Be it to a foreign country on the other side of the world, or merely a town a few miles north or south of you, there is always a slightly uneasy feeling of being in a new place.
Sometimes, however, you don't only suffer from homesickness upon arriving, but find yourself genuinely scared.
Perhaps you don't find yourself particularly welcome by the residents, or there are no people to be seen for miles around.
Either way, there are places all over the world where not long after arriving, the only thing on the minds of visitors was to get out of there as fast as they could.
Redditor 8-tentacles was curious to learn the places fellow Reddit users would never set foot in again under any circumstances, leading them to ask:
"What’s the scariest town/city you’ve been to, and why?"
Gabbs, Nevada.
"I ended up driving through this tiny town in the middle of Nevada that I assume used to be a mining town."
"It looked like a steady paycheck hadn't been seen in this town for 20 years, the houses were all dilapidated, and the locals looked just as worn out."
"Bullet holes and burn marks could be seen on pretty much every building."
"The only reason I drove through the town instead of just sticking to the main road was to top up on gas, but I couldn't find anything, not even a small convenience store."
"It must've been hell for those folks considering the closest town with an actual store and gas was around 70 miles away."
"I took a look via Google Earth, at some of the towns people mentioned and I found it!"
"Gabbs, NV."
'Definitely not a place I'd want to go back to."- Arcinbiblo12
Harvey, Illinois
"Everyone talks about Gary, IN, but there is a town over the border in Illinois called Harvey, IL."
"I can't put my finger on exactly what makes it worse, but being there felt like I was on the moon."- theredditforwork
El Alto, Bolivia
"El Alto Bolivia."
"This was 15 years ago at least."
"It's above the habitable zone, and locals were openly fighting in the streets."
"Good times."-ooo-ooo-oooyea
Somewhere in New Mexico...
"I stopped at some gas station out in the middle of where-the-f*ck, New Mexico, only to pee."
"Parking lot not even completely paved.'
"My SO stayed behind in the car, and our son, so I have no corroborating witnesses, but this was the weirdest f*cking place of business I ever stepped into."
"Some David Lynch level sh*t."
"First of all, this place was huge for no obvious reason."
"As far as I know, there wasn't a town nearby."
"I mean, it was isolated out in the desert."
"When I entered, there was a store in there, like a convenience store."
"I passed through that, and entered a hallway."
"There was a restaurant in there, completely empty."
"I follow the signs to the restroom, and go down this hall."
"It already feels a little creepy to me, and horrifyingly enough, I am navigating to the bathroom by the sound of someone who seems to be puking violently far off down the corridor."
"I could hear this sound echoing down this crazy hallway."
"The hallway has a bend in it, and I'm starting to wonder how f*cking big is this place?"
"I turn the corner, and there is one of those claw grabby machines where you try to pick up stuffed animals and other cheap sh*t, standing in the hall."
"A group of young boys are there, crowded around the machine."
"When I come around the corner, they all look up at me wordlessly, with no trace of joy or excitement or pleasure."
"They just play the game with inscrutable faces, silently, like cats surrounding a mouse."
"The hall continues, and so do I."
"Another corner."
"Where the g*ddamned f*ck is the toilet.'
"This hallway is disturbingly long and I've been driving for two and a half days."
"I like my bathrooms simple and direct."
"This does not seem to be either of those things."
"I finally locate the can way the hell down there around another unnecessary corner, and upon entering, I can no longer hear whoever was retching and choking."
"It is now silent, but for the stench so bad it was nearly foggy in there."
"Somebody's feet under the sh*tter door."
"I pee."
"I get out quick."
"Walk past those seemingly soulless and bored boys."
" Why the hell is this hallway even here?"
"There are no doors, no other businesses, these kids are creeping me out in the sinister way they stare blankly at me as I pass."
"I am at a loss to even explain why those kids are here, this place is isolated AF, the hall has too many dark corners and bends in it with no apparent logic."
"It feels like an anxiety dream, it feels like reality itself is being manipulated like the little crane arm claw the one boy is guiding."
"It feels like I want to get out of here, get back outside, get in the car and put this whole place in my rearview mirror."
"So I do."
"I get in the car."
"'Do you feel better now?'"
"'No. Actually I don't'."
