I knew I was in trouble the moment the waiter frowned. Not a dramatic frown. Not a cartoon villain scowl. Just a subtle tightening around the eyes — the kind that says, you’ve misunderstood something fundamental, and now I must decide whether to correct you. As an...
I’ve always told people I’m “good with money.” I meal-prep like a fanatical monk, I keep a spreadsheet that would put an accountant to shame, and I can find discount flights like a truffle pig finds truffles. Then I went to Iceland — and within 48 hours my spreadsheet...
I didn’t arrive at the hostel expecting enlightenment. I arrived sweaty, under-caffeinated, and mildly resentful after dragging a wheel-less backpack over cobblestones designed by someone who clearly hated travellers. The building leaned slightly to one side, like it...
I came to Canada expecting snow. Big snow. Movie snow. Snow that squeaks under your boots and makes your eyelashes freeze together like some sort of frosty punishment for leaving Australia in winter. What I didn’t expect was the apologies. Not the meaningful,...
Rome wasn’t built in a day — a phrase I’d heard roughly one thousand times before landing in Italy — but no one ever warned me that it could absolutely dismantle a pair of Australian thongs in under three hours. In my defence, these weren’t cheap thongs. They were...
