By: Maria Climent Huguet
Maria Climent is a 26-year-old Catalan lady. After studying translation, she decided her life was odd enough to became a humor scriptwriter and by default, a blogger. This is how she’s now a mother of no one and a better person. She also likes to cook!

Your New Best Friend

In this article I would like to give you some tips just in case you find someone who doesn’t get the fact that you want to travel alone, or at least, not in his or her company. This happened to me during one of my trips to Italy. I had to move to a Rome apartments to escape…
I don’t want to scare you; I would just like to warn you about the existence of these brand of humans who will stick to you the minute you make eye contact, whether you meant to do so or not. The first thing you need to know is how to recognize them. These official profiles may include variations:

• The individual who lives in youth hostels. You will distinguish them from the other kind of traveller that is friendly and respectful, because this person has already been living in that youth hostel for more than 6 months and feels part of the staff, although he or she doesn’t get paid.
• 

  Clinger

  The individual doesn’t have any boundaries. Example: You are in the same room –probably along with 5 more people- and he or she is the only one capable to say things like, “I took you deodorant, it smells good, although it’s too sticky, some of my arm pit hair got stuck in it and I couldn’t get it off”.

• The individual who talks more than he or she breathes. If on the second day, they have alreadyexplained you how many brothers they have and showed you a picture of their family dog, thenyou may want to start running.
• The individual does not understand the term “personal space”. If they talk too close to your face or show signs of being a ‘touchy talker’ , create a distance. And if they touche you while you’re sleeping, call the police. Quickly.
• The individual who thinks of them self as the most interesting person alive. They tell you stories all the time, but on the third day you realise it’s the same stories, time and time again.
• The individual who seems to be willing to live in that youth hostel for the rest of their life unless someone braver (or with an incredible amount of patience) will save him and get him out to travel with.

Clingers Can Be Female Too. Sexy!

Now, once you have already detected the clingy individual, you need to recognize their plan to be part of your trip. Do not even try to put your kindness before your wishes. You just need to imagine being next to him (or her) all day long. Or even worst, imagine you have rented one of the apartments in Rome for the day after and get suckered into taking them with you!

Good Luck!

So, if despite your ambiguous answers, the weirdo insists in coming with you “wherever” (they tend to usethese words) say, convinced and serious, that you prefer to go alone, sorry. And then, if you don’t want to be unkind or make them feel bad, you can explain you are doing it for a personal experience your therapist has recommended you to do, for example.

Think about it: A clear NO is always better than an endless maybe…