Most boring places you've visited

The Nal

humberklog wrote: »

I pop into Irish pubs when abroad now and again especially when in a city (as opposed to a Resort).

Sometimes you just want to go to the bar and get served. Ireland does pubs well and often "Irish Pubs" abroad are pretty well run along the manner of a pub in Ireland.

I don't associate Irish Pubs with being full of Irish people. It's a term (and theme) of a type of pub that for the most part didn't exist in other countries until the Irish pub arrived.

What's the difference? Bar service and seating, longer unashamed drinking, often live music, more informal service and mixing with other customers. General atmosphere. Sure you can get crappy ones abroad but you can get crappy Irish pubs in Ireland too.

I see "Irish Pub" in the same way I see "French Restaurant" or "German Beer Hall" or "Thai Massage". It's just something we do well that at this stage has developed an international understanding.

It's not everyone's cuppa but I for one love popping into an Irish pub after a few days and nights (weeks even) of being in a foreign city.

It can be oasis of familiarity in world of strange. But you could be a Dutch man in Guatemala and see the sign for Reilly's and feel "oh thank fukc for that, un grande cervaze, signor" and roughly know what you going to get, or at least what you expect to get.

Indeed and have been in Irish pubs myself to watch a match or whatever.

I'm really referring to it as a first (and sometimes only) port of call. ie lads on a stag or whatever for 2 days spending all 2 days in the Irish bar.

And then saying they didn't really like the city.

orangerhyme

Hamachi wrote: »

There’s a grain of truth in this. Germany has had an abysmally low birth rate since the 1970s. The same is also true of Italy. The populations are simply older and aren’t likely to be heading out on a session.

In Ireland, we take our relatively youthful demographics for granted. It’s a real asset to this country, giving it a certain vibrancy lacking in much of continental Europe. Long may it continue.

Two German friends visited me in Dublin in the summer of 2019. We spent a lot of time in town and heading out at night. They couldn’t get over how youthful the city is with one of them asking if there are any old people in Ireland at all.

"Demographics are destiny"

People complain about immigrants in Italy, but they've no choice to accept them, otherwise their economy suffers.

Our birth rate is slowly dropping but still 3rd highest in Europe I think.

Giggsy19

Courtown in wexford, horrendous place. No amount of alcohol can help make this place good.

hahashake

Exactly, Irish pubs are fine, it's more complaining that a city/country is dead when what you really mean is you travelled across the world and only wanted what you could have had at home and then complained it wasn't as good. Like the kid on safari who spends his time playing games and complaining he's bored, except no one dragged you there.

Brian?

EmptyTree wrote: »

You've just discredited your entire post.

Agreed. Berlin is many things, but boring definitely isn’t one of them.

orangerhyme

chosen1 wrote: »

Literally no where on that post did I say Berlin was boring in general. There is tons to do during the day and sights to visit.

I was simply stating that the famous nightlife can easily be missed if it weren't for some local knowledge. It's no fun at night time being refused into the more we'll known nightclubs, something that has happened to me no where else in the world except when I was a teenager in Ireland and had a few too many.

Was the underground scene that saved night life for us.

There seems to be a culture of "in the know" and also locals only.
I went to one "secret" pub in back of a shop that you enter through a phone box I think, it was completely empty, but apparently up til recently it was the place to be.
It's a strange/interesting city overall.
Lots of dereliction and squatting in the city centre also

onrail

Giggsy19 wrote: »

Courtown in wexford, horrendous place. No amount of alcohol can help make this place good.

As a Wexford person, I have to agree. That whole courtown-riverchapel area used to be pleasant until it became the dumping ground of a certain council

GT89

orangerhyme wrote: »

"Demographics are destiny"

People complain about immigrants in Italy, but they've no choice to accept them, otherwise their economy suffers.

Our birth rate is slowly dropping but still 3rd highest in Europe I think.

The only work I've seen immigrants in Italy is selling selfie sticks and other bits of tourist tat so I wouldn't say immigration has benefitted their economy. Nearly all the service staff in restaurants, bars and hotels are Italian.

Most train stations in Italy are full of African migrants loitering and intimidating tourists.

onrail

onrail wrote: »

As a Wexford person, I have to agree. That whole courtown-riverchapel area used to be pleasant until it became the dumping ground of a certain council

Let me guess.

Wexford council?

Fr Tod Umptious

orangerhyme wrote: »

I agree with this.

Its probably unfair to compare midlands towns to the likes of Killarney or Westport but are probably much better than similar sized towns on the continent or Uk even.

I think people will still pop out during the week for a pint, cards, pool, darts, watch a pl game on the telly.

