James and Gali's European Vacation (where we got engaged!): In August of 2006 my mom and I were planning a trip to Scandinavia where we would meet my uncle and cousins. At the 11th hour the trip had to be cancelled, because my uncle had a work emergency, and I was left with a ticket to Amsterdam. And so, James and I decided to maybe in 6 months possibly go on a trip to Paris, inevitably via Amsterdam. In early October the "maybe, possibly" changed to "definitely!" and we booked James' ticket to Amsterdam. Then, in mid October James found out he was getting transferred to Houston, and plans for that move got underway, which left plans for the Paris trip somewhat at the wayside. Finally, March 10th arrived and with only a Paris hotel room booked, we were Amsterdam/Paris bound. We touched down in Amsterdam, and immediately got on a train to Paris. I didn't expect to, of all things, love the train trip as much as I did, but it was simply amazing to see the European countryside. My fave part was the definitely sheep, they just looked so perfectly preppy against the green hillside. After 4 hours on the train, we arrived at Gar du Norde, and had to endure 3 metros to get to our hotel. James such was a trooper lugging around my way-too-big suitcase (I was NOT about to find myself without something I need in Paris!) Our hotel was nice and, um... cozy, but we loved it. That night, after awaking from a jet lag laden nap, we had dinner in a brasserie around the corner from the hotel and then decided to go for a walk. As we began our walk, we noticed the Eiffel Tower looming over the rooftops, so we decided to walk in that general direction. As we walked, I took about 80 million pictures of the tower, and as we approached we saw that there was no line whatsoever to go to the top of the tower. James, who had been to Europe a few years ago in the summer, said that not having a line is absolutely unheard of. At that moment I didn't necessarily care to appreciate how lucky I was that there was no line, all I could think was how lucky I was to be under THE Eiffel Tower. We quickly zipped right up, and soon enough I was at the top of THE Eiffel Tower. The top floor was too touristy for us (yeah, we're tourists too, but they had, like, fanny-packs and stuff) so we went down a floor, which had equally as amazing a view, but not as many people. We slowly made our way down the Eiffel Tower, making sure to not take any of it for granted. One at the bottom we decided to make our way back to the hotel, and maybe stop for a drink on the way. Nothing really seemed open, until we saw a place which I think was called the Volcano. I'm actually pretty sure it wasn't called the volcano, but that's what it looked like to me, and so, a far as I'm concerned, it was the Volcano. Either way, we go in. I asked for a sauvignon blanc, because I thought that was the most French sounding of all the white wines that I could think of at the moment. The waitress just stared at me for a few seconds, and the says "no no no, you no want that. I will get you a good one." Now, I'm not sure why all the "no, no, no's," because the wine she brought out was a sauvignon blanc, but it was seriously, no joke, the best sauvignon blanc ever. Sancerre is the name. And, ok, I am not 100% sure if this really is the best wine EVER (Sancerre) or if it was simply that I was in freaking PARIS, FRANCE, but I had honestly never ever before or since had wine that good. I proceeded to drink 2 bottles of wine, and James drank the equivalent in beer. Them after that........ yeah right. I have no idea exactly what happened after that. But we obviously somehow made it back to the hotel room, which is pretty impressive considering the amount of French alcohol we had consumed. I also somehow made it through the following morning (albeit barely) which is also pretty impressive. But I will write about that tomorrow. I really meant to write about how James and I got engaged, but this somehow turned into a travel log... I love blogging! Some pics from the trip above.