"'You shoulda seen this place'."- Alternative-Amoeba20
Johannesburg
"Johannesburg, I grew up in a pretty rough city and would say it doesn’t compare to there, you can feel how tense the air is and you really need to pay attention to everything at all times."- Much_Committee_9355
Gary, Indiana
"Gary, Indiana."
"No, it's not a story of how dangerous it is, or how cops tell you to run red lights ."
"That happens, but it's mostly myths that get perpetuated by people who never visited."
"Gary is just desolate."
"It's almost post apocalyptic."
"Nature has overtaken many areas, and many of the 'vacant' houses you see are actually lived in by homeless people."
"What makes it scary isn't that it has dangerous people, it's that it can be incredibly quiet for a populous city."
"The few times I've had to go through Gary or IN Gary for something, I've always seen something that has frightened me."
"Like people staring at me through half boarded windows, people crawling out of bushes to ask for money, or people just straight up walking in front of your car trying to get you to slow down or stop."
"It's one of the few places in America that actually feels heavy to be in."
"I swear TV shows and movies are missing out on some of the easiest post apocalyptic scenery that they have ever had."- NewAccount971
Decatur, Illinois
"Decatur Illinois."
"My mom and most of her family is from there and the town is just so damn sketchy."
"People being shot the next street over seems like a daily thing."
"My crazy Great Grandma lived in a 4 story house by herself , house had been in the family for a while, and she never locked the doors, just slept with a 9mm next to her bed."- SidtheGoat87
Times Square
"I was In NYC in I believe 2016-2017."
"So imagine a teenager that looks younger than they are, that's me."
"Me and my family were going to see something on Broadway."
"We were walking to the back of the line thingy."
I lost my group and this Women comes up to me and said 'little girl come with me, I have a daughter and you will have a sister" or something along those lines."
"I was in tears and was looking for my group this lady following me."
"I did find them in the end."
"I was only missing for two minutes and in that time a stranger tried to convince me to go with her."- weebthatlikeshorrer
Port Costa, CA
"Port Costa, CA."
"A hidden gem in the Bay Area, right above Crockett."
"After a long, winding road up a mountain you are first greeted with an abandoned schoolhouse."
"At the end of this tiny town is a Hotel, notoriously haunted, and a bar called the Warehouse, has a taxidermy polar bear inside."
"I unfortunately know of multiple suicides above the bar, very eerie vibes."- ExpensiveContact
Mattapan, Massachusetts
"Mattapan, MA, is nicknamed murderPan…"
"I’ve felt safer in the slums of Boston and providence on 911 calls."- CorgiTacos31
Manchester, England
The scariest place I have been to is well I’m originally from Manchester."
"I was living on a council estate at the time when I was in primary school, I am now a year nine student in High School, and I vividly remember two things that happened there."
"One of them was a car crash, however it wasn’t that bad."
"I remember there being a drug dealer that’s parked horribly into two cars causing a few dents in both of them and a few scratches."
"The drug dealer then tried to get out the car as quick as he can and accidentally spilled all the weed out of his stash."
"Another one, I think was a murder."
"There wasn’t anything graphic, like stabbings and shit like that, but apparently some dude at the end of the road got poisoned and he just died."
"There was a police investigation for I think a week."
"There was more events but they are the only two I remember."
"This was the main cause of why I moved up to a different part of the United Kingdom and it is way better than Manchester."- Pissoffj0hnathan
Morayfield, Australia
"Australia, Morayfield Graham road."
"I never want to talk about that place ever again."
"I lived in the house '158 on Graham Road Morayfield' 4 years ago."
"Place literally f*cked me up."
"If you look at the place on Google maps, It just looks like your average street, but I lived in that house for 6 years."
"The first experience I had was a couple months after I gave birth to my second-youngest child."
"I was laying in bed, my husband was asleep next to me and I was scrolling through Facebook."
"Keep in mind that it was pitch black but my phone light slightly lit the room."
"It was probably somewhere around midnight."
"I was near the edge of my bed laying sideways facing opposite my husband and I remember very vividly I was half-way through writing a comment on a Facebook post but a f*cking dog-like creature, bright green eyes pop it's head up just slightly enough to see the eyes."
"It's skin was dark, but light enough to see it's outline."
"It was more like a small human on all fours."
" But I was laying down as I saw this thing crawl closer and eventually stop right next to the bed, the side I was laying on, and then I see the long a** claw-like fingers reach on to my bed and made its way up to my face."
