Some of the anecdotes in this thread made me realize that we’ve all ran through some weird / interesting / plain crazy places while mapping our city. What’s your best CityStrides story so far?
My personal “favorite” was running through the local red light district at 9 in the evening. The red light district in Brussels is in one of the worst places in town (and far too hilly, for the record), and due to circumstance, I started my run too late. I have never felt quite as out of place as I have when weaving through some of the shadiest people you can imagine doing some window shopping.
Definitely my run in the meatpacking district of Copenhagen. It’s always been an area with lots of hookers and drug addicts, but now it’s a hip foodie place. I’m not sure there is many hookers left but there is plenty of drug addicts. I thought it was a good idea to run it very early in the morning, but that just made it worse, because the only people around was the drug addicts. It was actually pretty sad and scary to see some of them totally strung out and frozen in a weird pose.
There is a supervised injection called H17 where the can safely inject their drugs. So if you are in Copenhagen, this is the street to avoid in the nighttime. Slagtehusgade - Kødbyen
Scariest part is the street name Slagtehusgade, it literally means Slaugtherhouse street
LOL!!! Yeah, that is not the neighborhood to end up in. When I lived in Vedbaek back in the 90s I showed up in that neighborhood completely Tuborged up, and to this day, I’m not sure how the “little rich American” made it out without broken bones.
As for the OP question - I worked in LA for a few years and there are neighborhoods that you can stumble on really quick like and go “Uhhh… this is not the right place for me.”
OH! And lest I forget - Get off the beaten path and close to the riverbank in Jaco Costa Rica. I dare ya. If the dogs don’t eat you, you stand a good shot with crocodiles.