I think I heard a German economist saying that theres many small cities in Germany with a population over 100,000 and they wouldnt have a cinema even. I think this is due to the small birthrate since the 70s.
Apparently Germanys native population peaked in the 70s and any growth since then is due to immigrants.

While that may have been the case in the past I don't think it is much anymore.

20 years ago I brought an American lady to my non-tourist, provincial, 10k+ population home town.
She was amazed about how busy the place was, both day and night.
An American town of 10k+ would not have near as much shops, pubs etc.

But in recent years I have seen so many places in the twon close.
The pubs are barely busy at weekend now never mind during the week.
Many small family shops have closed.

I was in a job a few years ago that meant I had to overnight in similar type towns midweek.
Places like New Ross, Mallow, Carlow, Skibereen etc
I'd pop into a few pubs in each place and most were completely dead.
No life or atmosphere in them.

orangerhyme

GT89 wrote: »

The only work I've seen immigrants in Italy is selling selfie sticks and other bits of tourist tat so I wouldn't say immigration has benefitted their economy. Nearly all the service staff in restaurants, bars and hotels are Italian.

Most train stations in Italy are full of African migrants loitering and intimidating tourists.

You have to invest in them though. They need language, skills, training etc then you've a tax payer for a few decades paying the pension of older people.

Pension money isnt saved for the future, it's payed out of the tax of the working population

breezy1985

Hamachi wrote: »

Good call. You can’t go far wrong staying near Alexanderplatz. Most of the u-bahn lines intersect there, meaning you can get anywhere pretty quickly.

Not sure why people found it hard to track down nightlife in Berlin. It’s virtually impossible to miss it in Kreuzberg. Speaking of Kreuzberg, it’s an interesting place right in the shadow of where the wall once stood. The people are a curious mix of German hipsters and multi-generational Turkish families, who seem to co-exist relatively happily.

These are 2 places that I think let Berlin down at first glance. Alexanderplatz is an awful drab looking place that reminds me of Milton Keynes.

Kreuzberg has some great pubs but also lots of walking round street full of nothing to find them. Reminds me of Shoreditch which so many people in London rave about but all my memories of the place were of walking around for ages between supposed great pubs not in em

I saw lots of areas that might be great craic to live in in Berlin but I wouldn't recommend it to a tourist unless you were big on history

HBC08

FrKurtFahrt wrote: »

This place. I spent a fortnight there one weekend - it's like visiting a mannerly clinic.

I had one of the best weekends of my life in Singapore.
I was involved in a theatre production there about 15 years ago.We were flown in and put up in Raffles hotel,dinner with the ambassadors the whole lot.
Our last performance was on a sat night,we were in a mad hurry to get back to the city centre because Munster were in the Heineken cup final and unbelievably it was being show on a giant screen outdoors.We ran out of the theatre some of us still wearing bits of costumes,no taxis could be got so we managed to get a few cars of theatre goers to bring us in,made it just in time for kick off.
Maybe a 1000 people around a huge screen and it 30 degrees at night,Munster go on and win their first Heineken cup,mad celebrations and then pubs and nightclubs.Ended up in the "four floors of whores",now ive lived in Asia for 10 years and i thought id seen it all,turns out i hadnt!
Most of the lads were married or shacked up like myself so didnt partake but it was mighty craic,a couple of the younger unattached lads disappeared and got a bit of an education that night.
We got breakfast somewhere and were making our way back to the hotel.There was a marathon or some sort of running event going on,some streets were cordoned off so we stopped to have a look.Who do we see only one of the young lads half dressed in theatre costume running in the middle of it.We dragged him out of it fairly quick and got him back to hotel.Had a few Singapore slings in Raffles bar before heading to bed.
Apologies for long story but i always think of that weekend when Singapore is mentioned.

Brian?

GT89 wrote: »

The only work I've seen immigrants in Italy is selling selfie sticks and other bits of tourist tat so I wouldn't say immigration has benefitted their economy. Nearly all the service staff in restaurants, bars and hotels are Italian.

Most train stations in Italy are full of African migrants loitering and intimidating tourists.

Intimidating? Or just hanging around?

breezy1985

IsosKramer wrote: »

Absolutely.
Whenever I see these threads I feel they should just change the title to:
"What do you hate most about Galway?"

Ya poor Galway always getting picked on. Our hearts bleed for ye here in Limerick

Mad_maxx

hahashake wrote: »

Strongly disagree with this, touring the towns and cities, yes but it's a surprisingly big country with a lot of varied sights and activities. As long as you have a good itinerary, enough money and willingness to actually do things then there are months of things to do.

