Places you felt most on edge in your life



Central Warsaw. Had train from Warsaw to Krakow booked and out of hotel by this point and train station closed.
Had to wait until 6am with suitcases looking like standout tourists.
Sketchy as fuck.
We found a pizza place which was open late, so we took refuge in for a few hours. Ended up buying about 6 beers and a full 3 course meal for a radge local out of fear of the bloke. :oops: :lol:
 
Oldham during the riots. No idea why we thought a night out on the 2nd or 3rd night of rioting was a good idea. But wouldnt miss £1 pints and £1 kebab Sundays for anything.

Another nod for Tenrderloin in San Francisco and Riga from me.

Tenderloin we went to some hipster bar. Got a cab there. Got in and card machine wasn't working. Told theres an ATM in the 7/11 around the corner. Was followed there and back, pushed around at the cash point. Ran back and the bouncer had the door open ready for me to fly through before it was locked again.

Riga was with the lads when we were younger. Stayed at 'Funtime Franks Happy Hostel'. Grim on the outskirts and unfriendly everywhere. Group of lads in the hostel had had a kicking the night before, with 2/5 in hospital. Wouldn't rush back. Frank wasn't 'funtime'. He was a middle-aged Aussie who had a few teen Latvian lasses on the go.
Paddy O'Dors said:
Around the train station. Long Street, Bree Street, Government Walk.
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Didnt spend much time around the station, but found Long Street and Bree St ok. Wandered from bars to restaurants at night. Maybe I'm just too stupid to have realised. I expected it to feel loads more on edge.
 
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Tuono said:
That sounds like the place I was describing earlier. I spent my 22nd birthday in there and got so pissed I don't remember most of the night. I was told the next day two prostitutes were fighting over me, one had her hands down my shorts playing with my knackers and the other one who we used to hang about with attacked her. It all kicked off and I didn't remember any of it. There was a middle aged Dutch bloke who used to drink in there, his Kenyan girlfriend was only about 12 or 13 years old, pervy barsteward.
Was it called The Man on the Moon or The Full Moon or something like that? It was a long time ago but I'm sure their was a Moon in its name.
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There was a bar called the 24 hour green bar, walls once had been painted green at the end of ,I think Tom Mboya street around River Road, where I was staying.
This was very iffy, but a few backpackers went in there.

The one I was in was the 24 hour blue bar, walls had once been painted blue, etc.
Never closed, it was miles from the green bar, nee idea where and backpackers definitely never went in there.
Same thing, Masai bouncers, with wooden clubs, bar caged off etc.
Even iffier.

For a bit of light relief, I went in a bar upcountry, me and my girlfriend had a beer.
Half a dozen Masai, in robes, beads etc came and sat at the table next to me, ordered some beers, a huge joint of meat and started tucking into it with their massive knives.
 
Madchester Mackem said:
Oldham during the riots. No idea why we thought a night out on the 2nd or 3rd night of rioting was a good idea. But wouldnt miss £1 pints and £1 kebab Sundays for anything.

Another nod for Tenrderloin in San Francisco and Riga from me.

Tenderloin we went to some hipster bar. Got a cab there. Got in and card machine wasn't working. Told theres an ATM in the 7/11 around the corner. Was followed there and back, pushed around at the cash point. Ran back and the bouncer had the door open ready for me to fly through before it was locked again.

Riga was with the lads when we were younger. Stayed at 'Funtime Franks Happy Hostel'. Grim on the outskirts and unfriendly everywhere. Group of lads in the hostel had had a kicking the night before, with 2/5 in hospital. Wouldn't rush back. Frank wasn't 'funtime'. He was a middle-aged Aussie who had a few teen Latvian lasses on the go.


Didnt spend much time around the station, but found Long Street and Bree St ok. Wandered from bars to restaurants at night. Maybe I'm just too stupid to have realised. I expected it to feel loads more on edge.
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I was on my own most of the time.

Had my card snatched out of my hand in McDonald's on Adderley my last day there. Nowt taken cos I cancelled it ASAP.

V&A Waterfront was sound as was Camps Bay.
 
El Oso said:
In a 24 hour bar in Nairobi about 1am.

Miles from my cheap digs and the white Kenyan bloke I was with didn't like what I was saying (I was complaining about the Julie Ward murder by drug dealers).
He threatened me with a gun.

I was relying on him for a lift back.

We were the only white people in there.

Went to the toilet, the bloke pissing next to me said " Hey white boy, what you doing in here!"

The front and back door were guarded by Masai with clubs.

The whole bar was caged off, you gave the barman your money through a gap in the bars.

Prostitutes asleep at the tables, occasionally people hoying up.

Interesting night.

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I worked on a ship flying the Panamanian flag and we went to the Republic of Ireland about 3 miles from the border in County Dundalk in 1985.

We got a lift to a bar in the hills, 4 of us from the ship.
An Phoblacht on the tables and the band playing IRA songs, with people jumping on the tables.

It was generally ok, but political discussion was encouraged.

It all went a bit pear shaped when one of the lads refused to stand up for the Irish National Anthem at the end of the night.

We were lucky to escape with our lives.

