Nostalgic People Who Stayed In Their Childhood Homes Again Reveal What It Was Like
Nostalgic People Who Stayed In Their Childhood Homes Reveal What It Was Like
[rebelmouse-image 18353162 is_animated_gif=When you've lived in a place for a long time, it gets kind of hard to imagine it any other way. For most of us, when we move out of a place, we don't get to go back and see what it's like years later. One Reddit user asked:
Has anyone used AirBnB to stay in a house they used to live in, and how weird was it?
Most hadn't gone the AirBnB route, but tons of people shared their stories of going back to places they used to live. Some went for hookups, plenty of people cried and one person even found a beer they'd hidden years before! Click next to read through some of our favorite stories of people going back to the places they lived before.
Surreal
[rebelmouse-image 18350159 is_animated_gif=Dunno if it counts but i was dating this one girl. First time we go over to her place... It's the exact same apartment i went to to see this other girl 15 years ago. I had even stayed for a couple of months there in the past it was so surreal walking in.
The Epic Party
[rebelmouse-image 18353202 is_animated_gif=I once had an epic day/night of eating, drinking and being merry at various places with various people. There were many highlights of that day, but the relevant part is: around sundown, got a phone call from my sister. She got drunk and was adopted by a friendly group. They invited her back to theirs to keep partying after the main event finished. When she arrived, she realised the house in question was a house I had moved out of a few months earlier. So of course she called to invite me to party at my old house. Who was I to turn down such an invitation?
It ended up being an awesome night. I was stoked to find the new owners had done the very renovations I had planned in my head, only I had been renting so couldn't do them. They were stoked that I taught them the secret to working the fireplace without burning the house down, thus saving them from replacing the fireplace. The new owners were a gay couple, one half of which was a very expensive hairdresser, who gave me a free (drunken) trim and some invaluable hair related advice. Booze was drunk, pizza was ordered, drunken promises of lifelong friendship were made.
My sister and I eventually crashed in their spare room (which had previously been my spare room!) The next morning they made us pancakes. We didn't do numbers though - that night was too perfect, any attempt to continue the relationship would only pale in comparison.
That Place Was Tiny
[rebelmouse-image 18353203 is_animated_gif=We were visiting the Ukrainian village my bro and I grew up in. When we moved, we sold the apartment to some family friends, so when we went back to visit, they let us hang out there.
Damn the place was tiny! I was 10 when we left, and I remember it as "huge" to my childhood mind.
Hidden Beer In The Bathroom
[rebelmouse-image 18353204 is_animated_gif=I hooked up with a girl who lived in an apartment unit I used to. That was cool/weird.
I'd hid a beer in the bathroom fan and found it still there.
Striking Difference
[rebelmouse-image 18353205 is_animated_gif=After my grandma retired, she lived in an expensive vacation place in a cabin for 30 years until she passed away. Like many older folks, she resisted remodeling anything and we really had to pull teeth to get her to even replace the 1970's (orange) shag carpeting in the 00's. So anyway, after she died, my dad and his sibling decided to sell the place because the remodeling would be expensive, and none of the kids/grand kids wanted to maintain the place or live in Vacation Spot.
Fast forward and my cousin is getting married at Vacation Spot and rents Grandma's house for the wedding weekend. The new owner seriously updated the place, and the difference was really striking - it used to be dark woods, small rooms, basic 70s stuff, now the entire top floor had all the walls knocked down so it is one great room with a full wall of sliding glass doors to the massive wraparound deck.
On the other hand, some things had not changed, and it was a trip. The master bedroom patio door still had claw marks from my grandma's dog that died in 2002. The old bedroom where I used to stay when I visited still had the old bedframes. The floor still creaked where there used to be a hallway between the kitchen and living room (now just a weak spot in the open floor plan).
My family agreed, it was nice to visit, but none of us wanted to actually do the work to make it this nice. So, hooray for the new owners! They did a great job with the place.
High School
[rebelmouse-image 18348773 is_animated_gif=My high school building was sold off when they built a new building. The developer that bought it turned it into apartments. When i was in town for a class reunion one of the women I graduated with said she lived in the building so a bunch of us went over there to check it out with her.
The exterior looked mostly the same except for replaced windows and the school name was replaced with the apartment complex name.
The apartments are a few classrooms in a line with the hallway doors removed except for one an apartment.
They took out the bleachers in the gym and put in one of those rubberized tracks aroung the outside edge of the gym.
