This hasn't come out of nowhere - although for obvious reasons I haven't mentioned it on the blog before in order to maintain the surprise element (and it is, I suppose, a suprise proposal; while we've talked and joked about 'when we get married' before, I don't think she's ever got to the point where she's been expecting it!).
Having said this, a keen blogo-detective could have found certain clues. In this post, when I mention talking to Alex about 'big things', this is when I told her - the one friend who knew - that I was going to pop the question in Berlin; and marks the date when I really, finally made my own mind up. And on this Saturday, Alex and I went shopping for the ring in Islington, having had to fob K off with some mysterious ruse as to why we were disappearing off without her on a Saturday afternoon. Sneaky, eh? Oh - and reading that one back, I may have also drunkenly told Aidan Moffat that I had bought an engagement ring that afternoon. His reaction? No memory of it. Ah well.
Anyway, we get up late this morning having completely ruined ourselves in the previous two days. Berlin had been done to destruction, so confident in the belief that we had covered most of the tourist ground, we decided to allow ourselves a 'chilled-out' last full day in the city. I put on the second pair of shorts I'd brought (the ones with the ring already folded up in the pocket) and we head out of the hotel at around midday. K has buggered her feet and is really suffering - so after a couple of grumpy U-Bahn rides we end up in the area of bars and various interesting-looking buildings we had seen briefly on Wednesday night. Trying hard not to do too much walking (though it's really hard in this city) we stop for a while at a small cafe and tuck into some currywurst, after which we stroll around the streets checking out the cool graffiti on the walls of the crumbling old housing blocks.
The only other bit of Berlin we haven't seen is Prenzlauer Berg, a supposedly posh section of the city that includes the Volkspark Friedrichshain; the potential proposal venue I was thinking about steering us toward before dinner. Unfortunately the bit of Prenzlauer Berg we end up in is basically a long straight road - so K stops to get some rubber things that we hope will fix her feet, albeit temporarily. We also find a decent, cheap-ish Mexican restaurant to grab some lunch in.
Now clearly aiming for the park, we hop on the tram (and complete our set of bus, U-Bahn, S-Bahn and tram for the fictional Berlin public transport i-Spy) and travel a couple of stops down towards it. At this point I'm mostly just hoping that the park is nice - at least a little nicer that the rather scruffy Tiergarten - but we stop at a petrol station to get a couple of beers to take with us.
After strolling through the, in fact, very pleasant Volkspark, past the lovely fountains and nice-looking beer garden in which families are relaxing, watching the Brazil v Portugal game, we find a nice place to sit down. After a couple of swigs of beer and, confident that I can properly get her attention, I ask the all-important question.
No, I didn't get down on one knee (this is the first question everyone asks, apparently). This is because we were already sitting down - but also because I don't think I could have pulled it off! Yes, she did get a bit weepy (in fact I had to go and get a second load of tissues). Happy? Incredibly.
We spend the rest of the evening drinking beer and chatting excitedly - as well as taking tons of photos of the ring, with K and I in various silly poses. Looking back at it now, I don't think it could possibly have gone better.
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