Follow the water

Every city has water it pretends not to have — a river behind the retail park, a canal the maps barely admit to, a shore at the end of the bus line. Find your nearest one, get to its edge, and walk it for half an hour in one direction. The waterline is where a city stops performing: anglers, herons, houseboats, the odd drowned shopping trolley. Whatever's waiting at the thirty-minute mark is yours.