Cities you'd never return to

crockholm

Antwerp,Bruges,Ghent and Louvain (all flemish yet using the french terms for 3 of them) are all Beautiful cities in Belgium.

tobybinns

losthorizon wrote: »

Dont like Oostenders!

was thinking more about Liege and the WW1 Battlefields etc. Oh and the Beer.

What exactly don't you like about the place?

Olive8585

crockholm wrote: »

Antwerp,Bruges,Ghent and Louvain (all flemish yet using the french terms for 3 of them) are all Beautiful cities in Belgium.

Why use the French terms? Antwerp is Anvers in French anyway, not Antwerp.

crockholm

Olive8585 wrote: »

Why use the French terms? Antwerp is Anvers in French anyway, not Antwerp.

Well aware of it,I used to live 50 km from Antwerp, the reason I used those terms is because English speakers use the french terms for 3 of the cities and we use neither the french nor flemish name when talking about Antwerpen/anvers.

Leuven,brugge and Genk would not be so easily recognized in English speaking countries,hope this clarifies your obscure question.

the blunder years

I've seen LA mentioned quite a few times, and I know it has a rep for being notorious shallow and hollow town and gets a lot of hate, my sister went on her J1 to LA and hated the place. Does it have any redeeming qualities, I'd love to visit places like Laurel Canyon and Silver lake or is it just a miserable place.

Wompa1

the blunder years wrote: »

I've seen LA mentioned quite a few times, and I know it has a rep for being notorious shallow and hollow town and gets a lot of hate, my sister went on her J1 to LA and hated the place. Does it have any redeeming qualities, I'd love to visit places like Laurel Canyon and Silver lake or is it just a miserable place.

I don't know if it would be worth it. There's nicer places to see that kind of thing. Even in California. You could swing up to Yosemite. Also, Washington State is absolutely beautiful! I've heard Oregon is amazing, I plan to go there in November. I also hope to see Maine...that's meant to be incredible too. I'd love to see Nova Scotia at some point.

Arizona has some pretty great hiking trails if that Canyon is any indication of what you're into

the blunder years

Wompa1 wrote: »

I don't know if it would be worth it. There's nicer places to see that kind of thing. Even in California. You could swing up to Yosemite. Also, Washington State is absolutely beautiful! I've heard Oregon is amazing, I plan to go there in November. I also hope to see Maine...that's meant to be incredible too. I'd love to see Nova Scotia at some point.

Arizona has some pretty great hiking trails if that Canyon is any indication of what you're into

Yeah I love to go to the West coast of America, also some Southern states as well. Just on a side note seen as you mentioned better places in California, my sister liked San Diego.

M5

Hollywood, such a let down

Manky, full of tacky souvenir shops, junkies and sex shops. The poxy stars on the pavement certainly dont make it worthwhile

Duck's hoop

The whole SW of the US is incredible. Arizona and Utah particularly. Some of the parks would have your eye out. Just breathtaking.

And you'll most likely fly to LAX so may as well spend a day or two. I said before around Santa Monica etc is a total freak show. Well worth an afternoon just mooching and staring slack jawed at some of the carrying on!

losthorizon

tobybinns wrote: »

What exactly don't you like about the place?

Its a joke. Think of the BBC

trashcan

jane82 wrote: »

I went to thermopylae once. 300 hundred locals turned up at a narrow passageway coming into the town and all huddled together and wouldnt let us through.
We had to camp there took us months to get in.

But that was ages ago in fairness

Wompa1

the blunder years wrote: »

Yeah I love to go to the West coast of America, also some Southern states as well. Just on a side note seen as you mentioned better places in California, my sister liked San Diego.

I'm not a huge fan of San Diego. Some of the beaches are nice and the Zoo is cool but the city itself is a whole lot of MEH. It's on the water so that's cool but meh.