"I was practically frozen in fear just watching it."
"This creature's hand was right about to grab my face, but then of course that's when I snapped and screamed like a fucking crack-head."
"I remember pushing myself up against my husbands back still screaming like crazy until my husband woke up and turned on the lights."
"I told him everything."
"I stayed up the rest of that night hyperventilating."
"My husband tried to convince me that it was a dream but when I grabbed my phone again It was still half-way through writing that comment."
"But then of course those other little things happen like my oldest daughter complains that my son wakes up in her bed every morning, and I just learnt a couple weeks ago that the reason my son would wake up In her bed, was because 'a man' would stand in the corner of his room."
"My son also told me he would see hands reach around the corners of the house."
"We also had this mannequin because I thought it was funny to dress up a mannequin in my husbands clothes and we named it 'Joe'."
"My son came to my crying one night saying that he went to go to the toilet but once he left his room he saw the mannequin walk around the f*cking house."
"I was the only one that believed him, and I came up with the excuse that there was mould growing on Joe so we had to dispose of him."
" There would also be footsteps walking down the hallways at night."
"My sister and her husband once came around to stay the night but they left around 2am because they complained that there were red eyes staring at them."
"They never came back."
"It was also pretty common in that house to see figures standing behind you every time the TV switched to a dark screen."
"I would also hear tapping and giggling from outside my window."
"That house f*cked me up."
"Now we live EXTREMELY far away from Morayfield as much as possible."
"What's weird is that the paranormal activity only started a couple years after living there."
"I still hyperventilate or breakdown after memories of that f*cking place."- 1z0f4_
"But I was laying down as I saw this thing crawl closer and eventually stop right next to the bed, the side I was laying on, and then I see the long a** claw-like fingers reach on to my bed and made its way up to my face."
"I was practically frozen in fear just watching it."
"This creature's hand was right about to grab my face, but then of course that's when I snapped and screamed like a fucking crack-head."
"I remember pushing myself up against my husbands back still screaming like crazy until my husband woke up and turned on the lights."
"I told him everything."
"I stayed up the rest of that night hyperventilating."
"My husband tried to convince me that it was a dream but when I grabbed my phone again It was still half-way through writing that comment."
"But then of course those other little things happen like my oldest daughter complains that my son wakes up in her bed every morning, and I just learnt a couple weeks ago that the reason my son would wake up In her bed, was because 'a man' would stand in the corner of his room."
"My son also told me he would see hands reach around the corners of the house."
"We also had this mannequin because I thought it was funny to dress up a mannequin in my husbands clothes and we named it 'Joe'."
"My son came to my crying one night saying that he went to go to the toilet but once he left his room he saw the mannequin walk around the f*cking house."
"I was the only one that believed him, and I came up with the excuse that there was mould growing on Joe so we had to dispose of him."
" There would also be footsteps walking down the hallways at night."
"My sister and her husband once came around to stay the night but they left around 2am because they complained that there were red eyes staring at them."
"They never came back."
"It was also pretty common in that house to see figures standing behind you every time the TV switched to a dark screen."
"I would also hear tapping and giggling from outside my window."
"That house f*cked me up."
"Now we live EXTREMELY far away from Morayfield as much as possible."
"What's weird is that the paranormal activity only started a couple years after living there."
"I still hyperventilate or breakdown after memories of that f*cking place."- 1z0f4_
Greenville, North Carolina
"My home town."
"Greenville NC."
"The amount of people this town messed up is insane."
"I love my town but drugs have taken so many of my friends it’s really sad."- Kwilburn525
Yangon, Myanmar
"Yangon, Myanmar."
"A little before the revolution."
"A very impoverished and isolated country."
"The streets are very dimly lit at night with old yellow incandescent bulbs, people lurking in the shadows."
"I stood out."
"Lots of people I talked to quietly expressed heavy dissent about the military junta that was in power."
"Felt like a powder keg."
"Kept my head on a swivel."- FoxMcCloud333
It's sad to hear about these places, and the hard times they've fallen under.
One hopes they might find a way to bounce back one day, and make people excited to visit, rather than avoid them at all costs.
There are some places all over the world just about everyone dreams of visiting.
Who doesn't want a picture of themself under the Eiffel Tower, in front of the Grand Canyon, or amidst the sparkling lights of Las Vegas?
