Back from one crazy trip, time to plan another!

Last week I learned that I will officially complete my Peace Corps service in Macedonia on November 1st. While that is by itself a big deal, and worth reflecting upon, I won't be doing that in this post. Mainly I want to share my epic travel plans that will cover November 1st until December 12th.

I wasn't kidding. This is pretty awesome. 

Here is where I'll cover most of my 'land' time

It is probably confusing trying to interpret the lines and everything, but basically I'll start my trip after flying from Sofia to Barcelona, and then catch another flight the next day to Marrakech, Morocco. From there I'll travel for about a week, spend at least one night in the Sahara Desert, then take a ferry to southern Spain, and spend about 5-6 days in the vicinity of Seville and Granada. Next, I'll fly (amazingly the cheapest option) directly to Valencia on the eastern coast, stay in a comfy hotel, and run the Divina Pastora Marathon on November 17th. After that, assuming I'm still alive after the race, I'll make my way to Madrid (with side/day trips), and then finally end up in Barcelona again around the 23rd of November. I'll hang out there for about four days, maybe see FC Barcelona play a match, and meet up with a few other Peace Corps Macedonia volunteers. On November 27th, those same volunteers and I will hop on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, and take the slow boat back to America, not before stopping in the Canary Islands and the Bahamas. Onboard, I'll eat ridiculous amounts of food and read the first two Game of Thrones books. And relax too, because traveling for 3 1/2 weeks and running a marathon will make me TIRED. After 14 nights on the ship, we'll arrive in New Orleans on December 12th.

So, the level of awesomeness in this plan is difficult to quantify, but I think it's pretty high. Some other interesting aspects about the trip:
- I will be prepping for a marathon the entire time I'm traveling in Morocco and part of my time in Spain. Part of me wants to do a tempo run through the medina in Marrakech for the sheer insanity of it
- This will be my first time crossing an ocean on a ship since I was in the Navy. Sadly, I won't get to drive...well, we'll see. Anything is possible when Julie Tumasz is on your ship!
- Several members of the ship's crew are likely to be Macedonian, because working on cruise ships is a popular job for recent university graduates from Balkans
- I studied Spanish in high school - will it come back to me on this trip, or will I speak Russidonian when a local asks me '?Que hora es?'? I'm betting on the latter.

With a little over two months to go before this trip starts, I have a lot to plan for and a lot to look forward to. It's hard to believe that I'll actually be home in the US by December. I don't know when will be the next time I come back to this part of the world (easily could be sooner than I expect), but I might as well leave in style this time around!