The Tube during afternoon rush hour. I mean literally face to face. And in Quebec last summer at a Pitbull concert and 100,000 people squished together on the Plains of Abraham and another 20-30,000 behind the stage who couldn't get in. When I went to Rio the worst part was the traffic trying to get out of the city, 2 and 1/2 hrs to go 17 miles to the north and it's like that every day.
2. London tube late one Saturday night when I knew what a sardine in a can must feel like. Luckily the people were very polite letting us off when we reached our stop or I might still be in the middle of that packed humanity.
The worst was the 50 anniversary of the golden gate bridge Just getting my family of three to the bridge was an ordeal just to say you walked over the bridge on its road.
Of course we saw the crowd entering the south side of the bridge, not realizing how many were entering the north side of the bridge. We got slightly past the first tower and came to a halt, stuck like sardines in a can. No one anticipated the two sides meeting in the middle of the bridge. It seemed forever standing with no way out. Worry was on everyone’s face, but no panic.
That night watching the news our jays dropped. The Golden Gate Bridge bowed downward from the weight of all those people. Potential disaster in so many ways never happened 🫣
My biggest crowd was in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park in 1976, for the fiftieth anniversary of Emperor Hirohito's reign. Though I found myself among four million people in the park that day, the crowd was totallly well controlled. It was a perfectly safe experience. There were even temporary traffic signals in the park to manage the flows of pedestrians.
The worst crowd I experienced was in September 2023, at the Astronomical Clock in Prague. A huge mob every hour to see the world's oldest continuously-working clock tower. I was lucky to be able to squeeze into a tiny space toward the rear of the crowd, directly in front of the clock tower. I found the size of and behavior of the crowd more interesting than what happens when the clock strikes the hour.
Israel unfortunately. Church of the Nativity we waited in line 3 hours with our group. The priests kept shushing us when it got too loud in there. There were guys not in our group cutting in line when it was our turn to go down to the cave to see Jesus' birthplace. A guy was pushing an old lady in our group out of the way. Madness in a holy site. Pathetic. It was mob like going down the Via Dolorosa too. Trying to be meditative and spiritual with peddlers shoving trinkets in our faces. Ugh.
Easy. The holding pen in Macau for the ferry back to Hong Kong. More than 170 people standing in a space apx 15x20. Full body contact on all sides, sweltering and airless.
I later learned this was the vessel for guest workers from deep within China's interior. Once you begin to notice it you see signs of SE Asia's migrant workforce all over, many millions of people, often kept in shameful conditions. Construction workers, eg, often camp out on the job site.
The pyramids at Giza were insane. A jillion tour buses and tourist police shouting at everyone. We were driving, so we left and had an interesting trip to a pyramid all alone out in the country side. We were the only visitors.
Bastille Day- July 14, 2015 at the Place de Mexico in Paris. We watched the fireworks from the Eiffel Tower on a street filled with people. After the show, we tried to walk down to the Rue de La Pompe metro station but were stopped by police who said all the nearby metros were closed. We walked in a crowd ,mainly from the Trocadero, that took up the entire wide sidewalk on Avenue Wilson. It felt like a very soft target for anyone who wanted to hurt people. We were finally herded down to a metro station and placed in a metro car by transit authorities. I vowed after that night that I would avoid any large crowd situations and have stuck by that decision.
There were two "most crowded" places. First, Christmas Eve in Hong Kong when it was still British. Kowloon was heaving with festive people spraying everyone with silly string. It was a giant street party and the Star Ferry almost sunk from the amount of people crammed onto the ship. Second, New Year's Eve several years ago on the Bund in Shanghai. It was a massive wall of people. I am short and all I saw was backs of people. I couldn't see any of the Bund because I was pushed, shoved, and buried in a Shanghai mosh pit type crowd.
Pre-COVID, we visited Versailles Palace outside of Paris in August! So many people were crammed inside the Palace that it was almost impossible to see any of the furnishings. And many of the tourists were rude and pushy. Never again!
The Vatican. We were jammed into a crowd of people who were standing shoulder to shoulder, being yelled at to move along and not take any photos. There was so much to see and no time to see any of it. A great disappointment.
