Hobbies shaped by location, or vice versa?

NotAGolf

NotAGolf

NotAGolf

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Some of the comments in the 'Moving to Cyprus' thread got me thinking, but I didn't want to derail the thread.

I really like where I live. It's primarily because lots of the things I enjoy doing are nearby. The sea and harbours are easy to get to for water activities. There's a national park just down the road so there's plenty of opportunities for walking, mountain biking and pub lunches. There's loads of roads so I have plenty of choices for running/cycling routes. There's a town nearby so I can easily pop out for a meal and drinks.

Sounds like I'm just willy waving so far, but what I was wondering is whether I've 'learnt' to enjoy those things because they're nearby, or if that's just how I'm wired and I got lucky with where I grew up.

Just curious if others have moved to a different area of the country/world and completely changed what they do in their spare time and either longed for how things used to be, or totally embraced their new environment and have picked up a bunch of new hobbies to replace their old ones.
 
NotAGolf said:
Some of the comments in the 'Moving to Cyprus' thread got me thinking, but I didn't want to derail the thread.

I really like where I live. It's primarily because lots of the things I enjoy doing are nearby. The sea and harbours are easy to get to for water activities. There's a national park just down the road so there's plenty of opportunities for walking, mountain biking and pub lunches. There's loads of roads so I have plenty of choices for running/cycling routes. There's a town nearby so I can easily pop out for a meal and drinks.

Sounds like I'm just willy waving so far, but what I was wondering is whether I've 'learnt' to enjoy those things because they're nearby, or if that's just how I'm wired and I got lucky with where I grew up.
Click to expand...

So far so standard. Do people enjoy being around things and activities they like doing? Well, yes. It's the nature/nurture question but posed differently.

NotAGolf said:
Just curious if others have moved to a different area of the country/world and completely changed what they do in their spare time and either longed for how things used to be, or totally embraced their new environment and have picked up a bunch of new hobbies to replace their old ones.
Click to expand...

Now this is more interesting. I've bolded my view although I'd say "add" rather than "replace" but the gist is correct. This comes up a lot on these forums where people are thinking about expanding their horizons or doing something significant to their lifestyle and we don't normally see the "hmm, whatevs" responses. Two camps: those who get it and get on with it and those who prefer not to.
 
I moved from Lincolnshire to South Wales to escape the flat, boring fen wastelands and the grey, bland grim sea and coastline.

This was purely for hobbies. I've moved away from friends and family. And it's the best decision I ever made. Wish I did it years ago.

I've picked up Mountain biking since being here.

Next move will either be

A) abroad
B) more rural Wales.

Because South Wales, Cardiff isn't remote enough

So yeah. Location shaped by hobbies.
 
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How passionate about those activities are you? I think there are things which are enjoyable, which most people would do and enjoy if they had access to them, which aren't necessarily their top pick if they had access to all possibilities. I don't think you can really know if that is how you are wired unless having a broad experience and maybe finding something(s) you are truly passionate about.
 
No complaints about where I live, got a load of country parks for getting out and about with the dog, 20 minutes drive to Glasgow city centre for food/events and 50 minutes will get me to Loch Lomond, a decent beach or Edinburgh.

I’d like to be more rural with cheaper house prices but I’ve got every convenience going.

I know there’s much worse parts of the country, I couldn’t fathom living in London for example but there’s a lot of beauty and things to do out there, you’ve just got to look for it.

Edit:
To answer the OPs question, I haven’t moved country but did use to live closer to the city and don’t miss it, I get out much more now. If I moved abroad, nothing would change except the weather and maybe the pace of my surroundings.
 
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100% yes, hobbies are shaped by location.

The easy of access reduces the barrier and allows you to do it more often. I use to mountain bike nearly every weekend when I was near Cannock. I’ve been once in the past 4 years. (Some lifestyle change happened as well)

I currently go bouldering since I have centre nearby but if I had to travel an hour each time I probably wouldn’t.
 
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If I manage to move somewhere suitable, I'll probably take up some old hobbies again.

I got fed up with it being so overcrowded where I was going because everyone from London was going there. The hour (at least) travel did my head in too.
 
NotAGolf said:
Some of the comments in the 'Moving to Cyprus' thread got me thinking, but I didn't want to derail the thread.

I really like where I live. It's primarily because lots of the things I enjoy doing are nearby. The sea and harbours are easy to get to for water activities. There's a national park just down the road so there's plenty of opportunities for walking, mountain biking and pub lunches. There's loads of roads so I have plenty of choices for running/cycling routes. There's a town nearby so I can easily pop out for a meal and drinks.

Sounds like I'm just willy waving so far, but what I was wondering is whether I've 'learnt' to enjoy those things because they're nearby, or if that's just how I'm wired and I got lucky with where I grew up.

Just curious if others have moved to a different area of the country/world and completely changed what they do in their spare time and either longed for how things used to be, or totally embraced their new environment and have picked up a bunch of new hobbies to replace their old ones.
Click to expand...
I never bothered kayaking before I moved to a town with lots of rivers and tidal inlet.

Conversely it doesn't have a cinema, so I go to watch movies far less frequently than I used to, because it's a 1 hour round trip - Plus movies tend to come out within a month of the cinema release now.
 
My love of water and water sports (not kayaking) started due to circumstances. But not geography.

I was lucky enough to grow up next to my grandparents farm. And my grandad had a 10m heated, enclosed swimming pool.
I could swim when I was 3 (can't remember, but my mum said this).

Also, growing up I think that farm gave us acres and acres (literally) of space. Playing in streams, building dens (not little dens, sawing logs and building them), playing on the grain store, burning stuff (Inc a caravan at one point).
This I feel gave me love of nature, outdoors and dangerous stuff.

So I have this love of the water and risk/adventure by circumstance and it's basically caused me to move from that place to where I am now and where I want to be.

Even my chickens. I only have them as I had chickens from as young as I can remember.

So although it's not literally "location", my upbringing has shaped everything.
 
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Definitely shaped by location to a large extent.

If I lived nearer the coast, I'd 100% paddle board and open water swim but it's much less fun on a lake in Greater Manchester.

I like my golf too but it's cold and not fun for 6 months of the UK. If I lived in a warmer and drier climate, I'd play 52 weeks of the year.
 
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