Once the anxiety of being in a strange, new place wears off, you start exploring the city around you. You venture further and further, now purposefully getting yourself lost, hoping to find something breathtaking, knowing that you'll be able to get back home.
The small winding streets, decorated with flags and the remnants of the Olympic Games that have just ended, lead you around an unknown area.
Pubs and coffee shops and tiny boutiques all blend together into endless rows of doors and windows.
You’re in Soho, the “cool” part of the city. Where musicians have gathered for decades to create anthems that will last for generations. Blue Plaques are everywhere to be found. Your favorite song was written inside these walls. Your favorite album cover was photographed on this street. Your favorite band played their first show in this old club.
Although you have never been here before, you have a distant memory of walking through here late at night. A line in an old song, maybe, playing softly in your mind.
This place feels to familiar. You want to find something new.
You keep walking.
The sound of a crowd draws you around the corner.
Leicester Square.
It takes you a moment to figure out the pronunciation.
The square is busy. Metal barriers and a red carpet are being set up in front of one of the many theaters. There must be a movie premier happening tonight.
Other than a few smaller shops, there is nothing much to see. You pick a random direction, and look for a way out.
At the end of the small street you choose is a burst of color.
A red and gold archway greets you as you enter a whole new world.
Suddenly, you are immersed in color and paper lanterns and new smells and a language you don’t speak. You feel like more of a foreigner than you ever did since arriving in the UK. You feel as if you have been transported to Shanghai.
Everything is in a language you can’t read - and you though Leicester was hard, try speaking Chinese. The only indication that you are still in London are the cheap scarves priced at £1.
The most delicious smell spills out of a small, open restaurant.
Lunch time!
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I honestly, thoroughly enjoyed this post. You have stunning world building that really took me to the setting. I now feel like I've been there before and this text totally gave me that feeling.
ReplyDeleteStarting with the picture of the standard London street was great. I immediately knew where i was supposed to be. Then you took me on a trip through that city, not knowing where I'm going, and into china town.
To me, this starts with the familiar, (grounding me with a picture), then immerses me into the unfamiliar, (using my imagination to create a scene.) This worked very well in my opinion.
The video you picked was visually accurate to what I pictured the journey being. But the music seemed off. (I know you didn't have control over the soundtrack of someone else's video, but still.) It seemed to fast. In the narrative, there seemed to be a slow progression through the city. Soaking in the sights, seeing people, reading or trying to read signs. The super quick tempo of that video gave me a different feeling. One of more urgency and exploration.
Exploration and escape are actually the points from your post that I incorporated into my blog. The idea of trying to get lost, for the experience is a good one. And anyone who has ever had lots of time to kill in a new city, knows exactly what its like to just pick a direction and go.
All in all I really liked this post, especially your world building. It was fantastic. As was the way you made me feel like I was there exploring with you. The only thing I would consider doing different would be a more cosmopolitan sound to a video. Something that will really help to ground the reader into their "walk through this strange city." Something like that will stick with people.