A woman smooching strangers around the globe in a set of photos has gone viral online, giving a whole new meaning to the phrase “kiss and tell.”
Kristiana Kuqi, 23, posted a photo of herself on Friday kissing a man in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. To the untrained eye, the photograph appeared to show a typical couple posing in front of one of the world’s most recognizable symbols of love.
Then Kuqi revealed she didn’t know the man at all.
“I hope this guy I met at the Eiffel Tower and asked for a pic of us kissing so I could pretend I had a romantic time in Paris is doing good,” she captioned the photo, which she shared on Twitter.
Minutes later, Kuqi posted another photo of herself kissing a man in front of the Colosseum in Rome – he, too, was a complete stranger.
“I hope this one from Rome is good too,” she wrote.
In a third photo, Kuqi kisses a firefighter sitting inside of a fire truck with a similar caption: “And the fireman who responded to a fire at a wedding I was at in Kentucky. Hope he’s good too.”
Kuqi’s photos quickly went viral and have been retweeted more than 65,000 times with nearly 2,000 comments. Women reacting to her daring posts hailed Kuqi as a “hero” and a “legend.”
“The goal is not to travel the world with your man but to have a man in every part of the world you travel to,” one Twitter user wrote.
Some women were inspired to share their own experiences of kissing men they met during their travels.
“I feel you. I hope this French man I had a fling with in Bali is doing good,” tweeted woman, who shared a photo of her kissing her mystery paramour.
Kuqi, who resides in Virginia, told Fox News she had “no idea” her tweet would go so viral.
The recent college grad, who is originally from Kosovo, said she always had a “bold personality” and simply wanted to show off her confidence and flair for spontaneity.
“Ever since I was young I imagined myself having a picture with a kiss there,” she said about Paris. “I had planned this kiss weeks before I went to Paris and was studying abroad at the time. I had a friend come with me to Paris and she thought it was crazy and didn’t think I would actually do it.”
Kuqi admits she was nervous when it came time to stage her Eiffel Tower kiss, but she eventually worked up the nerve to do it. She approached her eventual kissing partner, asked him if he had a girlfriend – he replied no – and the rest is history.
“The kiss was so pure and it was such a sweet moment. We took our picture, said our goodbyes and I never saw him again,” she said.
After the success of her kissing photo in France, Kuqi decided it would be fun to take her stunt across the border to Italy, where she asked an Argentinian tourist for a kiss in front of the Colosseum. The fireman kiss, she said, was another spontaneous moment.
“It wasn’t Paris or Rome but it was such an amazing American image,” she said.
Jokes aside, Kuqi said she hopes her viral kissing photos inspire women around the world to go after what they want in life.
“With confidence, you can really do whatever you want. All you need to do is ask,” she said. “Women shouldn’t deny themselves what they want because they are afraid of judgment.”