6.06.2010

Engaged

While staying at Brasov in Romania, Emily and I wanted to visit Bran Castle since we had heard it was Dracula's Castle. Turns out it was only a Castle that Vlad the Impaler (Dracula) had possibly visited once. This visit would have probably been to see if it was worth invading. Not exactly "Dracula's castle" if you ask me, but it was a very cool castle to visit.

The day started by figuring out which bus to take. Everything is a bit more difficult when most people don't know English. Like many things in Romania buses are cheap. An hour long bus ride cost just $3. When we got there we could instantly see the castle situated on a hill.

We explored the interior and exterior of the castle. We found out that Transylvania was an often invaded area since it was on the road to the "east". As a consequence they build many castles like this one for defenses and to collect taxes from the traders that traveled through Romania.

After thoroughly exploring the castle we took a trail down to a little pond. There was a scenic view looking up to the castle. As we sat there talking about about a wooden wooden bracelet she just got I asked if she liked jewelry. She said of course and then I asked her if should would like this. She was quite awestruck as I asked her if she would marry me. She said yes and then I asked her if she was sure. She was. :-)

She was expecting it someday, but not on this trip. As she had waved her ring finger around earlier on the trip, I had asked her if she expected me to buy a ring in Europe or something. Little did she know I didn't need to buy the ring because I already had one in my pocket. After a year of waving her ring finger around I thought it would finally be over, but I think it is now worse. She just has to show everyone ;-)

We've just started figuring out when and where we'll get married. We need to do some research, but maybe Fall 2011 in New England.

Trip to Budapest, Romania, and Lee/Natile's Wedding

This was a monster trip.

Boston->London->Budapest
I had a week of business in Budapest so while I was busy with meetings Emily got to experience explore Budapest. Biggest memories were the great food and a hike we did up to the top of a mountain in the poring rain.

Brasov, Romania
Then we took an 11 hour train rid to Brasov and spent 5 days there. The things I remember most about this was proposing to Emily and how friendly the people of Romania are. I'll discuss the proposal in another post. Some of the nice things that the people in Romania did for us was giving us sandwiches, driving us around to another home stay when ours was full, and just being generally helpful/friendly. Romania is a great place to visit!

Budapest->Rome->Chicago->Green Bay
Next we flew to Green Bay for my friends' wedding. Great time was had by all.

Green Bay->Chicago->Boston
I was ready to be home.

Many more pictures from the trip are here.