[twitter style=”vertical” source=”PckYourPassport” related=”PckYourPassport” float=”right” use_post_url=”true”]
Every time I travel somewhere there’s always a few nerves mixed in with the excitement of visiting a new place. Not because travel is scary or because I’m afraid that I’m going to get lost, although that does seem to happen too.
In fact, it’s usually the opposite.
Seattle
Usually, after spending just a few days in a new city, I’m already declaring my undying love and announcing things like this to the world:
Oh my God, only been here a couple of days and it already feels like home!
Seriously, I love this place so much I want to stay FOREVER.
And the best one of all;
Oh my God I could TOTALLY live here!!!
If you’ve spent any more than a few days somewhere, you’ll understand that feeling you get when you first arrive someplace new.
It’s either a good feeling of contentment and general excitement, a take-it-or-leave it feeling where you’re completely undecided and need something huge to happen there to sway you or a Jesus Christ I want to leave this place right now feeling.
Like, remember when I went to Brisbane? Yeah, that.
So obviously I thought that when I visited Seattle for the first time that ‘how can I move my entire life here’ panic would set in quite quickly.
I visited the suburb of Capitol Hill, where vintage stores rub shoulders with quirky cafes and I loved it.
I went vintage shopping in another suburb of Seattle, Fremont, where afterwards my co-worker took us to a Korean fusion restaurant called Revel for dinner and then to The Backdoor at Roxy’s, the coolest cocktail bar I’ve ever been to.
I visited Pike Place Market and the Gum Wall and ate more food than I can even tell you guys. I went to Saphora for the first time in my life and tried out all the nail polishes.
Seattle Gum Wall
People held doors open for me, smiled when I bought something from a shop, made conversation with me while I was waiting for coffee. When we missed our stop on the bus to a charity event one night and had to catch another, our driver let us re-use our tickets and told us where we needed to get off.
Seriously people, this would not happen in London.
It’s nice in Seattle. People are nice.
And the food? Wow, the food. That’s not the say the food in London isn’t great, because it is, but I loved pretty much every meal I ate in Seattle.
I loved the buildings, the buskers, the views across the city.
Paseo: THE BEST sandwiches in Seattle. End of.
I loved how easy it was to get around on foot, with the streets laid out in blocks. I drank coffee and went shopping. I hung out in Fremont bars and drank cocktails on city rooftops.
I sat in a basement bar with my new co-workers, drinking a cocktail I can’t remember the name of, and felt content that this was my life, that I’d got the opportunity to come to Seattle because of the job I got when I moved to London.
But could I see myself living in Seattle? Did I get that Omigod I need to move my life here feeling?
No.
Maybe it was the cold and wet November weather which left a permanent grey cloud sitting over the city. Maybe it was the fact that I spent the week juggling a new job with meeting new co-workers and exploring a new place.
Honestly, though? I don’t think you’re meant to get that feeling every time you go somewhere new. Some places are just for holidays or for work trips. Just because you don’t want to live somewhere, it doesn’t mean you didn’t like that place.
They’re the places you appreciate while you’re there but you don’t leave your heart in.
I left my heart in Sydney and Melbourne and Auckland.
In Seattle my heart stayed firmly in my chest, beating a rhythm more suited to a new life in London.
[hr]
Have you ever felt this way about somewhere you’ve travelled to?