Spain!!!

Today has been hard as I didn't get a lot of sleep last night which always throws me more then most people. I had a big meeting this morning with a bunch of big-wigs in suits which is draining, fun, but draining. It's Friday and I've been suffering from a mild case of burn-out at work. So coming back to the office later this morning, and being tired, I was all for winding down for a relaxing weekend. And then.... I bought tickets to go to Madrid for a week and a half. Crazy!



This afternoon, I've been checking out where to travel and get the good deals. I think perhaps Portugal might be part of the visit. I'm all excited and giddy. I think half the fun of trips is the planning and figuring out where to go.

It's a last minute thing. A friend is going to a wedding in Madrid at the end of next month. I happened to mention I've had the itch to travel recently (it's been over a year and a half since I've last left the country). The friend wanted company traveling. I wanted to travel. I was hoping to do something last minute like this last year with another friend. It seemed like it all fell into place. So I did it. Not really part of the financial tract I had budgeted for myself. But these opportunities don't come around often. Hopefully we'll be able to stay with friends to help defray some of the costs. But regardless, I love traveling to a place where you know the people who live there. You get to really visit the place. Not as a tourist but as someone who lives there.



So, in exactly four weeks from yesterday, I'm going to be on a red-eye heading to Madrid. The tickets are bought and I'm locked in. I feel all cosmopolitan - getting to just up and leave town. I'm really excited. I didn't realize how much I needed something like this. Don't get me wrong, I've really enjoyed my summer, hanging out with family and friends. But sometimes you just need to get out, get away from it all for awhile. Plus the person I'm traveling with, although similar in some ways, is very different then me. And although we've technically known each other for over a year (we have a mutual friend that goes back 10+ years), we've only started to hang out recently. It should yield to some interesting travel. Best case scenario, it's amazing. Worst case, it's horrible, which frankly makes some of the best tales to tell over a glass of wine with friends (Dublin is an example, although not miserable, some good tales in how it wasn't such a great trip from the college days).



In my search for what we could possible do when we're not in Madrid, I've been finding it's actually cheaper to stay up in the glacier mountains of Portugal then on the beach towns. The downside is that you need a car to get there which can be pricy. The upside, driving in another country is always super fun (I wish I got a chance to drive when I was in India. I was just itching to join in with folks who were more intune with my preferences for driving then back here in the states, so rule abiding. I have a hard time with stop signs and speed limits. They're not always properly allocated.) Frankly I'm up for anywhere. We've been kicking around Portugal, northern Morrocco, some islands in the Mediterranian, southern France, maybe even Cairo - although I think that's too far, and that's all within the last day. I think it'll be Portugal in the end. But you never know.