Dane is a young man and Paris is an old place. It is a city built of skeletons and ghosts and memories, and so is Dane. He's come here to listen for the ghosts, to pace their haunts, to rattle their bones. A voyeuristic student, he's come to look behind the curtain, to catch a glimpse of the secret lessons that can only be taught here, and what a lot of wisd...
Dalila. Oh how have you done this to me? Once again I find myself in a state of longing for something I know I will never have. I ache for a complete stranger. Is it because I didn't say goodbye? I have only known you for six hours and I wish I knew you longer. I wish I could have been alone with you for longer. I arrived with my girlfriend. You were th...
I had to get the new password for the WiFi from the receptionist at the hostel I am staying at so I went up 16 stairs from the basement kitchen and made my way to the office. She was sitting down in front of the window and greeted me and asked how I was. I noticed she was wearing a shirt revealing her cleavage. Although it seemed like she is 10 years older a...
A week later, the day of the results finally came and I was anxious as hell. The five of us went together to check the notice board. After some searching, I finally reached my name -- I had scored 92.3%. I was relieved -- there was no beating that. Just then Saloni shouted, 'Yes. I won. I've won the bet.' I flinched and quickly searched for her name on th...
Friday, I learn The Twins have tickets for a Norwegian heavy metal band. I look forward to a quiet evening alone at the hostel, reading Kerouac's On the Road. But before the night is over, Anne Black and Sugar Magnolia have both found me and made the most peculiar requests. Anne arrives first. "Jason?" she asks, introducing herself. "I'm Anne Black. Robe...
Josef sighed. From his seat near the departure screens he could see that the status for the 9:00 AM flight from SFO to CTG had just changed from "On Time" to "Delayed." The large window to his left revealed the likely culprit: a low-lying river of cold fog. Compulsively he swiped his phone, staring again at the awkwardly cold goodbye texts he had exchanged...
Anne and I were travelling around Europe in our late teens trying out being backpackers. It had taken us a whole year to convince our parents that we were old enough and responsible enough to do it. Things didn’t work out as planned. A week into our trip we were in Frankfurt Germany. We had just arrived by train from Paris and we went to the closest hostel...
I arrived on the island in the middle of my year-long backpacking trek across the world. It was exactly what I was looking for: warm, sunny beaches, palm trees, a cheap hostel, cheaper food, very few mosquitoes and most of all, very few tourists. Its bars and guest houses were by and large empty and neglected. Many of them verged on forlorn, and the pace of...
Outcast My mom bailed me from the county jail after my DUI arrest. I had only been inside for a few hours, but I'd never been more worried or bored in my life. When we got home, my rucksack was waiting by the door, all my worldly possessions were packed in it, my father picked it up, threw it at me, and invited me to leave his house. That sucked. I w...
Day 1 Laura was excited when she got off the boat. She hadn't seen Emily in three years and didn't expect they'd be meeting on an island off the coast of Thailand. Emily was on an extended vacation with a boyfriend, now going on two months, and she invited Laura over for the week. They had met while teaching English in Taiwan, and Laura was still there, t...