walking with the wrong map

A MAP OF KRAKOW, POLAND
i use the river and the cemetery as anchor points for the map in Paris, i use these to locate where my flat would be, i then walk from my flat in Krakow to the river in Krakow...

On my road, Kopernika, the hospital opposite my door is full of sausages and prostitutes.

I take the second left down Btich, passing the church, though the archway i can see a cafe and the taxi's driving through.

I take a right into grzegorzecka and follow it over the railway bridge which goes from the sfr shop to optic 2000.

I continue down dielta which is overcrowded with people, shops and cafes - small tables obstruct the path.

On crossing stradomska the Christmas lights are bright and a homeless guy plays with his dog on the metro steps.

On the last stretch of dielta the opera is revealed, the bus stops and people hop off and step on.

looking down sukienicza the tower is illuminated, on top is a statue of a man in shadow.

I continue on the most grunwaldki, the bridge that crosses the wisla (the river). There are postcards on a stand and truffles for 21 euros. I dont hear the river but i can see a large sailed boat approaching the bridge, behind which stands the eifel tower. This image rolls away to show a bottle of Vodka.

A MAP OF THE TOKYO SUBWAY, JAPAN

we walk with restriction and rules. the metro stops are port holes, points of change and decision, we change lines, we flip underground for overground, she becomes a filter, i am the navigator and she is my creative eye.

on finding a guide to tokyo

A MAP OF SAN FRANCISCO, USA

(anchor point - china town/porte de choisy)

If i were in San Francisco i would be walking up hill, and later down hill and smell the sea. My feet would most probably be dry and the streets busy and narrow next to a road of cars and picturesque trams. It is easy for me to imagine here as my surroundings are bland box flats that have been striped of all life by the rain - i was told that Parisians are even more miserable when it rains. China town is less of a town and more a gathering of restaurants, the streets are thick with the smell of sweet Chinese sauces, that i picture slipping off chunks of pork. It is Sunday - an empty day. I have been reading a book about monsoons in Burma, so this drizzle is irritating, it is no theatrical show of deafening noise where water pours of leaves like out of a jug, it rests silently on the pavement creeping into my boots. Using this map means i travel in straight lines, following is grid format, i am drawn down boulevards as i trust there straightness more than the side streets that can turn you around without you even knowing. When absorbed in a new map the rest of Paris disappears, i can separate this street, like a toddler i force together one jigsaw piece with a piece from a different jigsaw. It fits if you push hard enough. After becoming familiar with this city, i have a sense of direction, i have built a mental map in my head...these maps allow me to escape this mental map, by dislocating myself, by putting myself in the wrong place. It allows the right frame of mind for drifting as it frees me from decision if i stick to the rules of my new map. this allows chance and surprise. due to the visual obstruction of my umbrella i mostly see just wet pavement, but i do remember how the leaves were pasted to the floor, and a football landing in my path and me letting it roll by, i remember a small boy play fighting with a bigger boy like a puppy, and the sounds of the bells on the buses like the sound of San Francisco trams. This walk was an uncomfortable overlapping of two places, maybe uncomfortable as for the first time i would have rather been walking in San Fransisco with a Paris map, than here with this map.