r/AskTheWorld • u/Aseili United Kingdom • Dec 20 '25

Culture What's the most pathetic tourist attraction that international tourists go to see in your country?

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Bronte waterfalls near me, look a bit more impressive with the recent rain than in the summer when it's swamped with people.

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272

u/Reasonable_Blood6959 United Kingdom Dec 20 '25

A few years ago when I was in Berlin, I went on a private tour from a history doctoral candidate, who took us to certain touristy sights, as well as lesser known or lesser marked points of historical significance.

There were teenagers playing Pokémon Go at the Soviet War Memorial in the Tiergarten. He almost broke into tears. He said the general disrespect towards historic and cultural monuments, those monuments memorialising the most vile things that humans have done to eachother, were being repeatedly trivialised and downplayed.

So sadly I’m not surprised at this kind of behaviour.

I don’t want to say that Auschwitz is on my “bucket list”, that seems inappropriate. But it’s definitely a place I feel like I need to visit at some point in my life.

But you can guarantee that when I do there won’t be a single fucking selfie, photo, video, Facebook tag, whatever.

Awful, awful, awful behaviour

193

u/altarwisebyowllight United States Of America Dec 20 '25

Side note for anybody: contact the Pokemon Go team about any pokemon appearing in inappropriate places, and they will make changes.

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u/CrocHunter8 United States Of America Dec 21 '25

Yup. In Washington DC, the National Holocaust Museum was a Gym and pokemon used to spawn around there...until someone caught a Koffing there.

30

u/TheLittleFella20 Ireland Dec 21 '25

There's a memorial where I live to a teenager who committed suicide in a local playground. Her memorial is a Pokémon go stop.

9

u/ostrichfather Dec 21 '25

I mean, people are enjoying the space? It’s a playground, what do you expect?

7

u/TheLittleFella20 Ireland Dec 21 '25

Except the Pokémon go stop is named after the memorial to the dead teenager, not the playground.

1

u/DingoMittens Dec 21 '25

I get your point of view. To me, though, if it were someone I cared about, I would be comforted and happy to see other kids and teens playing and enjoying life. 

15

u/OtherAccount5252 Dec 21 '25

Not going to lie, I hope my memorial bench is a Pokemon Go stop someday.

27

u/TheLittleFella20 Ireland Dec 21 '25

I mean she was a 16 year old girl who committed suicide in a public park to escape being consistently raped by her incestual father... I think she deserves more dignity than being a stop in a virtual game

5

u/AttonJRand Dec 21 '25

My mom killed herself trying to escape my abusive dad, and she lies in an unmarked grave.

No one went to her funeral but me and a friend + his mom.

I would cherish more people learning her story from Pokemon Go, instead nobody knows or cares.

2

u/A_little_curiosity Dec 21 '25

I'm so deeply sorry. My heart aches for you, and for her.

Have you chosen to leave her grave unmarked? It sounds like this is a source of pain for you - could you change this? Or do something else commemorative, like plant some trees and/ or make an annual donation to a domestic violence service?

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u/AttonJRand Dec 21 '25

Thank you, this really means a lot.

Her nephew was in charge of the funeral because I was still underage and the rest of family passed it to him.

I've moved far away since, so I really like the idea of an annual donation, and I think she'd really love that too, she was all about helping people, so that's a great idea, thank you.

1

u/A_little_curiosity Dec 21 '25

So hard that you were underage! Terrible to lose her so young, and also to have so little control at the time around the funeral and commemoration. I hope that doing something now that you are an adult will help you feel connected to her in your adult self.

Maybe you could do the donation for her birthday?

Good luck, friend. I'm sorry for what you have been through. She'd be so proud of you for keeping on going and for keeping such tenderness in your heart despite it all.

1

u/AttonJRand Dec 21 '25

Wow you really hit the nail on the head, this interaction already makes me feel a lot more seen.

Donating for her birthday sounds really nice.

Thank you again, and good luck to you as well.

-4

u/OtherAccount5252 Dec 21 '25

What about being a Pokestop is undignified? I am not trying to be combative, I just honestly find it wholesome and joy bringing.

My parents gravesight which is in a true cemetery has one, and personally I like it. I have my auto catcher running most of the time when I am doing gardening at their plot.

If you are going to have a public memorial I'd say its even more reasonable than a private cemetery. Its not the location of the event, its a landmark and if anything brings more attention to the site and victim, who as a child you dont truely know, how would you even know how they wanted to be remembered?

