Both places had such great things to offer, but for us, things started off a bit on a sour note during our first night in Lisbon when Bern got food poisoning from a cheese he had eaten at one of the local restaurants (he’s the only one who had it, so my advice to you all is Stay away from the cheese, which isn’t free by the way, even though they put it on the table and make it look like it’s complimentary.  And don’t be fooled by the bread and butter either, cause they charge you for that too if you so much as touch it.).  And even though he put on a brave face and didn’t miss out on any outings, seeing him sick made it really hard for me to enjoy the trip and really put things in perspective.  I know that’s the last thing he wants for me, but there is just no way you can enjoy anything when your loved one is in bed with fever.  Alright! now that that’s been said, onto the positive recap!

The fun thing about Madrid is that it reminded us quite a bit of Paris.  People were just so laid back, the shopping was great and the food was just as delightful as the city itself.  While this was our least productive trip: woke up at noon (one time we woke up at 3pm), didn’t visit a single castle, museum, or historical monument (well a few, but most were purely accidental), it was one of our funnest one yet! now looking back, it’s funny to think of us as locals, but that’s exactly what it looked like!  We didn’t do it on purpose, but somehow we ended up doing as the locals did, which was eat, drink, soak up the sun, and did some good ‘ol chillin’. We did plan to visit the famous San Miguel Market, however we didn’t plan on going there 3 days in a row!  Other things we did intend on hitting up was the oldest running restaurant in the whole world, since 1725! (delicious), watch a bull fight (bern enjoyed it, i still can’t believe i sat through the whole thing), and experience the european club life!  did you know clubbing at 230am is considered early?  and the clubs close at 6am?  6am!  the metro system is up and running by the time you leave the club!  In overall, Madrid was great, and we definitely plan on going back some day (i hope).

While Lisbon was a bit of a worry for us, mainly because we didn’t know the language, and the portuguese they teach you on the iPhone apps is brazilian, which is completely different from european portuguese!  Much to our surprise, a pleasant one, the people of Portugal knew english very well!  They were (we felt) more prepared for tourism than Madrid, even in a small city like Lisbon.  We rented an apartment with literally the best view, ate the best gelato we’ve ever had (i’m very serious.  i even have my serious face on as i write this), toured some pretty awesome castles, saw the longest bridge in europe, as well as the Golden Gate bridge’s sister (in photo), and visited vasco de gamma!  We were right back to being our up and running tourist selves!    My god, i can’t believe i rambled so much!  double you t f !  someone shut this girl up already!  Taken with our Fujifilm X100, HERE. ARE. PHOTOS:

Paris truly is what they hype it up to be, and so much more. I’m happy to report that we’ve had zero rude parisian encounter and that they were quite friendly, contrary to what I’ve heard. Luckily for us we spoke the language so that might have had something to do with it. The tourists, believe it or not, were actually the unpleasant ones -I say “the tourists,” excluding bern and myself because it really felt like we belonged there. We’ve never felt so at home in another country, it was nice… My heart just skipped a beat.

I honestly could write a whole chapter on our trip to Paris, but i’ll sum it up and say that my two favorite things were castle related (not on purpose). First being Château de Versailles; the detailed architectures and history behind it all was absolutely, mind-blowingly beautiful. We rode our bikes along the wonderfully crafted garden, had a lovely picnic with freshly baked baguette, cheeses, duck paté, cured meats… I may or may not have just drooled all over my keyboard.

Since we’re on the subject of food, my second favorite thing was Le Chateaubriand (129 Ave. Parmentier if you ever wanna go) where we had the most magnificent, light, refreshing, innovative but simple supper. The menu is different everyday and there is only one set menu, so everyone eats the same thing. And I loved it. I also loved how unpretentious this place was considering it’s the #9 best restaurant in the world (the whole wide world!).

Amsterdam was a nice change of pace from Paris, probably cause everyone there is on such a natural high (get it?). I was amazed, and somehow proud, of how environmentally friendly Amsterdam and its people were with their bikes and public transit system (although quite frustrating to figure out). Everywhere we went there were cyclists, very skilled cyclists, and bikes, soooo many bikes, in every nook and cranny. Everything was so similar, yet so uniquely different, from the houses (I loved the houses with their beautiful crownings and hug windows), to the many hundreds of canals, to the coffee shops -for coffee of course.

Paris, you have my heart (but seriously, who’s heart haven’t you taken?). You really did feel like home, except with way nicer looking doors and better ice cream, and crepes, and coffee, and shops, and coffeeshops, and everything else!

Amsterdam, you’re pretty awesome and you have very delicious thai food.

I like how I’m talking to these countries as if they were my friends and I was writing a testimonial for them.

I’m just going to end this post in the words of bern: “Here are some photos”, enjoy!

and we miss everyone so much and are so grateful to have met such amazing people.

whenever we’re asked about our trip to mexico, bern and i just look at each other with this big gap of silence because we never know where to start.  the love and warmth we felt throughout this trip was just indescribable.  and even though we’re back to our daily routines, our heart and mind is still in Puerto Vallarta.  we can still hear everyone’s voice.. everyone’s laugh (brandon), and sometimes when i close my eyes i can still see the breath-taking view from the rooftop of the villa (where i saw a shooting star for the first time in my life, and got so excited to the point where i almost forgot to make a wish!).

this post feels so incomplete to me cause there is so much more i want to say but just can’t find the proper ways to say them.  in the meantime, we’d like to share some of our favourite photos from our amazing, life changing, better than we could have dreamt of vacation in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

davina&daniel… you keep thanking everyone for having made this trip what it was, but really none of this would have been possible without you, so thank you.  Hopefully seeing you in the next couple of days will put an end to this bittersweetness, even if it’s just for a little while.

we love you (it’s so simple, but so straight to the point.)

bern&mo

p.s. i don’t think i will ever be able to finish this post, but i’m hoping the photos will speak for itself.

p.p.s. we heart every single person/animal seen below (bunny ladies included.)

Photo taken by Brandon Wong

This is how we usually spend our time together… unplanned, sporadic and messy, but I love this messy everyday togetherness of our, and i hope it stays this way.

Happy anniversary. I love you.

Your husband.

Photo Credit: Davina+Daniel