Baltimore, in its state of urban-industrial-decay, has a lot of potential. The reality that (according to the DEA) it's the highest heroin-use area in the country casts a pall over the city. Ignore the needle-caps in the alleys and explore Baltimore anyway, since it has a lot of funky neighborhoods & colorful, real people.

Coffee: Red Emma's, 800 St. Paul street, is now the place to go-- a coffeehouse and anarchist bookstore in one, where you can read Kropotkin and plot the revolution-- does that sound sarcastic? I don't even mean it as such. It's a kind, treasure-chest of a place.
Food: Thairish, on Charles just north of Monument Park, has cheap and good Thai food; Banthai south a few blocks on Charles has more expensive and good Thai food. The Helmand (806 N Charles) is a yummy Afghan restaurant; go if you have the bling... Bonaparte Breads (903 S. Ann) is a delicious French bakery in Fells Point. Vaccaros is a dessert shop in Little Italy, quite crowded but the place for a decadent dessert. And if you need 4am sweet potato fries, there's always the expensive but unique Paper Moon Diner, open 24-7. I haven't even begun to cover food in Baltimore; there's the Baltimore City Paper dining guide for that.
Nature: Find someone with a car and get out of the city for this one. If you have a whole day, take I-70 towards the mountains and do some of the C&O canal or the Appalachian Trail... nearby, you have Patapsco State Park around Elkridge and Ellicott City to the southwest, and Gunpowder Falls State Park to the northeast-- plus, there's sailing and watery things on the Bay; and the Eastern Shore less than two hours away. For a weekend, check out Assateague Island-- they have wild ponies here.
Other Things to Do: Have a picnic on Federal Hill and go to the American Visionary Art Museum, avoid the Inner Harbor otherwise, go see an independent film at the Charles Theater, visit Edgar Allan Poe's grave, walk the streets at night and feel the history bleeding from the pavement.
Nearby: Washington D.C. is an hour south, armed with its museums and cosmopolitan culture. Half-an-hour south is Savage, which has an old mill that's been turned into specialty shops-- the real attraction is the forest, and the old mill ruins. Ellicott City also has ruins, plus coffee, antique shops, and a walkable old main street; visit the Ellicott City travel guide for more info. New York is just 3.5 hours and $35/round trip away by the Chinatown bus. To the west, there's mountain hiking; to the east the ocean-- take the ferry from Crisfield to Smith Island to get a taste of the old, weathered, crab-catching cake-baking Maryland.

field notes: maryland / 27 june 2005

so, the east coast is teeming with people

many of whom seem to want to run you over

consequently i spend a lot of time in the forests

the east has lovely verdant forests when you can find the remnants of one

all kinds of rabbits, foxes, deer, wild things

i walk about and question whether one should have loyalty to an ecosystem.

what should one have loyalty to? where does your allegiance lie?
if an ecosystem isn't home, than what is?
home is when you know the names of the plants and their uses,
the rivers and their bends...?

however,

i woke up in the city one morning
with the earlymorning light pearling through the window and realized

that the early morning light is beautiful wherever you are...

and when a place is teeming with people,
there is a certain richness and diversity that ensues,

at least in the crumbling city of baltimore, where vacancy equals opportunity.