going places

for reasons undisclosed here i've been thinking about the significance of places for a while now. what is their relevance and how much of our identities are based on them; and are certain places important to us only through the meanings we give to them or do they have something in them that would in its own right make them special? identity of a place, if you will; where does that come from, and is it absolute or always subjective?


i came to think of this especially as i was visiting my parents during easter. i was running through the small town i grew up in on a quiet sunday morning, passing places that played a significant part in my childhood and teenage years; seeing them made me remember things i had practically forgotten, and when they came back to me, for a while i thought they were something i had seen in a dream; it was that far i had came from them. my memories were there but it was only the stimulus provided by these certain surroundings that evoked them; and i can't help wondering how much i have forgotten, how big a part of my memories is tied to things and places i don't anymore come across with?


the truth is that the importance of a place is often defined by what it once meant to you, or how you felt in it. every time i take a tram to work i pass the port through which i emerged back to finland one and a half year ago after living abroad; and every time i see it i feel what i felt then as if not a single day would have passed. so even if that relatively unimpressive building has no real value for me in itself, it still manages to trigger me because of what i associate with it -- so i wonder, when someone says they like certain city or suburb or whatnot, is it because of that location itself or because of something else? and what is the difference between the two?