I was in Louisiana recently. That was different! It had a different vibe to it than the rest of America. San Francisco, New York and New Orleans are cities I've been to in the states where it actually does feel historic. Most of the rest are just so modern they don't have any feel to them at all

retalivity

I must be in the minority by thinking paris was not expensive at all. Was able to get fabulous food every night for 10-15euro, along with a cheap bottle of plonk.
Niagara falls is a dump, a mini sleazy vegas. And I didnt get across to the american side bit heard it was worse. Detroit is also exactly what you expect. - a crumbling hole

NSAman

retalivity wrote: »

I must be in the minority by thinking paris was not expensive at all. Was able to get fabulous food every night for 10-15euro, along with a cheap bottle of plonk.
Niagara falls is a dump, a mini sleazy vegas. And I didnt get across to the american side bit heard it was worse. Detroit is also exactly what you expect. - a crumbling hole

I agree, Detroit is like the day after a nuclear explosion. Chicago is like a battle zone on the south and west sides and everything closes so damned early.

Take a trip outside the cities to the countryside of the Midwest and there are some amazing places. The people are genuine and innocent and it is completely safe. Out by Iowa, Illinois border through Wisconsin is stunning.

The west coast for me is pretty awful. California while it is lovely, I personally didn't like the people or the atmosphere. Up to Seattle is beautiful. The drive is spectacular. If you want beautiful scenery Colorado.... WOW!!!!!

Florida on the east coast is too "wanna be"ish.... the west coast if different. It has a different vibe and is much more laid back. Sanabel area is beautiful and no one on the beaches.

America is such a vast country, there are simply too many places to see and things to do. Most cities are similar (vast track shopping malls) New York for me is the most magical city in the world. I love it. The energy the fun the rudeness combined with the utter ability of New Yorkers to surprise you constantly.

Seattle is nothing like I was expecting. Downtown is simply full of junkies and drop outs. Yet there are these massive rich areas.... talk about a city that has an identity crisis (much like LA)

Duck's hoop

retalivity wrote: »

I must be in the minority by thinking paris was not expensive at all. Was able to get fabulous food every night for 10-15euro, along with a cheap bottle of plonk.

It's like most other spots, follow the locals. Though it can be laughably expensive, like any massive city!

My first time there I was 17 and we headed to the some café near the Trocadero. It was 50 francs for a coke. And 75 for tea. That was about 6 and 8 odd quid.

More than 20 years ago. Such decadence.

I spent most my late teens ratting about in the streets and metro stations, trying to be punk, avoiding skins and cops, drinking cheapest beer known to man and I fcuking love that town!

losthorizon

Funnily enough Ive spent the last few years going from Liverpool in England south down to Gibraltar and now heading north again so passed through a lot of French cities. But I didnt go through Paris as I thought there would be too much to do. I didnt want to get bogged down. Plus I thought there would be too many tourists there.

Well I started in Dungarvan and made my way up through Waterford to Dublin and across to the Isle of Man to Liverpool.

Olive8585

crockholm wrote: »

Well aware of it,I used to live 50 km from Antwerp, the reason I used those terms is because English speakers use the french terms for 3 of the cities and we use neither the french nor flemish name when talking about Antwerpen/anvers.

Leuven,brugge and Genk would not be so easily recognized in English speaking countries,hope this clarifies your obscure question.

Hardly an obscure question. I've never met an English speaker who didn't know Leuven as Leuven. Anytime I heard it referred to as Louvain, the person was talking about Louvain-la-Neuve.

crockholm

Olive8585 wrote: »

Hardly an obscure question. I've never met an English speaker who didn't know Leuven as Leuven. Anytime I heard it referred to as Louvain, the person was talking about Louvain-la-Neuve.

That you have never met one who calls the Place Louvain is not a great arguement tbf.I have never Heard of the city being called Leuven until I lived in relative proximity to it.

Whenever it was mentioned in Ireland,it was referred to as Louvain,and as it had/has the Irish College,it was mentioned frequently,especially in Irish History and in the history of Irish(the language).

