Spilling the beans

The story you’ve all been waiting for. Here is your warning that this is straight out of a chick flick and may induce some nausea.

It all began over a tiny bottle of wine in Budva, Montenegro. Tiffany and I had just split up from traveling together and I was fully ready to spend a day or two by myself. I showed up to my hostel and realized that I had a single room which meant I likely would not meet anyone in the two nights I was staying there, which was totally okay. I had gone out earlier for groceries and had also bought a tiny bottle of wine to drink later which I had put in the fridge to chill.

Enter Diego.

This guy strolls into the kitchen as I was grabbing a glass and we strike up a conversation with the typical backpackers small talk. We were both planning on visiting Sveti Stefan the next day so we agreed that we would go together.

Enter Anxiety.

The next morning I waited for him to text me, with the secret hope that he wouldn’t and I wouldn’t have to spend the whole day with a stranger. Alas, I received a text and we headed out for the day and I let him lead me around blindly. Now it was a hot day, and by the time we got to the bus station I was literally dripping sweat and was so self conscious about it but he didn’t say anything and didn’t seem bothered by it. We spent the whole day at the beach chatting and getting to know each other and it was so easy, there was no forcing the conversation.

Now we’ll argue about where the flirting started, was it the splashing of the water while we were swimming, or the tiny rocks lined up one by one on my leg, or the casual brush of an arm every now and then. Either way, he totally started it. Nearing the end of the day we watched the sun go down and headed back into the city to get cleaned up and grab some food.

This is your warning, this is the cheesiest thing you will read all day.

We headed out for dinner and walked by one of the bars which had a miniature (but still quite large) Eiffel Tower in it. He looks at me with a blank expression and says have you ever been kissed in front of the Eiffel Tower and proceeds to kiss me in front of the Eiffel Tower. Of course I’m completely oblivious (because I should’ve been born blonde) but it was the cutest thing. This cheesy moment is only to be followed up by him giving me a rose in front of our own little Eiffel Tower later on in the evening.

End of a perfect day.

I was set to leave the next day to head south and he was going to be heading north so this was going to be a one day thing. He asked me and I told the truth that I wanted him to come with me and he made a crazy decision to follow me to another country. We had a few more days together which were spent laughing and exploring new places and then the time came and he had to leave. Fate would determine that he had a meeting that had been set up for school on the day he was supposed to leave so he got to stay one more night in order to be a part of that.

The next day was sad as the thought of leaving each other loomed over us. We threw on our backpacks in the rain and headed over to the bus station to catch our buses that were heading in opposite directions. Like any typical chick flick you’re going to guess what happened next, I made a crazy decision and got on his bus with him to head back to another country so we could spend a few more days together. So now we can both cross off ‘traveling to another country for a guy/girl’ from the bucket list. We spent a few more days together and said a sad farewell.

And that’s our story. Just two people meeting unexpectedly and making crazy, spur of the moment, decisions which ended up to be an incredible journey.