Baltimore boasts a surprisingly influential, albeit small-scale, film industry. Self-dubbed the "gra

Baltimore is a huge city with several district articles containing sightseeing, restaurant, nightlife and accommodation listings — have a look at each of them. Downtown Baltimore on a beautiful October day.
Baltimore is a popular tourist destination in Maryland , in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States of America , near Washington, D.C. It is perhaps most famously known as the city where Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics for the Star Spangled Banner, and today has become apartment rentals in paris a major center for tourism and travel.
Baltimore has an absolutely staggering number of officially designated neighborhoods, some just several blocks apartment rentals in paris large, and each with its own character [1] . They are administratively separated into nine larger regions. The following list is further simplified for the traveler and contains some of the neighborhoods you are most likely to visit.
Inner Harbor If you are a tourist, you come here. Most of Baltimore's excellent museums are here, as are most of its major hotels and the magnificent National Aquarium. The harbor views are nice too. But watch out for the tourist trap bars and restaurants!
Fells Point (Little Italy, Corned Beef Row) Fells Point could not be more complementary to the Inner Harbor historic, with great pubs, nightlife, and restaurants, especially in tiny but very authentic Little Italy.
Downtown (UMB, Lexington Market) An incongruous mix of Baltimore's central business district, the University of Maryland-Baltimore, the awe inspiring Lexington Market, the infamously seedy "Block," apartment rentals in paris and a host of jewelry shops specializing in grillz.
Midtown (Mount Vernon, Station North Arts, Charles St, Bolton Hill) One of the nicest sections of the city, home to the performing arts district, Penn Station, and a host of other attractions (Walters Art Museum, the original Washington Monument, apartment rentals in paris dining and wining on Charles St, the University of Baltimore, etc.) that most visitors foolishly pass over.
South Baltimore (Federal Hill, Locust Point, Pigtown, Fort McHenry) Industrial blue-collar South Baltimore is dying, and is quickly being replaced with upscale gentrified neighborhoods like Federal Hill. That's not so bad from a traveler's perspective some of the city's best restaurants and bars have sprung forth in the booming areas.
North Baltimore (Station North Arts District, Hampden, Loyola, Johns Hopkins, Mount Washington) Most visitors to the area know only Johns Hopkins University and the always apartment rentals in paris interesting commercial strip along Charles St nearby. But it is unfortunate that they overlook the quirkiest of quirky neighborhoods, Hampden.
apartment rentals in paris Southeast Baltimore (Canton, Patterson Park, Highlandtown, Greektown) A heavily industrialized section apartment rentals in paris of the city, home to several very enjoyable Polish, Irish, and Greek ethnic enclaves, and other surprises. Cantonites will place their neighborhood up against Federal Hill in the gentrification derby.
West Baltimore (Druid Hill Park, Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park, Pimlico) Infamous West Baltimore. If you have watched the Wire, this was where the crime was taking place! But don't be fooled. There are some major tourist draws here, like the Maryland apartment rentals in paris Zoo in Druid Hill Park, Pimlico Racecourse, and Edgar Allen Poe's House. And the endless old Baltimore rowhouses, no matter how rundown, remain apartment rentals in paris beautiful throughout.
East Baltimore (Johns Hopkins Hospital, Clifton Park Golf Course, Herring Run Park) Baltimore's great rivalry between east and west is certainly an example of the narcissism of small differences. Attractions in the east are very few and far between, but things are changing fast as booming Johns Hopkins Medical Campus expands and demolishes in its wake.
Baltimore has a very long and rich history. apartment rentals in paris It is perhaps apartment rentals in paris most well-known for being the site of the historic Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. Over the course of the battle, British invaders bombed Fort McHenry with rockets as Francis Scott Key wrote what would become the American national anthem. Baltimore was also the site of the first casualty of the American Civil War.
It also has a large African-American apartment rentals in paris population that has played an important role in its history. African Americans have had a major presence in Baltimore since the Revolutionary War. During that time they were brought to Baltimore as slaves from Africa. Baltimore was also one of the hotbeds during the American Civil Rights movement and famous African-Americans such as Thurgood apartment rentals in paris Marshall and Kweisi Mfume have made Baltimore their hometown. R B artists such as Tupac, Dru Hill and Mario have also emerged from Baltimore. Currently, African-Americans form a majority (within the city limits) at 64%.
