subject: The Ugliest vs the Most Beautiful Places I Have Ever Visited - A Reflective Essay [print this page] The Ugliest vs the Most Beautiful Places I Have Ever Visited - A Reflective Essay
The Ugliest Place Visited
I have no difficulty in identifying, at once, the ugliest place I ever visited: Madrid, Spain. Most people are extremely surprised by this choice but, there are reasons to support this judgment.
Overcrowded with people
Congested with cars, buses and all types of motor vehicles
Streets are littered
In Madrid you have no view; no privacy; and going anywhere means being ready to get stuck in traffic for an unlimited time.
As a city a place Madrid lacks beauty. All one sees is crowds and crowds of people, each pushing the other in a hurry to get where they're going. The pavements are so crowded with people that they are almost invisible. The roads are similar in that they are invisible because they are over congested with cars. The majority of these cars are dented, unwashed and all are noisy. The drivers seem to be heading in all directions, breaking traffic rules and having no consideration for the safety of the pedestrians. Each driver seems to be in a race with all the others with no basic respect for social politeness.
The lack of social politeness is also revealed in the littering of the streets. Pedestrians casually throw their gum or chocolate wrappers as they walk, and drivers and passengers can often be seen tossing things out of the windows of the cars. The result is very dirty streets that a person would not expect in a European capital city.
The old buildings, which are many, show really beautiful architecture but their condition is so bad that you can't see this beauty. Instead, you see unwashed buildings lined up next to modern buildings with no sense of symmetry at all. That is, the buildings do not match each other in height, architecture or color with the overall picture being an ugly one of lack of proper planning.
Madrid is a very ugly place but, it is an entertaining one.
The Most Beautiful Place Visited
The most beautiful place I ever visited was Frieburg, a small town in Germany, and on the borders of both France and Switzerland. It is an old town that beautifully combines modern architecture with the new. In one section of the village, there is the market square surrounding a wonderful medieval church. This entire square is paved with little stones and no cars are allowed into it. There are tiny shops lined up around the square and they appear to be part of the square, just as the church is and not like additions to it. That is, they fit into the overall picture. In the center of the square there are street vendors that sell vegetables, fruits and homemade small wood carvings and statues. It is a very inviting place and even though it is full of people, it is not crowded or busy. You can look around you and admire the fountain, the church, and event the cobble stone street.
A little distance from the market square, there is a modern main road. It is a busy street with department stores and large shops on both sides of the street. But it is a well-organized road that doesn't appear crowded or busy because of its being very wide. Furthermore, there are trees planted on both sides of the road and this gives the picture of green nature with modern life. That is, even the dark gray buildings and paved street is beautiful because it is offset by green nature.
A little further away, there is the beautiful park. This is possibly built into the most beautiful place in the world. The grass is a deep green, with high very leafy and very green trees all around. It is almost like being in a forest that was made for picnics and sightseeing. There are also tiny rivers or lakes in the middle of the park and, around them are people sitting quietly and fishing or young children playing with little sailboats. In the middle of this park there are some beautiful small houses with red roofs, built like white huts, and the whole effect is very beautiful.
As far as the places that I've visited go, I really believe that Freiburg is the most beautiful of all.