The Tube during afternoon rush hour. I mean literally face to face. And in Quebec last summer at a Pitbull concert and 100,000 people squished together on the Plains of Abraham and another 20-30,000 behind the stage who couldn't get in. When I went to Rio the worst part was the traffic trying to get out of the city, 2 and 1/2 hrs to go 17 miles to the north and it's like that every day.
1. Cairo markets.
2. London tube late one Saturday night when I knew what a sardine in a can must feel like. Luckily the people were very polite letting us off when we reached our stop or I might still be in the middle of that packed humanity.
The worst was the 50 anniversary of the golden gate bridge Just getting my family of three to the bridge was an ordeal just to say you walked over the bridge on its road.
Of course we saw the crowd entering the south side of the bridge, not realizing how many were entering the north side of the bridge. We got slightly past the first tower and came to a halt, stuck like sardines in a can. No one anticipated the two sides meeting in the middle of the bridge. It seemed forever standing with no way out. Worry was on everyone’s face, but no panic.
That night watching the news our jays dropped. The Golden Gate Bridge bowed downward from the weight of all those people. Potential disaster in so many ways never happened 🫣
My biggest crowd was in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park in 1976, for the fiftieth anniversary of Emperor Hirohito's reign. Though I found myself among four million people in the park that day, the crowd was totallly well controlled. It was a perfectly safe experience. There were even temporary traffic signals in the park to manage the flows of pedestrians.
There are no crowds like Asian crowds.
The worst crowd I experienced was in September 2023, at the Astronomical Clock in Prague. A huge mob every hour to see the world's oldest continuously-working clock tower. I was lucky to be able to squeeze into a tiny space toward the rear of the crowd, directly in front of the clock tower. I found the size of and behavior of the crowd more interesting than what happens when the clock strikes the hour.
Wrestling Japanese tourists at Versailles
Definitely the Tokyo subway, though very orderly.
Israel unfortunately. Church of the Nativity we waited in line 3 hours with our group. The priests kept shushing us when it got too loud in there. There were guys not in our group cutting in line when it was our turn to go down to the cave to see Jesus' birthplace. A guy was pushing an old lady in our group out of the way. Madness in a holy site. Pathetic. It was mob like going down the Via Dolorosa too. Trying to be meditative and spiritual with peddlers shoving trinkets in our faces. Ugh.
Easy. The holding pen in Macau for the ferry back to Hong Kong. More than 170 people standing in a space apx 15x20. Full body contact on all sides, sweltering and airless.
I later learned this was the vessel for guest workers from deep within China's interior. Once you begin to notice it you see signs of SE Asia's migrant workforce all over, many millions of people, often kept in shameful conditions. Construction workers, eg, often camp out on the job site.
The pyramids at Giza were insane. A jillion tour buses and tourist police shouting at everyone. We were driving, so we left and had an interesting trip to a pyramid all alone out in the country side. We were the only visitors.
Bastille Day- July 14, 2015 at the Place de Mexico in Paris. We watched the fireworks from the Eiffel Tower on a street filled with people. After the show, we tried to walk down to the Rue de La Pompe metro station but were stopped by police who said all the nearby metros were closed. We walked in a crowd ,mainly from the Trocadero, that took up the entire wide sidewalk on Avenue Wilson. It felt like a very soft target for anyone who wanted to hurt people. We were finally herded down to a metro station and placed in a metro car by transit authorities. I vowed after that night that I would avoid any large crowd situations and have stuck by that decision.
There were two "most crowded" places. First, Christmas Eve in Hong Kong when it was still British. Kowloon was heaving with festive people spraying everyone with silly string. It was a giant street party and the Star Ferry almost sunk from the amount of people crammed onto the ship. Second, New Year's Eve several years ago on the Bund in Shanghai. It was a massive wall of people. I am short and all I saw was backs of people. I couldn't see any of the Bund because I was pushed, shoved, and buried in a Shanghai mosh pit type crowd.
Delhi. Anyplace
Pre-COVID, we visited Versailles Palace outside of Paris in August! So many people were crammed inside the Palace that it was almost impossible to see any of the furnishings. And many of the tourists were rude and pushy. Never again!
Mardi gras day new orleans
The Vatican. We were jammed into a crowd of people who were standing shoulder to shoulder, being yelled at to move along and not take any photos. There was so much to see and no time to see any of it. A great disappointment.