Rural NZ is paradise but there isn't one memorable urban area in the entire country

It's like one big farm

Mad_maxx

Deleted User wrote: »

i once had the misfortune of spending a night in loughrea.....it has no redeeming values

And Loughrea is one of the better towns in the county

orangerhyme

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

While that may have been the case in the past I don't think it is much anymore.

20 years ago I brought an American lady to my non-tourist, provincial, 10k+ population home town.
She was amazed about how busy the place was, both day and night.
An American town of 10k+ would not have near as much shops, pubs etc.

But in recent years I have seen so many places in the twon close.
The pubs are barely busy at weekend now never mind during the week.
Many small family shops have closed.

I was in a job a few years ago that meant I had to overnight in similar type towns midweek.
Places like New Ross, Mallow, Carlow, Skibereen etc
I'd pop into a few pubs in each place and most were completely dead.
No life or atmosphere in them.

I agree they're not as good as pre re-recession celtic tiger era, but still better than towns of comparable size in other countries.

Most towns have a cinema, good selection of pubs, restaurants, cafes, late bars/nightclubs.

I heard a social psychologist say that watching tv shows with groups of people or friends is like a proxy for our need for social connection and community. Eg watching Love Island and discussing it on twitter has replaced village gossip.

GT89

Brian? wrote: »

Intimidating? Or just hanging around?

Yes they are intimidating. I wasn't intimidated by them as I'm a grown man that's well able to handle himself but for lone women, children or older people it would be quite intimidating I'd imagine. The guys selling selfie sticks are also very annoying for tourists. Most Italians I've spoken to hate these guys and want every single last one deported.

ulster

jmlad2020 wrote: »

Dortmund is up there.

I also found Howth to be incredibly underwhelming when I visited... I grew up on the west coast, beautiful scenery etc.. I just thought it didn't deserve the amount of Tourists it was getting in comparison to some other places in Ireland.

It's all personal preference.

I'm not from Dublin myself but i think Howth is a nice place. I'd nearly prefer it to Dalkey/ Killiney.

onrail

Deleted User wrote: »

Let me guess.

Wexford council?

Nope! (I don't mean dumping of refuse btw...)

hahashake

Mad_maxx wrote: »

Rural NZ is paradise but there isn't one memorable urban area in the entire country

If you go to NZ for the urban aspect, you are going for the wrong reason. Same population as Ireland (Republic) in an area 4x the size. That being said, Auckland is fine for city of its size. Quite like the islands in the Auckland harbour and viaduct area.

Brian?

GT89 wrote: »

Yes they are intimidating. I wasn't intimidated by them as I'm a grown man that's well able to handle himself but for lone women, children or older people it would be quite intimidating I'd imagine. The guys selling selfie sticks are also very annoying for tourists. Most Italians I've spoken to hate these guys and want every single last one deported.

So you imagine they were intimidating.


The bolded part, I suspect, is confirmation bias. The voting pattern in Italy suggests that there is a large number of people who'd want the african immigrants deported. I feel you're throwing in the hate part.

feargantae

MyLove4Satan wrote: »

Absolutely! I was amazed at some the comments about Athens on this thread. Athens is a pulsating and energetic city filled with life. I do not care about the graffiti! It is pure energy. What kind of pussies are made frightened by graffiti in the 21st century FFS!

The graffiti, as ugly as it is, isn't the frightening bit. It's the messages written in the graffiti. So much of it promotes the golden dawn, a modern day nazi party, they are anti LGBT+, anti immigration, believe women belong in the kitchen etc etc. A few years ago I remember a story that they were in a boat and came across a boat full of migrants. The golden dawn sank their boat and wore this like a badge of honour. You'd hear of them assaulting a gay person or an Albanian/immigrant too and it'd be swept under the rug since they'd hate police in their pockets too. Vile stuff altogether and so widespread.

Visiting the place is 1 thing since it's so cheap, but to actually live there is another

Hulk Hands

Mad_maxx wrote: »

And Loughrea is one of the better towns in the county

Il ask you again, at what point in your life were you bullied by a Galway lad? Every single thread ive ever seen reference the place, there you are with your little disparaging remark. Even some threads that have nothing to do with Galway you'll bring it back to there. It's very strange and a little sad tbh

Where are you from, in comparison? Have to laugh at some of the remarks about the place as if that person comes from somewhere we couldn't equally rip on

GT89

GT89 wrote: »

Yes they are intimidating. I wasn't intimidated by them as I'm a grown man that's well able to handle himself but for lone women, children or older people it would be quite intimidating I'd imagine.

