Tasting blood and covered in the sweat of those surrounding me, I delicately extracted myself from being stuck between the legs of my favourite singer. The crowd was pulling him in as the hands of security tried to pull him out. All I was endeavouring to do was ensure that I placed my hands in…
Is that smoke? It took me a moment to orient myself. The questionable mix of cider and Guinness hummed gently throughout my body. I felt a few beats behind the world, still caught up in the warmth of Christmas lights and trad music. Jesus! It looks like it's near our hostel.
I joined my friend…
I prepare for Tokyo by quitting vapes. One week until departure, and I’ve not bought a single item on my list. I’m a zombie, moving through life in a cloud of smoke. My share house from the last six months is ejecting me. I have nowhere to live. It’s a repeat of last January, when…
I’m on a trip to Melbourne from France. Living abroad comes with constant learning in almost all you say and think. Visiting home is a return to autopilot. In the supermarket, I don’t read the packaging – I reach for products without thinking. But if the checkout assistant wants to chat, I can’t say, “Je…
Before you nestle in and dive into the tale below, I would like to paint a picture for you. Consider somewhere out there resides a young traveller, on their first or second time overseas, having trekked to the faraway shores of Peru. Awaiting the dawn of a new adventure from the confines of their hostel,…
The bush trills with insects in the hour before dawn. Weaver birds chitter and call above us, their grass-woven houses bobbing in the morning breeze. Our little group is nervous. We step carefully through the undergrowth, the two rangers leading the way with loaded rifles on their shoulders. We’ve all been thoroughly briefed. There are…
Concrete dust catches in my lungs and burnt air stings my eyes as I try to make out which part of the stairs leading down to the metro is still smouldering. As rubble from once grand buildings shifts under my boots; a small voice within speaks a confusion I’d wanted to ignore. This isn’t what…
I chose the bigger of the two mandarins sitting in the middle of Nick and I. It was difficult to peel and inside it was spoiled. I knew immediately that I had made a mistake. I decided to gift it to the street dogs and threw it out of the car window without tasting it.…
Somebody once told me that if you want to go to India, you have to give yourself time. Time to see, to taste, time to sink into the spirit of the land – but most of all, time to get sick. Because even if all the other things leave you cold and uninspired, you will…
On transitioning from inconsequential backpacker to time-constrained holidaymaker.
A list of reasons why spending a month in Japan with Astray doing a writing and language workshop is an excellent idea.