Baltimore.

 I have not seen RM since we lived in Senegal, but recently she dropped in on my son in Croatia. She is a lovely person, always interested in other cultures and something of a linguist as she speaks Icelandic, some Arabic and Japanese and Bosnian!  As she works I wanted to see her at the weekend.  I arrived an hour late Friday evening and we drove straight through to the trendy Federal Hill district and the Cross Street market to try the best Tacos in town.  I have never had tacos before, they are perfectly nice, very good in fact, but I was confused by the addition of chips and cheese as I envisaged a northern delicacy alongside a southern one, but was completely wrong. We had so many chips to eat, we still had not finished them by the time I left on the Monday.  

As we drove to RM's home she explained which districts were skeetchy and which safe and how she bordered on a good one.  Her house was tall and narrow,  and packed with things, much more like my place, than the elegant flat in Philly.  That and the greeting by the dogs made it feel very welcoming. 

Next morning rain and sun was promised and we got both and a delicious pumkin muffin whilst en route to a walking tour of Anapolis.  Another State House, another room where it happened,  the realisation that the lightening rod is another of Ben Franklin's innovations, lovely to see the Maryland artic explorer Matthew Henson acknowledged, and sad to see the slave market information a bit buried, whilst Harriet and Douglass' link to the town was celebrated.   And by the then the sun was really shinning so we hoped on a boat to see the town from the water's edge, before enjoying crab soup and oysters in a really traditional local restaurant.   

I was happy with tea and jam for my evening meal by the end as I had eaten so much previously.  However, Sunday morning we had a brunch treat.  RM wanted to go to one of the trendy restaurants which would have been nice but they had a wait time of almost an hour, so we went to a really traditional place, it looked almost like a bar or snooker place, yet they had huge breakfasts for just $10 each.    After that I was planning to go to the picturesque part of town whilst RM worked but the electrics were out so she had to drop me at another museum, where I was able to see some modern indigenous art and more traditional American wares.  I was feeling very rough by the end unfortunately but a Senegalese take away helped revive me before I crashed out and then that was it,  RM was back to work, her partner,  from famed punk band, Moving Targets, kindly dropped me off at the station and I was onto Washington!  Capital city, here I come.