Things that have ruined your impression of a place

[Eleventween]

We stopped off in Hereford yesterday on the way back from a family holiday. We'd had an enjoyable afternoon and had been pleasantly surprised by what a lovely city it is. Before we set off for home, we decided to get a McDonalds from the drive-through. The man in the next lane thought we'd cut out in front of him and a full road rage outburst ensued. He jumped out of his car and threatened to smash our window, hurled a torrent of abuse at DH and terrified our two preschoolers who were in the back! I'm sure that whenever I think of Hereford now, that's what I'll remember. It's really annoyed me! What is yours?

I feel Scandinavia as a whole has a reputation of being one of the best places to live, but I was very unimpressed with Sweden. I found Stockholm to be very dirty. The otherwise very pretty old town was ruined by hundreds of cigarette buds stuck in between the cobble stones. I used to be a smoker so I'm not easily offended by people smoking but it was disgusting. I was actually quite shocked.

This was ten years ago btw so not sure if it's improved in that regard since then!

No, I think the OP did mean the Kinks, Sunny Afternoon has the line "in the summertime" in the chorus, although that isn't actually the song title, obviously.

I had an interesting experience in Barcelona (steps to the underground) - had my purse taken from my rucksack but as I stopped to check my bag, having felt the contact, my purse was thrown back at me, everything intact .

St Ives Cornwall. Was talked into going as I wasn't that fussed really.
'The light' and 'the atmosphere ' are supposed to be unrivalled apparently.
Well I wouldnt know because the crowds of folks traipsing about with their several dogs each and getting in everyones way prevented us from seeing anything of note in the town.
All I remember about the place is being held up at every turn by small dogs and their leads getting tangled round each other and many noisy albeit brief dog spats breaking out along the front.

What did you find about the flags that was so off-putting?

Yes I second this. Please do - please please let Monkeyworld Charity know, even if you saw this ages ago.

Spain and Greece absolutely are absolutely foul with regards to their treatment of Animals. I have a rescue dog from Spain. Cant stand the place.

@ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea bizzare-did you have sod all in there??

Yes! I think the pickpocket felt sorry for me

@LOSTAN and @MrsDanversGlidesAgain , my friend and I were speechless to be honest. All I could think whilst looking from the man to the poor monkey was, Isn't this the EU? Surely this isn't allowed. The monkey was in a cage that was covered by a cloth, which the man lifted from time to time. Thank you for the link, I'll look into it

This thread keeps reminding me of these:
Rubbish Seaside Archives - Loudribs.com
(Leeds born and bred. Narrow favourite is 'Whitby - Satan's Minibreak' but they're all good...)

@ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea Ha, always why if I'm away from home I keep a spare card and cash in the safe of room and some spare cash at least enough to get back to room tucked into boots or a pocket on me. I never have everything in my bag.

The poor treatment of donkeys in Greece, particularly Santorini, put me off. Seeing fat adult tourists pay to sit on a little donkey to be carried up the hill 😟

Same with Spain, with public adverts for the bullfighting arenas that tourists visit. Horrible.

Definitely Paris.

Dog shit everywhere; vomit on the train to Versailles; men pissing everywhere on the Metro; massively expensive food and drink; whole families begging and living on the streets.