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A Solo Travel Debut Fail
It’s 15 minutes into my debut of solo travelling, and I’ve successfully sweated through a slimily thick layer of Men’s Sports 48-hour deodorant. I’m crouched in the corner next to the Student Flights booth with my head stuffed between my knees, I’m hyperventilating like a broken fan, and my vision’s sparked out into a swamp…
This is Home — For Now
Fresh off the plane, a trail across the world left on the maps, I walk through the picturesque German town I have chosen as the location for my future stories. I'll walk these streets past bright coloured houses with wooden shutters as I fight to earn that expensive piece of paper in endless hours of…
What I Learned From My Shower Sex Injury
I could see the sun beginning to rise on the horizon of the abandoned Templehof Airport in Berlin from the window of our Airbnb. It was a nice change from the backpackers I had been staying in for weeks, which reeked of desperation and Lynx Africa. I had just polished off my second bottle of…
The Astray Guide to Travelling Spain
Where: Modern Spain is best defined as occupying most of the land that was conquered by, and then reclaimed from, the Moors, minus the kingdom to the west that wasn’t unified under the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon to Isabella of Castille. You know, everything south of Andorra but north of Africa that uses the…
The Astray Guide to Dancing in Colombia
During Brazil's World Cup, the Colombian football team won the adoration of la copa with their little goal boogie that featured every game they played. They scored? They danced. The two actions are inextricably linked. In Colombia, you dance? You score. Colombia is where South American culture meets the Caribbean coastline, and generally, the country…
Liverpool Living
It hits around 1am and the bar is heaving, as per. I wriggle through the masses, stacks of glasses wedged under my left arm, balanced precariously, waiting to tumble over from a stray elbow or a wayward backhand. Kez stands behind the bar, chatting to a woman whose face I can’t see. Classic Kez. He…
High Way to Hell
There is a fine line between discomfort and danger in the context of travel. Discomfort is that sexy stretching of one’s personal parameters in pursuit of a broader lens on life. Danger is being reckless, indulgent and getting too stoned on a night train in India. I can’t remember the exact moment my brain ascended…
Pedro Jiménez and his Dog
One night in the autumntime, there was an earthquake in the Coyoacán area of Mexico City. It was early in the hours of the morning, and many houses were destroyed and many of the roads cracked or warped and many people lost their lives. All night the sky was red like cigarette butts and the…
Ingenuity on the Streets of India
Pottering through a lively marketplace in the lakeside Indian town of Pushkar, I was seized around the elbow by the firm grip of a wily old lady. “Hello my baby,” she said. I turned around eagerly: no one’s called me baby in a while. Unfortunately though, she wasn’t referring to me, but to an adorable…

Astray is run by a team of writers who mostly live, work and play in nipaluna / Hobart. With reverence, we acknowledge the Tasmanian Aboriginal people as the traditional and ongoing custodians of trouwunna / lutruwita / Tasmania: land that was stolen and never ceded. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.