Daniella (part 14, daniella abroad, ii): Brasov, Romania; January to July 2008

my 2019 novel Daniella

Chapter Two: Brasov (January to July 2008)

Most nights I slept in the hostel on an upper bunk in a corner. A bunch of cats lived there. Sometimes I’d wake up in the middle of the night and one of the cats would be lying next to me. Other times a cat would be walking across me.

Sarah got me a job working for the hostel leading bar crawls and sleeping for free in the dorms. I met all the backpackers in the lobby almost every evening for months. First I’d take them to a traditional Romanian restaurant, always the same one. It was late spring. We always ate outside in the courtyard.

Then we’d head out to the bars. For the first couple weeks, I just partied. I had sex in the hostel bathrooms a couple times. I puked in the shower one night. I fell asleep with just my bra and undies on in my bunk bed. I spoke a lot of Romanian with the bartenders and hostel workers and people in the street.

I always encouraged the backpackers to take it all the way. It was an ideal setting for that. Most travelers in Eastern Europe were solo travelers. Maybe they had girlfriends or boyfriends back home, but it didn’t matter. Everyone was alone here. Everyone was far from home and plenty of people had partners. Everything was permitted. “Sure, you can have sex in the bathrooms,” I’d say. “Sure, you can have sex in the dorms while people sleep nearby, just be quiet,” I’d say. I’d see some backpackers flirting and I’d push them into a bathroom together once we were back at the hostel. If I found a guy or girl I liked, I’d start making out with them on the pub crawl. I’d fuck them hard and loudly in my bed so that others would feel okay doing the same.

Every morning, I’d wake up to see who’d hooked up. I’d see them lying nearly-naked in beds together, sometimes just passed out drunk.