I went on a trip with my childhood friend. We fought so much that I decided to end the friendship.

27.01.2024 - 16:31 / insider.com

For New Year's, I thought it would be fun to go skiing in another country while casually conversing with a friend I had known for over 20 years. A few days after I brought it up, she bought her plane ticket from Florida to Barcelona.

I figured bringing another friend I met when I moved to Spain would be a good idea since he wanted to escape the city and do something different for New Year's Eve. So the three of us went on the trip together, but bitter arguments led to a friendship breakup.

Driving up to Andorra felt like something out of a movie. We laughed, played road-trip games, and even made pit stops in interesting places. What was initially a three-hour drive turned into what felt like just an hour.

Since we checked into our hostel pretty late, we had only enough time to change and head to dinner at a cozy restaurant called L'Ovella Negra. Getting there was a journey. We had to drive up a snowy mountain in complete darkness with our GPS malfunctioning. When we arrived, we collectively let out a gasp of relief. The restaurant was like something out of a Scandinavian magazine.

Dinner was terrific, and we tried different Catalan and French dishes that knocked our socks off. The conversation was interesting, and we bonded over wine by a fireplace.

We ventured out for skiing. I arranged ski lessons and lift tickets about noon, but we left our hostel extremely late and got lost. This is when I noticed the cracks forming. My childhood friend complained that I was setting up things on her vacation, and she didn't like being tied down. I calmly reminded her I had asked days in advance whether she wanted to do this, and she agreed. Tension began to build, and I could feel resentment forming.

Another tension was created when my friend from Barcelona and I wanted to return to the hostel and change before dinner since it was New Year's Eve. My childhood friend was adamant that we eat immediately. This turned into a back-and-forth argument, and even after I brought up the idea that everyone should compromise during a vacation, I caved because I was fed up with talking. I should have realized then that I was using my local friend from Barcelona as a buffer.

The next day, during a quick lunch, I offered some constructive criticism regarding a recent breakup she had experienced. To give context, she would call me daily complaining about the guy she was dating. Until that point during the trip, every conversation would lead back to him, and as her best friend, I felt comfortable enough to give insight. That's when everything blew up. She became highly defensive to the point of insulting me. I found the behavior odd since we usually discussed things like this freely.

Regrouping in the evening, we enjoyed a small