The Slow Train Is the Point
There is a kind of travel that is about arriving, and a kind that is about going. The slow train belongs to the second. It stops at stations nobody has heard of, waits for connections that may or may not…
Read MoreTravel
Slow journeys, small bags and the places in between.
A Ferry at First Light
The first ferry of the day leaves before the sun is fully up. There are a handful of passengers: a few commuters with coffee, a van driver asleep in his cab, and someone like me, who came for the crossing…
Read More
Packing for a Week in One Small Bag
For years I packed for the trip I was afraid of rather than the trip I was taking. The extra shoes for a dinner that never happened, the second jacket for a cold snap that never came. Now everything fits…
Read More
Notes from a Mountain Hut
The hut sits just below the pass, a stone building with a tin roof and twenty bunks in two rooms. You reach it after five hours of walking, and the first thing you do, before you take off your boots,…
Read MoreHeaven Is Under Our Feet
Thoreau wrote this about a frozen pond, watching the sky reflected in the ice. It is a good line to carry on any walk: the ground you are standing on deserves as much attention as the view.
Read More
The Joy of a Paper Map
A phone tells you where you are. A paper map tells you where everything else is. That difference changes how you travel.On a screen you see a blue dot and the next turn. Unfold a map on a café table…
Read More
How to Get Lost in a City, on Purpose
Every city has a version of itself that appears in guidebooks, and another that only shows up when you stop following directions. The second one is usually more interesting.My method is simple. Pick a neighbourhood you have no reason to…
Read MorePopular
A Month With a 75% Mechanical Keyboard
A 75% keyboard keeps the function row and the arrow keys but drops the number pad and squeezes everything else…