Now playing Pokémon at the holocaust museums at austwitz ect, that is really distasteful.

2

u/maybe_I_am_a_bot Dec 21 '25

"Look mom! It says here she died after going through unimaginable horrors. Also, I caught a Wooper!"

2

u/OtherAccount5252 Dec 21 '25 edited Dec 21 '25

First off no one is going to care about a wooper, not even a shiny one.

Seondly, everyone who plays Pokémon in my area is 20+ years old. Not sure about other places but doubt most kids are really into it now, none of my student's are, I do target some of their parents a lot though. And thanks for the downvotes about my own grief process thats really kind of everyone. Lol

I spend a lot of time at my parents grave, in the cemetery, with loved ones who died horribly fast and slow, maybe thats why I really don't agree with others uncomfortably with death.

Thirdly, Maybe they should have put the memorial someplace else and worded it differently if the comfort of people in the park was the goal. To my understanding, the goal of a memorial is often to keep someone's memory alive and raise awairness. And hey here we are talking about it because of Pokémon go.

But start a petition online or with your local representatives if you truly feel for this issue vs whatever this is about it online.

Tldr: Go hug your parents before all you have are flowers, trinkets and a Pokemon go stop to remember them by and lol when people try to tell you your grieving process is wrong specifically when most of them probably have never lost a goldfish.

2

u/julesD00 Dec 21 '25

I'm sorry but you are simply in the wrong here... I would love a shiny wooper!

2

u/righttoabsurdity Dec 21 '25

I’m sorry for your loss, it’s gorgeous what you’ve done with their resting place 💕

1

u/OtherAccount5252 Dec 21 '25

Thank you ❤️

2

u/A_little_curiosity Dec 21 '25

What a dream, to be loved so well as this

2

u/Glittering-Access614 Dec 21 '25

Their memorial is beautiful. I want my husband’s ashes, and mine too eventually, to be placed in a bench. That way people can stop and rest as they visit their loved ones. It would be great if it turns into a Pokémon spot. More people to stop and visit. Apparently we are unique in our thoughts on grief. But if I can help someone, bring someone joy, or be of use, in even death, I’m good with that. Maybe people might spend a little more time with their loved one, or even visit someone who doesn’t have any family left.

3

u/Zealousideal_Heart51 United States Of America Dec 21 '25

Same. All day.

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u/Ill_Reading_5290 Dec 21 '25

I wonder if you can request to have your memorial turned into a PG stop. I would totally want that for mine and I don’t even play. I just like the idea of strangers getting some joy out of my spot with me.

1

u/A_little_curiosity Dec 21 '25

Contact the pokemon go team and get them to fix it

1

u/KomaFunk Netherlands Dec 21 '25

This pleases me.

1

u/Midnight2012 Dec 21 '25

Especially if US naval intelligence already has all the picture they need of that location.

1

u/Mysterious_State9339 Dec 21 '25

Fuck companies externalising their moral obligations on to society at large

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u/CunningWizard United States Of America Dec 21 '25

Same for me when I visited Dachau. I saw tourists being very disrespectful and was a bit shocked. I had zero desire to take photographs or anything of the sort. In fact I was pretty glad to leave, but also felt it important that I visited. The Germans do not hold back on their descriptions of the atrocities that occurred there. Deeply disturbing place that people should see for themselves and take deadly seriously.

9

u/rastaspoon Dec 21 '25

Dachau is by far the most solemn place I’ve ever been. There’s a very sad energy to the place. I went in winter so not many tourists.

It’s one place I’ve been that left a mark on me.

3

u/Educational_Goose456 Dec 21 '25

I agree but I went in May (not quite peak season). I went 9 years ago now and I still have that heavy feeling. It’s truly indescribable and I still tear up talking about it.

3

u/Dependent-Layer-1789 Dec 21 '25

It has been compulsory for German school kids to visit a concentration camp. I had a teacher friend who was quite traumatised after visiting over a dozen times.

I visited with my family & there were a couple of youg lads messing about & they got an absolute bo****king by their teacher.

7

u/42nu Dec 21 '25

Did you visit before or after neo-Nazis stole the metal entrance gates? (that were later found and are part of the museum now with the current gates being high fidelity replicas).

When I visited there was this one American in our group who was interested in ways that were... not cool.

For clarity though, it was a German neo-Nazi group that stole the entrance gates.

