a bike with a basket in front, please

so... the tour is over! and i have a whole bunch of timmmmmeeeee to write a proper entry (that, and I'm behind oodles)

slavenia.... wow, i can hardly remember what happened there. we walked up a really big hill to see some castle that wasnt very cool since it was built in 1905. but after slevenia, was budapest. i was able to go to buda with the group to take photos and see the gorgeous view of pest. it was rather disappointing that the church with the neat roof tiles was underconstruction. they were all multi colored. but on the lookout, shan and i tried to go to the second level of the thing. it rather looked like a castle, but not because it was more like a wall with lookouts and windows. but we tried to go to the second level and there were turnstiles there, so we jumped them and got yelled at in hungarian. we, of course, just looked at the guy blankly. they were also shooting a movie there in buda, so we couldnt walk directly behind the shot. in pest, i wanted a day to myself to buy some jeans and some alone time - a huge tour is not a good place to want alone time. but instead, i met up with some of the guys and we went shopping. they bought more than i did and we had to wait for simon to get his hair cut while the other two were looking at trashy magazines. that night, we went on a cruise down the river with hungarian food. golash soup and and stuffed cabbage type thing. soo soo good. vienna was the next stop. gorgeous. i tried sactre-tarte (taht is so not right, but it is really famous choclate cake). it was very rich. and cindy (the tour manager), came with us and told us about the turkish baths. where they was you completely clean and you get massages. and on the cealing are little pricks of light. needless to say, i'm excited to go to istanbul. after the cake, the girls wanted to go shopping. becasue, that is waht girls do. so instead, i waited for them and was talking to other tour people and got distracted by assessories since i lost my favorite red beaded necklace in slovenia. and i lost everyone when i got back. so instead, i roamed and took photos. in vienna, they have basically free bikes. where it only cost 2 euro for a tourist to use it their entire stay and residents can use for free if they only ride for under an hour. i've noticed that most cities have a deal like this. on the plane, i read about ti. to encourage residents not to drive cars and use public transportation and stay heathy. i think that it is rather good. we had a pretty posh hotel that night too. but the next day we headed into the mountains! ...where we mountain biked... after a night of going out. it wasnt the most fun. you don't feel quite awake and i remembered taht i didn't like hills after a incident in pennsylvania. i took the short cut and walked my bike up. and your butt hurts so so much afterwards. oy. but the ride down was fabulous. we rode through pastures of cows and little farms and just cute austrian countryside. there was paragliding that day too, but i didnt go. instead, i watched my first rugby match. australia v. britton. they lost. i didnt really understand what was going on either. white water rafting was amazing!! i had never gone before, so it was real good taht the water was too high to get mad white water. i also picked a raft with all boys so the guide had us do all these silly exercises. like standing up on the side of the raft. flipping the boat back over. swimming like a salmon. we were the only boat that did those things and we were the pirates because we overtook other boats. muahahaha. however, after that, i was sore. real sore. and not only sore but also bruised to no end. my thighs have all these little black spots and one big one that is about 2" x 6" that looks suspisciously like it may have come from an oar when someone piled upon me. there was a dog pile in the raft as well as lifting people out of the water just generally. that night, we went to oktoberfest. it was nuts. record high numbers of people attended. and you just start standing on tables and meeting people already at those tables because there is no way one big group can get their own. lots and lots of germans. and many of them had their traditional clothes on, leiderhosen and all. after oktoberfest, we went to st. goar in the rhine valley. it was boring. we did a wine tasting in a cellar that looked to be eons old, and it probably was. there was one red, three whites and a ice wine. the red was ok. the first white was good. but everything else was way way too sweet. on the way back to the crummy hotel, we passed a halloween shop. some people stopped in and one woman the enxt morning swore that she had been hexed by a witch. she is also rather crazy normally. so it was no surprise that she was the one makeing these outlandish remarks. she also told me straight in the face taht she doesnt like americans, so we arent on the best of terms. after germany is amsterdam! where i am right now. during the drive, it was interesting to see the farmland. most was for livestock. and there were no fenses! everything was seperated by little channels of water and the occasional gated bridge. we stopped in a little village where we rode girly bikes! i was really hoping for a little basket, but that was a no-go. we rode to a dijk and a windmill and it was fun for the girls. the boys thought less so. we also watched a wooden shoe be made and learned how they make cheese. the chessy samples were so very good. amsterdam has been fab so far. the first night we toured the red light district. it just makes you feel awkward and there are rumors that most of it will be closed down in a year or two. that night, we went out. i met some guys that were aussies too. hoping for someone dutch, but i get more aussies. anyways, he took a contiki a few years ago but rathers like backpacking. so i'm hoping that i will too. and we agreed taht the tour is a sort of manufactured experience of a city. you dont really get to see the city for what it is, just the touristy things. the full day, we went to the post office. oh, that was quite the trip. none of us had any idea as to how to fill out the forms to get them sent and they dont take credit there! however, the boxes are orange polka-dotted. we went to the van gogh museum and the heineken experience. van gogh was nice, there were a lot of famous pieces there. the sketches were quite my favorite though. especiallty that of his figures. today, everyone left, and it is just me. i checked into my hostel. and because i'm cheap, am in a real big room. with mostly boys, i am assuming this because it smells like boys. great. so i think when i go to other hostels to ask for smaller rooms, less chance of boys maybe? but i've just been wandering around today, taking it easy. i think that tomarrow i shall rent a bike. bikes here are awesome! for one they are girly, and i like that. but there are so many options on these bikes. mothers have wheelbarrow-esque attachements int he front that their kids can sit in. there are also small seats behind the handlebars for kids. and there was an absolutely adorable older couple taht the guy was pedeling and they converted the luggage rack in back inot another seat that his wife was sitting sidesaddle in. cute. cute.