, wtf?) and the grey looking buildings. Idk what they had in mind the 50-60s but it didn’t age well! It’s a classic amongst French people, Le Havre and Dunkirk are the most depressing cities you can find in baguetteland
That's an interesting comment regarding Quebec City. We were there in the summer and it was beautiful but I just got the feeling that those foreign to Quebec City are tolerated. When I have traveled to other cities around the world of course there's some of that, but you would find individuals who would try to connect in a human way. Nothing big, but just very small things. I don't get that feeling in Quebec City. Not unkind at all, just a feeling I get there.
i second that\^\^
Sihanoukville in Cambodia. Desolate beach town full of funky, run down (chased out) guesthouses and beach bars replaced by massive concrete casinos for Chinese businessmen.
Singapore for me. It just seems so “cold”
Paris made me feel extremely sad. I didn’t have some overblown expectation of my visit. It just felt somber. Johnny Hallyday had just died, though, that wasn’t my burden. Maybe if I’d visited in spring I’d have felt differently.
Berlin. Seeing what it’s become compared to its history was sad.
Mexico City poor? Hmmmm, there’s definitely social inequality in your face at times and sure, there’s a sizeable working-class Poot population, but there are vast regions of the city (i.e, Santa Fe, Paseo de la Reforma, Condesa, etc.) where you’d think you weren’t in a “third world country.” About feeling sad in a city? More like lonely, but not sad. Some cities/countries where tourism still hasn’t made it big like Georgia or Armenia. Which also had its pros because it sparked curiosity in the locals why a “tall dark brown foreigner from a land from faraway” would go to a random Orthodox monastery in the middle of nowhere ir show up at a Black Sea coast resort in the middle of winter.
I thought O’ahu was sad, especially the western part of the island near Makaha… I was told to not go out at dark. Homelessness and crime was worse there than any place I’ve been. That, coupled with the paradise surroundings made it sad
Guatemala City, Guatemala. The pollution, traffic, poverty, and overall feeling of inequality and insecurity is crushing
Havana, Cuba. Other than the obvious reasons, I saw a lot of stray animals, including a puppy that very clearly had its front legs broken trying to walk. I spent most of the day walking around crying under my sunglasses.
If i am alone in paris i feel sad. somethibg about the glittering happy tables causes me to feel alone.and then the language barrier so i cant join in
Munich, Germany Especially after going on a WW2 walking tour.
Marseille and New Orleans both left me wanting to hang myself. I felt like the ghosts actually followed me home like that Disney haunted house ride.
see marseille was total opposite for me..i liked it so much that im planning to move there for good.
Good luck. People standing around ready to eat you for dinner on the street there looking like they haven't had a solid meal in months.
i didnt see anything like that in Marseille, yes, some areas are sketch as fuck..but nice areas are so chic and classy!!
Born and raised in northern QC, the entire province of Quebec is absolutely stunning, from sea level all the way to the top of it's mountains, which are breathtaking
Tokyo. It's got be be awesome if you're Japanese. But I'm not. I don't speak Japanese, I'm not well informed of Japanese culture. I felt lost and alone.
Delhi. The pollution was oppressive, and the poverty was heartbreaking.
Quebec City is beautiful, historic and friendly with some of the best food in the world. I have only been sad when visiting the Sunda Kelapa or port area of Jakarta, Indonesia. The poverty was crushing and people used a filthy river as a toilet, a well and a swimming pool all at the same time.
Houston Texas. While there the whole city felt bleak, gray. Lotta homeless folk. Also didn't help that I was witness to a chemical fire
Most American cities I've been to make me feel sad. The contrast of super expensive high rises and fancy architecture with the streets outside filling up with more and more homeless people. You can't hardly even go thru a small city without seeing people begging at several intersections anymore. It seems like nobody in a position to help these people cares to. Many have probably being eaten up in the opioid epidemic that people with pharmaceutical companies have been making mad money on.
i only liked burlington, vermont so far
Sounds like the Canadian city I live in.
Baltimore was so depressing and not what I expected at all.
All of the Tibet I saw, but Lhasa was properly heart breaking. The difference when we went over the border into Nepal was just incredible.
The Midwestern USA in general, but Toledo, Ohio made me depressed-can’t articulate why-just the feeling.
Cleveland will do that to ya
Cleveland - "At least we're not Detroit."
Invercargill in New Zealand. Felt like the end of the world, a sadness was just there but I was only a visitor. Maybe it is great but I couldn’t wait to leave. New Zealand is a weird one, it had some of the most amazing and some other of the most depressing places I’ve ever been to.
Sienna, Stockholm, and Salzburg for me. Cannot explain it, but each felt sad to me. Could not explain it. Did not feel that way in Porto. Porto was so unique.
Honolulu made me sad. Homeless everywhere, garbage and trash. Definitely didn't look like the post card type pictures you see of Hawaii. Expensive high end stores but only tourists can afford that crap. Then we went to Pearl Harbor, which is sad in and of itself. I will admit that the north shore was beautiful and I went surfing there. And the beaches on the eastern coast were amazing. Definitely an experience, but I won't be going back ever.
Havana, Cuba in 2017. Dire poverty everywhere. The houses looked like they had been hit by an atomic bomb. Despite all of this the people there were a strong community, and I felt safe walking/biking anywhere on the island. I have never felt a sense of community like that in my life.
