# Hello everyone. This is certainly a long read, but I would appreciate your patience and thoughts, as this captures one of the craziest and most memorable nights of my life. I’ve never written anything remotely like this before, so I’m curious to read your reactions. I took the liberty of sectioning the story with hyphens (——-) in case you’d like to skip to the juicy details.
It was high summer, and a long-anticipated trip to visit with extended family and friends in Eastern Europe promised me a solitary epilogue. I was thrilled beyond belief to travel with a big group of relatives and friends, but I had never traveled alone, and I had a burning desire to discover a new part of the world on my own terms. Admittedly, thoughts of romantic escapades were also never far from my mind.
So, when everyone in our group was to part ways, I planned to make a short solo-trip through several neighboring countries before heading back to the states. That was until my uncle and cousin made a unilateral decision to join my adventure. I was genuinely perturbed, but I quickly put my feelings aside. After all, they are close family and fine traveling companions. Still that itch for spontaneity and self-discovery wormed its way into me with each mountain pass and each new locale.