Goddess of.. Pinch me, I'm dreaming!

Wow.

That one word hardly sums it up. I am one step closer to this incredible trip, exactly one month from today, I will be in Paris. Can you believe it? I sure can't.

Pinch me, for I am surely dreaming. 

Monday, I booked my first-class train ticket to visit Andrea (@francehappened) in Strasbourg!

Monday, Nick made reservations for us at the Vila Joya Restaurant, the ONLY two Michelin Star restaurant in Portugal (which offers an exclusive and intimate fine dining experience overlooking the Algarve coast). It was HIS idea.. I die. This deserves a new dress.. possibly new shoes too.

Today, I booked an oceanview room at the Memmo Baleeira in Sagres, Portugal for Nick and I!

Also, I'm trying to set-up a surprise for him when we get to the hotel. I'm trying to coordinate to have them prepare turn-down service and a bottle of champagne waiting for us in our room upon arrival.. we'll see if I can make it happen (since we're arrive at the hotel around 1:30am :S).

Cheers,

Goddess of.. I'm Going to Portugal & France! + Giveaway Winner

It's a done deal, girlfriends. The boy (we'll call him Nick) booked our plane tickets to Portugal yesterday and this morning, I booked my flight to Paris. Such exciting (yet terrifiying) adventures, don't you think?


The Skeptic in me still doubts that this is happening but the Romantic in me is researching the best beaches, romantic hotels, fun bars & gourmet restaurants. I've only taken one vacation with a boy in my lifetime: my ex Miguel and I went to Florida in 2007. It was fun & exciting with a side of bickering. But this time, it's completely different.

Everything is new and exciting. I've spent very little time with this guy, yet we like each other a lot and want to get to know one another. Sure, this could be a disaster (says the Skeptic) but it could also be a vacation I'll never forget & the start of a great story, the kind you only see in the movies (says the Romantic).

It could also be somewhere half-way in the middle, neither mind-blowing nor totally disastrous (says the Realist). We'll see :) only time will tell. But either way, I'll get to visit Portugal & France!

Also, I CANNOT WAIT to meet Andrea of @FranceHappened, it feels like it's gonna be one of those love at first sight stories.. because let's face it, she's incredible!


I leave you with an excerpt of adorableness from the boy: 

Nick: Ummmm how light do you usually travel lol? I need to know if you'll need checked bags.
Me: I wanna travel light but I don't know if I can fit absolutely everything in a single carry-on. Maybe, if I put everything in my suitcase and just hold my passport/boarding pass in my hand? Could be doable.

Another e-mail later...

Nick: So we're booked for Portugal! I got us 1 checked bag each (I think I can manage without hehe, the second one is just in case you go a *little* overboard ! :P )

Oh wow, it's cute how he knows me (or all women). The extra luggage will be awesome and I'm glad I didn't have to ask. He's taken initiative with every step of this booking process and I love that!

And now, for the Eden Fantasys Giveaway Draw

*Drum roll*

The lucky winner is:

Send me an e-mail at aritza.goddess@gmail.com and we will contact you to give you your prize!

Goddess of.. Grand Gestures: Romantic or Foolish?

Remember a few weeks ago, when I said (see post):

"ROMANTIC -- I met a gentleman through online dating two weeks ago. We really hit it off. There's just one thing.. I met him exactly 2 days before he was moving away to Europe & Asia for the next 10 months. We've been keeping in touch through e-mail but it sucks. I'm thinking of going on vacation to Europe, maybe in October.. and who knows, we may meet up somewhere. Could be über romantic :)"

Well, him and I are still e-mailing back and forth. We also Skype about once a week. Honestly, I'm surprised we're still pen pals.. I was expecting him to get bored of this or to simply lose interest. But he hasn't and I haven't either. The first time we talked on Skype, I was talking about wanting to take a vacation in October at some point.

 He mentioned I should go to Paris, meet up with him and we could go somewhere together. I thought that was really nice but wasn't banking too much on it. Wednesday night, we made another appointment to talk on Skype. After chatting for about an hour, he brought it up again: "So you know when we talked about you maybe coming to visit in October?".

I paused, held my breath and braced myself for disappointing news. I figured the following words would probably be something along the lines of "Turns out, I can't get away from school" or "Sorry, I planned something else".. but instead he surprised me: "I was thinking it'd be really nice if we could go to Portugal or the south of Spain".

I breathed out, I was excited, I said: "Wow, that'd be awesome!". Which was probably the understatement of the century but whatever, I was playing it cool. I told him I'd look up flights to Portugal on Thursday.. and report my findings. So Thursday, we discussed travel dates & time. Last night, when I got home, I uncovered a missed message from him on my computer, dated from Wednesday night after our chat: "There's no way to describe how much I would like to kiss you good night right now. Sweet dreams :)".

It was really sweet, because he hasn't mentioned anything about kissing me or missing me.. we talk and we're just kind of pen-pal friends. So I thought it was really cute that he didn't tell me during our chat but rather wrote it afterwards.

Today I asked for vacation days at work.Vacations days were just approved by my boss. I'm good to go. E-mailed the boy to tell him.

I'm excited, I'm terrified. I'm going to France and to Portugal? With a boy? Oh my god.

And the very pretty cherry on top? I might get to meet up with gal-pal Andrea from @France Happened!