Travelog for: Struppi

At the moment, I'm in Duisburg, at the house of my owner's parents. Yesterday, we had a big birthday party for her brother, and in a few hours, I'll be on my way to Rostock.

The six hours train ride to Rostock was long, but relaxing. We had to change trains at Hamburg, but luckily, my owner Ilona thought about reserving seats in both trains.
When we arrived in Rostock, it was raining. I told Ilona to wait for the tram, so we wouldn't get wet, but she wouldn't listen to me.
"It'll be faster if we walk," she said.
Faster - maybe. But definitely more wet also. I was lucky and could hide inside the backpack, where it was dry. It was dark also and the backpack shaked with every step Ilona took. When we arrived, I was feeling sick!
Of course, Ilona was soaked when we arrived. I opened my mouth to say "I told you so", but before the words left my mouth, she interjected, "Come on, it isn't that bad. I'm sure that my shoes will be dry again in a few days. And besides, I like feeling the rain on my face."
I just shrugged my shoulders. As I already said, I was dry and it wasn't my problem.

Today, Ilona took me to visit Rostock. The city center is very beautiful, there are many old houses. I asked her to take a photo of me in front of the university, because I loved the building. She took out her camera, turned it on and I stood absolutely still, while waiting for her to take the photo. Finally, when the itching behind my ear became unbearable, I asked her through gritted teeth, still smiling, "What's taking you so long?"
"I think the batteries are empty."
And so I got to scratch behind my ear, and we finished the morning without taking any photos.

We had lunch in the cafeteria. I wanted to eat a nice jucy steak, but Ilona told me to try the pasta with tomato sauce with cheese. It was a great idea, and it tasted delicious.

Afterwards we went home and did Ilona's Swedish homework. I looked over her shoulder to study some Swedish as well. Although I'm going to travel to Czech Republic tomorrow, where I definitely won't need any Swedish, you can never know when it'll be useful.

In the evening, I stayed at home. Ilona had to go to university.
"You can't come with me, and besides, it would be very boring for you," she told me.
"What have you got that's going to be so boring?"
She sighed. "Radiology. It's actually quite interesting, but the classes are still boring."
I nodded weakly.
"Look, you can read in the book we read during the train ride yesterday." She gave the book to me.
My face beamed. "The one with the talking dog? Oh, I loved it!"

And so I spent the afternoon reading and looking out of the window. I quickly found out that the sight out of the window was nearly as interesting as the book. From here, it's easy to look inside the windows of other students, and I was very lucky. A girl got a visit from her boyfriend, and I could watch how the two started to ... erm ... show how much they had missed each other. To my great disappointment, the boy caught me staring and closed the blinds. What a pity!

I then looked at the people passing by and realized how much I wanted to travel and see the world. Tomorrow, I'll go to Prague, and I'm already very excited about it, so maybe I should start packing my bags now.

Today, I finally started travelling to Prague. I'm really excited about this trip, as I've never left Germany before.
I really hope that the trip doesn't take too long, I'm looking forward to exploring a foreign place

Hi from Prague!

After two days being wrapped in paper and plastic, someone finally unpacked me.


It was raining in Rostock and it's raining in Prague, too - I think that's not fair!


Huh, it was really quite a long way...


I'm going to visit the city center tomorrow. 

Today I wanted to visit the city center, but it was raining again. Therefore I just shortly went to the Old Town Square and then quickly returned to my temporary home.

Church of Our Lady in front of Týn


Old Town Hall


Church of St. Nicholas (in Prague, there are actually two churches dedicated to St. Nicholas; I hope I'll see the other one as well, and I also hope the weather will be better that time)

Today I found out that my host's brother learns Swedish. That's great! I can continue in my studies!

The weather was really nice today, so I decided to visit the Lesser Town and the Prague Castle.

I started on the Lesser Town Square, where the St. Nicholas Church is situated (yes, it's the church I was writing about on Friday).


The view of Prague from the ramparts of the Prague Castle is really nice.


The entrance of the castle is guarded by the members of the Castle Patrol.


St. Vitus Cathedral is the biggest church in the Czech Republic. It took almost 600 years to build it.


I wonder if some Toyvoyagers are on display in this museum.


Can you see the Charles Bridge behind me? I hope I'll see it from nearby some day.


Panorama of the Lesser Town


Fencing performance in the "Garden on the Ramparts"

Today I found this extraordinary guy in my hosts's flat. As we were discussing my itinerary, he suddenly also decided to travel.

The weather is quite capricious here. Torrential rains alternate with sultry heat. Therefore I prefer staying in the house, lying in the bed  or playing cards. (These two fellows taught me a new card game. It's called "Prší", which means "it's raining" in Czech - that's really appropriate )

I visited the Charles Bridge today. It's 650 years old; it was built under the rule of Charles IV.

These two towers are on the Lesser Town bank of Vltava river; therefore, they are called Lesser Town Bridge Towers.


I and Smooch the cow on the bridge banister.


Lot of artists, especially painters, sel their works right on the bridge.


Now I am on the other side of the river - the Old Town bank. It's  quite logical, that this tower is called Old Town Bridge Tower. (The sculptures on it are quite new, aren't they?)


So this is Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Bohemian King.


Panorama of the Charles Bridge and the Prague Castle.

I really like to search and snuffle in people's wardrobes. For example, today I found a chessboard, so I could play chess with Smooch. It was quite a dramatic game!

Finally, it's a bit sunny. I'm on the Republic Square and the building behind me is the Municipal House.


This is Powder Tower. It's quite similar to the Old Town Bridge Tower which I visited some time ago.


I wonder what was this animal doing in the centre of Prague. I tried to persuade it into travelling abroad, but it didn't seem interested.

My stay in Prague was amazing, but now I have to travel on. And it's going to be quite a long journey - my point of destination is Oregon!