Last night, Oli sent a Facebook message to me and Ai. He wants to go back to Thailand this year even though we just celebrated the Songkran Festival in Bangkok last April. “I’d love to go back to Thailand,” I said, “but I’m saving my money for Italy next year.” Ai gasped (in text), said she plans to go on a Euro trip next year, maybe we should go together! My heart swelled and shivered like a girl on her first kiss. Exactly how I felt when we planned the Thai trip last December. I was giddy and jubilant and my face was shining (it was excess oil so I put on baby powder). At 3am, I slept with the thoughts of my one true love (W), Italy, the book I’m writing, and being an undercover agent.

My partners in crime: Oli and Ai.

I would have also thought about becoming a future nomad only if I learned about Nomadic Matt’s Win a 12 Day Trip to Europe! contest last night. See, Ai only sent us the link this morning. But no matter, now I get to add a kick-ass Europe adventure to my night-time fantasies – at least until I actually go to Europe. This is so exciting ohmygod!

Inhaling deeply, I asked my heart to please stop humping madly. “Reserve it for W,” I said. “Be calm, we have something important to talk about.”

“What?” My heart asked. “Oxygen? I kinda feel out of breath, actually. Can you inhale deeply?”

I did.

“Oh, there, better.”

“Great, so anyway, there’s this contest –”

“Yeah, yeah, the Matt contest with Hostelworld and Vayama, I know! I wouldn’t be so excited if I had no clue, yeah? Get a pen and paper. You ask the question, I say the answer, take notes.”

I cleared my throat. “Got it, thanks.” Glad my heart’s intelligent.

“Ready,” I said. “What’s your deepest desire?”

“W*****”

“No, I know, not that. Aside from him.”

“Oh, I want to become Jason Bourne, Aaron Cross, Ethan Hunt, and Hanna.”

“Hmmm… anything else?”

“Well, I’d love to read more books and see more movies and take more pictures and shoot more videos, and feel the cold breath of spring.”

“So poetic, I like that. That’s all I need, thanks.”

“Let’s have more heart-to-person talk again soon, okay?”

I tuned my heart out; asked my brain to process the interview, connect it to the Euro trip contest, and make a winning itinerary or something. More composed than its usual clumsy self, my brain readily instructed my hand to write the following:

Top 10 Awesome Things to do in Budapest, Prague, and Vienna for a 12-day Action-Packed Exploration in March 2013

1. Trace the steps of Jason, Ethan, and all the hot spies out there. Be careful of gun fires.

2. 16 is your favorite number, why not visit a total of 16 bookstores in those cities? Buy at least three books.

3. Converse with twelve Europeans, four per city. You’ll learn a lot.

4. Create videos that you can show to W. Make it cinematic and so breath-taking, he’ll realize you’re the one he truly loves. Oli said Prague is majestic so use a lot of Prague background.

5. Your one-time crush in your previous work lives in Budapest, right? You know what to do.

6. Vienna is probably just one train ride from Florence. Ask Dina and Alon to have coffee with you there! Alon can have yogurt, of course.

My friend Dina and her son Alon, ang batang makulit.

7. Take tons of pictures in Vienna and get a lot of souvenirs as well. When you get back to the Philippines, make a scrap book entitled: What if Sound of Music was set in Vienna?

8. Watch a local movie with English subtitles. Speak the local language when buying the ticket.

9. Budapest is a spa city. Yeyy Spa! Don’t worry, you earned it.