Travelog for: Sandi Rose

Hi Mom!

It was such a nice day today, so we decided to go to the Stadtpark. That's a huge park in the city with lots of old trees and benches where you can relax, where kids and also older kids  play sports in the summer.

Now there are small mountains of leaves everywhere and we really wanted to jump right in. But there were the gardeners there and I'm sure they wouldn't have appreciated it.

And there's something else in this park: There are so many squirrels jumping around there, searching for nuts! They are called "Hansi" here in Graz. I don't know why and my host mom doesn't either. But she told me, that they have always been called that and nobody really know why anymore....

You have to look carefully at the pictures so you can see the sqirrels there. I marked them in a few pictures (the pics are black and white and the squirrel is colored.)

They were sooooo cute 

Hi Mom!

Another TV arrived today! It's a Canadian eagle- he even has a maple-leaf on his foot! He brought us chocolate and a cute TV-calendar-postcard!

He arrived just in time for some decorating for Christmas! Here in Austria they have a tradition: They have a special wreath here, called Advent-Kranz in German. It has 4 candles on it, one for each Advent-Sonntag (Advent-Sundays)- that are the Sundays before Christmas! You can see me decorating! We put the candles on the wreath and then some bows- they have moose on it!

That was fun!

Hi Mom!

We started baking cookies today!

First we made a shortcrust dough! It had to rest then for a while. After resting we took the rolling pin to make the dough really thin. With a cookie cutter we made some small boots- these will be some delicious cookies!
While they were in the oven we made the dough for some macaroons. It was really tasty! We were even allowed to try it!

We also made other cookies called "Florentiner". I guess they are named after the city of Florence, Italy. They are made of dried and candied fruit, with almonds and honey. Then you dry it in the oven.

Phew- it was really hard work!

Hi Mom!

We did some shopping in the city center today and went to the Landhaushof. That is a courtyard in the inner city. In the summertime, there are often concerts or open air movies. And now, in the weeks before Christmas there is a nativity set there, made of huge ice cubes! I guess it is hard work to built this every year and then, when the weather gets warm, the nativity set melts away 

Then we went on shopping, but found another nativity set on display: made of wood.

Hi Mom!

Today we continued with the baking! We wanted to frost some of the cookies, so we had to cut the chocolate first and let it melt over a bowl filled with hot water. When the chocolate was molten, we let it cool a bit and then dipped the cookies in the chocolate. We let it dry on a baking sheet.

We then made two kinds of macaroons: with chocolate and with chocolate and almonds. The chocolate ones were sprinkled with cocoa, those with almonds drizzled with molten chocolate and almond slivers.

We went on with decorating the small boots we had baked two days ago: We frosted them with white and red icing.

Finally we took the Linzer cookies and filled them with apricot jam!

I can't wait to taste them! 

Hi Mom!

Today my host mom's and host dad's families were invited for an afternoon of cookies and tea! Because it was also the 6th of december, we have been visited by St. Nicholas who puts presents in the boots of good children. Sometimes he also comes personally, especially to small kids, with a huge bag full of presents and his huge golden book, where he can find all the information about a special child for exampel that it has been good in school or that it doesn't follow all the rules... then the kids promise to do better next year and get the presents. In the old days they were given oranges and tangerines, apples, dried fruit and peanuts. Today it's also chocolate, toys... Very traditional presents are also underwear and socks, but kids don't like to get practical stuff!
Kids that havent been good are visited by the Krampus, a very unkind creature with lots of fur and some birch and some chains...see here for more information on the Krampus.

Of course we all have been good, so we found some goodies in our host mom's boots. There were also present for our host dad: some traditional boxers 

Hi Mom!

Look at all the holiday decorations:

A huge moose - that's so cute! And of course a mistletoe above the door! And some Christmas ornaments in a huge glass.

Then we did something really traditional during the wintertime in Austria: We watched skiing! Skiing is really popular here and the Austrians have a really good ski-team 

In the late afternoon we went to the city center and looked at the decorations and the Christmas markets there!

I'm enjoying this Christmas time here!

Hi Mom!

Today my host mom surprised us and told us that we were going to Schladming, a town in Upper Styria, in the mountains. So we packed our bags and skis and the skigear and went to Schladming.

It was pretty cold there - -15°C - but a beautiful snowy landscape! My host mom tooks us with her to the skislopes and we went up the mountains with a cable car and some chair-lifts! We looked at the map to decide which slope to take!
We also went to a skihut-restaurant to warm ourselves up and eat something. Usually it's "Gröstl", that's a dish made of roasted potatoes and noodles, sometimes also with dumplings and sausages, or meat. (See picture here.)

