What are your go-to places?

[anotherautumn]

We've all got a bit (or a lot) of wanderlust in us, so naturally we all rack up a long list of cool places we've both been to and yearn to explore!

But... as fun as exploring is, there's just as much importance to figurin' out what places you vibe with and can always fall back on when you need somewhere to study at, learn more about, or even just relax!

What places do y'all find yourselves travelling back to again and again?? Could be your local library, a cool treehouse you found in the woods, or a part of your college you find new rooms in everytime you go back!!

Personally, I keep finding myself at an abandoned raceway on an island near my university! I was biking around once and, while it isn't too far from more developed land, found it through sheer curiousity!! So now whenever I feel like fuckin' around on my bike and with my camera I make my way over to do some cool artsy stuff!! :)

[cyberfun1 (dizz)]

Theres a couple of places where I like to go, and its usually places dedicated to the old and antiquated; think thrift stores or antique shops. My go-to place for thrifting is a shop called Thrifty Firemen. They have a big rack full of old electronics, monitors, VCRs, DVD players, appliances, and sewing stuff. Theres this other part with a bunch of DVDs, CDs, tapes, VHSes, and books. It's where I get most of my blank tapes from, and I also got some old 1998 gaming magazines from there and a "Teach Yourself The WWW Visually" book.
Next place is Solutions and Vital Edge. Solutions is more of an antique store than a thrift shop, but they have lots of cool stuff. They had loads of Laserdiscs at one point and some metal microcassettes. Right now they have some old HiFi equipment, some nice furniture, some blank CDs in the wrapper, and lots of records and some old work equipment. Recently I got some old pens (circa 1890-1940) from there. Vital Edge has a record shop in the back with a lot of old HiFi stuff too and loads of records of many genres alongside their usual stock of health products.
Then there's 2nd Hand Heroes. This place is special because it's run by my cousin, and is dedicated to video games. I've gotten plenty of video games from there and enjoyed playing the arcade machines they had there. They even got a frickin Atari Jaguar, which is a rare console!
They host card tournaments and D&D sessions all the time. If you're in the Central virginia area, I recommend visiting this place. Or Press Start in Forest. A similar place is the Starcade at Center at the Square but thats in Roanoke which is too far away for regular trips.
This is less often now but I also enjoy going to Virginia Found Goods. Its a big place full of old typewriters and antique china and Polaroid cameras and French paintings. In the 2nd to back room theres some old watercolor paints that haven't been opened ever. They also have old postcards from Europe.
I also wanna shout out that closet in the back of my art class because when my art teacher wasn't looking I'd sneak in there and look at all the stuff in there. It's where I found that clip art book my school used in the old yearbooks; I scanned it and uploaded it to archive.org by the way. It was like travelling back in time to a place not unlike my school was back in the 80s when they did that remodeling. Heck most of the high school looks straight out of that era. I got my Mavica from that art class and I used it on my vacation to take some good pictures.
Those are just some places I enjoy exploring. I always savor every moment and look as thoroughly as I can whenever I dig through the cavalcades of old smells and vinyl veneer wood grains. It's something I enjoy everytime. :)

[anotherautumn]

@cyberfun1 (dizz) oh my gosh!!
those places sound AWESOME,, I'm honestly really jealous!
Thrifting is also one of my favorite hobbies, especially as my physical media interest has expanded from just VHSes into DVDs, CDs, and Casettes! It sounds like you have an actual smorgasbord of cool places to frequent, that's so awesome :]
After I graduate, I plan on tryin' to make a big round-trip visit around a lot of places in Appalachia, I think I'll make sure to check those places out :) I've always lived in places with awesome thrifting but I would LOVE to check yours out, they seem so awesome!!!
thank u for sharing <3

[cyberfun1 (dizz)]

You're visiting my county? Nobody ever comes through here on purpose! It's usually just to get to the cities; it's all forest, pastures, and the occasional solar farm. Make sure to watch out for deer, oppossums, raccoons, rabbits, and Amish folk when you're coming through or else the forest spirit might get you. There's also a thing called the 100 Mile Yard sale about once a month where every house and town on 29 has a yard sale.
Also, this is a useful resource for some old locations https://www.oldhalifax.com/
I also added a lot of old places to OpenStreetMap.

[candycanearter07]

since i move a lot and also dont like going outside, i dont really have a lot of places to go like that. that being said, i really like hanging out in my uni's computer lab just bc its so convenient and stuff. it has really nice usb-c docks for computers and its usually not THAT loud

[DunsenChurner]

I have a goal to visit every park within the Suburb I liv in. They are mostly small parks that may or may not have green spaces. But it is good to know where the swings (for that nostalgia ), views of the sky, and dogs are.

Other than parks, libraries have been a nother hotspot for me. Some have good new book sections or classics. Most of all are the clubs that might be hosted on certain days. Usually they become decent ways to socialize (especially when relevant to hobbies that I do like reading).

[Gakipper]

I live in the city, so there's a lot of light pollution even in calmer area. But somewhere not far from my home, there's is a pedestrian-only street that is fairly wide, tucked between older, bigger house, and a private garden with trees. In the middle of the street, there are a few bollards that are not completely in the dark, but not under street light either because the closest lamp posts are broken.

If you sit on one of those bollards and look up at the night sky above the garden, it's dark enough that you can see a few stars in the nightsky as well as its deep blue color :D It's a rare sight in the middle of a city, I've always loved taking a few minutes resting there when I was walking back home after an evening downtown

"Sadly" they repaired the lamp posts, so you can't see the night sky so well anymore

[Magic16]

H-Mart, Sushi Bar, Flagstaff, Camelback Mountain, South Mountain

I love Sushi and Hiking