They left the auditorium intact and actually get local musicians to come play there and will play movies and sporting events in there
The cafeteria is a tiny food court with a Subway and a pizza place.
They redid the weight room and expanded it to have more machines.
The library is laundry room /lounge/business center/management office.
Painting The Room
[rebelmouse-image 18353206 is_animated_gif=I made an online friend and agreed to hang out with and his roommate and help paint a room with them. It turns out he lived in my sister's childhood best friend's house. His roommate had known me since I was about 10.
I had been there to paint that same room the original time.
The Bad Luck House
[rebelmouse-image 18353207 is_animated_gif=I once lived in a house that brought only bad luck to my family. I think it's because my parents used to use an old ouiji board. They both had affairs, got divorced. Sister left home, brother also left; left too. We were all too young really, I was only 16 and homeless.
They sold the house. Not long after, my dad turned mental had to be put into a mental institution and died a few years later of cancer. My brother died, my mom died, my whole family is pretty f^cked up.
I escaped, got married, had 2 kids and tried to move on with my life. I got tooth ache and my wife found me a local dentist. Their office happens to be in that old house. I haven't been back in 40 years and I'm not about to tempt fate and go back now.
I turn down the appointment, had to find another dentist.
Got Busted
[rebelmouse-image 18353209 is_animated_gif=My mom lived next door to her best friend for nearly 18 years before she moved to her college apartment and eventually in with my dad. Mom's parents passed away a few years ago, but her best friends parents still live in that same house. She was over there lately and peeked over the fence out of curiosity. The people who lived there now saw her looking over their fence and she quickly explained herself.
They thought it was so sweet, so they let her walk through and she said it was bizarre. She hasn't lived there in almost 30 years and it has been remodeled 3-4 times since. She said she wouldn't have known it was her house.
The whole thing left her sort of bittersweet.
Half Of My Old Living Room
[rebelmouse-image 18353210 is_animated_gif=I used to live in a very big apartment until I was about fifteen. My parents bought a house in the outskirts of the city, so we moved out and left the place. When I turned 20, I needed a place to rent near to the city and found out the same apartment was divided into 3 smaller apartments and was up for rent. So now I'm living in half of my old living room and my parents bedroom.
It's kind weird, the kitchen is where my old room used to be.
"Boy, Did She Mature Well"
[rebelmouse-image 18348846 is_animated_gif=Story time!
Years ago I got really close to these two girls. We used to do everything together. We would book restaurants and cafes and it was like a mini party every time since there were about 20 of us in this group of friends.
If we were too drunk to drive, we would just crash at someone's place. At some point, I got closer with one of the two girls and I started hanging out more with her but strictly in a friendly capacity. I couldn't see her as anything more.
First it was just crashing on her couch, then i started staying over for coffee and breakfast when i woke up, then for food, then to study and all of a sudden i was kind of staying there. Then she started getting closer and closer until we started sleeping together. Sleeping. Not having sex.
And then she started getting closer and closer until one night she kissed me and tried to turn it into sex. I stopped her saying i didn't want sex to ruin our friendship.
After this happened we drifted apart; I didn't see her for years after. Three or four years ago I saw her at a funeral. Boy did she mature well. She hit the gym hard and everything wrong about her somehow disappeared. She turned into one of those women you see on Snapchat or in the gym and think **"Wow imagine if a woman like this ever came close to me." ** Of course she now had a boyfriend and was travelling the world.
I remember that I had always found it funny that the building her flat was in had her name. Well... Her father, I found out at the funeral, is one of the biggest developers in my country and that building was actually hers as a gift from daddy. Daddy owned another 40-50 buildings in that city and another like 50 in the country.
Fast forward to last year. I have this f^ck buddy and the first time I go to her place, the road seems very familiar but I can't quite figure out why until i see the name of the building.
Out of all the buildings, of course the lived in that one. I call and ask which apartment shes staying in. I go up... And it's the exact same apartment i used to stay in with the girl who owned the building.
Campus Tour
[rebelmouse-image 18353211 is_animated_gif=I lived in a campus house, a BIG campus house. It had four huge bedrooms, two stories, full basement... it was a party house. We are sitting around getting high, drinking and playing guitar hero and we get a knock at the door. I was in the other room, and for some reason my good friends extremely dense brother answers the door (??) while holding a bong (???????).
