Does anyone feel a really strong connection with a place they don't live or haven't been to?

[ToooOldForThis]

I have this, and when I went there it felt so familiar and "right". It's not where I live, and probably never could live, but I feel like i belong there! (Completely different country. And continent!) I'm fully aware I'm probably influenced by books, TV etc but I've just never been able to shake this feeling!

Yes I feel this about London! No idea why, been there 5 or 6 times, but it's the only place where I don't worry about getting lost or finding my way round. Love walking round all the back streets because it just weirdly feels like walking round my home town (which is nothing like London!)

"🤦‍♀️
It's literally in the title, guys. Places you've never been to..."

Indeed. Could've been a good thread too!

It's literally in the title, guys. Places you've never been to...
a place they don't live or haven't been to

Yes new york! I'll watch the shittest movies just because they're based in New York..
What makes it weirder is that the thought of living in a busy city in the UK I.e London fills me with dread but New York yes I'd move there in a jiffy.

Yes the apartment from friends or one of those loft apartments in down town new York. Open plan. I dream about it a lot. Or a cottage in the cotswolds .

I was born in London, worked there for 20 yrs but decided in 2013 to move to West Sussex (we have family across the border in Hampshire). I absolutely love it here, it feels like home! I have absolutely no intention of moving from this county at all!

It says 'Places you don't live OR never been to' - not 'places you don't live AND never been to' ....so think it's ok to discuss if it's somewhere you have been to but don't live there!

I had that feeling for years and years but for two different places.

Today is my 4yr anniversary of buying my home in one of the two places! I've never been happier.

My grandma was born in Spain. When my husband and I went to Barcelona for the first time I was drawn to the building where they did all their acquisitions. I actually told my husband that I was somehow drawn to the place. I have a reputation of asking lots of questions. Maybe I was an inquisitioner in a past life? Or is it in my genes as a memory? Who knows but it did make us laugh.

I feel this way about Italy - whenever I've been I feel so at home.
Later found out some of my mums ancestors actually lived in Italy for a while too.

When I was a child I was convinced I was Welsh or Cornish! I'd never been to either place, nor did I know anyone from there but I felt such a strong connection.
I was a weird kid, though 😆

Yes very drawn to the Middle East. The music, culture, art etc. I am about as White British as they come and have never visted but I feel a connection with this area that is strong. It makes me wonder if reincarnation is possible.

Well it was my title and I certainly don't mind what's discussed under it
I actually have been to my place, but I felt like that before I went!
It's so fascinating to read the responses...for example the person who mentioned another part of America...I've been there and it was amazing, but it just wasn't "me" in the same way.

So lovely to hear happy "I moved there" stories!

Yes. Betws-y-Coed in Wales. I feel totally at home and at peace there since the very first time I went. Like I 'belonged' or had been there before. I live in Manchester and had never visited until the first time.

Utah! I think it was because I liked 'The Osmonds' when I was young!

I've been to places that I expected to not like very much but actually felt very comfortable there, like New York and Boston. I wouldn't choose to live there but there was a job opportunity for DH in NY pre-DC and I would have be absolutely fine with that for a few years.

I've never been to Iceland but think I could love it there, mostly on the basis that I have hideous tree-pollen hay-fever and Iceland doesn't have many trees. Also because they have quite a lot of celtic DNA in them and appear to have a lot of attitudes in common with Irish people, particularly a popular Icelandic phrase that translates to the Irish "Sure, it'll be grand", meaning it might or might not work out but I'm not putting any more thought or effort into it.

Patagonian Chile. Even started teaching myself Spanish. Would’ve gone if it weren’t for the blasted dog (pre-kids).

Yes me! The same as you too as in North Eastern America. Especially Massachusetts 🤔

Its a very strange feeling!

I had the conversation with my partner last week and he looked at me as though I was a bit strange 😂

I have never been but would love to … I just feel like I’ve been there before though.

I also feel drawn to New England type USA. Can I ask which films most evoke this for you? There may be a clue in my username but I also love Baby Boom. Just seems so cosy.

Yes me too. Very odd.

I have lived my whole life in Essex, yet feel weirdly drawn to Scotland. There is something about the Scottish landscape, especially the Highlands, that feels like home. I do have Scottish ancestry, so maybe that explains it.

More generally, I feel deeply rooted in these islands. All my ancestors were white British (mostly English, some Scottish and Irish), and whenever I return to Britain I feel like I'm home.

I often feel a weird yearning for the final decade of the 19th-century and the first decade of the 20th. Most of my favorite artists and writers lived in that period.

The Sahara or the Bolivian Salt Flats. I feel very much in touch in remote places where there is very little.

I feel that way about Ireland - just feel ‘right’ there. I think it’s an ancestral pull!

@WinifridSanderson I'm late 40s so grew up on all these 80s films like Mystic Pizza and 90s stuff like Good will Hunting. Not just these films specifically but that type of thing. The perfect storm too, think that was later.
I think books have actually even been more influential... I loved Anita shreve, John Irving....even Little Women way back. More recently Elizabeth Strout, Donna Tartt.