Ramblings of a travel bug

update: tried getting a feel of both barcelona and madrid via flickr. seeing all the eye candy each place has to offer isn't helping me choose, but it sure is fun to look at.

so, where to, where to? check out barcelona and madrid and let me know what you guys think!

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the obsession has barely begun, and already my workdays are getting more and more packed. thankfully, i always manage to force some spare minutes (that, admittedly, add up to hours) into my day.

and lately, aside from a smattering of the requisite online haunts, i've been spending a hefty chunk of my free time over at lonely planet (with the occasional side trips to renfe and msn travel, currently on beta). i've been on a happy mini-quest the past couple of days: after tolosa, should i madrid or barcelona?

the answer still eludes me. both are trainable from san sebastian (what seems to be the closest cosmopolitan area to tolosa). one has the prado (and can be a jump-off point to quite a number of intriguing side trips, if my poor wallet doesn't die on me first) while the other has gaudi and, well, seems to be more alive.

other areas that interest me are granada (trainable from tolosa via madrid) and valencia (which doesn't seem trainable from tolosa at all, but maybe i'm just not looking in the right place). oh and i have to check on andalucia.

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in related news, my contribution to the upcoming family vacay in palawan is putting the itinerary together, which is pretty much done. there's not much booking to do apart from the hotel, and one can hardly be anal about anything when my family is involved.

pero parang nakakapansin na ako a. when there's a trip to be planned, i end up planning most of it. this is especially true of recent trips with the boyf. so much so that i realized he was half-expecting me to book a hotel room for him on one of his personal (non-work related) trips home recently. i'm not so in love that i couldn't tell him to stuff it, and he (dutifully, but a bit dazed) booked his own room like a good little jet-setting yuppie.

otherwise, i actually don't mind -- reading up on the destination and planning the itinerary actually psychs me up and puts me in the mood for a trip. plus, oddly enough, it makes me really look forward to the boyf proposing someday -- it'll be his turn to wrestle with logistics, moooahahahaha.