Please help me with my writing

The most memorable travel experience of my life

A few years back, the family and I were planning to take a journey to Transylvania. All in my life I had wanted to visit the village that my ancestors and my last name was coming from. After all these years I was finally lucky enough to get there. Not that it is thousands of kilometres from here, as a matter of fact it’s only 755. Unfortunately, I had never had the chance before.

After some attempts, I had finally badgered my family into my wish. In the first place, we had planned the whole trip in advance. We left Budapest on an August early morning, and our first stop was Arad. On the way we were telling jokes just to boost the mood – we knew it was going to be a long journey. After that we headed towards Temesvar, the place where my husband’s sister and her husband used to live – so they were showing us the town which is actually a cultural centre in western Romania and had experienced financial growth lately. We spent the night there and the next day we continued our unforgettable trip. There were many stops along the way to Brasso. We made our reservation at a nice but small hotel in Brasso Poiana – not very close to the city and spent a couple of days there. We had several trips in the mountains, e.g. to Bucegi (2216 metres) and at last my day had arrived – it was the icing on the cake for me. We left the hotel in the morning. “My” village was only a few hours from there.
Previously I had found some relatives there whom I had contacted and they were waiting for us. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the sign of the place. We went to their house and, believe it or not,the man told us stories about my grandfather and my father, and they (he and his wife) were showing us around. The husband is running his own business there – he is craving “Szekely gates”. Anyway, it is a small maybe-town with some nice “Szekely gates” and a museum. I even got a book about that for a keepsake. Whenever I look at that book I have warm memories of Csernaton.
Unfortunately the day went extremely fast and we were all sorry that we had to go back to the hotel.

Some moments you experience in your life end up completely blowing you away like you had never had expected. Well, this wasn’t one of those. I knew it from the beginning that I would be absolutely thrilled and have the butterflies in my stomach when I saw the sign of “my” village and that these memories would stay with me forever. There weren’t any crocodile tears, but still it was definitely an unforgettable day and I was deeply touched by. Years after it still makes me smile and also grateful and I will always treasure this day of my life.


These expressions had to be used in my article.

boost the mood (pg 10)
running a business (pg 10)
experienced financial growth (pg 10)
as a matter of fact (pg 19)
anyway (pg 19)
headed towards (pg 28)
badger into (pg 29)
have the butterflies in my stomach (pg 34)
crocodile tears (pg 34)
In the first place (pg 39)
the icing on the cake (pg 52)
I couldn’t believe my eyes (pg 225)
deeply touched by (pg 225)
believe it or not (pg 225)
I will always treasure this day (pg 225)

Thank you for all your help!