I mentioned 4 cities,3 of them by their french name,as they are better known by their French names here,and Antwerpen by the English "Antwerp".

I just don't know what the Point of you quoting me was

If you are Flemish or something.......Well....Congratulations.

Olive8585

crockholm wrote: »

That you have never met one who calls the Place Louvain is not a great arguement tbf.I have never Heard of the city being called Leuven until I lived in relative proximity to it.

Whenever it was mentioned in Ireland,it was referred to as Louvain,and as it had/has the Irish College,it was mentioned frequently,especially in Irish History and in the history of Irish(the language).

I mentioned 4 cities,3 of them by their french name,as they are better known by their French names here,and Antwerpen by the English "Antwerp".

I just don't know what the Point of you quoting me was

If you are Flemish or something.......Well....Congratulations.

Eh...it's a discussion forum where people have, you know, opinions. I found it strange that you said you were posting the names in French when one of them was actually in English and another is FAR better known by its Flemish name. Google 'louvain belgium' and see what comes up. Most pages refer to 'Leuven' and the page which does come up about Université catholique de Louvain is actually about a university in Louvain-la-Neuve. In my experience, only French speakers call Leuven Louvain. But OK, you're the world's leading authority on Belgium.

Fox_In_Socks

Belgium is interesting enough to have an argument about?

Olive8585

Fox_In_Socks wrote: »

Belgium is interesting enough to have an argument about?

I spent my first 10 years there and for some reason returned for a bit as an adult. The Flemish/Walloon bickering is the most interesting thing it has going for it.

losthorizon

Fox_In_Socks wrote: »

Belgium is interesting enough to have an argument about?

Just been there on day trips but never been there properly but there is stacks of history going on in that small nation. Having been to most nations in europe its funny I never got to get to go there really.

Diane Selwyn

Duck's hoop wrote: »

It's like most other spots, follow the locals. Though it can be laughably expensive, like any massive city!

My first time there I was 17 and we headed to the some café near the Trocadero. It was 50 francs for a coke. And 75 for tea. That was about 6 and 8 odd quid.

More than 20 years ago. Such decadence.

I spent most my late teens ratting about in the streets and metro stations, trying to be punk, avoiding skins and cops, drinking cheapest beer known to man and I fcuking love that town!

Trying to be punk and paying over the odds for cups of tea I like. J'aime Paris.

Cienciano

retalivity wrote: »

I must be in the minority by thinking paris was not expensive at all. Was able to get fabulous food every night for 10-15euro, along with a cheap bottle of plonk.

I found it to be good value too. Suppose it depends where you go, i know some friends had pints for €15. Next day we were drinking them for €3 in another bar.

BuilderPlumber

At the moment, Kiev too for obvious reasons. I remember doing the Eastern Europe tour back in the day and found the further East you went, the poorer it got. I started off in Vienna and Prague (both rich), then Bratislava (still, quite rich), then Eastern Slovakia (poorer) and then Ukraine (very poor). Kiev was then a nice place but there was obvious poverty and deprivation around the place but no war or upheavel like now.

Duck's hoop

Diane Selwyn wrote: »

Trying to be punk and paying over the odds for cups of tea I like. J'aime Paris.

Positively Wildean put down. Though I simply reported the prices, not that I imbibed.

And if I had, I was 17 ya miserable git.

6541

Broome, Western Australia, absolute dump, full of alcoholic natives and box jelly fish in unbearable fly infested heat.

thrashmetalfan

Mega City 1. the city itself is waaay to big too noisy and overcrowded. the gulf between rich and poor in the city is vast and the local police force locally known as Judges are the most vicious and sadistic cops I have ever seen. never again!!

Blitzkrieger

Blingy wrote: »

Montevideo, Uruguay.
The weirdest, oddest place I have ever been. Can't put my finger on any one aspect but just got an awful dark, sinister feeling the whole time I was there. Felt like we were in danger most of the time yet had no obvious reason to feel like that.