But, are all of these iconic places actually worth visiting?
Redditor tade757 wondered what iconic travel destinations people found overhyped and not worth the time and money to travel to, leading them to ask:
"What famous place is not worth visiting?"
One rock is just like any other
"Plymouth rock Massachusetts."
"Despite all the rage it's still just a rock in a cage."- BodybuilderOk3836.
"Plymouth Rock!"
'I don’t know how famous it really is outside of New England but it’s a rock that marks where the Pilgrims supposedly first landed in Massachusetts."
"It is quite literally just a medium sized rock with '1620' carved in it but every elementary school teacher around Massachusetts at least hypes it up for the class field trip to see a literal rock that is not big, impressive, or really historically relevant."
"Driving an hour on a bus to see this was the most anticlimactic thing and I would not particularly recommend."- alisoninwonderbread
Vegas of the East Coast?
"Atlantic city."
"Monopoly got me good."- mahouko08.
How do you spell that again?
"Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch in Wales."
"Nothing there except an Edinburgh Wollen Mills shop."
"Which is just silly as Edinburgh is nearly 300 miles away.'- Dreddguy.
Hooray for Hollywood...
"Hollywood, it's seedy and disappointing."
"It's full of entire industries (*cough scientology *cough) that take advantage of starry-eyed twits."- Judas_Feast.
"Hollywood Walk of Fame."
"It's a sidewalk and outside of maybe big events where they may clean the ones around where photos may be taken."
"It otherwise is just covered in dirt from people's shoes and some are barely legible because they haven't been cleaned in ages."- CaninseBassus
Where the land meets the sea.
"Lands End, UK.'
"Heralded as the 4th most disappointing attraction in the UK."
'It's not even disappointing enough to win an award.'
"I mean the landmark in Cornwall, not a clothing store."
"Deary me."- YellowBernard.
"They say the neon lights are bright..."
"Time Square on New Years Eve."
"Just forget it."
'It has *never* been worth it."- roman_fyseek.
"See the Pyramids along the way..."
"Egypt.'
"Its like if phone scams were a materialized location."
"You get there an right away the airport is going to start scamming you, take your electronics away and tell you that you need permits for them (which they will gladly sell you, and then tell you that its the wrong one and have you buy another one)."
"The hotel you stay at will check your bags again like the airport did and again tell you that you need permits or whatever random thing they decide they can get away telling you needs one."
"The police will extort money from you if they think they can."
"Fake police will come up to you and fine you or tell you to follow them to different sites where they will charge you."
"Children will run up to you and ask if you want to ride their camel very aggressively (they will cut you off with their camel and not let you move forward) tell you its free, and then try to charge you insane amounts of money and call their camel pimp over to deal with you if you don't pay."
"If you don't get on the camel they will often even get the camel to attack you."
"It's all pretty wild, its not worth it."- yovalord.
There are few worse feelings than arriving at somewhere you've been dreaming of going all your life, only to find yourself disappointing.
Maybe some places are best visited in our imaginations.
It certainly costs a lot less!
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
Size matters.
Get your mind out of the gutter people.
I'm talking on a grander scale.
We think we know how big something is, but we're always shocked to discover actual size.
Redditor zioooo_ wanted to get the measuring stick for all of us to make some adjustments.
They asked:
"What's something people don't realize the actual size of until they stand next to it?"
I'm always stunned by buildings. Buildings are always big but then there are BIG buildings.
Water Peeps
"Manta rays. I recently saw one at an aquarium, and I was blown away by the size. I’d always assumed they were about the size of stingrays or so. Nope, those suckers are the size of a small car."
LargestD**kus
Below
"Any pit mining equipment. It’s insane!"
Fit-Contribution2527
"My husband used to work at a steel mill and they use a lot of mining equipment like front end loaders and such that are massive but there was one vehicle that looked to be the size of a two story house and I can't remember what it was. The pot carrier is also terrifying because the driver is moving around with a pot of molten steel over the cab."
imnotacrazyperson
gentle giants...
"Giraffes! Worked with them and they are gentle giants but it’s crazy that they’re the size they are. You know they’re big and tall, but then you stand next to one and you’re like... damn, I can walk under through his legs and my head won’t even touch his belly."
You are HUGE!
"A moose."