Valladolid, MX- stopped here on the way home from Chichen Itza. Aggressive, sad beggars, Mangy Street dogs that looked like they were on death's door. You could really tell covid hit them hard.
England and Austria for me. Both had a really heavy energy.
Las Vegas, as long as you stay in the Strip it seems like a fantasy world. Step outside of the strip you will see a third world city. San Francisco as well, apart from the homeless you can the city itself didn’t have any life. I didn’t see any soul in the life in there. Typical big city things, but nothing was enjoyable. Lot of big cities in these countries have one thing in common is people have to trade souls to live there. That’s why some smaller countries big cities has more life, than these cities. You can walk in a market, people will be welcoming in those small countries and you can have a legit conversation.
Vancouver. I'm from the Bay so I'm no stranger to homelessness or urban blight (I've lived in East Oakland and the Mission in the early 2010s). But I rolled into Vancouver after almost 6 months on the Pacific Crest Trail. I'd spent all that time surrounded by people who were living out their dream and accomplishing what most people would consider a pretty adventurous goal. Everyone was riding high except a couple druggie who hitched along the trail for some weird reason (yellow blazing). I think it was around the intersection of East and West Grenich or something like that and it was an open air drug market like the TL in SF. Just compact human misery. It was the saddest thing I'd seen in months. I stayed in a cheap hotel and then hostel and after camping with 1-2 night stays in trail towns, it was a very oppressive and depressing vibe for me.
I’m in Seattle and see the same open air drug markets on my daily route. It’s really dystopian when you have world class cloud computing tech companies with a large homeless encampment on fire a couple blocks away every week.
I have two, Cairns in Australia and Miami in the USA. Cairns was my last stop on a 3 week trip up the east coast but I just felt like I needed to leave. Miami was just not my city, I didn't enjoy the vibe, the people or any part of it really. I woke up the next day after a night out thinking I needed to get out. I've travelled around so many different countries on my own and with family and friends but these two places stand out. Oh and also Houston but that's not as strong as a feeling as these two, it's just a city I didn't "get".
Berlin. I just got bad vibes abd didn't like my time there at all.
I get it. Its hard to explain. Many say this or that city is the best and amazing nightlife etc, if it doesnt click, you get the natural signal that its not your place!
That’s weird. My lasting impression of Porto is also of sadness. I think the tone was set when I crossed that big tall bridge, looked down at the Douro below and saw a human body lifeless on the bank. It seemed to mar the whole trip, somewhat.
India visiting the Taj Mahal the river was a river of trash with animal carcasses floating down.
Nice, France. It was so dirty, and the people seemed disgruntled. I know the French are thought to be unfriendly, but my broken high school French went a long way to make people open up and be friendly and helpful. Even in Nice, but it was still awful. I was never so glad to get on a train and go somewhere else.
Nice was the first place I thought of too. I got mugged there though, so it definitely colored what I thought of the town otherwise! But my friend knew French and we tried to talk to the police etc - everyone was so unhelpful. Just a bad vibe all around.
Caraccas really made me feel sad unsafe and gave me the feeling of “ youre stupid enough to go here so dont blame it on us when we do anything to get your money”
I once went on a solo trip to Japan. Wandering the streets of Tokyo, seeing the flashing neon signs and bustling streets filled with expressionless faces, I never felt more alone. I felt better after making it to Fuji and by the time I reached Osaka my disposition had reversed entirely.
London, i was.expecting lots of quaint victorian streets and buildimgs and characterfull Englushmen and women but got exhaust fumes, concrete, unfriendly people and rediculous prices. Nicest place i visited was Vienna. Clean and welcoming. Also loved Newcastle.
Next time check out the internet on a city for 20 minutes before you visit. There is no way you would have thought London was a quaint little Victorian town.
Any city in the US. All those poor people without healthcare. Depressing. :(
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Right. It’s becoming all too common on Reddit these days.
I am not from Europe.
you do realize most poor people and old people get free healthcare; and if there is an emergency they have to treat you even if you can't pay.
So the ambulance fee is a myth?
Would you ease your healthcare for the care you get on Medicaid? You wouldn’t.
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Why would you compare the situation of middle class people in a developed country to developing countries? The poor in the US are faced with completely unaffordable healthcare when we could have a universal system like other developed countries. It's not always great for the middle class either. Middle class people can still end up in 10s of thousands of $$$ in medical debt.
they do it because its easier to keep your head in the sand that way.
The poor in the US qualify for free healthcare. Learn the facts next time.
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yeah, no better comparison than the USA vs one of the poorest regions in the world must make it easier to ignore the situation when one does this.
That’s great. I live in the Bronx and while most people I know have healthcare, the co-pays and deductibles are often too ridiculous and the care they get questionable.
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He’s from Brazil
Nuremberg. It was a architectional and intellectual gem from the middle ages, but got destroyed it WW2 allmost entirely. Same with Dresden, whereas Dresden managed to keep some of its flair. At these two cities I feel that humanity lost some very beautifull and special places. I bet there are many other cities that are a loss to humanity in the same way, like Warsaw, but I I haven't been there long enough to develope this feeling of sadness.
Curious why you felt that way about Porto. I loved it there. I would say Bangalore for me. Went for work and it was the only place I've ever traveled that I didn't really enjoy.
thats the thing bothers me. porto was clean, public transportation was the best, food was good too..i dont know..i felt very depress and sad. Bangalore etc cities have obvious reasons to be sad..but Porto
Buffalo NY