I loved Montevideo. Granted before we left the hotel we asked the receptionist (Diego - legend ) where we should go, and the places he said we shouldn't go ended up covering half the map, but we had a great time. Good food, friendly (attractive) locals and we somehow ended up down by the port in the small hours watching street races. Great craic!

Celly Smunt

Im going to put Dubai down. I used to pretty much live in the place working over that side.

It's like being in a set of a show, nothing but false impressions, rich business men doing what they can to out do their other rich friends while workers faint in the heat after being whipped to work harder through the 2 o'clock sun.

The english that inhabit the place are by far the worst, trying to live up to the "Dubai lifestyle" arrogany twats the lot of them.The happiest day of my life was finding my assignment in dubai was finsihed. How anybody could considee even holidaying there is beyond me

crockholm

Olive8585 wrote: »

Eh...it's a discussion forum where people have, you know, opinions. I found it strange that you said you were posting the names in French when one of them was actually in English and another is FAR better known by its Flemish name. Google 'louvain belgium' and see what comes up. Most pages refer to 'Leuven' and the page which does come up about Université catholique de Louvain is actually about a university in Louvain-la-Neuve. In my experience, only French speakers call Leuven Louvain. But OK, you're the world's leading authority on Belgium.

Not the Worlds leading authority on Belgium,just an expert- an ex, meaning a has been and a spurt is a drip under pressure. That's me to a tee:o:p

I am pie

Blitzkrieger wrote: »

I loved Montevideo. Granted before we left the hotel we asked the receptionist (Diego - legend ) where we should go, and the places he said we shouldn't go ended up covering half the map, but we had a great time. Good food, friendly (attractive) locals and we somehow ended up down by the port in the small hours watching street races. Great craic!

Montevideo is safe (by regional standards), the locals are generally regarded as some of the nicest most affable people in South America and the standard of living is probably only higher in Santiago (unless you don't like smog...) in terms of the economy, safety and general law & order stuff.

That said, Santiago & Montevideo are fairly boring!

ms.sunnyb

Calgary.

suicide_circus

Celly Smunt wrote: »

Im going to put Dubai down. I used to pretty much live in the place working over that side.

It's like being in a set of a show, nothing but false impressions, rich business men doing what they can to out do their other rich friends while workers faint in the heat after being whipped to work harder through the 2 o'clock sun.

The english that inhabit the place are by far the worst, trying to live up to the "Dubai lifestyle" arrogany twats the lot of them.The happiest day of my life was finding my assignment in dubai was finsihed. How anybody could considee even holidaying there is beyond me

I have found that a holiday in dubai is a pretty good kunt-o-meter. Pretty safe bet that who enjoys that kind of environment is an utter prick.

The King of Moo

Fox_In_Socks wrote: »

Belgium is interesting enough to have an argument about?

I don't know where the stereotype in Anglophone countries of Belgium being boring comes from.
It's an amazingly complicated little country, the young people love "having the craic" Irish-style and there are plenty of things to do and interesting sites to see.
You could have a great time just by spending some a while in Liège, then getting a train to Bruges for a completely different experience.

ThunbergsAreGo

Celly Smunt wrote: »

Im going to put Dubai down. I used to pretty much live in the place working over that side.

It's like being in a set of a show, nothing but false impressions, rich business men doing what they can to out do their other rich friends while workers faint in the heat after being whipped to work harder through the 2 o'clock sun.

The english that inhabit the place are by far the worst, trying to live up to the "Dubai lifestyle" arrogany twats the lot of them.The happiest day of my life was finding my assignment in dubai was finsihed. How anybody could considee even holidaying there is beyond me

Agree with this Dubai and Abu Dhabi, utterly utterly soulless

Stayed in both on the way back from holidays last year, no character at all

sigmundv

Waterford (Port Láirge), Esbjerg in Denmark, Goslar in Germany and Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Maybe a stretch to call these cities, but fairly boring places.

NSAman

sigmundv wrote: »

Waterford (Port Láirge), Esbjerg in Denmark, Goslar in Germany and Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Maybe a stretch to call these cities, but fairly boring places.