The knocker was this really amped older guy with like TEN F^CKING KIDS. I think he was giving them a tour of campus, they looked high school age and were all wearing similar colors. He says something along the lines of "Hey! I'm Dan! I used to live here back when I was in college in the 80's! I was hoping I could show these kids what it was like!" and before anyone can stop idiot brother he just blurts out "YA SURE COME ON IN MAN!"
I walked in in the middle of this and didn't have time to stop him, but it ended up being fine aside from a little awkward. This guy (who seemed like a bit of a fuddy duddy at first glance) comes in, doesn't seem to notice any of the drugs or alcohol, the kids shuffle in and stand there awkwardly as he tells them stories like "Oh yeah that's where we set the couch on fire..." and what not. The whole thing was over pretty quickly.
And a house rule was made that no one besides a roommate answers the fucking door.
Naked In Her House
[rebelmouse-image 18353212 is_animated_gif=My ex lived in the house that my family rented when we first moved to the area. The first time she came out to eat with the family, i just haaaaad to mention that we had all been naked in her house. We dated for over a year.
Current Boyfriend
[rebelmouse-image 18348568 is_animated_gif=My current boyfriend lives in the house my childhood best friend lived in. He gave me his address and i knew the street, obviously, but the house number didn't ring any bells. It wasn't until i got outside that I realized he lived in that house. I didn't mention it to him. We had just started seeing each other and I didn't want him to be weirded out. Then I asked to use the bathroom, but didn't ask for where it was just sort of went. When I came back he was confused and asked if I found the bathroom ok. I just went:
"Oh... yeah I used to be in this house a lot as a kid."
Dad Loved Coming To Visit
[rebelmouse-image 18353213 is_animated_gif=This kind of happened to me. I went to the same university as my parents did. They were there in the mid-late 60's while I was there in the early 2000's. I was looking for a place to rent and my dad's old house was listed, so I actually moved in. He LOVED coming to my rental when him and my mom visited because it was still kind of the same set up he knew.
Reduced My Mom To Tears
[rebelmouse-image 18353214 is_animated_gif=My mother grew up on a farm outside of our town. It was a nice place, from her memories, with a lot of land.
I saw a friend who's a realtor now, whose family had bought the place from my grandpa and grandma, listing the property for sale and providing lots of pics and drone footage. The state of the house, which had obviously fallen into severe disrepair over the years since HIS family had left it, reduced my mom to tears.
Heartbreaking
[rebelmouse-image 18353216 is_animated_gif=I toured a house I grew up in. It was a very nice Victorian with beautiful wood features and a grand chandelier. Well they tore all that out, ripped out the secret passage in the back, busted the 10 ft by 7ft window to replace it with cheap Home Depot ones, replaced the grand staircase with a cheapo kit one, and tons of other stuff. Was very heartbreaking.
Experiencing The Remodel
[rebelmouse-image 18353217 is_animated_gif=About 3 years ago, we upgraded out of our apartment. We moved to our home, but maintained ownership of the apartment. So we remodeled the whole thing, and set it up for airBnB.
So about 2 months ago, we decided to try living in the apartment again, just for a week to experience the "new" remodeled apartment...
It felt meh. Kind of nostalgic at first. We quickly remembered all the little nooks and crannies and settled pretty fast. Honestly, we disliked having to be mindful of making noise again. We were glad when we left again.
The Pizza Oven
[rebelmouse-image 18353218 is_animated_gif=A friend of mine moved in to her childhood home about ten years after they left. Her parents had rented the place for 15 years, but the owners were selling it off so they had to move out. Cut to 10 years later. She's now an adult looking for a new place to move into. It showed up on the market for rent. She applied, thinking it would be funny and she got it!
Some renovations had been done and it had been repainted. The pizza oven her dad built was still in the backyard, along with all the graffiti that had been done in the garage over the years they were living there.
Sneaking Was Easy
[rebelmouse-image 18353219 is_animated_gif=I met a girl who lived in my old childhood house, didn't realize why the address was so familiar until I got there. Made sneaking around the house from her parents way easier because I already knew the layout and what parts of the floors make noise????????
H/T: Reddit
What makes somebody weird?
Has that question ever really been answered?
]We're ALL a little "weird" now and again.
In fact, we've been more conditioned now to embrace the weird.
What is weird, really?
Eccentric. I like that word better.
Some people are just eccentric.
And that can be fun.
Let's embrace the eccentric... as long it's not off-the-wall crazy.
That's a different story.
Redditor CATBVYS wanted to hear about the students we went to school with, who left a lasting impression, so they asked:
"What made the weird kid at your school, the weird kid?"
