Making Travel Plans and Growing Old

Back when I was newbie blogger and Confused Julia was a brand spanking new site, I wrote a (albeit pretty crappy) post about how I had recently visited Barcelona and loved it.

Aside from the fact that the photographs are terrible (thank God that camera broke and saved us all a lot of trouble), the sentiment was true. It was my first trip to mainland Spain and I really enjoyed myself.

“Now, why, when she’s currently in Mexico, would she be telling us this?” you’re probably thinking to yourself. Well, I apologise for the brief interlude in proceedings, but I’ve got some (semi) exciting news. I’ve actually made some future plans for once, instead of just lurching frantically from one destination to the other.

I’ve booked flights to Europe in July, starting with Madrid!

That news in itself may not seem too inspiring, especially because I spent a large chunk of last year exploring Eastern Europe, but it’s all for a good cause. Namely, my 30th birthday.

Yes, that’s right, it’s the big 3-0 for me this year, and as much as I love being on the road, I couldn’t justify spending such a big milestone abroad. I want to be with my family. Hence the flights back to Europe.

Now, I don’t technically turn 30 until September, which gives me plenty of time to explore some of Western Europe that I’ve never been to before. Despite having lived in the UK all my life, I actually haven’t discovered too much of Western Europe, which is a bit shameful.

Madrid is obviously the first stop, which I’m really excited about as I’ve always wanted to visit. I may even try and squeeze in another quick trip to Barcelona (I’m a sucker for any city with a river or a beach) and then we will probably travel overland before heading back to one of my favourite cities from last year….Amsterdam!

After that, who knows? I mean, come on, I think I did pretty well just to even have this much planned, especially judging by my poor planning performance of last year.

But what I do know is that I can’t wait to fill my belly with tapas and cheese and sip sangria on balmy summer evenings in classy cities.