Happily Hannah: Throwback Thursday {Budapest}

I was looking through my Europe pictures, as I do frequently, reminiscing of the perfection I experienced this summer. Every bone in my body aches to go back to Europe and my desire to travel all around the world has only been kickstarted. I look through my pictures, read my travel journal, and watch my Europe video (and Mack's!) at least three times a week. (I watch the video even more) When I think back to Europe, I remember each day, so so specifically. It was the greatest experience of my life that I am so grateful to have had. So since today's Thursday, it only seemed appropriate to do a little Europe throwback.
Let's throwback to exactly 7 months ago, the day we arrived in my favorite city in the whole wide world... Budapest. (Hey Riley, what country's capital is Budapest? ;))

What I remember about June 16...

We drove and drove through Slovakia and I sat next to Maya. Slovakia is such a beautiful green country!
We stopped in the side of the road to have this strange cheese, made from sheep's milk. It had an interesting flavor, but I liked it!
We saw a castle that I believe belonged to a Romanian prince
We ate lunch at a little ski resort in Slovakia and had the richest, most delicious macaroni and cheese.
It rained that day, but while we were on the bus. The weather was sort of overcast when we arrived in Budapest, but it was actually SO warm.
We got dropped off at this park/city center in Budapest. It was super neat.
WE WERE STARVING
Our walking tour seemed to last an eternity because we were so hungry.
I was quite impressed with how clean the city was and not jam packed with tourists.
On our way to dinner, there was a group of women and girls singing outside an apartment building. A lady had just had a baby and was standing on her balcony with the baby as the ladies sang to her. It's some Hungarian tradition that I thought was neat.
We finally got to go to dinner and it was great!
Afterwards, there was a little park we 'played' at. The slide was the coolest part.
We went back to the hotel, a trusty Ibis. I roomed with Maddison
We got to go out and explore the city.
We split into two groups- I went with a group to find the Gellért Baths and Spa on the Buda side. The baths of Budapest are of great renown so we wanted to see what they were like!
Once we found the Baths, we learned all information about them and made a plan to go the next day!
With some time left, we decided to hike Gellert Hill. Man was I regretting my decision of wearing sandals by the time we got to the top.
We got to the top and at that moment, I fell in love with Budapest. The view from the top of the hill is something embedded in my brain forever. A group of other tourists heard us speaking English and we began to talk to them. Two were from Boulder, CO! They were so kind and took our picture.
We realized we were running out of time and went down the hill as fast as possible. But as soon as we were crossing the bridge, we slowed down and took in the beauty that surrounded us.
Communication with the rest of the group got sort of jumbled so we ended up sitting in the subway station for a while. But Peter and Brenden kept us entertained with their singing.
We finally were reunited with our group and we went back to the hotel to hang out and end the day.
Brenden, Peter, Matt, Jimmy, and Carly came in me and Maddison's room. There, the night ended with Brenden, Matt, and Peter singing some song from The Hobbit and dancing with swim caps on their heads to Bohemain Rhapsody.