In yesterday’s post, I left off with #6 (if you missed the post, check it out here). Since the best memories require a little bit of explaining, my top 10 moments were a little more wordy than I prefer you to have to read in one sitting.

So, without further ado (and still in no particular order), here are the remaining top moments:

7. This top memory started with a little bit of a change of heart. When planning the trip in August, I had enthusiastically gotten up at 4 AM to snag a reservation at the current #1 restaurant in the world, Osteria Francescana. I even booked my flight back from Greece based on the assumption that I would be able to get a reservation…and I did! Within 1 hour, all spots for the month were booked up and I was a proud owner of the 8 PM slot on November 4th. As the date got closer though, the logistics of getting to and from the restaurant got a little intense and I started to think that my clients wouldn’t always be looking for that kind of experience. So I canceled the reservation and started to reach out to food tour companies to replace my free slot for dinner that night. All the tours were booked up, of course (which is why I am always such a big fan of planning), but the owner of Yummy Italy responded and let me know that she was serving as a sommelier at a nearby truffle festival and would love to meet with me if I could make it. Truffles. Wine. Culture. I’m in! After my Airbnb host saved me a whopping $250 by telling me about the BolognaWelcome shuttle (which was round trip for $6), I made my reservation for the next morning. I ended up spending the day talking about wine, business, food, and Italian culture with the owner of the company for most of the day. I even was able to join on a truffle hunt hosted by ItalianDays, which was just the icing on the cake! This perfect day wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t changed my mind about dinner, and it was just proof that sometimes plans have to fall apart for better things to come together.

8. I had no idea what to expect of Prague. I wasn’t educated on their food, culture, or layout AT ALL. I more or less took a chance and showed up with a few items to see and a booking with Taste of Prague for a night food tour (do you see the trend on my priorities yet?). I spent the evening trying some of the best hidden gems of Prague, learning about how the history of the country has shaped their gastronomy, and drinking some of the best beer that the world has to offer. I ended the night with a walk through the Old Town Square and soaking up the hustle and bustle of the beautiful gem that is Prague.

9. For the second time in my top 10, my ideal plan wasn’t what I thought. I was set on going to this cool little speakeasy in Paris called Lavomatic. In concept, it’s awesome. It appears to be a laundromat from the outside and you enter a spiral staircase through a washer and head up to a small apartment with swank cocktails. However, when we showed up, there was a line and a bouncer at the door. Let’s just say that it wasn’t the discreet experience I was imagining, and the crowd didn’t seem to fit with what I had in my mind. We (my friend Brittany and I) headed back towards where our dinner reservations were for the night, and decided to just find a spot to land and grab some drinks before our 10:30 PM reservation (it was the earliest they had!). As we rolled up to the street with our restaurant, we noticed musicians playing to crowds, people dancing in the street, bars with patrons pouring out onto sidewalks, and red, white and blue balloons on every corner. It turns out that it was the annual Beaujolais Nouveau celebration (check out what this is here), and the locals were all out to try this year’s wine harvest. We joined in the the fun, and it became 10:30 far too quickly! However, the perfection of this night didn’t end here. When we walked into Chez Denise, we were escorted to our shared table with other patrons. I had found this bistro on a top 50 list from Conde Naste, and it lived up to the hype. Neighboring tables were sharing their desserts with us, giving us tastes of their dinner, and sharing their wine with anyone within pouring distance. The restaurant was filled with locals, and apparently the later you eat there, the better. I could go on and on about the sense of community that we experienced in this little nook of an eatery…but I’ll save that for another time!

10. There’s not much better than a road trip with a best friend…unless that road trip is a wine pilgrimage to the middle of the Loire Valley. Brittany and I set out with a purpose to taste the region’s best wines. We had a few set backs, like a dog trying to attack us through a winery gate, a man banning us from taking pictures in front of his chateau, and wandering aimlessly trying to find a restaurant to serve us ANYTHING. Alas, we made it to the Chateau Gaudrelle winery where we tasted “heaven in a glass” with their bubbly white wines. After the crowd thinned a bit, Brittany and I were welcomed into the wine caves for the rundown on their wine-making processes, and then to our surprise, were offered to try a bottle that hadn’t even been labeled yet and wouldn’t be released for another week to the public! Needless to say, we left with bottles in hand as souvenirs.

If you didn’t put two and two together, I like food..no, I love food. I didn’t intend for my top 10 moments to all include food or wine, but they did. I guess that’s why my yoga pants felt like they were gripping me like a python trying to consume it’s prey by the end of my two month jaunt…and this clip sums up exactly how I feel about it.