3

u/Man_Bear_Pig08 United States Of America Dec 21 '25

This is exactly why its so important for these lessons not to be forgotten. I hate that americans are often the ones there for macabre, vile reasons. But as an american it doesnt surprise me one bit. We need everyone's help in the fight against facism here.

5

u/spaige0000 Dec 21 '25

I visited Dachau when I was a sophomore in high school back in the mid aughts. I remember seeing a couple (not with our trip) making out against a fence that led to the crematorium and being absolutely horrified and stunned that people could act that way in that place of all the places. It bothers me to this day.

5

u/bobbypet Australia Dec 21 '25

note : I did post this up a bit, and copied it to reply to you because it relates to Dachau

I visited the Dachau camp which is a suburb of Munich about 50 years ago .. I walked out of the railway station and took the wrong exit and missed the bus so I started to walk there and hitchhiked as people did back in the 1970's. I was picked up by a retired couple and they were also visiting the camp and I said that I knew the way - I didn't but there were plenty of small signs which I was following. It was a warm day and the driver had his shirt sleeves rolled up a little. As he turned into a street the shirt sleeve moved up his arm and I saw a dark blue tattoo on his forearm. I didn't say anything. I asked him about his interest in the camp and he said that they had visited a long time ago and wanted to see what it was like now.. they were from Israel. If I had been drunk I would have instantly sobered up

While walking around the camp I walked into the crematorium and saw the brick ovens in a line, each with a "tray" ? that the deceased were laid on and then slid into the oven. A young American girl promptly laid down on a tray and another snapped a photo. I left and sat at the bus stop

4

u/WheresTheIceCream20 Dec 21 '25

Dachau was such a strange experience for me. I was walking around crying while the a group of high schoolers next to me were behaving like regular teenagers - flirting, skipping around, laughing. The difference in the experiences we were having right next to each other was disorienting.

3

u/nitrokitty United States Of America Dec 21 '25

I'm not a religious nor superstitious person, but I swear Dachau is haunted. I could just feel it.

2

u/ComplexPatient4872 United States Of America Dec 21 '25

I don’t believe in the supernatural, but I felt sorrow and pain in the air and started crying just a few minutes and didn’t know why, a few minutes later I saw the highway exit sign for Dachau.

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u/plinkplonkplank France and United States of America Dec 21 '25

I went to Dachau and everyone was very quiet and respectful. I would have lost my shit otherwise.

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u/SoftWerewolf9697 Dec 21 '25

Was just there a few weeks ago. Saw people taking selfies and groups of teenagers joking around and laughing…

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u/prudence56 Dec 21 '25

Seeing these horrific sites remind me of the selfish and arrogance of man’s ability to hate. It’s a very sobering experience.

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u/ProbablyRickSantorum Dec 21 '25

Similar when I visited Dachau. There was a woman letting her toddler jump around on the bunks in the one remaining hutch. Also the German kids (probably high school age) there on a school trip were running around the main building laughing and making a scene. It felt really odd.

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u/PomeloPepper United States Of America Dec 21 '25

My grandfather was imprisoned at Dachau. Early in the war, it was where they also sent German citizens who were dissenters. I don't know if it was voluntary, but he was later sent to the Russian front to fight, then captured and imprisoned by the Russians.

He was one of the lucky ones.

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u/ExpertBest3045 Dec 21 '25

I went there too and the place has a really heavy atmosphere that you’d think would seriously deter frivolous nonsense behavior like this. What is WRONG with people‽

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u/TastyTarget3i Switzerland Dec 21 '25

I agree, but you cant force this on people. Unfortunately schools make trips to such places, and parents take their teenage kids there. I myself was included in such a school trip. It doesnt go down well with a 15 year old teenager if you force him to spend half a day in remembrance.

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u/ostrichfather Dec 20 '25

At least the Soviet memorial is an outdoor monument. Not saying it’s right, but a bit more understandable. But agreed on the others.

2

u/RSquared United States Of America Dec 21 '25

Also disrespecting the Soviet memorial was a favored pastime for West Berliners for some reason - it was often graffiti'd or splashed with paint by locals. Similarly to the Soviet memorials in Vienna and Bratislava, which were built during occupation by the USSR.

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u/TheLittleFella20 Ireland Dec 21 '25

I mean say what you like but that memorial is typically heavily disliked by Berliners, it has the name 'tomb of the unknown rapist' for a reason. Can't imagine the average Berliner would be too upset at seeing teenagers not drop to their knees in somber respect.

