(Parts of this narrative also appear at Canadian Geographic and Nanaimo and Voyager Magazine) A yellow-brick sunset shimmers ahead, paving our way to the west. Standing alone at the bow of a small ice-class ship, my only companions are a scatter of fulmars hanging next to the sun. There’s a ripple of wind and soft whsshhh of wake as we carve through a jade-coloured sea. The ship is the Ocean Endeavour, part of a compact fleet designed to haul explorers into the Arctic. Half o

The most memorable cup of tea I’ve had was in an observatory on the outskirts of Vienna. I caught three buses into the suburbs with a guy named Collin who I met in a hostel. He was part of the American military stationed in Finland and was in Vienna for a two-week break. It was our first time in the city, and we spent our days eating breakfast at Café Central and roaming palace gardens. Collin had read about Kuffner Observatory on a blog and heard that on Tuesdays you could g