The weird kids at my schools always kept to themselves.
Now I suppose I'm the weird kid.
Regular or Diet?
coca-cola cola GIFGiphy"Carried around a briefcase with two, two-liter bottles of coke. I don't know if he would finish them every day but he would definitely crack one open in class and drink it."
mytwocents22
Dressed for Success
"He dressed up as a Jedi every day from elementary to the last day of high school and he had a lightsaber and would chase people who bullied him around with it. I'm actually surprised the teachers didn't take it away. He did have some emotional/personality problems as well."
longdongjohnson2005
"Sure, people like to make fun of him due to his peculiar dressing and weird beliefs."
"But did you ever see any Sith at your school?"
"Think about it."
Junior-Gorg
Worms
"Whenever it rained there would be dead worms on the cement… he ate them. Not like 1 or 2 he brought bags with him from home to fill up and eat like f**king gummy worms. Teachers never believed us when we told them so he had to have eaten hundreds over the years in elementary school."
Meow939
"I'm just imagining your teacher's doubtful expression 'He's eating handfuls of worms any time it rains, huh? And brings home whole bags to snack on? Stop making stories about Timmy now, it's unbelievable the things you come up with.'"
HyperSpaceSurfer
Sad Genius
"Turned yellow (literally) because he went on a carrot-only diet, shaved his eyebrows off (no idea why), and blew up his garage trying to make his own nuclear bomb. He died in his 20s after taking too much cough syrup and drinking homemade alcohol."
"I forgot to mention that he thought he had appendicitis and attempted to do surgery on himself, thankfully he only knicked the skin. He was considered a mathematical genius and got full scholarships to several colleges but didn't think any of them could teach him anything."
Cultural_Magician105
The Power
Excited 90S GIFGiphy"The vine where a kid goes 'I have the power of God and anime on my side' and screams like a banshee went to my middle school. He was maybe 4 grades underneath me but his weirdness turned him into one of the most popular kids in his grade."
PerryPimentel
Vine?! Now that takes me back in time. Wow.
Miracles
jesus wink GIFGiphy"He was tall and skinny. Would say the name of a girl in class a few times and then throw his eraser at the ceiling; in the middle of class."
"He did all sorts of weird things. At winter camp, we witnessed him take a large tube down a snow hill, hit a ramp, and while flying into the air, the back of his boot (with his leg still attached) hit him on the TOP of his head. Imagine that flexibility? We still discuss this over 40 years later like we witnessed Jesus walk on water."
Uncle_Bug_Music
Humper
"We had a kid join our fifth-grade class halfway through the year. The entire grade was given a chat about how this kid is different, but we need to be kind."
He spent every recess humping the playground equipment. We were kind to him but also terrified."
"In high school, we had a kid who only wore wolf shirts. He was Australian, so I just convinced everyone that it was a cultural thing. He was nice and didn't deserve to be picked on."
airhornsman
PHEONIX
"Not only was he large (tall and in stature not fat) for his age, like towering over some teachers, he maintained an impeccable straight, shoulder-length haircut that was half neon blue and half neon green that never faded. He also brought his katana to school which how was allowed in the mid-2000s I’ll never understand and had everyone including teachers call him PHOENIX."
oreoloki
This is Me
"Let's see..."
"He wasn't fully potty trained till almost 1st grade, He would randomly flip pencils back and forth in front of his face, he would meltdown if he couldn't get something right the first time, couldn't play sports due to terrible coordination, stuttered like crazy while talking with a very bad lisp, would nearly puke if he ate any unfamiliar food, and daydreamed about Angry Birds during class all day."
"Really weird kid, the reason I know him so well is because he was me. Autism isn't a fun or quirky thing to have to deal with. Most of my major issues were fixed by the time I got to middle school thankfully due to having very supportive teachers, therapists, and parents. Still have sh*t coordination and can't eat normal food though."
TheNobleOne06
Potato
Good Vibes Dancing GIF by Rosanna PansinoGiphy"He made up a thing where if you said potato to him he would do a silly dance. Halfway through high school, I guess he decided he didn’t like it anymore. But then people would just come up to him and yell potato at him over and over while he just tried to ignore them. I felt bad for him."
ApprehensiveLuck2325
Life Lesson #369...
Be nice to everybody. That's all a person my need sometimes.
In the golden age of entertainment, there are hundreds and thousands of amazing movies to choose from, with more coming out all the time.
But there always seem to be some that become popular with the masses for no particular reason...