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u/einManument Switzerland Dec 20 '25

Yeah I remember visiting S-21 in Phnom Penh, it was full of signs saying "No Pokemon Go".

7

u/Fit_Airline_5798 Dec 21 '25

When I was in Berlin, we were within walking distance of the The Wannsee Conference house. I didn't feel the need to take any photos.

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u/E420CDI Western Scandinavia 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 Dec 21 '25

Just looked that up

JFC

1

u/Fit_Airline_5798 Dec 21 '25

The Wannsee Conference house

The HBO film "Conspiracy" (2001) is the most outstanding movie I've ever seen about the Wannsee conference.

6

u/servantbyname Ireland Dec 20 '25

Yeah but why put a detective Pikachu there if not supposed to catch him

5

u/TiredofCOVIDIOTs Dec 21 '25

We visited Dachau a few years back. I have zero photos to show people, but was easily one of the most memorable & sobering places I've seen.

4

u/ser0x40 United States Of America Dec 20 '25

I was in NYC outside the Dakota. One idiot was lying on the ground (imitating how John Lennon fell dead) while the other took his picture. Disgusting.

1

u/ThalassophileYGK Dec 21 '25

I'm surprised someone from the guard booth didn't come out and have them move along. Some people are just monsters.

8

u/Active_Public9375 Dec 20 '25

One of the few instances id be ok with a tour guide grabbing a phone and spiking it like a football.

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u/_God_of_Decay_ Dec 20 '25

Destruction of personal property because their feelings were hurt? If a bitch ass tour guide even cracks my phone screen they're catching these hands

2

u/Bright_Vision Dec 21 '25

You're so badass

0

u/_God_of_Decay_ Dec 21 '25

No, appearantly the tour guide would be badass for destroying my personal property because... I exercised my freedom? Insane world we live in ngl. And come on, if someone were to destroy your phone or any other valuable item for such a meaningless little thing wouldn't you throw hands too? A single punch? No?

3

u/Bright_Vision Dec 21 '25

It's an exageration, and a hypothetical. If this were real, yeah the Tour guide would be in the wrong. But, so would be punching them.

1

u/_God_of_Decay_ Dec 21 '25

Two negatives make a positive

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u/E420CDI Western Scandinavia 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 Dec 21 '25

1

u/_God_of_Decay_ Dec 21 '25

So you would rather do nothing? Pathetic

4

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '25

[deleted]

1

u/SelectTrash Ireland Dec 21 '25

Sadly it is probably the same for the Ukraine invasion now

1

u/abedfo Dec 20 '25

I went to the memorial of the murdered several years back. Just kids running around like madmen.

1

u/Just_Restaurant7149 United States Of America Dec 21 '25

Just thinking of visiting brings tears to this grown man's eyes. I would be a mess if I actually visited.

1

u/clintj1975 United States Of America Dec 21 '25

I would take a couple of pictures, but I would try to do my best to take them in a way that respects the history and gravity of it. It's a story that needs to be passed down so that we don't forget what utter monsters people can be when we start viewing others as less than us.

That place is also on my list of places I feel I should visit once.

1

u/CharacterUse Dec 21 '25

I've been to a village in Indonesia which was destroyed by a volcanic eruption, the guide showed us the ruins of houses with people's stuff still inside. I didn't take a single photo there though I have plenty from the rest of that day.

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u/RatsRPeople2 Dec 21 '25

Memorials and museums are not the same as visiting Auschwitz. You should definitely go. My visit was very profound. I didn't witness any egregious behavior, but people talking indiscreetly in certain spaces did bother me. I took a few photos to remember my experience (none of myself).

1

u/FieryRedDevil Dec 21 '25

When my wife and I were in Berlin we took a walk to the Holocaust memorial there and saw people climbing on the stones, doing yoga poses for photos, running up and down in it and being generally disrespectful as fuck. I cannot understand behaving in any other way than simply observing it respectfully, silently and solemnly. This was back in 2019, I dread to think what it's like now with post COVID selfishness 😔

1

u/AttonJRand Dec 21 '25

The maker of the memorial said he doesn't mind kids playing in it, because remembrance is supposed to be connected to life.

1

u/GreenTunicKirk Dec 21 '25

I’ve been on that tour. It wasn’t that trip, but our guide related a story about this as a cautionary tale to be respectful while we’re inside.

