Author: Harmon

  • Vino & Veritas

    Four people gather for a special theme party that ends up revealing more than anyone expected.

  • Can I Help You?

    A tech support issue gives a near-future customer service worker an unpleasant surprise

  • Escape from Europe: Backpacking in the Time of Coronavirus

    Late on March 10th, I arrived in Dubrovnik. Two days earlier, on March 8th, Italy had expanded its coronavirus lockdown from a small town in Lombardy to much of northern Italy. On March 9th, the lockdown had been expanded to the entire country. Hostel owners in Greece had told me about increasing coronavirus cancellations, but…

  • Travelogue #17: Dubrovnik, Mostar, Sarajevo

    Note: Last week I cut my trip short and returned to Canada because of the coronavirus pandemic. The story of how that came about can be found here. This is the travelogue covering my final week overseas. I knew Dubrovnik was going to be something special before I even got off the bus. I arrived…

  • Travelogue #16: Athens, Delphi, Meteora

    “Incredible” is the word I keep landing on when thinking about my time in Greece. Over and over again I keep cresting a hill and getting blown away by what’s on the other side. The country is just stunning (another word that keeps coming up), and I could spend a whole trip just exploring Greece…

  • Travelogue #15: Istanbul

    Istanbul was a…learning experience. Which is a mature way of saying that it’s probably been my worst travel experience so far. That’s relative to the rest of my trip, though: on its own, Istanbul was about 50% wondrous and amazing, and 50% stressful and unpleasant. So I have mixed feelings. Starting with the positive. The…

  • Travelogue #14: Goodbye Asia (Tokyo)

    I’ll freely admit I didn’t make the most of my time in Tokyo. Part of it is because all my late nights in Kyoto caught up to me and I had to spend a few precious days resting back at the hostel, but also I think it took me too long to get into the…

  • Travelogue #13: Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Kyoto

    A while back I described my itinerary as “sprint-stop, sprint-stop.” Some of my destinations have been quick jaunts, where I visit the main attractions and jet on to the next place, while others I’ve settled into for a few weeks, making myself at home and digging deeply into the city’s nooks and crannies. Japan has…

  • Travelogue #12: Osaka, Nara, Himeji, Hiroshima

    Two things about Japan stand out to me after my first week. The first is how this is a country where smart little conveniences are ingrained into everything. So you have toilets in many bathrooms where the water refilling the cistern first flows through a little tap on the outside, which you can use to…

  • On Hiroshima

    When I was planning my trip to Japan, I knew I couldn’t skip Hiroshima. I’m still a history student at heart, and skipping over the site of one of the most monumental developments of the 20th century was a no-go. So I booked a hostel for a night and in the morning visited the Hiroshima…