Harmon Moon

Category: Travelogue 2019-20

  • Escape from Europe: Backpacking in the Time of Coronavirus

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    Harmon
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    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

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    Harmon
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    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

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    Harmon
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    “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

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    Harmon
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    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)

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    Harmon
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    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

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    Harmon
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    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

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    Harmon
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    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…

  • Travelogue #11: See you again, Taiwan

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    Harmon
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    Green Island was a very neat place to go, even if the weather wasn’t the most cooperative. I’ve generally had pretty decent luck with rain on this trip, but my first day on the island was covered in the stuff. I wasn’t able to do much except soak in the outdoor saltwater hot springs, which…

  • Travelogue #10: Southern Taiwan

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    Harmon
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    Well, okay, mostly Tainan, but a little bit of Kaohsiung too. Plus I’m writing this while on my way to Green Island, a tropical island off the southeast coast which the weather report tells me will be experiencing rain showers all week (charming). So let’s just call it all “Southern Taiwan.” I was going to…

  • Travelogue #9: Tainan (and some thoughts on language)

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    Harmon
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    Tainan doesn’t feel like the oldest city in Taiwan. I mean, it is the oldest city in Taiwan – the evidence is everywhere. Each of the city’s owners has left their mark in some way, from crumbling Dutch walls to Imperial Chinese temples to Japanese colonial amenities, and it’s delightfully easy to disappear down jumbled…