Engaged!

He proposed on day three of our vacation in Rhodes, Greece. We were at Tsambika beach, one of the island's most famous beaches and had spent our morning splashing about in the crystal-clear ocean under a cloudless blue sky. Lunch had been a hearty affair of gyros and beer at the beachside cafe. The sun was high, my belly was full, and my mind was in its happy, drowsy post-beer state. Prime time for a snooze.

The boy kept trying to convince me otherwise. "You wanna go into the water?" he asked eagerly, a few moments after I'd lazily stretched out on my chaise.

"Hmm... no, not really right now," I yawned.

"Come on, it'll be fun. Let's go take a dip." 

I raised my sunglasses. "Just a quick dip?"

"Real quick."

We waded into the ocean and splashed around for a bit. The water felt wonderfully cool as the sun blazed overhead. There were hardly any others around us. It felt delightful to be wading through the water together with not a single care in the world. 

Then I realized that he had set me down and I was now sitting on his knee. 

His one knee. Where was the other knee?

"What...what's happening?" I uttered stupidly, my brain having turned into molasses.

At this point I believe I actually browned out. He was saying some words - he later told me they were about him being so excited to fulfil our dreams together - and I literally remember hearing none of them as my world was turning every which way. I could barely register that he was reaching for something in his pocket...

And then he asked me to marry him.

Some small "oh my gods" and tears had started leaking out by now, and it felt like a dam of other emotions was about to burst out of me. I barely was able to gasp out a "yes" before I buried myself in his arms.

The next few minutes were a blur. A hilarious blur, as the ring had gotten stuck in the lining of his swimsuit and in the end we had tear a hole in the mesh in order to extract it. He slid the ring - a band of two silver elephants facing each other - onto my finger. It was only meant to be a temporary ring until the real one was made, but I immediately fell in love with it anyway.

We made our way back to our chairs, still in pure shock of what had just happened. I had so many questions. How long had he planned it? Did our parents know? When did he know he was going to ask? And he had so many answers that he'd been keeping secret for months now. One by one, my questions were answered as he unraveled the story of how he'd been planning to propose since June, of how he managed to ask my parents when they were here, of how he'd been meeting with a designer back in Glasgow to customize the engagement ring. There was a lot of simultaneous laughter and crying. It felt strange that I had been in the dark for so long.

I had known for a while that I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life. But this proposal was 100% a huge, knock-me-off-my-feet, bona-fide surprise. That night, we celebrated with a bottle of nice wine over dinner. We were still feeling the residual shock and excitement but things had calmed down a little and we had managed to start using the word "wedding" without having panic attacks. 

It's been a week and a half since that magical day. Still, every time I look down at the ring, my heart skips a beat and I feel a burst of pure, unadulterated happiness. I'm going to be with this incredible human being for the rest of my life! Aaahhh! 

It is the best damn feeling in the world. 

Czeching out Prague

Whenever I visit a new city, I try to find one or two words that best describe my impression of that city. For example, Paris was romantic, with its gardens and froufrou all about. Rome, dotted in its ancient relics, felt very powerful to me. And Vienna, Vienna was just straight up classy.

I don't have any such words for Prague, though. If nothing else, Prague was random - in a good way. I had a lot of fun there but I couldn't find a consistent, unifying theme to remember it by. Other than perhaps the cannot-be-unseen structure with molds of babies crawling up it that towered over the horizon of the city. Yeah, I think random is a fitting word for Prague.

Peeking through another lovelock bridge

The Mole (a cartoon character created by a Czech animator) was ubiquitous. Moley moley moley.

One among hundreds of quaint-looking cafes.

Absinthe ice cream to drown your sorrows into.

One thing was certain: my wallet certainly loved being in Prague. A square meal with a bottle of wine set me back just ten or fifteen euro. A beer at lunch - just one paltry euro, hooray! For the past six months, my bank account has been pillaged by UK prices, so it was a nice respite to see my money stretch far here. Naturally, the boy was a fan as well. 

Czech food was pretty darn delicious. We were fairly lazy when it came to picking restaurants. Most of the time, we just settled for whatever was the most convenient and ordered the "Old Czech Plate" - a glorious assortment of meats and potatoe-y goodness. 10/10 would eat again every time.

