Sick and Tired….so why not book a holiday?

I’ve been somewhat sick of late. Something along the lines of a lung infection. And let me tell you – prescriptions are not cheap here in Ireland! Don’t know how people can afford to be sick!

Anyways, in that time, I dedicated myself more to figuring out my summer travels, and if last time I was 99% sure what I was doing, I’m not 100% sure. Morocco, Spain and Portugal are all locked in and confirmed, and the list of Cities I’ll likely be visiting has me wanting to be there ASAP: Marrakech, Casablanca, Fes, Seville, Granada, Alicante, Valencia, Pamplona, Madrid, Porto and Lagos are all likely in the plan, with of course less obvious places likely to pop up along the way like they did last summer. I’ve also decided to go over the initial 4-6 week time period too – now looking at 7-8 weeks. I’m in Europe for a holiday, so what if I blow all my money?

One of the things I’m really excited about, is a program outside of Madrid which I’m going to be taking part in. Several friends of mine have done it (Katrina just this last week, and Dan & Jen last year) or are about to as well, and it seems like the perfect way to stay a bit longer in Spain while getting to meet locals, and live a little bit of luxury!

Basically what it is, is an English language course, where I would be one of the ‘aides’ helping the Spaniards learn their English comprehension and speaking by basically just having conversations with them all week (both one on one and group activities). While its volunteer, you are put up in a four-star hotel in a small town a couple of hours north west of Madrid with everything included, and you get to experience something which I think is fairly unique. Having heard Dan talk about it last summer I was intrigued, but since Katrina got back from her trip this week raving about it, I decided it had to be done!

I've applied for the program, and been accepted, and thats set for the first week in September, so now the rest of my plans for my trip will revolve around being there - which gives me some sort of focus rather then, "er....I wanna start there and do all of this!"

I've also decided to push back my return to Australia - but only slightly. I'll still be there for Christmas, but only just. Looks like I will now fly in a day or two before. I was originally going to fly in a couple of weeks before Xmas, but at the end of the day, the saving of £130 odd is not that much in the bigger picture, and this gives me an extra couple of weeks in Galway and with Bel and Mark before coming home.

Cheers

Steve