Any time I go to a large city im exhausted by being charged for doing anything. How do people have fun if theyre poor(the neat part, you dont, probably). And to make it worse many of them probably have a 1 bedroom apartment so its not like you can sit in there all day long (at least i cant).
I realize im still spending money by being in my house out of town, but still, at least things I buy are owned by me, and im not paying someone else every time I want to do anything. If I want to stay at home all day I have tons of stuff to occupy my mind without going nuts.
I figure 98% of lemmy users live in big cities so id like to hear this perspective!
Walk or bike everywhere if possible. Go down any side path that looks safe, explore, poke around, find the interesting things. Go to tourist spots and photobomb people. Pick your nose right outside the window of an incredibly expensive restaurant. Talk with strangers while waiting for stuff (but read the room obviously) they’ll know about stuff to do you never would have thought of. Get engaged in the punk community they’re always doing free things and dirt cheap concerts. Find local musicians in a genre you like that aren’t popular outside regionally and see where they do a lot of smaller concerts, hang out at those places. Walk around community gardens. See what buildings you can get into and figure out if the roofs are accessible. Throw bricks at cops. Volunteer, a lot of times this is as simple as handing out food that someone else already made and you get to meet people and feel like you’re bettering your area. Seriously walk and bike everywhere if you can and be open to taking detours you’ll find so much stuff you’d never have found in a car
Cities want to be explored. They have so much to offer but you need to find it. Sometimes you can stumble into things, sometimes you have to know the right person, sometimes you specifically seek something out so you poke around related things until you work your way there. Keep an open mind and reserve some time whenever you can to just explore. The best stuff will show up eventually even if it takes a couple years
In my experience in Seattle, the people with money pretended to have the most fun. The punks, the poor people, they actually had the most fun. When people don’t have money to throw at impulse happiness they put a lot more work into building a life and community that can stand on its own. This includes mental well being such as finding ways to have fun
Also mushrooms are a cheap way to have the time of your life for 6-8 hours