Travel Takes Planning (and how)

I've been thinking about traveling a long time. Years in fact. I was thinking of traveling about 5 years ago after spending a couple weeks in Thailand. I thought, "I simply must do more of this." Granted, it wasn't the first time I had done some traveling around a foreign country, but it was when the travel bug really bit me. 

And then, life threw me some curve-balls. I had three different car accidents within less than a year and a half. The third accident was the most traumatic as I was hit by a car while on my bicycle at a very busy intersection in Vancouver. These accidents knocked me down for a long time. Its now been 3 years since my bicycle accident and I'm still having pain and mobility issues on bad days. On good days, you wouldn't even know that I live with chronic pain. But its there, and its changed the way I do almost everything in life (cook, clean, sleep, work, etc). However, one positive thing that came out of this mess was that I received some funds for my injuries and future care. I invested this money, received a decent chunk back on my tax return, and decided - now is the time for traveling.

Once I had made up my mind that I wanted to travel, it was a matter of picking a destination. I have a list about 30 deep of countries that I want to visit. However, I knew that it was high time to visit my cousin and long-term penpal (hows 20+ years for long-term?!) Eibhlis in Ireland. It seemed that Europe was to be my destination - but where to go? I had already worked in Belgium and Austria, and seen most of France, and southern Germany as well. Where I haven't really gone is Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, etc. I decided that I could afford to take 3 months off from work, and that I needed to focus my upcoming destinations. The result?

Spain & Portugal with a side-trip to Morocco

Oh, the possibilities!

I've had my leave approved at work, and I've made some flight plans. I still have a lot to do: find a sublet for my apartment, book some more flights, buy a Spain rail pass, buy lugguge, pack up my apartment etc. I'm really trying hard not to muppet flail at all the things left to do, but some days I do feel completely overwhelmed. My plan of attack to keep my sanity intact is to chip away a little bit each day at the list of DOOM. Wish me luck!