Have you ever fallen in love with a place...

[vivacian]

...and if so, did you do anything about it?

Recently I spent a couple of nights at the coast and the best way I can describe it is that my soul fell in love with the place. I’m seriously thinking of upping stocks and moving there. (I am in a bit of a midlife rethink place in general).

Has anyone else ever felt like this and what did you do about it?

Warsaw. I moved there in the 1980s and felt like I had come home. I haven’t been back for seven years, and it feels too long. I need to get back soon even just for a weekend. It has changed beyond all recognition in the centre, but the slightly gritty area where I lived still looks and feels the same.

@Time40 - same here on Paris. I'd rather be in Budapest any day. I think what London and Budapest both have that Paris doesn;t. if the infinite ability to surprise you. They are so diverse in every way - they have so many little secret corners and hiddem places, you can never get bored. Every time I go into London I discover something new or find out about yet another place I want to visit. And Budapest felt the same.
Kyoto is similar, if you ever go there. I didn't fall in love exactly. But I'd love to go back.

Were I live now in the Breacons, was house hunting and put the post code and this area came up, the first house was the house we now live in, I just knew. Not too bad as at worse it's a hour and a half commute.
Northern Norway, DH fell in love and now we have a house there.
New York, Queens actually is the other heart place ... working on that one!

I went to Grottammare in Italy last year and thought it was lovely. Not sure if I could live there though. I have a screensaver of the beach on my computer at work and it gives me goosebumps .

Yes a small place in Shropshire. I can’t explain the yearning for it when we used to go home after visiting. After Uni my then boyfriend and I moved to Oxford to work after a year we were visiting the area again in May which is a gorgeous month anyway and I just said I didn’t want to go back.
Luckily he agreed so we went back to Oxford have our notice in and moved! Still here now raising our DD‘s who often say how much they love it.

Yes Rome feels like home to me. It's DHs home town and he would never live there again but I adore it.

However we moved where we are now without me having ever seen it. I'm a trailing spouse so used to it. We're here for 5 years altogether but I can see myself staying. I love it.

Tromso in Norway

The Lake District for me! As soon as we drive past Lancaster on the M6 I feel the stress drain away from my body - it's definitely my spiritual home

London.
Not very glamorous, but I moved here after escaping my family as a 17 year old, it was the first place I felt like me and generally safe being me. I enjoy the anonymity of London.

AH pressed post too early.

My second place is the forest of dean.
There are some really beautiful places and new things to find every time I visit.

Berlin. From the second I set foot in the city, I was home. I can't explain it, but as soon as I leave, I ache in my very soul for that place.

I'm actually relieved it's not just me who feels this way about places!

The Netherlands, chiefly Haarlem.

We moved there and fully expected to get employment, love the expat dream the works.

The Brexit effect on the market totalled any chance of me and DH getting a job so 18 weeks later we were back with our tail between our legs.

I was and still am devastated.

*live the expat dream

So can AirBnBs - a recentheadline in our local paper says that 10% of the houses in our area are AirBnBs - no wonder kids are finding it harder and harder to find housing

I think it is in answer to the restrictions that have been brought in to restrict btl properties.

There was some thought that the btl landlords would sell the properties, flooding the market with properties and driving down the property market but it didn’t work like that.

You can put your mortgage interest payments against your income, you don’t have someone refusing to leave or subletting the property and the person renting has to cover any damages, and you get paid up front.

And you can probably get more overall than an ordinary rental.

I am glad to see you caring about the problems of a second home OP. I live in an area where we have increasing numbers of second homes and holiday cottages. It really does destroy communities.
There is also the economic factor too. If you sell up in for instance, the South East, and then move to an area with much cheaper housing, (and/ or in my case its own language and culture), then you are damaging the thing you profess to love. Locals get priced out of the housing market, and there is a tipping point where too many incomers destroy both culture and language. Think strongly about what you are bringing of benefit into an area , rather than just taking.

I have felt love for certain places, and through doing my family tree discovered that strangely those places are where my ancestors were from.

That's so hard @AdultFishcakes.

Edinburgh. It was love at first sight. Lived there for years. Love for a human was the reason I moved, he's DH so it was a good move. But whenever I see a photo or video of Edinburgh, my body misses it. It's such a strong physical yearning.
I moved to a place which people say is beautiful, objectively it is, but it left me so very cold and indifferent.
I love where I live now too...there are sights moments, experiences here that just make my heart stop in amazement. I feel very lucky.

A place in North Wales - DH and I have been going there for 30 years and we love it and try and visit at least once a year.
As we drive there I can feel any worries and tension ebbing away. It also reminds me of when we were young and carefree as it was the first place we visited on holiday together.
It just feels right when we are there but I'm always aware that we see it under the best of conditions - we are chilled, relaxed and on holiday.

If we lived there it would still be beautiful but I'm sure the pressure of work and life would make it less special.

Cork. I love it , I feel like I belong there. I visit quite a few times a year for work , most others that travel with me hate it but I feel right at home.

DP and I spent six months in Granada a few years ago and I did fall in love with the place. I wouldn't want to live there, but we have been back a few times and it is very special to me.

London. It's still home and I still love it. I moved here at the very first chance I could. Was only a kid really. I think it was the tube that first fascinated me, randomly enough.

Had my head turned by a Dorset coastal town and managed to do a blissful long summer there for work. Felt completely at peace and at home and like to visit once a year at least.

The island of Islay in Scotland. Did some volunteering for the rspb years ago and was there for 2 weeks in the summer and a week in the autumn. (i just had to go back). In that time I felt really welcomed by all the people I met and like I was invited in to the community. Plus the beautiful beaches, amazing wildlife and obviously the whisky . All of the parts of western Scotland and the Hebrides that I've visited have been like this - the more remote we go, the friendlier people seem to be. The area around Acharacle was especially beautiful. I have always hankered after a life up there somewhere, doing something outdoorsy but I fear now it will never be. I love where I live now (village in North Yorkshire) but it just doesn't have the sheer scale, raw beauty and simplicity of life that I yearn for in the wilds of Scotland.

I fell for a v small Greek island. I would hate to live there. The reasons I love it and would hate to live there are the same. It's v like the village I grew up in (except the weather is better) as everyone knows everyone's business. So though I found that suffocating as i was growing up, I feel safe and looked after on the island.

My compromise is that I spend eight weeks or so on the island (spring and autumn) and come back to my relatively anonymous small town for the rest of the year.

Glencoe and Ballachulish in Scotland. I just felt utterly at peace there and if I believed in past lives, I would swear I had one there.