Being an expat in an enormous, new city was understandably overwhelming at first, especially because I rarely knew where I was, or how to get anywhere, or what direction I was facing.
So today I cycled to the first place I remember feeling something familiar: the Animals in War Memorial. Weird, right? Except that this is one of a handful of places I vividly remember from my trip to London with the Missouri State Marching Band in college — TEN years ago. A friend and I wandered the streets of London until 2AM looking for a church (I can’t remember which one) that I really wanted a photo of. And as we giggled our way back to the hotel, high on adrenaline and the thrill of breaking curfew and walking the empty streets, we found this memorial, barely lit in the lamp light.
And it stuck with me. Who knows why. But when I arrived here eight months ago, I saw this memorial from the sidewalk and BAM. Familiar. Something I knew and could now mentally map among this web of curved streets and dead-end mews. That’s one anchor. Just find more anchors and eventually I’ll figure out this town.
That’s where my bike took me today.
