I'm Jonesing Here

Seriously, I am.  This Traveling Bandita has been travel-free for a month, and it is driving said Bandita nuts!  This is the longest I have gone without seeing anything new and without being on a plane in 2011.  So here I sit, planning our trips for the remainder of 2011.  I have a brief trip back to the States in November to visit doctors and will be staying with mom and Muldoon (always fun to hang out with two of my favorite girls).  Upon my return to London, Kenny and I will be spending Thanksgiving weekend in Marrakesh.  Thanksgiving is obviously not something the English celebrate, so Kenny will just take Friday off so we can be in Marrakesh in time for lunch and some touring around.  I am really not sure how much we will like the trip, but it is worth a try.  While we liked Istanbul, we had very little patience for people hastling us in the street and cab drivers charging us 4x the appropriate fare.  We have been warned that Marrakesh will likely be worse than Istanbul in this regard, which means it won't be the most leisurely of weekends.  In an attempt to make the trip as enjoyable as possible once we arrive, I have started researching restaurants and sights to see.  We shall see how this works out!  It looks like this is going to be a meat heavy trip- mostly pigeon and lamb.  I have never had an issue with meat when out in public, so I do not foresee any issues.  Again, it is only a weekend.
 
The following weekend we are off to Vienna to see some Christmas markets, and I am planning that trip as well.  My German girlfriend has given me some suggestions on places to visit and restaurants to try, and I am pretty sure Vienna will be much more relaxing than Marrakesh.  It will also be terribly cold in comparison.  This girlfriend told me I should have a floor length fur coat for the weekend- sorry darling, but that just isn't in the cards!  My long wool coat, fur hat and warm scarf will just have to cut it.  This will be another meaty weekend, but I suppose I will need all of this meat to keep me warm while walking around sans fur coat:)
 
Kenny and I then go back to the States for Christmas.  We will spend the week before Christmas in NYC and then stay with mom for about a week.  It is always fun to be back in NYC and catch up with our friends, and the City is so beautiful around Christmas!  And of course, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas were our family not all together.
 
Our last jaunt of the year is going to Barcelona for New Year's Eve.  We will be there for a long weekend, and I am planning this trip as well.  We have already visited Barcelona, so we will have less sightseeing to do on this trip than on the others.  The good and bad of this is that we will probably spend a long weekend eating and drinking (wine) our way through the city with no regard for reason.  At least I know I won't eat so much that I will invariably gain an obscene amount of weight in almost no time at all.
 
So yeah, there it is.  This has almost nothing to do with my band, but I really, truly feel the need to talk about travel... and your Traveling Bandita will soon be traveling again!