Eindhoven is indeed, the most boring place I have ever been to. Literally nothing to do on a Sunday afternoon.

BuilderPlumber

naughtb4 wrote: »

Agree with this Dubai and Abu Dhabi, utterly utterly soulless

Stayed in both on the way back from holidays last year, no character at all

Dubai and Lagos are the two worst places EVER. Period.

Olive8585

suicide_circus wrote: »

I have found that a holiday in dubai is a pretty good kunt-o-meter. Pretty safe bet that who enjoys that kind of environment is an utter prick.

Hahaha, I do think that too, which is unfair as I've never even been to Dubai. I have to say I'm curious about seeing the fakeness and whatever, as I think that in itself will be an experience, but I also wouldn't want to support a place that uses so many badly treated and massively underpaid workers.

Oops69

First visited Paris in 1984 as a young teenager , I thought the champs élysées was a ****hole then , considering ireland was a complete ****hole back then , it must have been pretty bad , I had been considering going back recently convincing myself those were just stupid teenage impressions of the city , after reading this thread it looks like nothing's changed in 30 years !

Olive8585

Oops69 wrote: »

First visited Paris in 1984 as a young teenager , I thought the champs élysées was a ****hole then , considering ireland was a complete ****hole back then , it must have been pretty bad , I had been considering going back recently convincing myself those were just stupid teenage impressions of the city , after reading this thread it looks like nothing's changed in 30 years !

It's not a sh1thole. There are some negative aspects, but loads of positives too. There is so much to see and I love just wondering around the Latin Quarter and other spots, taking in the bookshop, little cafes etc....I love it.

fathead82

Pretoria.im there now & its a hole.cant wait to get home.

Oops69

Olive8585 wrote: »

It's not a sh1thole. There are some negative aspects, but loads of positives too. There is so much to see and I love just wondering around the Latin Quarter and other spots, taking in the bookshop, little cafes etc....I love it.

More convincing please , I heard the Montmartre area was good ??

Olive8585

Oops69 wrote: »

More convincing please , I heard the Montmartre area was good ??

It's not my job to convince you. I can't explain exactly why I love it, I just do. I love the atmosphere, the way it feels. I go over for a weekend every now and again on my own and just potter about. My idea of a sh1thole is somewhere you wouldn't want to spend any time, and Paris isn't like that at all to me.

crockholm

Oops69 wrote: »

More convincing please , I heard the Montmartre area was good ??

Yup, you're only a 5 minute walk from the Sexodrome.

robbieVan

Every American city I've been to has been great when you're in the parts they want you to see and then you step outside those areas and it's either a really wealthy closed off neighbourhood(usually situated on higher ground or near water) or you see poverty, really bad poverty, homelessness, everything is run down and feels old, it's like they stopped building and designing after the 70's/80's

Duck's hoop

Oops69 wrote: »

First visited Paris in 1984 as a young teenager , I thought the champs élysées was a ****hole then , considering ireland was a complete ****hole back then , it must have been pretty bad , I had been considering going back recently convincing myself those were just stupid teenage impressions of the city , after reading this thread it looks like nothing's changed in 30 years !

What did you find so offensive about the Champs Élysées in the '80s. As an Irish teenager?

It's a bit tackified and high streety now but even so. In '84 to call it a shìthole was surely just ever so slightly ignorant. In fairness.

'80s Paris was great. And still very French.

cloudatlas

There is a chasm between perspective if you're trying to live and make a living somewhere compared to going somewhere as a tourist and having a very specific itinerary.

cloudatlas

Article in the Irish Times about the red light district and how it's degraded the area.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/amsterdam-pays-heavy-price-for-selling-out-to-sex-and-drugs-1.1776652

If you're a tourist though it's a no brainer to avoid areas like this. Doesn't everybody do research into things before they go? Surely anyone knows a red light district is going to have all kinds different characters and run down establishment among the more classier places?