We’ve seen it as a trope in fiction. Someone gets amnesia. Someone you love is missing. The place they go to is the plot MacGuffin revealing their key character development, or the proof that their secret love knows them well enough to be their true love.
What is your place? The place that if you had amnesia you’d still feel drawn to unaware why? Or the place when things seem bleak and you need some alone time, or alternately a secret safe spot, and only someone you really trust, or perhaps your time travel clone, would figure out to find you there?
Feel free to give multiple answers for the various scenarios, and also different answers for “best answers” vs “most convenient / most local” and even “depends on which time frame”.
I guess this ends up being a combination of “places that have special meaning to you” and “places you feel physically or emotionally safe”.
For special meaning, I’ve lived a lot of places, but I guess the early childhood basement apartment I lived in has a lot of nostalgia for me, not that I’d have access to it now.
The house we lived in from my junior through high school years I wouldn’t think had any special meaning, but for some reason twenty years later it’s still the house that’s predominantly the setting for my dreams, so I have to give that a nod in the subconscious category.
Other special places include the dunes near our port, my grandparents former house in Vermont, the no longer existing bamboo forest in Stony Brook, Bish Bash falls near the NY-CT-MA tripoint, Haystack Rock in Astoria, and a certain pier I sat on having lunch with someone once.
As far as feeling safe, other than my own bed I’m not sure. Various people/friends I’ve felt were safe havens and I could just show up and chill/vent have moved away.
Being by myself, and not at home, the test of “first to come to mind” makes me think of either the local beach or bicycling around.
To get to the main point though, if someone in a fiction were looking for me in my “special place” by any criteria, I’m not sure there’s any obvious place. And thinking of my past and present friends, family, and loved ones, I’m not sure I can think of ones for them either. How bout you?
For me, I might grab the car and drive. Silly, I guess, but if I could I’d spend on the road even more time than I do. I’m linked to specific places by family and work obligations, but like Dad I usually find driving relaxing; of course I hate it when the hotel turns out to have the cheapest mattress they could find, but I like getting places and leaving places. To me, going to Pamplona to do my shopping (I live 22km away) isn’t merely a matter of finding there things I don’t find in the village, it’s the pleasure of getting in my car and enjoying the relaxed drive through a landscape which isn’t particularly spectacular but always beautiful.
Speaking of Dad, my guess would be Isaba, in the valley of Roncal. His mother spent her infancy in the next valley, Echo; most of his childhood vacations were spent in Isaba. He lived in Tudela for 29 years, but for him it was being in exile from Pamplona - for him it was always easier to drive to Isaba, Zugarramurdi or Roncesvalles than hop down to Moncayo, never mind that the drive from Tudela was more than one hour longer and the roads on the Pyrenees can make a dervish dizzy.
His father used to say, “if I ever get lost, look for me in Seville”.
I’m not really sure I understand what you are asking, but:
My guess would be the Golden Gate Bridge, I’m rather focused on it. I have been half joking that I will eventually go off it one way or the other for years now,
Things are bleak and I live alone. In fact I haven’t talked to anyone since Tuesday when the hotel’s fire alarm went off. My room is my safe spot as it’s all I have,
If I could travel in time, I’m not going to look for myself in the past or future, I have something else in mind.
You just had a major upset, or have to make some sort of huge life decision, and you can’t go home. Where do you immediately think to go to find either solace, support, or a safe feeling thinking/venting/comfort-providing spot?
When I was in kindergarten, a classmate took me to some busy maze-like market place where he supposedly lives and wanted to show me something he had at home (I lived in many places and countries growing up and it’s all jumble to my memory). He took my new tricycle and disappeared, abandoning me in the middle of this chaotic market place. I was lost. After being lost and aimlessly searching without any hope for hours I somehow found a familiar street and I was safe again. I could’ve easily ended up like Oliver Twist, I always thought.
When I was little, my nanny would take me through some busy Chinese market-like places where everything was mysterious and totally maze-like and that made an impression on my young mind.
Throughout my life I have these recurring dreams of being in some Chinese market like place… mostly lost… scared but fascinated… around every corner you don’t know what you would encounter or find or turn into some other place or see faces… you make endless turns into little alleys and aisles of merchants and their little impromptu setups. Some places are the same every dream and sometimes they are different… but I know in my heart it is always the same place.
I am lost, scared but at the same time I feel kinda home there because there is this intense atmosphere of familiarity. I always felt, in this place, I’d find everything I ever wanted… just around the corner… however many mysterious random turns I might have to take…
I don’t know where this place might be in reality. I’ve always felt that the one I’m looking for is there too… because I remember getting glimpses of that person… but always seemed to move too fast for me to catch up and get a good look at. Sometimes, often I long to get back there to continue being lost looking for things and that one and perhaps home, too. It amazes me how I remember parts of these dreams that I dreamt very long ago as if it had really happened in reality, for real, like real memories.
Well, the only place I can go is my home. If for some reason I can’t get to my hotel room I don’t know where I would go. When I’m upset I just stay in my room.
The strongest emotional reaction I’ve ever had to a place was when I visited Yosemite Valley for the first time and was awed – perhaps over-awed – by the vast physical beauty.
Also, Kwaaymii Point, off the Sunrise Highway, in the Laguna Mountains of San Diego County. One of the best views ever. Starkly lovely; it’s wonderful to sit and watch the light change over the hours.
Yet…for the purposes of the question at hand…these are not “unconscious” reactions.
Instead, I think the answer would probably be my grandmother’s house (although it has long since passed out of the family’s ownership.) It’s the place I dream about the most often.
I also don’t really understand what you mean…do most people find comfort in a change of venue? Being upset somewhere else doesn’t improve my mood much.
Many do. Some just drink whiskey or eat lots of ice cream. It’s definitely a very common trope in fiction. But it’s not always an escape from bad, sometimes it’s an escape to good.
In a recurring dream I’m in a tall Victorian house with limitless rooms, some huge and some tiny. There’s something special in each one. I know I’m lost but I know I’ll be alright, wandering from one marvel to another.
The real place I think I’d be drawn to is the mountains. I miss the moss and underbrush and real, crunchy leaves. Murky creeks separating land and clear water streaming over smooth rocks. Run-down houses still lived in. The smell of coal.
I’m not sure. Various people/friends I’ve felt were safe havens and I could just show up and chill/vent have moved away.