We headed into Maryland’s biggest city, Baltimore. Chris was very keen to visit because after the Second World War, it was one of a few places his Polish grandparents were offered to live. His mother could have grown up there if his dziadzio had chosen differently (the IPA for dziadzio is /d͡ʑad͡ʑɔ/ by the way – something like jah-joh for those who don read IPA or Polish).
It is quite a large city and there didn’t seem to be too many remaining Polish people, but there was still a deli that is meant to be the best Polish deli on the east coast. It was certainly the first one we’d stumbled across in a while, so even though it wasn’t quite as plentiful as the many, many Polish shops in the UK (given the recent large Polish immigration to the UK), we still enjoyed it and had a chat with a Polish woman who had very recently moved to Baltimore:
We went to Annapolis for the night. We found a fairly mediocre motel, but it was starting to get less expensive than the North East had been, and that was certainly a good thing. It was next to a small forest, which meant insects. I think we must have hit their mating cycle, whatever they were. They all made a right racket, but it was also rhythmic, a bit like rubbish techno. Do check it out in the video and if anyone knows what they were, please let us know: