Hello friends! As I have been away from my blog for months, for those of you who don't already know, I came back from our annual trip to Europe an engaged lady! Yayayayyaaaa! And while normally, I would begin my tales of our travels from the beginning, in the spirit of the holiday season, I'm feeling the love & skipping ahead to the best day of the trip!
I've said it before, but I absolutely love Prague. I have been there four times (who's counting?)
& everytime, I am still in awe. Walking across Charles Bridge under the stars was our 1st moment in Prague three years ago. The bridge lights twinkling, the river below, the castle in the background…you get the picture. Its just so romantic! (Especially with a handsome guy by your side.) The Charles Bridge transports you to another time & place.
To set the scene, Charles Bridge always has hundreds of people walking to & from while artists are on either side of the bridge from sunrise to sunset selling their goods, as well as drawing & painting. There is a particular artist whose sketches I have admired since our first visit. And, every year, for whatever reason, I have not purchased one. Rain, bad timing, out of Korunas….you name it. This year, the Polish man was determined that we get a sketch. On this particular day, we had toured the castle. With its 200 stairs up & 200 back down plus walking the grounds, it pretty much takes a full day. So, as you can imagine, it had turned to late afternoon & I was quite exhausted. To put it bluntly, I was hangry & over it. By the time we reached Charles Bridge (which is another mile from the castle), we saw our artist drawing a group of sisters & I decided it was time to give up on the caricature I had wanted so deeply for three long years. Instead, I gladly opted to sit at a corner restaurant & do some people watching while enjoying warm goulash, a refreshing Pilsner & a shot of Becherovka with my twinnie. (We had two of our best friends along for this trip!) The Polish man was surprisingly still determined to get us this sketch. So, he & Chris left us girls at the restaurant to "go ask the lady at what time she would be leaving the bridge for the day". In reality, he had gone back to the apartment to grab the ring & tell the artist his plan to propose! Our guys quickly returned & excitedly explained we needed to hurry back to the bridge because she would not be there much longer. Courtney & I were having a grand time, but we reluctantly paid our check & left for the bridge. Chris & Courtney happily held our camera while we were drawn. Onlookers walked by smiling, some giving thumbs up, one particular man even stayed almost the entire time watching! (He's next to the artist in the 3rd photo.) I felt all of this to be a bit odd for a simple caricature. Hahaha. Little did I know what was really going on. She finished right before sunset & quickly rolled up the paper without me seeing the final product. With the picturesque scene of the sun setting over the Charles Bridge, naturally our friends pulled the camera out to take photos. Courtney then insisted on taking photos of us with the sunset & for me to unroll the drawing. I, however, was now freezing & wanted to go back to the apartment to grab my coat. But, I went along with their wishes & to my surprise, there was a ring drawn into the caricature. I turned around & the handsome Polish man was on one knee! What he said past "Julia, I love you," I will never really know as I blacked out in happiness & tears. He got up to give me a hug & let me tell you, my friends, that was the best day EVER.
*I hope that you enjoy the story through the overload of photos! Some of which, get a bit blurry as our photographer Courtney just started crying along with me!*
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