Baltimore lies in an arm of the Chesapeake Bay, the third largest estuary in the world. The eastern two-thirds of the metropolitan area lie on the Atlantic Coastal Plain, apartment rentals in paris between 15 and 50 feet above sea level, and contain many peninsulas jutting out into the bay. The western third of the city slowly rises into rolling hills, and leads to the piedmont region. It is located about 40 miles from Washington, D.C. , and approximately 100 miles from Philadelphia . The Atlantic Ocean lies about 2 hours to the southeast.
Baltimore lies within the humid subtropical climate zone, and weather is primarily affected by three factors: its proximity to a warm marine estuary, its low elevation, and the wall of mountains to the west and northwest. These factors make the area's climate milder and less extreme than other U.S. cities at this latitude. Summers are humid and hot, but not extremely so, with highs reaching the high 80s to low 90s Fahrenheit and lows in the 60s to low 70s. Winters are cool to mild and moist, apartment rentals in paris with highs in the upper 40s to low 50s, and lows in the 30s and 40s. It is almost never below 10°F in the city proper. Light snow can sometimes fall in winter, although some years there is no significant accumulation and once every few years a coastal storm can dump 8 inches to a foot of snow on the city. Spring and fall bring pleasant temperatures in the 50s-70s(°F), and southern breezes.
While weather in the region can vary, Baltimore does not experience the extremes of weather change that occur further north and inland. Visitors will be able to venture outdoors without a jacket from approximately mid-March to late November. The hot humid summers invite the wearing of shorts on many days. The Baltimore apartment rentals in paris area experiences pleasant fall foliage, usually beginning in mid October and ending in early December. The long warm weather season means that swimming pools are very popular for much of the year as well.
Baltimore boasts a surprisingly influential, albeit small-scale, film industry. Self-dubbed the "grandfather of filth" native John Waters is the Baltimore equivalent of New York's Woody Allen he has directed movie after movie, set and filmed on location in Baltimore, drawing heavily for inspiration from Baltimore's most bizarre subcultures and its strangest neighborhoods. He became famous for his "gore" flicks in the 1970s, which combine the single-minded purpose apartment rentals in paris of grossing-out apartment rentals in paris (or perhaps scarring-for-life) the viewers along with intensely bad acting, outrageous Baltimore accents, subversive humor, general trashy perversion and violence, and one enormous Baltimore drag queen named Divine. Of this era, Pink Flamingos achieved a certain cult-classic status, although it is absolutely not for the faint of heart (or the pure of spirit).
Waters' films post-1970s mellowed out dramatically, albeit still maintaining his signature interest in subversive campiness, culminating in his most famous work, Hairspray , a 1962-fabulous story of a plus-size girl with plus-size hair who wanted to bring a black boy to the locally-televised dance show against the forces of racial segregation and bigotry. He has gained considerable success within the Manhattan art world for his more recent apartment rentals in paris work across all sorts of mediums but he rails against that same art world in Pecker , a movie soaked in the local colors of Baltimore's Hampden neighborhood. His dogged loyalty to his city has earned apartment rentals in paris him a lot of goodwill here. A recent mayor proposed creating a local John Waters holiday, and the Hampden neighborhood erected apartment rentals in paris a giant pink flamingo statue up on the main street. But don't let all this lull you into a sense of complacency unless it's Hairspray or perhaps Crybaby and maybe Serial Mom , don't show his films to your kids!
Barry Levinson , is perhaps the most well-known film maker to come out of and make films about Baltimore. His directing career began with Diner , a movie set in the Baltimore apartment rentals in paris of his youth, and a movie that would begin the famous four-movie series of "Baltimore films" along with Tin Men , Avalon , and Liberty Heights apartment rentals in paris .
Another big name in Baltimore film-making is undoubtedly David Simon , famous for his Baltimore-centric crime dramas Homicide: Life on the Street (which he co-produced with Barry Levinson), and, of course, The Wire , which has been called by nearly every major journalistic publication in the English language "the best show on television" although several have contended this doesn't go far enough, calling apartment rentals in paris it the best TV series of all time. The Wire is set principally in the most blighted neighborhoods of West Baltimore, apartment rentals in paris dealing with startlingly realistic, cliché-less portrayals of the life of the city's (and America's) underclass and the drug crime that pervades the neighborhoods and housing projects that underclass lives in. A veteran reporter for the Baltimore Sun and a novelist in his own right, Simon also turns his camera on the city government, the police department, apartment rentals in paris and the public schools, and never in too favorable of a light. (If you are a fan of the series, check out The Wire Tour !) For an even starker apartment rentals in paris portrayal of life and drugs in Baltimore's most blighted neighborhoods, check out his documentary-style miniseries, The Corner .
Don't let these crime dramas get you down, though, most city visitors are unlikely to have any encounter