I'm a female, have done quite a bit of solo travel and I don't find them intimidating, can't imagine how any child would find people standing around intimidating, kids don't really do intimidating!
I think you're just showing you're own bias now.

road_high

I quite like Galway city. It’s very easy stroll around, lively, nice shops and restaurants. Very pretty setting too with Connemara and the seaside

duffmann

As much as I love Berlin, I fear that it will become as boring as Dublin with the gentrification and hotels going up everywhere. It has changed a lot in ten years.

Hulk Hands

road_high wrote: »

I quite like Galway city. It’s very easy stroll around, lively, nice shops and restaurants. Very pretty setting too with Connemara and the seaside

It's a town. It has the usual amount of things to do that 75k towns have, i.e very little, and has decent but limited nightlife and throws on a few festivals. It gets elevated over the other small Irish towns and cities because they have worse nightlife, fewer festivals and equally, little to do.

If people say Galway is overrated that's probably accurate, because of what we have to compare it to here. If people are actually saying it's 'the most boring place they've visited', then I'd question where exactly on this fair isle they live themselves

breezy1985

duffmann wrote: »

As much as I love Berlin, I fear that it will become as boring as Dublin with the gentrification and hotels going up everywhere. It has changed a lot in ten years.

I really like Dublin. For a big city and a national capital it's very compact and easy for a tourist

fryup

GT89 wrote: »

Berlin

Also the locals seem to be very unfriendly and customer service in shops, hotels and restaurants etc. is awful it's like no one can crack a smile they don't even say danke.

well they did start two WW's ...it's not like they have a track record in joviality in fairness

kenmc

Hilversum, near Amsterdam. Sent there with work in 1999\2000 sorta timeframe. Literally nothing to do, it's basically a retirement village. Oh and one of the TV studios is there. Dreaded every Sunday evening for about 3 months as I knew I'd be flying back out early the next morning for a week of boredom

breezy1985

Hulk Hands wrote: »

It's a town. It has the usual amount of things to do that 75k towns have, i.e very little, and has decent but limited nightlife and throws on a few festivals. It gets elevated over the other small Irish towns and cities because they have worse nightlife, fewer festivals and equally, little to do.

It's the "elevated over the other small Irish towns and cities" bit I don't get. I was expecting it to be way better than Limerick judging by the way people go on about it but in reality it's about the same on a night out. Maybe a little more compact and easier to find your way round but for pubs and clubs it's almost identical.

Cork though is way better than both as you would expect given the size but doesn't get half the praise Galway does

Hamachi

breezy1985 wrote: »

These are 2 places that I think let Berlin down at first glance. Alexanderplatz is an awful drab looking place that reminds me of Milton Keynes.

Kreuzberg has some great pubs but also lots of walking round street full of nothing to find them. Reminds me of Shoreditch which so many people in London rave about but all my memories of the place were of walking around for ages between supposed great pubs not in em

I saw lots of areas that might be great craic to live in in Berlin but I wouldn't recommend it to a tourist unless you were big on history

Alexanderplatz is very Stalinist looking. I guess that’s to be expected as it’s the center of the old east Berlin. If you’re only there for a few days / weeks, it’s a good central base to get around. It’s walking distance to Unter den Linden and the Brandenburger gate. I agree that it wouldn’t be very appealing to live there though.

Personally, I really like Kreuzberg. The only downside for me was Goerlitzer park, that I used for running. It was absolutely crawling with drug dealers and I had to literally run the gauntlet of them to get into the park. I also felt very uncomfortable seeing open drug dealing going on whilst kids played on the swings and slides in the spielplatz 20 meters away.

Church on Tuesday

fryup wrote: »

just like Ireland then :cool:

No Greggs though sadly.

Mad_maxx

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Il ask you again, at what point in your life were you bullied by a Galway lad? Every single thread ive ever seen reference the place, there you are with your little disparaging remark. Even some threads that have nothing to do with Galway you'll bring it back to there. It's very strange and a little sad tbh

Where are you from, in comparison? Have to laugh at some of the remarks about the place as if that person comes from somewhere we couldn't equally rip on

Never bullied by an Irish lad ,let alone "a Galway lad "

Hope that answers your question

Hulk Hands

breezy1985 wrote: »

It's the "elevated over the other small Irish towns and cities" bit I don't get. I was expecting it to be way better than Limerick judging by the way people go on about it but in reality it's about the same on a night out. Maybe a little more compact and easier to find your way round but for pubs and clubs it's almost identical.

Cork though is way better than both as you would expect given the size but doesn't get half the praise Galway does

I love Limerick and spent years living there but you can't compare Limerick nightlife with Galway. It's lively for students but generally dead on the weekend and has little in the way of big summer festivals. It does have more touristy things to do though and a bigger city centre.

