Comfortable like home
I feel so comfortable when we visit (and stay with) Gina and Steve in Queens. And it’s not just the awesome comfort of being around friends you totally love and feel you can be 100% yourself around… but also the comfort and familiarity of the city. I’ve only been to NYC five times in my life (four of those being in the last year staying at Gina and Steve’s house) but I really feel at ease when I visit. It feels counter intuitive to write that, since NYC is such an active city (how could one feel at ease?), but there is just this lack of worry when I am here. I feel confident, like I can figure out what I want to do, and how to get there, without much planning. I just feel comfortable. Part of that is being with friends, but I think part of that is my love for the city (and wayfinding). I don’t consider myself to know a lot about the city, but I just feel a lack of intimidation and a strange level of comfort – more than I feel in the actual city of Chicago. The feeling is similar to how I feel at my home and surrounding areas in the Chicago suburbs.
Am I making sense to anyone?
I wonder if this is a connection people make with NYC (only) or if it’s just that visiting another city time and time again makes it have the comfort level of “home.”
Are there any cities you visit (besides your hometown) that you feel an extreme level of comfort in?
Maybe people who travel over and over to the same place for work?
Or maybe the friend connection is vital to this feeling?
Themocracy
Glad to hear you are having fun!
Sounds like you are having a wonderful get away. Enjoy the rest of your trip!
Pittsburgh is a second home to me because it’s where my husband is from. We go there several times a year and we obviously always stay with his family when we go there. It really does make a difference staying at a home instead of at a hotel, etc.
Have a fantastic rest of your trip and can’t wait to hear more about it!
I think that’s the mark of a good trip! I felt a bit like that in Amsterdam. “Grounded and content” is how I would describe the feeling. I also feel that way about San Francisco. Please take me to either of those places any time.
That would be San Francisco for us. Hence why we’ve vacationed there four times now. It just feels right.
We drive down to the Florida panhandle for an end-of-summer beach getaway most years, and I have that feeling in Destin. LOVE that place. It definitely feels like home away from home.
I used to feel that way about NY when I was going there once a month or so (before someone moved across the country and we got hitched). What’s nice about it, I think, is that you can just hop on a train or metro and get to where you want or need to go.
The other two cities that feel almost more like home to me are San Francisco and Boulder. We spend tons of time in Boulder and have friends and family there. We don’t get to SF as much, but again, we have great friends there and know the city well enough that we have favorite places and love all that it has to offer.
Hmmm, I don’t know if I’ve ever spent enough time in any one place that I haven’t lived to feel that way. It must be a really nice feeling!
I used to feel at home when I was in College Park, where I went to school, but it seems so foreign now! I don’t remember the names of every dorm or the parking lot numbers, all of which seemed so important back in the day. I only feel at home here in NYC (sometimes…) and when I go back to my hometown.
You’ve got some great weather so far here in NYC, hope it keeps up for you!
I know the feeling! I feel at home here, in my parents’ town, in the town I grew up in but moved from when I was 12. I also feel that way in Newport RI…I’ve spent a lot of time there and always feel like saying “ahh” when I go across the bridge. I think it’s kind of strange because that is one town I’ve never lived in, but I love it! 🙂
I feel like that in Londen – I know how to get around, I understand the layout of the city, and it feels so comfortable to me because everything is in English. And we have friends there, too, so that plays into it as well!
You know, both times I visited NYC I felt like that. I feel like that in Minneapolis too. But not Chicago. Maybe because getting INTO chicago stresses me out so much? I don’t know…
Anywhere North Carolina/Virginia. My best friend growing up–her family had a beach house in North Carolina and we went every summer. Even driving down there with P at Thanksgiving (his sister lives in VA Beach)…I knew the routes, the landmarks, the major highways, the layout of the roads and the popular restaurants. I secretly dream of opening a bed and breakfast on the Outer Banks. 🙂