In the evening we watched a ski race held by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation. It was a realty tv show, where Austrian celebrities learned how to race. The celebrities raced together in a team with a former Austrian professional skier, like Franz Klammer, Stephan Eberharter or Fritz Strobl.

Skiing was really fun!

Hi Mom!

Today we are celebrating Christmas! So my fellow TV-friends and I wanted to wish you a very Happy Christmas.

Here in Austria they wish "Frohe Weihnachten" 

The presents are brought here by the Christkind, which is kind of an angel who flies up in the sky! You have to write a letter with your wishes to the Christkind and put it at the window in december. The Christkind gets the letter while you are sleeping and it brings the presents to the good children (the younger and older ones) in the afternoon on Dec. 24th. It also brings the Christmas tree. Normally it rings a small bell as soon as it has finished decorating the tree. Then you are allowed to enter the room. But of course, the Christkind is no longer in the room but has flown on to the other children!


We looked at the tree with the candles and then we had a delicious meal. And of course we got presents!

Hi Mom!

We flew to London to celebrate the New Year there!
We took the Heathrow Express from the airport to the city center and then traveled on to our hotel, which was right next to St. Paul's Cathedral. In the afternoon we went to the London Eye. Unfortunately is was raining cats and dogs, a really typical British weather  and it was pretty cold, too! The pictures are also a bit dark, but you can see me inside the Eye.
My host-mom bought a London-Eye-bear and we TVs chatted with him. He won't become a TV but will stay with my host-mom's stepmom.

Puh, what a day! Time to go to bed! Tomorrow is new year's eve and we want to celebrate!

Hi Mom!

After a quick coffee and a pain au chocolat we started our sightseeing-tour!
We first went to a monument for the big fire in London in the past and walked through the streets of London. We saw a traditional English pub. Then we went to the Tower and the Tower Bridge. It was pretty cold again today, but despite the cold there were so many people out there sightseeing!
Of course we also did a little shopping at Harrod's!

Then we prepared for the evening ahead! We tried my host-moms ear-muffs on- they are pretty cool, don't you think? Froggy-green frog-muffs  .
We walked to the Thames and the fireworks viewing areas there. There were so many people, but we managed to get a nice place on a bridge. Then we had to wait for the Big Ben to strike midnight. To keep ourselves warm, we danced to the music. Finally we heard the clock strike and then everybody started counting: 10, 9, 8,, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
People started wishing each other a happy new year and started ooohing and aahhing over the fireworks. They really were great. Maybe you have seen them on tv? And then all the English speaking started singing: \"Auld Lang Syne\". My host mom knew the song as there is also a German version, but she didn't know the English words. But she said that she has regognized the song from "Happy new year, Charlie Brown".

When the fireworks had ended, we went back to the hotel and had a drink in the bar there!

Hope you had a great New Year's Eve, too!

Hi Mom!

Today we started with a lazy breakfast in bed - delivered by the roomservice! And we were quite hungry from all the oohhhing and aahhing yesterday 
While having breakfast we wtached the Vienna New Year's Concert which is broadcastet from Vienna to many many countries all over the world. My host mom told me that it's very traditional in Austria to watch the New Year's Concert on tv while having a late breakfast! As Mom also missed the Viennese Waltz at midnight - which is another very traditional thing to do in Austria - we waltzed together when the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra played a waltz. But, no photos of that...I guess my feet aren't made for dancing...

We then took the underground to the Houses of Parliament and walked around in that area. We also went to the Buckingham Palace, but we haven't seen HM the Queen. But we saw one of her guards, with his cool felt-hat!

In the afternoon we went back to our hotel and then visited St. Paul's Cathedral! We went up so many stairs which have been old and uneven and kind of slippery sometimes but finally we had reached the platform and were able to have a look over the city!

I have to say, I really liked London. Maybe I'll come back for a visit some day....

Hi Mom!

I'm a little sad right now as I had to say goodbye to 2 of my new friends....Landroval and Papelbon will leave for Germany respectively Belarus.
Here you see us saying goodbye first to Landroval, and then to Papelbon.

I hope they'll have much fun and great adventures with their new hosts! Maybe our paths will cross again in the future!

Hi Mom!

It's been grey and cold here and so we didn't go much outside but stayed home where it was warm and cozy!

We also welcomed two new toyvoyagers in our home: SunnyHH and my host mom's own toyvoyager, Snuttig. SunnyHH and Snuttig came together in an envelope as they had stayed with the same host: pixiedustylady, who has rescued them from theier previous host. They told us their story and we are all really happy that they can continue their travel and are not lost at all!

Hi Mom!

Time to say goodbye again! My friend Atta is traveling on to her new host in the Netherlands!
We spent quite some time together and I hope that she will have a great time with her new host!

Take care!