It felt like home

[Deleted]

For once, a shameless ripoff from the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree, simply because it seems like a lovely topic to me.

Other than places you have actually lived, where have you traveled that has most felt like ‘home’? Any particular city, town, region, or country?

You free to interpret this however you wish: it can be places that are reminiscent of home, places that you might consider living, or places that have that rare ineffable feeling of instant familiarity.

[bixaorellana]

It is a great topic!

The first place that comes to mind is Uruapan in the state of Michoacán, Mexico. It's certainly not the prettiest city in Mexico -- really, the linked photos make it look prettier overall than it really is. However, on some very instinctive level, there was something homey and welcoming about it for me.

This time-lapse is kind of fun:
www.uruapanvirtual.com/webcamtimelapse.php?a=a

[Deleted]

When I first visited southern Vietnam, I was amazed at how similar to my native Mississippi a lot of the vegetation was. I later learned that a great number of the ornamental plants from the American southeast had originated in Southeast Asia, but it was really weird to see that I knew exactly what so many of the plants were in a place that I expected to be so exotic. And of course since all vegetation has an aroma, either pronounced or subtle, mixed with the warm and humid climate, each breath I took reminded me of my childhood.

[Don Cuevas]

Parts on Mexico City (Roma, Condesa) evoke nebulous memories of a previous life I once had there.
www.pbase.com/panos/colonia_roma_sur

Uruapan is fea but the surrounding countrysideis very nice.
The Parque Nacional within the city limits is very attractive.
picasaweb.google.com/doncuevas/CascadesCataractsAndQuesadillas32107826PM#

[bixaorellana]

It rained almost continuously the brief time I was in Uruapan & the friend there with me was on a hot quest for lacquer ware. We didn't go to the park, one of the major reasons that people visit the city, but agreed that we'd lie if anyone asked about it. (here revealed for the first time)
Outside the park was where I was introduced to "gazpacho" (fruit cocktail), a sublime memory.

Kerouac, it occurs to me that when you got hit with that sense memory it must have been really intense, coming at you out of the blue so many years after the ur-experience.

[spindrift]

Strangely I feel very much at home in Nepal; Kathmandu, Pokhara and the high mountains. I am totally at ease with Nepali people. When I get off the plane at K'mandu airport I feel 'I'm back, I'm home'... I rarely cry but on two occasions tears have come to my eyes on leaving Mustang and Kathmandu.

[Deleted]

Being at my sister's place, in India, felt like home. And like Spinny, I cried many a tear on the plane journey back to my own home.

[spindrift]

Does she live in the Punjab?

[Deleted]

Yep, she does.

[Deleted]

or places that have that rare ineffable feeling of instant familiarity

I had this feeling the first time I went to the USA. I had to go there to realize how much we, in Europe, are conditioned by the American culture - movies, TV series, video clips..

When you discover a new country, no matter how many guidebooks you have read before, there is always some element of surprise, some things that you wouldn't have expected to see. It was my experience in all of the countries I have visited except for the USA.

When I visited Arizona in 1993, there was absolutely NOTHING, not the littlest thing, that I had not seen before. It was as if I had lived there in another life. Every detail was familiar; the yellow lines on the roads (white in Europe), traffic lights, these huge motel neon signs, yellow school buses, the sound of police cars sirens (Imagine I don't even know the sound of police cars sirens in Belgium which is only 100 km far from where I live!)...
Things which I thought would only belong to western movies: tumbleweeds rolling across the street in a small (obviously dusty) town where I had stopped for dinner.
During all my trip I always had this bizarre and amusing sensation to be "in the movie". Absolutely wonderful!

[lagatta]

Being from Québec, I had the same sensation first time in France.

But I'm sure there are areas in the US where you would discover new things.

[lola]

The French countryside surprised me by seeming so much like home. Partly, as K says, because of the similar vegetation.

Ditto the English countryside, and maybe more so because of my long time love of English literature.

[lagatta]

Lola, I've had that "literary" experience in both the UK and France. A Londoner friend was recounting her bicycle journey to the city centre and the neighbourhoods she crossed on her bicycle journey to the city centre and every one was evocative of books, short stories and essays. In Paris, I felt as if I'd always lived on the outskirts looking in; we were some kind of mostly-19th-century suburb of the place (Montréal is much older than that, even in terms of French settlement, and 10,000 years old at least in terms of Indigenous settlement, but it was small until then - the major city was Québec).

A lot of our vegetation, including weeds, unless one gets deep into the forest, was imported from Europe. A French acquaintance, student of botany, recognized most of the city and roadside weeds (the dandelion is the most (in)famous).

Parts of Normandy are very similar to (southern) Québec, and the built environment is not always so much older, as much was destroyed during the war and rebuilt afterwards.

[bixaorellana]

These are all so interesting, but I have to say that I'm charmed beyond measure by Askar's story. Maybe it's because I'm from the US that I feel somehow gratified by his pleasure in being there. But I think what struck me most is that in describing his at-homeness in Arizona, he is talking about a state that seems exotic to me. Also, I was entertained by my mental image of Askar in chaps.

[lagatta]

To me, Arizona is utterly exotic, though I'd be interested in the Indigenous cultures.

I understand, bixa, usually Europeans trip on NYC, perhaps Boston (both places not terribly far from me geographically or culturally, and Boston and Montréal look very similar as old Northern-Northeastern cities and the respective metropoli (?) of New England and Nouvelle France). Or California, with all the film and pop culture references. Certainly not Arizona, unless they are the type of Europeans who are keen on the Indigenous cultures of the Americas (some are quite weird about that, actually).

Happy Bloomsday, by the way.

[bixaorellana]

Yes, LaGatta, yes so we are flowers all ... and the sun shines for you today yes ...
Thank you!

[Deleted]

The Europeans go to the big cities for shopping and for a few sights, but what really impresses them is the American West. When they tour a city like New York or San Francisco, they always come back with stories like "the guide said 'these buildings are almost 150 years old' and we just looked at each other." But when they go to the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Death Valley, etc., they return enthralled beyond words. Me too.

[lagatta]

Much as I'm committed to the preservation of nature and "les grands espaces", my heart doesn't really warm to such places, whether in Europe or North America. Guess I'm urban to the core, but I can thrill to villages with long histories - and relatively easy access.

[fumobici]

I think you have to love driving to experience the vast empty American West to best advantage. The hours spent crossing the landscape and the subtle changes in the grand perspective as one travel alongs can be enchanting.

[lagatta]

I don't drive.

[fumobici]

Yes for a non-driver, outside a few West coast cities, the entirety of the American West is pretty close to hell unless endless bus or train trips are your thing.

[bixaorellana]

Or if you can hitch a ride ~~

[lagatta]

I love trains, but they don't go everywhere in North America, especially in the West. Hate long-distance bus rides - I get slightly motion-sick, and can't read during boring stretches.

[Deleted]

No stretch is ever boring for me, even if it is just a case of comparing mailboxes every 8 miles.

[gertie]

I felt so at home on my first visit to Paris, which quite surprised me. I really think it was mostly due to the extensive coaching on proper French manners received in high school French class, plus a generous dollop of help from the fact though it had been icy and snowing for some weeks, the day we arrived the sun came out and a glorious warming began. Shirt sleeve weather for most of the stay, perhaps a light sweater needed of an evening. Whatever the causes, everyone we met was just so kind and helpful to us, we enjoyed our stay no end and can never quite help looking forward to the next trip almost before the last is over.