Redditor shirorentz23 asked:
"What's the worst movie that everyone seems to love?"
'Fast and Furious'
"The 'Fast and Furious' movies."
- TruthYeller54
"I remember one time someone told me they went to space in one of the movies as a funny joke, but then I learned it wasn't a joke."
- zzzzz94
The Greatest Showman
"I will admit 'The Greatest Showman' soundtrack slaps, but I thought it was a mediocre movie. And that's being pretty generous."
- shirorentz23
"Agreed. Why bother making a movie 'based on' the life of someone pretty horrid in real life only to then completely rewrite his story?"
"It should have been an original story about Zac Efron and Zendaya’s characters, with some nods to PT Barnum for historical context and Easter eggs."
"Plus the 'main' song isn’t even the best one."
- Jonbob24
"Someone described it as a movie that PT Barnum would have written about himself, and that made it more palatable for me. It's kind of like how '300' is being told by a Spartian who exaggerates."
- The_Perfect_Fart
'Sharknado'
"'Sharknado.'"
"But we love it BECAUSE it’s a bad movie."
- Mini_Maniac10
DC Films in General
"DC movies, they just seem so bland. I just can't follow it at all."
- Efficient_Stress2181
"With a few exceptions (most of which are Batman movies), DC has this ongoing issue where most of their live-action adaptions are s**t and you're better off with the animated movies."
- CyptidProductions
"I'll never understand the diehard DC / Snyder zealots."
"I love DC comics and DC characters. I even like some Snyder movies ('Dawn of the Dead,' '300,' and I'll even defend 'Watchmen')."
"But his DC movies are so, so bad. How people violently defend them makes me feel like I'm from an alternate universe."
- BeeCJohnson
Poor Dwayne
"Anything starring the Rock."
- Life_Entrepreneur_18
"I swear, I think the only two movies I actually enjoyed him in was 'The Rundown' and 'Walking Tall.'"
- duhcisive
'The Notebook'
"'The Notebook.'"
- StephanieSin
"It does a terrible job at portraying romance or relationships. Bad decisions were made and it wasn't even an emotional movie. The actors were great, though."
- trippy_goth_biscuit
'The Blind Side'
"'The Blind Side.' It’s just a lifetime movie with a budget."
- Seer78877
"Not to mention the guy it’s about hated the movie."
- traws06
Marvel Movies, Too
"I just don’t get what’s so great about the Marvel movies. Every one I’ve seen was a formulaic CGI s**tfest with a bland and predictable plot and boring jokes."
- gyokuro8882
No Will, Either
"Most Will Ferrel movies. I don't hate Will Ferrel, I just don't find the humor in most of his films that funny."
- the_human_dirigible
"90% of the time he plays a manchild."
"The other 10% are 'The Other Guys,' 'Megamind,' and 'The Lego Movie.'"
- eddmario
'Avatar'
"'Avatar.'"
- BatonVerte
"Seriously, I’m on this train with you. I never understood the hype. I didn’t watch it when it came out only to watch it years later and have none of it be memorable at all."
- Germangunman
"The first 'Avatar' movie is truly uninspiring and formulaic to the point that before watching it in anticipation of the second, I could not come up with a single quote from the movie despite having seen it obsessively when it first came out."
- dentastic
'Pretty Woman'
"'Pretty Woman'... A young sex worker falling in love with an old man's (money), and the film portrays it as a romantic love affair..."
- roseotte
'Transformers'
"The 'Transformers' movies are hot-a** garbage."
- shyjuan
"The first one was great because the technology was very new, and it took itself seriously."
"It then went off a cliff very quickly."
- Garfie489
'Twilight'
"'Twilight.'"
- Ali8ly
"Even fans of 'Twilight' know it’s bad. I think it’s sort of a guilty pleasure even for fans of the books."
- hampig
"It’s very much like a soap opera. You don’t want to watch one, you never intend to, but if the TV is left on the channel and you catch TWO SECONDS of an episode, suddenly it’s two hours later and you’re wondering if that person’s twin will wake up from a coma."
- LadyBirdGerhl
'Unbreakable'
"'Unbreakable.'"
"When Samuel L. Jackson says, 'They called me… Mister Glaaaaassssss,' I laughed so godd**n hard. It was ridiculous."
- KieshaK
'The Polar Express'
"'The Polar Express'!"
- dontmindmeimjust1cat
"God, I can't stand that movie. It's boring and the animation is creepy."
