4 ms·

One of the last times I went to SF with my wife for tourism, I was waiting for her outside of a Sephora shop in downtown (a very touristy area) while she made s

One of the last times I went to SF with my wife for tourism, I was waiting for her outside of a Sephora shop in downtown (a very touristy area) while she made some shopping. While I was standing just out of the shop, drinking from a bottle of water a huge guy (I'm 1.67m [5.47 feet] the guy was around 1.90m[6.2]) approaches me ands starts talking in unintelligible English. First I ignored him, but he got pretty close to me and started shouting. I kind of understood that he said something like "Im thirsty! I said I am thirsty, give me your water". It seems he was drugged or something... I got pretty scared, so I gave him my bottle and got into the shop. Fortunately he did not follow me, but it was one of the worst experiences I've had in a long time.

dexwiz 5y ago
Union square is really bad. Its full of homeless who harass tourists because they know they tourists are less likely to know how to react. In general the rule is don't engage, and if that doesn't work, keep walking.
colechristensen 5y ago
It might be a touristy area but I regularly saw people injecting drugs openly on the street in that area. Hell, I once saw a woman urinating in the middle of a broad sidewalk in the financial district midday surrounded by people in suits walking about barely noticing. The safer places in SF aren’t “nice” in appearance, they’re uphill.
tablespoon 5y ago
20 years ago, I visited SF as a tourist. At a BART station, some guy was wondering around asking for random improbable amounts of change "so he could get home." I probably gave him a quarter, but he saw some paper in my jacket pocket, reached in, and grabbed it. Then he realized it wasn't cash (just a map), and exclaimed "Oh, sir, your papers!" like I'd dropped them and he was helping me by finding them for me. I'm pretty sure he was high on something (or got fried by something that got him high). It was so ridiculous that it was more funny than anything else. Never had anything like that happen to me, before or since.

dexwiz 5y ago

Union square is really bad. Its full of homeless who harass tourists because they know they tourists are less likely to know how to react. In general the rule is don't engage, and if that doesn't work, keep walking.

colechristensen 5y ago

It might be a touristy area but I regularly saw people injecting drugs openly on the street in that area. Hell, I once saw a woman urinating in the middle of a broad sidewalk in the financial district midday surrounded by people in suits walking about barely noticing. The safer places in SF aren’t “nice” in appearance, they’re uphill.

tablespoon 5y ago

20 years ago, I visited SF as a tourist. At a BART station, some guy was wondering around asking for random improbable amounts of change "so he could get home." I probably gave him a quarter, but he saw some paper in my jacket pocket, reached in, and grabbed it. Then he realized it wasn't cash (just a map), and exclaimed "Oh, sir, your papers!" like I'd dropped them and he was helping me by finding them for me. I'm pretty sure he was high on something (or got fried by something that got him high). It was so ridiculous that it was more funny than anything else. Never had anything like that happen to me, before or since.