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dolorosa_12Day 27 – Your favorite place
Not many days left with this meme, which I hope you've enjoyed reading as much as I've enjoyed writing. (I'm self-absorbed enough to find writing about myself quite fun.)
I think it's unfair to ask people to name just one favourite place! I've lived in three cities (technically five, but I was too young to remember living in New York or Washington, DC), count Melbourne as a sort of third home, and have travelled a lot. And even in each of those cities, the idea of naming just one favourite place is difficult.
My favourite place in Cambridge is easy. It's in the big table in the window of my favourite cafe, with a coffee in my hand, a newspaper on the table and a bagel on a plate. I found that cafe on the third day I was in Cambridge, when I was walking around blearily looking for somewhere like the sorts of places I hung around in in Australia, and it was like discovering an oasis in a desert. I love it very much.
In Sydney, I'm quite partial to the Bondi-to-Coogee coastal walk, in particular, oddly enough, the cemetery. I also adore Galaxy Bookstore, the quirkier end of King St, Newtown, and the entire suburb of Potts Point and Kings Cross (hold off on your snarky remarks! I'm allowed to like Kings Cross!).
Soho is my favourite place in London. No question.
Canberra is more difficult, because the whole town took on a sort of mythic dimension in my mind after I left the place in 2003. Canberra, to me, is what childhood looks like, which means that I get incredibly nostalgic over silly things like the dry bushland that you drive through on your way from the inner south into Weston, Garema Place, the scattering of organic food shops and alternative health centres in Griffith and the route from Arthur Circle to Manuka. I don't know if any of them could really be described as a favourite place, because it's so hard to divorce them from this nostalgic context.
In Melbourne, it's easy. Brunswick Street. (However, my image of Brunswick Street bears little resemblance to the street as it is now, but rather as it appeared to my mind when I was a child: mysterious, quirky, slightly disreputable, in short a dark chest of wonders.)
I could be clever and say that certain corners of the internet are my favourite places, and at times I definitely feel that I am most at home in cyberspace. (When I look back at how quickly I was transformed from an internet skeptic to an internet utopian, it scares me a little.)
The first place outside Australia where I felt instantly at home was Amsterdam. I love it to bits.
I think the point of my inability to make a decision about my favourite place confirms my belief that home is an age and a state of mind, not a place. My favourite places are, ultimately, places where I am surrounded by people I love. They're what make them home.
Day 28 – Something that you miss
Day 29 – Your favorite foods/drinks
Day 30 – Your aspirations
I will have to take a break from this for the next couple of days as I will be flying from London to Sydney and thus not have internet access for over 24 hours (scary thought!).
Not many days left with this meme, which I hope you've enjoyed reading as much as I've enjoyed writing. (I'm self-absorbed enough to find writing about myself quite fun.)
I think it's unfair to ask people to name just one favourite place! I've lived in three cities (technically five, but I was too young to remember living in New York or Washington, DC), count Melbourne as a sort of third home, and have travelled a lot. And even in each of those cities, the idea of naming just one favourite place is difficult.
My favourite place in Cambridge is easy. It's in the big table in the window of my favourite cafe, with a coffee in my hand, a newspaper on the table and a bagel on a plate. I found that cafe on the third day I was in Cambridge, when I was walking around blearily looking for somewhere like the sorts of places I hung around in in Australia, and it was like discovering an oasis in a desert. I love it very much.
In Sydney, I'm quite partial to the Bondi-to-Coogee coastal walk, in particular, oddly enough, the cemetery. I also adore Galaxy Bookstore, the quirkier end of King St, Newtown, and the entire suburb of Potts Point and Kings Cross (hold off on your snarky remarks! I'm allowed to like Kings Cross!).
Soho is my favourite place in London. No question.
Canberra is more difficult, because the whole town took on a sort of mythic dimension in my mind after I left the place in 2003. Canberra, to me, is what childhood looks like, which means that I get incredibly nostalgic over silly things like the dry bushland that you drive through on your way from the inner south into Weston, Garema Place, the scattering of organic food shops and alternative health centres in Griffith and the route from Arthur Circle to Manuka. I don't know if any of them could really be described as a favourite place, because it's so hard to divorce them from this nostalgic context.
In Melbourne, it's easy. Brunswick Street. (However, my image of Brunswick Street bears little resemblance to the street as it is now, but rather as it appeared to my mind when I was a child: mysterious, quirky, slightly disreputable, in short a dark chest of wonders.)
I could be clever and say that certain corners of the internet are my favourite places, and at times I definitely feel that I am most at home in cyberspace. (When I look back at how quickly I was transformed from an internet skeptic to an internet utopian, it scares me a little.)
The first place outside Australia where I felt instantly at home was Amsterdam. I love it to bits.
I think the point of my inability to make a decision about my favourite place confirms my belief that home is an age and a state of mind, not a place. My favourite places are, ultimately, places where I am surrounded by people I love. They're what make them home.
Day 28 – Something that you miss
Day 29 – Your favorite foods/drinks
Day 30 – Your aspirations
I will have to take a break from this for the next couple of days as I will be flying from London to Sydney and thus not have internet access for over 24 hours (scary thought!).