LollipopThrowAway
"Yes! Omg I was so shocked when I saw one in person the first time. Mostly because it was on a residential road and it startled me. But also because I always pictured them to be like a very large deer or something, but it was closer to the size of an elephant than a deer!"
OffModelCartoon
Stoned
"One of the stones which make up the Great Pyramid of Giza."
myexistentialcrisis0
I wanna see the pyramids so bad. Then climb to the top.
Unexpected
"Wind turbines are bigger than expected when standing next to it. And Mount Rushmore is way smaller than I expected."
PointyWombat
Drifting in the Wind
"Round hay bales."
agreatusernameisthis
"I like it when they use white and pink wrapping on hay bales. It looks like giant marshmallows dotted across the countryside."
the_artful_breeder
"When my kids were little, I told them that the round hay bales were mommy hohos. The ones we bought at the grocery store were baby hohos. Dang, now I want a hobo."
Wynterborne
On the Highway
"Highway signs are much larger than you might expect. https://m.imgur.com/a/g6yMU"
Alt_aholic
"Highway lines as well. I live on a rural highway that has two lanes and I have to cross it to get to my mailbox. They are like seven feet long. Also the rumble strips along the side of the road are bigger than my size 12 foot."
dreamnightmare
I've seen plenty of big things...
"The Taj Mahal. I had seen the pictures and I've seen plenty of big things, it's by no means the biggest (I actually saw the Burj Khalifa less than a week before the Taj Mahal). What blows your mind though is the massive scale as it contrasts with the extremely fine detail. I mean it's an absolutely massive building and the detail work is unreal. Really mind bending and the pictures don't do it justice."
Pokoire
Big Men
"An NFL lineman. I literally bumped into Josh Sweat of the Eagles a few years back in a grocery store (felt like hitting a concrete pillar) and I really cannot put into words how freaking huge these people are."
Zhuul
I always thought traffic lights were suspicious. I'd be afraid if they fell.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
There's a time and place for things. Generally speaking, that's a valid sentiment.
Making love in the shower can be hot and also convenient after climax. Getting busy inside your boss' office after hours can be risky but highly erotic. And there's always the mile-high club for those unconcerned about being claustrophobic.
While some like to think there's no limit to having discreet sex anywhere, others believe there are places that should be off-limits.
Curious to hear where those are, Redditor scriptdog1 asked:
"Where should you never have sex?"
There are safety concerns.
Pounding The Pavement
"in the middle of the streets at 2pm?"
– shonenpunk
Doesn't Get Any Dirtier
"In a dumpster."
– notbluuet
"The one behind the Wendy's?"
– BobDogGo
Cinematic Trope
"In a horror movie. You're #2-3 to die."
– PoliticalScienceDoge
"Exactly, there’s a very simple formula for surviving a horror movie."
- "Don’t have sex."
- "Don’t do drugs."
- "Don’t say, 'I’ll be right back.'"
– ALEX7DX
You Gotta Hear This One
"In the ear."
– TicsDaily
There Will Be Blood
"On a roof."
"Shingles are not good wingmen. They will cut you the f'k up."
– Onederbat67
"Friday The 13th" Fans Know About This
"Camp Crystal Lake."
– Cockydjinn
Downward Spiral
"School staircase."
"You don’t know how many videos there are of students f'king in them…"
– jaybankzz
There were consequences.
Going Mental
"At a psychiatric hospital. Two students from my med school just got expelled for being THAT horny."
– Unfair_Fortune_4504
Objection!
"Chief of police in my town got fired for having sex in the township court room… so…there."
– Were-All-F'ked
Waking The Dead
"Twice removed Sheriff of my county was dismissed for having sex in a graveyard with a realtor. That's a pretty good place not to too."
– Semesto
Olfactory Assault
"In another specific food answer, in a room where you ate hummus before sex. The smell combo of sex and hummus is not good."
– timesuck897
It seems hot on paper but disappoints in execution.
Going Nowhere Fast
"A rowing boat. I promise, it is not romantic."
– dustlandfairytale100
"Even if you go gently….down the stream?"
– JnthnDJP
It May Look Hot...
"Sandy beach without a blanket."
– mdkubit
"Oh the friction. Yeah, don't do that."
– holy-f0ck
In Space, Nobody Can Hear You Orgasm
"Space station, spheres of juices floating around could be a problem."
– Hushwater
It's All Relative
"My Aunt Joan’s house when you’re visiting. 25 years and it’s still not forgotten."