Cork is a proper city so you can't really compare. I never thought Corks nightlife was exceptional for its size but certainly not bad. I do think it's underrated as a destination in Ireland terms

Hulk Hands

Mad_maxx wrote: »

Never bullied by an Irish lad ,let alone "a Galway lad "

Hope that answers your question

Grand so. Il be back again after your next 100 posts complaining about the place to ask why you have such an odd obsession with it and where you come from yourself

ArtfulPodger

Dr. Bre wrote: »

Singabore

Memorable only for the horrendous heat and humidity!

EmmetSpiceland

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Grand so. Il be back again after your next 100 posts complaining about the place to ask why you have such an odd obsession with it and where you come from yourself

I believe he thinks Galway has “too many liberals” residing in it.

Cody montana

Milton Keynes
Brussels
The Midlands
Darwin

Hamachi

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

I believe he thinks Galway has “too many liberals” residing in it.

How many times have you posted that now? Dog and bone come to mind..

Mad_maxx

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Grand so. Il be back again after your next 100 posts complaining about the place to ask why you have such an odd obsession with it and where you come from yourself

no problem , chalk this post down as number one in the count towards one hundred

orangerhyme

I see Brussels mentioned a lot but I thought it was cool. Great beer, food, museum ,pubs etc. Beautiful city centre.

I think culturally it's much better than Dublin, not sure about nightlife.

My great idea for Dublin is to convert the BOI on College Green into a museum of Irish culture with live shows and changing exhibits. I think it'd be world class, could cover everything from trad music to cinema

vriesmays

RoscommonTom wrote: »

Waterford, nothing to do there and you can hardly understand any thing they say with the accents,

There are loads to do in Waterford: visit an airport with no planes, join a protest march for a 3rd-rate university, walk along Willkins Street and Summerville Avenue (the Bill Kenneally way).

EmmetSpiceland

orangerhyme wrote: »

I see Brussels mentioned a lot but I thought it was cool. Great beer, food, museum ,pubs etc. Beautiful city centre.

It’s a nice spot for a “flying visit”, there’s some nice old bars and a few spots of interest but once you go a little bit outside the tourist area it’s a grim place.

Bruges is a much nicer place for doing the Belgian “touristy” stuff. Actually, anywhere outside Brussels is.

breezy1985

Hulk Hands wrote: »

I love Limerick and spent years living there but you can't compare Limerick nightlife with Galway. It's lively for students but generally dead on the weekend and has little in the way of big summer festivals. It does have more touristy things to do though and a bigger city centre.

Cork is a proper city so you can't really compare. I never thought Corks nightlife was exceptional for its size but certainly not bad. I do think it's underrated as a destination in Ireland terms

Im confused which one are you saying
" It's lively for students but generally dead on the weekend and has little in the way of big summer festivals. It does have more touristy things to do though and a bigger city centre. "
Galway I assume but I wouldn't say it has a bigger city centre just more compact and easier to navigate which is great for a tourist. Ide say Limerick looks awful drab to a tourist at first glance

orangerhyme

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

It’s a nice spot for a “flying visit”, there’s some nice old bars and a few spots of interest but once you go a little bit outside the tourist area it’s a grim place.

Bruges is a much nicer place for doing the Belgian “touristy” stuff. Actually, anywhere outside Brussels is.

Fair enough. Different perspectives. Saw comic book museum, Magritte museum, took mushrooms in the atomic building.

breezy1985

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

It’s a nice spot for a “flying visit”, there’s some nice old bars and a few spots of interest but once you go a little bit outside the tourist area it’s a grim place.

Bruges is a much nicer place for doing the Belgian “touristy” stuff. Actually, anywhere outside Brussels is.

I loved Brussels but that's mostly down to the beer and saucy chips but it does look grim in parts.
Spent ages walking through grim looking suburbs to get to Cantillion brewery and was surprised how run down it looked. Belgians are pretty similar to ourselves in the sense that most parts are historically pretty poor and underdeveloped

orangerhyme

breezy1985 wrote: »

I loved Brussels but that's mostly down to the beer and saucy chips but it does look grim in parts.
Spent ages walking through grim looking suburbs to get to Cantillion brewery and was surprised how run down it looked. Belgians are pretty similar to ourselves in the sense that most parts are historically pretty poor and underdeveloped

I think in Dublin our city centre can be a bit run down but the some of the suburbs are lovely.

I always think you can see the historical wealth in countries such as Spain, Belgium, Holland etc countries that have been wealthy for centuries as opposed to ireland which just got rich in the late 90s