Category: Uncategorized

Some travel to remember, others travel to forget. You don’t let me do either. You suck. I’m here just remembering how hard it is to forget you.

You would’ve loved it here.

Lake Shasta, August 2024
Ashkan R.

I’m not a pioneer — but I might be the first to have blasted both Love You Like a Love Song and Después de la Playa, windows down, in Amman, Jordan.

I’m probably the first to have taken a bucket shower in the Mauritanian Sahara with a yellow loofah and Tresemmé conditioner.

I’m a boy from San José, California, son of Sharareh and Bijan. And that will never change, no matter where I am.

Ben Amera, April 2025
Ashkan R.

Armenia. 5 am.
Checked in to hotel.
Forgot cash. Card was declined.
They asked for my passport.
To hold onto it until I paid the next day.
I shat myself. 
It was 5 am. 
I handed it over.
Don’t tell my mom.

Yerevan, April 2025
Mark Wolfman

He caught my eye even though she was supposed to, that night in Madrid. For twenty years, shes — not hes — had been catching my battered eye.

Yet somehow the reggaetón, tequila, and the rush of solo travel set me free. I approached him, and I made the first move.

Eventually I’d pull away.
“Es que nunca he besado a un hombre…”
“Pero lo haces bien.”

I wouldn’t pull away again.

Madrid, August 2022
Ashkan R.

Part of me thinks the day you leave for college is the day you leave home for good. Anything that comes after, any breaks or summers, is just a pleasant add on.

Philadelphia, August 2022
Mark Wolfman

Wine drunk. 12 runs in the French alps. And all I can think about is what to text you.

Chamonix, March 2025
Anonymous

“Merci, bon journée !”

Fuck. It was supposed to be “bonne.”

I’m really good at English. Not like anyone in this stupid fucking city would ever know.

Lyon, February 2025
Ashkan R.

The trip itself was incredible. 6 countries, 6 days. A roadtrip through the Balkans. Hitting countries we knew nothing about. Terrifically blue water, rocks, mountains.

And yet, while stuck at the Albanian airport for 4 hours solo, I couldn’t help but yearn for some morning Philly sunshine.

Tirana, April 2025
Anonymous