---


I was hiking an unpopular trek out of season in New Zealand and hadn't seen anyone for three days.
Walking out of the National Park, a bloke on horseback with a dead deer across the saddle and holding a hunting rifle was blocking the path.

"Are you on your own?" He said.

Stupidly I said I was, though tbf it was pretty obvious that I was.

"You got much money on you?" He joked.

I said I hadn't, he then said
"I could shoot you, hey and no one would know!"

I forced a laugh, walked around him and continued on along the trail.

Not once did he point his rifle at me, but it's true what they say, I definitely felt a tingling sensation between my shoulder blades.
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The bar sounds almost identical to The Copacabana in Port of Spain. I love a good dive bar and have not really had any serious bother. I did survive a night at The Hill in Shields during its heyday which prepares you for almost anything.
 
Blink said:
The bar sounds almost identical to The Copacabana in Port of Spain. I love a good dive bar and have not really had any serious bother. I did survive a night at The Hill in Shields during its heyday which prepares you for almost anything.
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Aye can be fun.
Or not

Whilst on this thread, I forgot to mention about hitch hiking through the mountains of Guatamala in the middle of a civil war in 1990.
Generally in the back of pick up trucks.

I had to separate two tied up fighting pigs, which shat all over my backpack.

Also kept getting stopped by boy soldiers with guns bigger than them.
 
Paddy O'Dors said:
I was on my own most of the time.

Had my card snatched out of my hand in McDonald's on Adderley my last day there. Nowt taken cos I cancelled it ASAP.

V&A Waterfront was sound as was Camps Bay.
Click to expand...

Ah, fair enough.

Stayed at the V & A and then had a night in Camps Bay after a Franshoek and Hermanus. All fine, but there are commando style armed private security round both!
 
In a boozer full of Dutch Hells Angels in Kerkrade. They were being a bit dodgy with a girl we were with and I hoyed a chair at them.
Somehow we all got in a taxi outside before sustaining too much damage.
 
El Oso said:
There was a bar called the 24 hour green bar, walls once had been painted green at the end of ,I think Tom Mboya street around River Road, where I was staying.
This was very iffy, but a few backpackers went in there.

The one I was in was the 24 hour blue bar, walls had once been painted blue, etc.
Never closed, it was miles from the green bar, nee idea where and backpackers definitely never went in there.
Same thing, Masai bouncers, with wooden clubs, bar caged off etc.
Even iffier.

For a bit of light relief, I went in a bar upcountry, me and my girlfriend had a beer.
Half a dozen Masai, in robes, beads etc came and sat at the table next to me, ordered some beers, a huge joint of meat and started tucking into it with their massive knives.
Click to expand...
Found it, it was the Modern Green Bar on Latima Road, the sign outside was mis-spelled and said Mordern Green Bar. It closed down 10 years ago and was turned into a mobile phone shop. It was the early 80's when I was there and a lot of beer has gone down my throat since then, that's probably why I remembered it as Moon and not Modern!
 
SYB_DC said:
It's not the color of the faces, mate, it's the looks you get in certain neighborhoods when you're white.
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Detroit, came out after a Sunday afternoon game at Comerica park and traffic was diverted over the freeway and ended up driving for ages out towards East 8 mile road.
In a convertible Mustang, with the orange light for gas coming on.

Pulled into a petrol station and realised after a few minutes I was probably the only white guy in several blocks, and everyone had a look, car puls in directly behind me, bloke from the till sticks his head out, shakes his head and goe sback in - I figured, fuck it, I'm leaving.

Got to her aunts out in Taylor eventually (once we worked out the satnav) and the looks they gave us when we told them where we'd been for 2 hours :lol:
 
Two stand out for me, Vegas and West Ham.

I was on a stag do / holiday in Las Vegas, my at the time girlfriend's Canadian cousin was getting married so the blokes went to a micro brewery then on to a strip club. We all piled into this limousine and it was definitely overloaded both by numbers and weight; some of them were right fat gits.

Halfway to the strip-club something goes bang and the right back side of the limo drops down, I'm sitting on the floor of the limo and I'm suddenly waiting to feel my arse getting friction burns from the road. Turns out the airbag suspension had gone so we had to get out and walk.

God only knows where we are, it's not the strip and it's not Freemont, lots of abandoned and empty lots. We set off on foot with the limo driver guiding us, next thing I head two loud bangs not far away but ignore it and we get to the club about 10 minutes after we left the limo. The driver starts to head off so I ask him, somewhat naively, what the bangs were, "someone probably just got shot". Vegas outside the strip and Freemont is pretty bloody ropey.


West Ham away in 2012, missed the Fletcher goal as we got there late and then decided to walk to West Ham station and get the DLR home rather than queue at Upton Park. I hate east London at the best of times but I definitely felt we were going to get jumped a number of times whilst taking that walk. Absolute dump.
 
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Belize City after dark,guy asked me for a light, told him (twice) I didn’t smoke. Walked on and he punched me in back of head, turned round and clocked him, he went down and shouted something in the local lingo and guys just appeared from every side street in view. Legged it for bus, jumped on and the driver (local) just sat with his foot on the door until we left. El Twato and his gang were rapping on the windows with knives, how I didn’t shite me pants I don’t know.
 

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