- just-doing-a-job
Though there's a lot to choose from in the entertainment world, it's obvious that there are bound to be some films that simply go wrong.
But this is also a reminder that everyone likes different things, and what might be popular for one will be a flop for the next.
For anyone seeking an adventure or way to grow themselves as a person, traveling and learning about other cultures is a great tool.
But there are some places that really are not worth traveling to, and it's better to save money for other destinations.
Redditor SaggyT*tsSusan asked:
"Reddit, what is the worst city that you have ever been to (worldwide)?"
Johannesburg
"I've never been more terrified than when traveling into Johannesburg, South Africa. Our business partner drove us into town and she started removing her earrings, wedding band, etc."
"I asked her why and she said that the bandits would cut jewelry off of you if they stopped your car, so it's better to put it in the glove box."
"Our client was a major bank; to enter, you had to stand in a tiny plexiglass airlock where the guards (with machine guns) could inspect you before letting you inside. Once in, it was just like any other business anywhere, cubicle farms and conference rooms."
- gecampbell
N'Djamena
"N'Djamena, Chad. Where the human spirit goes to die."
- redditslim
"I watch this travel YouTuber who's been to tons of bad and impoverished places in the world, but he always manages to find something interesting and positive about the place. He went to South Sudan when they were in the middle of a civil War and still made a cool video hanging out with tribal leaders."
"He had absolutely nothing nice to nice to say about N'Djamena."
- CleanNDopeAsMethSoap
Cairo
"It’s gotta be either Cairo, Egypt, or Cairo, Illinois."
- HutSutRawlson
"I drive through Cairo, IL., several times a month going from MO to TN. I've always referred to it as a Scooby-Doo ghost town. It feels as though another building has fallen down every few trips."
- Clyne
Port-au-Prince
"Port-au-Prince, Haiti. If you know, you know."
"I'll put it this way: I spent time in Afghanistan and it was nicer than Haiti by a long shot."
- UJMRider1961
"I have only passed through Port-au-Prince and it was ... sad. And a bit scary. We were there as part of a company relief effort after a hurricane that hit the island."
"We entered Labadee from a cruise ship (yes, I understand the optics of that but the passage was donated by a cruise line). Mostly we were there to hand out supplies and kept largely to the port areas."
"There's a hardness and desperation there that I have never experienced before. There were some military types around and though they were doing their best to put on their best show, I saw some brutality that I never expected so close to the US."
- frank-sarno
Haiti In General
"It's crazy that only two percent of Haiti's land is still forested. Farming cash crops during colonialism and then timber exports to pay off their 'debt' to France after the revolution."
- Occams_l2azor
"I will never forget, I was in the car which was heading towards the border. We drove through the green forest/jungle on the Dominican side, and then I started to spot the yellow hills. Just plain yellow because of deforestation."
"And the driver just said, 'Yes, here it is green, there it's yellow.' What also shocked me was how much the Dominicans hated the Haitians."
- Nightotter3
"You can easily see the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic from outer space."
- Tom__mm
Pork Moresby
"Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. I went there once to consult on building construction, and I wouldn't go there again even if they pay me the CEO's salary. I may not live to enjoy those salaries."
- flyden1
Sinhaloukville
"Sinhaloukville, Cambodia."
"I’ve been to third-world cities before, and this place wasn’t the dirtiest or most dangerous. What it was, was horribly creepy."
"The place is filled with ‘compounds’ containing Chinese-owned casinos. What I saw was like a building site, with new compounds being built everywhere (the shiny newness of these places contrasted with the general grubbiness outside of them). The place is really two cities in one: the hidden parts owned by the casinos, and the rest."
"I knew nothing about the city. I was only there because it was the port for ferries going to the islands off the coast of Cambodia (the one I went to was lovely). However, these places gave me the creeps, even though I knew nothing about them. I just put that down to hating casinos."
"Only later did I learn that these places were centers of slavery and extortion rackets, run mostly by mainland Chinese gangsters. They entice people from elsewhere (many from China itself, Thailand, or Vietnam) with promises of good jobs, but once there they are enslaved and forced to work in various kinds of online rackets. If they complain or try to escape, they risk all sorts of nasty punishments."
"The local authorities are basically in the pay of the scammers… basically, China itself cracked down on criminal gangs engaged in such scams, so many of them moved here. The locals don’t like it, but are powerless to prevent it; these 'compounds' essentially rule themselves, and their owners have enough cash to be immune from consequences."
- Malthus1
Doula
"Doula, Cameroon. The whole place seems ready to implode at any time."
