Honeymoon Honception!

* A memorable honeymoon, as with a happy marriage, succeeds with a good mixture of compromise and win-win situations. For the writer, this amounts to going to places rich in history and culture (food, music and landmarks) where his inner historian/adventurer can be satisfied; and for his wife, this amounts to loads of shopping and picture-worthy sites. This was our first challenge as newlyweds, and we both jumped at the chance to tackle it head-on.

* Grabbing one of my favorite books from the home library, we decided to work on a big chunk of our bucket list by crossing out Central and Eastern Europe, site of some of history's most important moments and wars, as well as the home of Europe's ancient Kingdoms (Polish, Magyar, Austro-Hungarian, Bavarian, Bohemian and Venetian)

* Our honeymoon travels would take us from the World War II battleground of Warsaw, to the home of Polish Kings, Krakow, from fairy-tale Budapest to the majesty of Imperial Vienna, past the beer halls of Munich and the spires of breathtaking Prague, till we finally arrive along the picturesque canals of Venice.

* Rockstar wanted to go on a trip to Valhalla, but that's a different story!

* Flying via Emirates (our favorite carrier to Europa), our stopovers at the humongous Dubai International Airport are always a treat. Full of shops and great food (including Shake Shack!), the Airport is a welcome walking, stretching, and shopping break from all the sitting in the plane.

* While queuing for our flight from Dubai to Warsaw, we were surprised by the smiling gate crew with upgrades to Business Class! I guess the line, "We're on our Honeymoon, would it be possible to.." really works and would in fact become a recurring theme throughout the trip.

*While the Emirates Economy Class is already comfortable with loads of entertainment features and good food, their Business Class just takes things to a whole different level.

* We wasted no time in availing of their complimentary premium liquor and spirit selection: including glass-after-glass of Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Champagne (for her), and shots of Chivas Regal 18 and Glenfiddich 15 with a generous helping of beer (for him).

* Travel essentials all laid out properly thanks to the amazing space in Emirates' Business Class.

* For breakfast, we feasted on a platter of traditional Arabic mezze including generous spreads of hommous, muhammara, makdous, moutabal, tabouleh and shanklish salad.

* And for lunch, I enjoyed a plate of lamb machbous, which is lamb marinated in distinctive aromatic spices, slow cooked with rice and garnished with roasted pine nuts while served with a refreshing raita.

* Upon arriving at Warsaw Chopin Aiport (named after the famous composer, Frederic Chopin), you will happily discover that the first thing you will see, is vodka..LOTS OF IT. 

Hello, Poland indeed!