Back to LA & Normal Life Ensues...

I've been back home for about a week now and am still kind of jet lagged.  I don't normally get jet lagged from traveling, but this week I went back to work and have been doing an ultra early shift, getting up at 4ish everyday.  So it's kind of messing up my schedule because I feel like going to bed at 7 or 8 pm!  Even today, I was looking forward to sleeping in a little.  But I fell asleep on the couch at 10 last night and woke up at 3 am.... then had trouble going back to sleep.  Sigh... hopefully it will be normal soon, because I love sleeping.

Anyway, so needless to say, I haven't been doing much all week.  Just work, gym, eat, sleep, repeat.  I had to drag my butt to workout hard since I've been binging for the past 3 weeks and feel seriously out of shape and bloaty.  Plus have my half marathon next weekend that I did not train for so it's time to get serious.  I did come home to these W Hotel goose down pillows and comforter that I splurged on before I left for my honeymoon.  They are divine!!  Seriously the best things ever.  Makes it even harder to get out of bed now.

I also bought 3 pairs of boots which I will write about later, since I was so envious of people with boots when I was in Europe.  Kind of over board I guess.  But whatever!

Oh also, I heard from Fitness magazine again and they have put me on their minimalist running shoe tester list this year.  Yesssss!!!!!!  I should be receiving my shoes in the mail any day now.  Super exciting!!!  I am glad I was able to get off the spin shoe list, since I have plenty of spin shoes and don't spin very often anymore.  I can never have too many pairs of running shoes though...

Anyway, now I just wanted to share some pictures I took in Europe.  I loved every single second of it!!  Every country was amazing, and I can't wait to go back there and seeing more countries!  We still have TONS of pictures to go through, but these are some that I took with my phone.

Prague - the perfect fairytale European city, one of my favorites!

View of Prague Castle from across the Danube River

Old Town Square in the rain

Another Old Town Square

St. Nicholas Cathedral - Baroque style

The stained glass window inside St. Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle - this window was like 20 feet tall!  Amazing detail...

The outside of St. Vitus Cathedral - I love the neo-gothic style

View of Prague from the castle

Next stop: Vienna.  I loved Vienna as well.  It is so clean and beautiful.  Very classical.  There were lame people all over town dressed as Mozart trying to get you to go to a concert, which we would have loved to do but did not bring nice enough clothes nor had time.  Guess this means we will have to go back!  

The Spanish Riding School.  All the buildings in Vienna looked like this - very beautiful, lots of details carvings

Budapest is next, I will always remember Budapest as having amazing food and wine.  The thermal baths are fun too!

The left side of the river is Buda and right side is Pest.  Took this picture on the Buda side, on top of the Citadel which we climbed FOREVER to get to.  The view is worth it though!

You can see the palace and the castle from this view, on the Pest side, with the Chain Bridge connecting them.

Venice is the next stop.  Loved Venice but they really need to stop being thieves and give people better exchange rate on the island.  We got better rates at the Amsterdam airport than anywhere in Venice!  LOL! 

Maybe we should have taken a ride in one of those gondolas huh?

Then headed to Croatia, where beautiful coastline of the Adriatic can be seen.  Pretty, but the country was overall very very touristy.  The whole economy is based on tourism.  I'm not really into places that exist solely for tourism.

Here you can see how clear the water is there - this country has soooo many rocks, barely any sand on the beaches.

Here is one of my favorite places in Croatia.  The Diocletian Palace in the city of Split.  I think they said it is the most well-preserved Roman ruin in the world.  This dome was not open before, but during WWII the Allies dropped a dud that broke the ceiling.  But it failed to explode, which is how the palace was preserved.

View of Dubrovnik - The whole entire city is walled off to prevent attack back in the day

View of the city while walking on the city wall - I swear every city in Europe has a red roof

Dubrovnik at night - we had very good seafood platters here

We went to Montenegro for a day trip while in Dubrovnik - it is not very far from Montenegro.  It's a very beautiful country, and the mountains really do look black because of the low pine trees.  Montenegrins are known to have highly organized gangs all over Europe.  And good looking men - tall dark and handsome.  LOL!  I found all the waiters and people we encountered to be very nice.  Some of the nicest of all the countries we've been to actually.

There's an Old Town here too

Lastly we went to Slovenia.  The beautiful Lake Bled with the Alps in the background really made me want to move there, or at least go back there ASAP.  I loved it, and they have very good food at decent prices too.  A great place to end of trip.  We went running around the lake one night, which is about 4 kilometers.  But we kept stopping to take pictures and gasping at the view!  If my neighborhood view looked like this I would go jogging everyday all day.  I love Bled because I feel like it hasn't been found by mass tourists, so you can still enjoy this little piece of heaven on earth.

Check out the Alps floating in the background

Closer view - Castle is right below the Alps too

Progess of the sunset

Here's an island in the middle with a small church built on it - I like that you have to take a boat to get there

A different side of the island, with the Alps behind it

Just a part of the trial - so beautiful when the leaves are changing colors

It feels very weird to be back home.  I think we were gone just long enough to forget about everything in real life.  Now we are back to the grind of things.  Even though it was kind of a go-go-go type of trip, I don't feel burnt out or anything.  It was a very nice time to be away.  Can't wait to plan our next trip!  Thinking Paris for Christmas next year and it just might happen!

Good to be home though!  I missed my washer and dryer, and my closet.  Lol.