"No I did not have sex with my Aunt Joan. I had sex with my ex. wife in Aunt Joan’s house while taking a nap."
"My ex and I were visiting elderly out of state relatives. We all ran around a lot in the summer heat one day and so we all decided to rest for a couple of hours."
"Ex and I closed the door, climbed into the guest bed and went at it quietly though not quiet enough it would seem. They had elbow to elbow figurines on every flat surface of their house except for their dining room table (Not exaggerating; over every square inch). That included the bed side tables. I suspect the rattling little bedside figurines gave us away."
"When we came out of the room later they acted strange particularly my Aunt Joan. It was very awkward. You could tell they knew. They acted that way for the next three days. We’d be at a bbq place eating together and the looks on their faces said it all: 'You had sex in our guest room.'”
"We never got another invite to their house for a vacation."
– TheMadIrishman327
Snack Attack
"In a bed where somebody just ate crackers."
– waterballoontits
Live Sin
"In a confessional booth in a Catholic Church."
– Workingclass_owl
I may or may not have engaged in an intimately sensual act while inside a car.
But if I were to impart wisdom based on whether or not I had this experience, I would suggest the safest way to do the deed in the driver's seat is while the vehicle is parked–not when it's cruising over 55 mph.
As you were.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
Not every city or town is as thriving as other. Either poor city planning, the natural habitat isn't the most livable, or it just seems straight up sketchy.
Whatever the case may be, no one seems to have gone to these place on purpose, it just kind of happened.
We went to Ask Reddit to hear about the worst places people have ever been.
Redditor upmed2006 asked:
"What is the sh*ttiest place you've visited?"
You have hold off on adding these to your bucket list.
The Salton Sea.
"The Salton Sea made me sad."
"There was so much hope around this place. Now if you visit: it's a very poor town, the sand sucks your shoes off and smells awful, and the stench of dead fish permeates the air."
"Now their only bar presents as a David Lynch nightmare if you go."
"Salton Sea is amazing - it's the closest I've ever seen to a post-apocalyptic wasteland. And due to the fact that most of the rotting abandoned buildings are from the 1960s, it's eerily similar to a Fallout game."
"This documentary can save you a trip there, but it doesn't quite capture the feeling of driving through a rotting ghost town in 115F heat, completely empty except for a couple of meth heads staring at you from under an awning."
- Porrick
"I've been kinda fascinated with this place since driving through when I was road tripping in college. Apparently it was created by accident."
"At one time it had thriving game fishery of landlocked saltwater fish, as well as all kinds of marine invertebrates and stuff that hitched a ride in people's bilge water and the bottom of boats. All in the middle of what used to be desert, far from the sea, all the salt having come from salt still left In the soil from ancient times mixed with freshwater from the Colorado River. All slowly dying as they let it dry up and return to desert. (hence the smell, as the tilapia, which are the most salt tolerant, die off). I'm def going to check out that documentary. Thanks!"
"Actually took a boat out there some 40+ years ago. Wasn't much better then. The stench. Dead palm trees half rotted up the trunks stuck in the middle of that disgusting oily looking water."
"My SIL fell in the nasty water by accident. Was wearing a lot of silver jewelry (was the style). Not in the muck more than 5 minutes tops, all her jewelry turned coal black. Didn't stay long after."
"Why we even went is a mystery to this day."
Corporate office in decline.
"Ever been into an office building where maintenance quit and the real estate company hasn't hired replacements in six months? Every broad office floor of cubicles looks like it's in a zombie movie."
"Half of the fluorescent tube lights are dead or flickering from a bad ballast. Some places the air is a bit too cold and dry, while in others its too hot and humid. Enough to make you think there might be mold growing on the walls. It's like a massive fat bloated man was breathing his stinking breath on your neck."
"Oh and the bathrooms. Ohhhhh the bathrooms. I'm not even going to describe that. I'd rather not revisit the memory."
"The breakroom sinks weren't bad though. But then, people are more likely to take care of things they actually have to use. It's not as 'fire and forget' as a men's room. Except for the one breakroom where I felt someone mixed up the two types of rooms and figured 'a drain is a drain'."
"A corporation in the final stages of decline is a sad creature."
"I've always said that the most important person in any office building is the janitor."
