Edd's Travels: Baltimore, MD

No, I don't watch 'The Wire'. I have never watched 'The Wire'. I'm sure 'The Wire' is wonderful, by the standards of those huge DVD box sets which people sit and watch for hours and hours at a time, as if there was nothing better to do with our lives; as if we weren't all just fragile agglomerations of soggy molecules hurtling headlong into eternal oblivion. Insert disc 9 and press play. Exit through the gift shop.

But I digress. The point is that if you're a fan of 'The Wire' and you're hoping for photos of the real actual authentic street corner where DeWayne P. Tyrone busted a cap in the ass of Tyrone C. DeWayne, in revenge for being framed by DeAndre G. Jackson for a crime actually commited by Jackson B. DeAndre, then I'm afraid I shall have to disappoint you. Actually, for all I know, my photos below may include some 'Wire' locations. Have a look if you want.

Anyway. Baltimore. The Inner Harbour is very pretty and most of the downtown area is perfectly nice too, albeit quite sleepy by the standards of big American cities. But I've had a few trips further afield and you don't have to walk many blocks before you start seeing boarded-up houses and metal shutters. One trip to Mondawmin Mall took me through the Penn North neighbourhood, where there were gaggles of people on street corners clamouring into their cellphones for 'brown'.

On the whole Baltimore has been fairly pleasant, and hopefully the photos below reflect that. But I suppose I associate most American cities with a particular dominant theme (eg music, movies, politics, history), and Baltimore to me was a blank slate. I have no particular reason to come back, just as I had no particular reason to come here in the first place. That's what I said to the guy at the hostel reception desk as I left. "Well, you would," he retorted, "if you'd watched 'The Wire'". True dat.