- Tonysaiz
"Mossy, rainy, muddy. A town built on the edge of mangrove swamps by the colonial French. Seems likely to return to the swamps in a few more decades."
- thirdworldfever
Rio de Janeiro
"Controversially, Rio de Janeiro. I was there for four days, got robbed IN MY HOTEL, robbed on the street, got eaten by bed bugs, a few friends got robbed on the beach by the police, another robbed in the street at knifepoint, and a guy in the hotel got kidnapped in a car at gunpoint and then kicked out of the car as it was still driving."
"We got caught in a riot between police and football fans and got pinned against a wall while the police shot rubber bullets at us, and I nearly got beaten up by local girls who took offense at their men trying to dance with me."
"As somewhere that is apparently famous for its nightlife, we couldn’t find a decent bar/club anywhere on three out of the four nights."
"For balance, I really enjoyed the lapa street party and football game, but it genuinely felt like the shadiest place I’ve ever been to (and I’ve been to San Pedro Sula, previously known as the murder capital of the world)."
"In case anyone thinks I’m just a rubbish traveler, the stuff in the hotel was locked in a locker, so it was the staff that robbed me. On the street, I made sure my money was stashed in my bra so they only got a few quid, and we didn’t go anywhere dodgy, stuck to the tourist stuff, and traveled safely."
- StrategyKing4024
Ashgabat
"Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. So much money wasted on empty white marble building. So much poverty."
- kinda_alone
Baghdad
"Baghdad. The sad thing was you could tell that it used to be nice. I flew in by helicopter and saw that a lot of houses had swimming pools. They didn't use them for swimming anymore though, they filled them with their household garbage."
- blanchasaur
Manila
"Manila (capital of the Philippines)."
"A third of the population lives below the poverty level... and that's the Manila poverty level, which is pretty f**king poor. It's enough to give you nightmares if you leave the rich parts."
"You can insulate yourself from the rest of the city, by staying in the fancy parts, like the Makati, but you can't escape the air pollution or the trash."
"There was a storm last time I was there. Cubic miles of trash had washed out of the city, into the river, and into Manila Bay. Along the fancy hotels path at the edge of the bay, there were waves washing up against the wall... but the trash was floating a foot thick on the surface, and so the waves were TRASH WAVES."
"Well, maybe there are historic Asian things? Nope, sorry, the city was bombed to rubble and the end of World War 2. All that's left are the foundations of the Intramuros, which are interesting, but not worth the walk through the slums."
"Ugh."
- reggie_fink-noddle
Dubai
"Dubai."
"When I got back, a friend who had lived there for a few years asked me what I thought."
"I said, 'Well, I'll be honest, it lacked soul to me, it was depressing and materialistic and soulless to me. It genuinely made me a worse person somehow. But I'm a tourist, you lived there, surely you experienced the real Dubai.'"
"He said, 'No, you summed it up.'"
- bqzs
Las Vegas
"Las Vegas. Soul-less and empty."
"No one is actually FROM LV. Everyone moved there for the promise of service jobs, but most of them have crashed and burned. Most people who work there live in gated communities as far from the city as possible."
"If you go there as a tourist or for a convention, it seems all shiny and bright. Restaurants and casinos are all glittery."
"But if you step off the strip, it’s a s**tty, gritty mess. Lots of poverty and drugs. S**tty motels where the semi-homeless live. Terrible bleak-looking houses. The fake soul-less of Jacksonville with the poverty of Detroit."
- wilburstiltskin
Though traveling can be amazing, there are some places that simply do not live up to the hype.
These Redditors may be able to cross these places off as locations they've visited, but it seems there isn't much else positive they can say about the experience.
One must really hate their job in order for them to get fired.
Depending on the actual job, it's not that difficult to follow established rules and work protocols. Deviating from them just to get terminated can take more effort.
That is, of course, the employees are completely inept or severely disgruntled and have no problem going on a self-sabotaging mission to be let go.
Why can't they just quit, you ask? Well, that'll be less dramatic.
Strangers online shared what they've witnessed at the workplace when Redditor ImaginaryBank9587 asked:
"How did that one coworker get fired?"
These former employees would do anything for a meal deal.
Egg Thief
"We had an employee cafeteria at a Fortune 500 company. You'd get your food at a counter and bring it, in one of those white foam clamshell containers, to the register where you'd just tell the cashier what you got. This one fellow regularly ordered 3-egg scrambles and told the cashier he had just one egg. He got caught once and told never to do it again. He did it again, and lost a $100k+ job for stealing eggs."
