When I was 18 I went backpacking through Europe with my highschool girlfriend. It was a disaster. I was young and excited, she thought of herself as "too mature" for shit like hanging out with other backpackers at a pub. It was hard for me to make friends with people since she'd sit there with a sour puss on until I agreed to leave. So I went to museum after museum just to keep her happy. We still argued a lot. Instead of having the time of our lives, two young people cut loose on a foreign continent, we were like an old bickering couple who couldn't agree on anything. She made a pain in the ass of herself at every opportunity, and it sucked.

Then one day in Prague we met a group of three backpacker girls. They were alright. I wasn't super enamored with them but at least we were hanging out with people our age other than each other.

We started spending more time with them, and soon, without any vote that I remember being a part of, "we" decided to all travel together. Sounds awesome right? A single guy out with four hot young chicks?

Nope. I found myself increasingly the odd man out in their little chick clique. Plus my GF wouldn't fuck me since we were sharing a hostel room with the others.

Betafication and shit-testing toward me increased from all members of the party, eventually devolving into outright disrespect.

The final straw was when my GF and I got into a little argument over something I wanted to do that night. Finally one of the other backpacker girls said, "ok, we'll think about it. Can you go get us some beers while we figure out what to do?" By "get some beers" she meant from the convenience store up the block. I looked at my GF, like, "you gonna let these bitches talk to yo man like that?" Yes, she was. She just looked at me like she agreed with the chick who basically just dismissed me.

I just went icy. "Sure," I said. "Anything else?" They actually did rattle off a couple more things they wanted from the store.

I got up from the common area, went back up to my room, stuffed my backpack, and went to the front desk to check out.

My GF saw me, caused a scene, begged my not to leave, insulted me, screamed at me, cried, told me she loved me... the works. Right in front of a whole youth hostel full of people.

I said something like: "we've both been having a bad time, and now you're clearly having fun with your new friends. Enjoy." And I left her in the dust.

She emailed me a lot begging me to meet up with her again. I thought about it, but honestly I felt freer without her. She cut her journey short and went home. As time went by I got the sense that her desperate attempt to keep me was just a face-saver: she didn't want to admit that she got dumped in Europe for being selfish and disrespectful.

I can't say I had the best time for the rest of my trip. Breaking up with my girlfriend (first love, first fuck, blah blah; and me a oneitis-stricken crybaby bitch) put a damper on things. But I saw it through, met some people, had some adventures, and came home with my god damn self-respect intact.