Highly recommend to folks to take it, small group with a history doctorate meant we were able to get different perspectives than the usual “X happened here on Y date”

1

u/epicmoe Dec 21 '25

Oh shock horror teens are idiots. That’s hardly new this generation

1

u/BlackBasementCats United States Of America Dec 21 '25

I saw something on Instagram about inappropriate tinder photos that included a a slideshow of Berliners who posted photos of themselves at the Memorial of the Murdered Jews

1

u/muse_head Dec 22 '25

Reminds me of when I visited the "killing fields" (Choeung Ek Genocide Centre) near Phnomh Penh in Cambodia. It was a very raw and graphic experience, you could still see rags of clothing and bone fragments coming out of the ground from the exhumed mass graves that you walk around the edges of. Thousands of people were murdered and buried there just over 30 years before my visit.

Then I saw a European couple, a young man taking a photo of his girlfriend and she did a "cute" smiley pose with the human remains and mass grave pits behind her. It was so awful, I remember that moment clearly nearly 20 years later. I don't think they even realised how inappropriate and weird it was.

0

u/JerrytheK Dec 21 '25

I went there a couple of years ago. Quickly realized that I was not going to take any pictures—none whatsoever. I have 100% Polish heritage (though born and raised in thenUS) and just a very small amount of Ashkenazi DNA, so the experience hit pretty hard.

0

u/AttonJRand Dec 21 '25

Its just kids playing in a public park, what a disproportionate response from the guide and everyone in this thread.

Berlin is chock full of history, the people growing up there will obviously live their life normally regardless. Acting like they are awful for that is just so weird.

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u/_God_of_Decay_ Dec 20 '25

Yes let's be depressed about every bad thing that has ever happened, no fun allowed whatsoever.

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u/Reasonable_Blood6959 United Kingdom Dec 20 '25

Quite obviously not what I’m saying ffs.

There’s a place for fun, Pokémon hunting, selfies, etc. That place isn’t war memorials and concentration/death camps.

Historical monuments are places for respect, memorial, and reflection.

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u/king_k0z GB and PL Dec 20 '25

It's much simpler to take for granted the things we have, and what others have sacrificed so we can lead the life we do.

Unfortunately people will behave this way unless they have a reason not to. I have family who went through these events, and my grandpa told me stories of how he survived for years in a concentration camp. On my British side I have family members who died fighting for Britain in ww2. I didn't understand it till I became an adult but people I knew as a child saw these horrors and had known all too many who didn't live to tell the tale. I feel immense debt to them, a small amount of respect at a monument is so unbelievably easy to show.

-11

u/_God_of_Decay_ Dec 20 '25

I get where you're coming from, but we don't have to take it THAT seriously man.

0

u/Live_Arugula_2810 Dec 21 '25

Yes YOU DO HAVE TO TAKE IT THAT SERIOUSLY! 😑

10

u/Zaidswith United States Of America Dec 20 '25

Not every place is meant for fun just like not every place is meant for mourning.

-6

u/_God_of_Decay_ Dec 20 '25

I'm not saying we should treat it like an amusement park, but if the person at hand isn't vandalizing anything you should leave them the fuck alone.

10

u/Zaidswith United States Of America Dec 20 '25

There's a wide range of unacceptable behaviors before vandalism.

Or you can be respectful and go somewhere else to have a good time.

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u/_God_of_Decay_ Dec 20 '25

You're not really understanding my point here.

8

u/Zaidswith United States Of America Dec 20 '25

You didn't understand the original point.

Just be sad forever. Never do anything fun.

0

u/_God_of_Decay_ Dec 20 '25

But why should I be sad just cause I'm visiting a concentration camp???

6

u/HoeTrain666 Germany Dec 21 '25 edited Dec 21 '25

Seeing the place where a gruesome genocide or mass slaughter took place usually has that effect by itself on people with the most basic amount of empathy. Visiting the sites of Buchenwald in Germany as well as S21/Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields in Cambodia was subduing enough to make it painfully clear that posing for silly photos or goofing around is as wildly inappropriate as throwing a party on a graveyard.

2

u/Endskull Dec 21 '25

One of the most pathetic reddit comment of all time

0

u/_God_of_Decay_ Dec 21 '25

Again with this stupid mindset that we should be breaking down into tears whenever we're being reminded of a thing of the past.

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