– Yossarian147
Costly Stand-Off
"Similar thing happened at my work, Fortune 500 company, VP of some department, company cafeteria but it was a salad. Would order a salad in line, the kind that they charge by weight and would loiter around until the cashier line got busy and then slip out the exit."
"Cafe worker noticed, told her boss …her boss told corporate security, they start watching for him and due to the guy’s position they watch for a few weeks. 2-3x’s a week he does this for close to a month. Finally they decide ok now it’s ironclad and we can fire him so they walk him out."
"Turns out he thought charging for salad was a ripoff and decided he wasn’t playing the game with the cafe. Well over 300k a year and lost it over a 5.00 salad."
– Due-Pineapple6831
The camera sees all.
Clumsy Ninja
"He was stealing Klondie Bars from the company freezer."
"One of the managers brought in a hidden camera to catch the thief. We all knew the camera was there so he crawled over to the freezer all ninja style to stay under the camera's field of vision."
"It would have worked, except, when he stood back up he tried to do it all fancy, and fell backward back into the camera's view."
– pirateteaparty
He May Have Fooled The GPS Tracker
"Dude would drive to the site, park his work van, then have his GF pick him up and take off for 8 hours, come back and pick up the van, thereby cleverly fooling the GPS tracker in the vehicle..."
"But not the camera pointing directly at the spot where he parked, got picked up, and dropped off. Cost the company a substantial contract. And himself a job."
– Dylsnick
Keep an eye on your baby wherever you go.
Free Baby
"She picked up a customer's baby without permission and walked off with her, the customer was beside herself thinking she'd been kidnapped. Co-worker didn't think she had done anything wrong because she's also a mother...."
– miss_demean0r
Up For Grabs
"My girlfriend had a coworker who did something similar, customer came in with a baby and she just grabbed the baby out of mum's arms and starts rocking it as this was a normal thing in her culture and her fellow co-workers freaked out about it but the mum was actually totally fine with it for some reason. She did not get fired though, they actually gave her a full time contract soon after which was a rare thing where she worked."
– Bubblez4
The Cart Pusher
"We had a cart pusher at target who did the same thing. He def have some mental disabilities, but I wasn’t privy to that info. I just know there were very few tasks he could do and he wasn’t very verbal."
"He was instructed to return carts, so he picked the child up from the child seat in the cart and held it out for the mom to grab after she finished loading the trunk. Mom was mortified, came in to raise hell at guest services. He wasn’t fired, but he also wasn’t allowed to push carts anymore."
– thisisntmyOGaccount
Alcohol and work don't mix.
Workplace Blackout
"Showed up drunk on the job, passed out on a chair in the lobby, then pissed his pants."
– SheZowRaisedByWolves
Sad Story
"At a prior company, we had a programmer who was brilliant. He actually built their computer systems from scratch and was able to update and maintain them. Only problem was, he was a total alcoholic. He was married and his wife did a damn good job getting him to work each day and keeping him reasonably coherent during business hours, probably because he was earning over $300K/year and it was worth her effort."
"Well, I guess she finally had enough of conducting his life and divorced him. He went OFF THE RAILS, like the company sent cops to his house for a wellness check. He was fine, just really drunk. The company paid for him to go to go rehab about three times, they were that invested in him. Each time, he'd stay sober for a bit, but then would be back to his old tricks in a couple of months."
"Eventually, the company hit its breaking point. I think the final straw was when he was in the parking lot, drunk, passed out in his car."
"He was fired and ended up passing from a massive heart attack about six months later, no doubt due to his addiction."
"Very sad story all around as he actually was great guy and an incredible programmer."
– Bleuet73
When I was a young performer in shows at a certain theme park, me and my coworkers got away with a lot of harmless but unprofessional behavior backstage that involved roughhousing and stupid antics out of view of visiting guests.
But when it came to showtime, we were always professional and helped create magical memories for our audiences.
The only time someone was fired was when a coworker tried to sneak a prop–in this case, a wig of a very popular princess–out of the park. Whenever we would "clock out" the security gate, they would always check our belongings for this very reason.
I guess my friend forgot about that part.
The next day, he didn't show up to work and none of us had a clue as to why. The company is so secretive when it comes to stuff like this.
We all eventually found out, and none of this played out dramatically. But one thing was made very clear.
You don't steal a mermaid's wig from this company and think you can get away with it.