Day 24 - A travel story

A travel story.

I will keep this brief because no one likes a super long, boring blog post ;)

Mr. B booked a 7 night Mediterranean cruise for us at the end of November 2008. Mr. B's parents decided to go along as well. The cruise left from Barcelona, Spain and stopped in:

1. Villefranche (Nice), France
2. Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy
3. Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
4. Naples, Italy
5. Sicily, Italy 

We flew into Paris first, then flew down to Barcelona. We arrived at the hotel in Barcelona to discover my passport was gone. I panicked, called the airlines to see if I left it on the plane and then proceeded to lose it. The hotel helped me call the Embassy. Thank goodness Spain has a US Embassy in Barcelona! And they stayed open just for me to come in! The ship was departing the next day (a Saturday) so I am very lucky with the timing of it all.

The first stop was France. It was only a half day at port, so by the time we figured out the train, it would have been too late to go anywhere and get back in time. Next stop was to see Florence and Pisa. We decided to do our own "tour" instead of purchasing one from the cruise line. We joined up with some other people on our ship and had the taxi drop us off in Florence and Pisa. It was beautiful. We did the same in Rome. Rome was amazing. In Naples, Mr. B and I took a train to Pompeii. I did a report in school on Mt Vesuvius & Pompeii, so I was especially interested in visiting the site. It was my favorite part of the entire trip!!! Last stop was Sicily. Mr. B is half Italian (and half Vietnamese), and his Italian side is 100% Sicilian. It was fun to explore his "roots."

All throughout this trip, I was secretly hoping that Mr. B would propose. All of my family and friends were expecting it too. As each day ended without a proposal, my heart sank. Heck, we had been dating for the most part of nine years! But I didn't say anything.

We flew back up to Paris. Our flight left the next day, so my Mom had booked us a hotel at the Charles de Gaulle Hilton. We went up to our room, with plans to eat dinner and take the train to see the Eiffel Tower. Right before we are about to leave, I lose my patience. I should have just waited a while longer because Mr. B says "well, if you would have just waited until we got to the Eiffel Tower..." Oops. I almost didn't believe him, so he told me to look in his camera bag. There it was, the ring I always wanted. He asked me to marry him and I said "of course!" We had dinner at the hotel and took the train to the Eiffel Tower. It was around 20 degrees. But I didn't care. I was a happy girl :)