"In any business large enough to employ full time janitorial/maintenance people they are what keeps the company from falling apart. I always treat them with more respect than I do my bosses and try to get on their good side."
"When I was a teenager my dad the head of a maintenance department for a business that owned a skyscraper in our city. He and two other maintenance men took care of light bulbs, decorating for holidays and shoveling snow and salting sidewalks. The biggest thing they did all day though was adjust the air conditioning and heat for the 300-400 middle aged female employees most of whom were going through 'the change.'"
"Those ladies knew what a pain it was and would do things like buy the guys lunch a couple of times a week and bake them cookies or make them fudge. The coolest was that the company gave my dad and his maintenance men first dips on concert, musical, Disney on Ice and other kid shows and sports tickets that they didn't use for clients. Saw a lot of concerts and hockey games as a teen for free thanks to dad's job."
Every horror movie wrapped in one.
"Zinc, Arkansas."
"It felt like I stumbled into the movie set for House of Wax, Children of the Corn and Deliverance all in one place. They had a hair salon/mechanic/courthouse/ jail all in one building. The judge's wife was the hair stylist, the judge was also the mechanic and the sheriff was his son."
"Lived in Arkansas my whole life and never heard of Zinc, must be reaaally tiny. We do have Snow, Toad Suck, and Booger Hollow, Arkansas too."
"Others have pointed out some other good ones: Smackover, Bald Knob, Weiner, Flippin, Possom Grape, Blue Ball and Goobertown are some of the others. Yes real communities/towns in Arkansas."
"Population around 100 per Google. Also first thing that pops up is an article where the residents disclaim any association with the KKK and share their town's 'true history.' Sounds like a terrifying place."
"All the references to the KKK is because some klan member hails from Zinc."
"Per Wikipedia, 'A chapter of the Ku Klux Klan operates a training and information center in Zinc.'"
"For me it is Hope, Arkansas. I was a kid and my family stayed the night at the Holiday Inn on our way to somewhere else. When we checked in they gave us a complimentary fly swatter."
"I had to stop over night in Hope moving from Michigan to Texas. All I wanted was a beer after a miserable 14 hour drive in a U-Haul. Went to a Mexican restaurant and asked the server what was on draft. 'Dry County' he said. 'Is that like an IPA?' I asked. He looked confused, I sure as f*ck was confused until I figured out what the real meaning was. I had never heard of a dry county before and I was legit offended."
- Dasfxx
Roads to nothing but sand.
"Duqm, Oman. Two hotels, a pizza hut, and a DFC (Duqm Fried Chicken). Also can't forget the hundreds of miles of new roads that led to... more sand and dirt."
"Sh*t was built like the first five minutes of a Sim City 2000 game."
"Back in the day Duqm had the only decent internet connection within a 500 km radius, so at least had that going for it. Also an hour drive from Khaluf and Ras Madrakah, some of the most gorgeous stretches of coast in the country. But yeah, the whole concept of Duqm is as if an urban planner jotted down some notes on a napkin whilst high"
"I just went there on Google Earth. It looks like they planned to build a major port and a city to serve it, but then gave up."
- mdp300
Ugliest place.
"I was helping friends move across the country and I called my husband one night when we stopped. He said, 'Where have you gotten to?' and I said, 'I don't know but it's the ugliest place I've ever seen in my life,' and he said, 'Oh, you've gotten to Midland Odessa,' and he was correct."
"I have seen a lot of the world and Midland Odessa, Texas, is by far the most terrible place I've ever looked at."
"I just popped in on google maps and I can confirm. Two things that struck me:"
- "The parking lot to building ratio is way too high. Lots of asphalt."
- "I went to downtown Midland, and it looks like it was built by someone who had only seen pictures of cities. Like there are just a bunch of office buildings plopped down and no other businesses."
Armpit of America.
"Gary, Indiana. Apologies to those who live there, but it's kinda like the armpit of America. It reeks of a town that was once a cool place to be but has just been left to the wayside."
"Came here to add Gary, Indiana. It's like New Jersey was concentrated, dipped in Detroit, and shat out the worst part of Chicago."
"I've got family in South Bend, the joke is depending on which direction the wind is blowing you can smell Gary in either South Bend or Chicago. Truly is a sh*thole."
If you're taking a trip anytime soon, you might want to avoid these place.
Or maybe check them out and see just how terrible they really are.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.