I feel a little bad about keeping it from you, but last week I was off in Europe floating down the Danube River.  I kept the actual timing of my trip on the down low for security purposes.  Before I left, I scheduled a bunch of pre-written posts to keep you all entertained during my absence and to make it seem as though I was home.  Were you fooled?

Well … I hope you’ll forgive a little subterfuge on my part and understand the need for it.

And all of that aside, I am back!  After 10 days touring Hungary, Austria and Germany, I must confess it feels really good to be home.  I missed my cat, my own cozy bed, my time zone and my paint brushes!  Now that I am home, I am wide awake at 4 a.m. and completely out of it by 6 p.m.  But I’ll recover soon and hopefully be back to painting furniture.

In the meantime, I will bore you with stories and pics (I took nearly 1,000) from my travels.  I have only just begun to start sorting through my pictures and deciding which ones I like (which will probably be about 20).

I may have previously mentioned my love for good graffiti.  I have some great graffiti door pictures from Barcelona and Prague, and now I can add some from Budapest.

We floated past some gorgeous little towns in the Wachau Valley of Austria, including this one.

If I have to pick a favorite city, it would be Budapest.

But each place we stopped on our journey had its own character, and they were all magnificent.  I’ll share them with you one by one and let you be the judge.  Stay tuned!

P.S.  Are you wondering which bag I chose to bring along?  Well, I chose the cheap one from Target.  And seeing as I somehow managed to get green gum stuck all over the front of it on the plane ride home, I am glad I did!  I don’t feel as bad about ruining a $30 bag.

P.P.S.  Today I get the bad blogger award for being completely oblivious to my own blogiversary!  I began my blog precisely one year ago today.  I am cutting myself some slack for not having a blow-out blogiversary extravaganza by blaming it on jet lag.  I had some grandiose ideas for a celebration, but none of them came to fruition.  Maybe later …