That's a sausage, not a carrot.

Oh yeah, at one point we ducked into a Mexican restaurant. I think having we were still having crackamole cravings at this point.

We did the usual rounds of sightseeing...

Not pictured: the guard with the machine gun patrolling the grounds nearby... yikes. 

We got to see the astronomical hand change on the hour. The clock dates back to the early 1400's, how cool is that?!

Old town square, in front of the Church of Our Lady in front of Tyn (yes, that is the church's whole name)

The interior of St. Nicholas church was surprisingly beautiful.

John Lennon wall

St. Vitus cathedral and behind it, the Prague castle.

...with a dash of frolicking.

Captain Jack Sparrow

Jumping pictures are quickly becoming a thing on this blog.

Me, engulfed in hair.

I should also mention that our Airbnb experience in Prague was one of the more memorable ones I've ever experienced. Our host was an expat from California. In addition to being a nice guy and a fine host, he was an convinced that WiFi was dangerous and that after prolonged exposure, one must scrape one's bare feet in the floor of the woodlands in order to purge those pesky Wifi-ian symptoms.

...That's the best part about traveling. You just never know what you'll see or who you'll meet. Visiting new countries - and especially through Airbnb - is an excellent reminder of all the different people and perspectives out there in this weird blue planet we call home.

God bless wiener schnitzel

Day two of Vienna began with a delicious breakfast, as all great days do.

We meandered through the cobblestone streets in search of the Kleines cafe. It was a holiday in Austria. The streets were quiet and many restaurants were closed. Luckily for us, Kleines cafe was open and bustling with patrons...too many patrons, we realized as we scanned the seating area. There were no open tables.

Just as we were about to leave, a woman beckoned us to her table. And I was like,

"Come, sit at my table," she waved with a dazzling smile. "I am about to leave soon anyway, and I don't mind sharing."

We gratefully accepted her offer and took our seats. We learned that she was originally from Serbia but was working in Vienna for a year-long client assignment, which sounded similar our situation in Scotland with ThoughtWorks. She was expecting guests to arrive in Vienna and had wanted to pop out for a quick latte and a few moments' peace in the sunshine before going to pick them up.

You know when you meet someone who is just brimming with liveliness that they inspire you to live a fuller, happier life? This woman had this effect on me. We only sat with her for maybe thirty minutes, but she was so energetic, so full of life and so damn kind. At one point, she bemoaned the fact that she had company that day, otherwise she would have taken us around Vienna and given us a local tour. At another, she noticed my camera and offered to take a picture of us, which we gladly accepted. In retrospect, I regret not getting one with her in it.

After breakfast, we rode bikes to the Belvedere Palace and Museum and frolicked in the gardens.

The palace and the boy.

Intricate statues everywhere!

I wish I could have bottled up some of that sunshine and brought it to Glasgow.

A wild (and puzzlingly) Sphinxangelexhibitionist appears.

We stumbled into a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch and slurped down some pho before the next adventure: an afternoon boat trip down the Danube river to Bratislava, Slovakia!

It got windy.

The boat trip took a little over an hour. I was surprised that we weren't asked for our passports when crossing into Slovakia. Later I looked it up and read all about the Schengen Agreement and the Shengen Area. A pretty neat idea, if you ask me.

I'll be honest: Bratislava is not as beautiful as Vienna. But then again, few places are. We spent the afternoon exploring the town square, which was made up of an eclectic mix of buildings both old and new.

This tomb implies that its inhabitant lived from 1600-1845. Impressive!

Hey you, watcha doin?

After having sampled Mexican, Thai and Vietnamese food all over Vienna, I finally tucked in with a plate of Wiener Schnitzel, a speciality of Viennese cuisine and the national dish of Austria. Ironically, I wasn't in Austria when I had it ;)

The verdict? Surprisingly delicious. Similar to a big, flat veal McNugget. And very tasty spritzed with lemon, with a side of mushy veggies, and washed down with a gulp of beer.

I must return and try the Viennese version, though.