Graz, Austria - 31st August 2009
By: marcie08
Hi Mom!
Today arrived a new toyvoyager! It's Sandi Rose, a very cute grey bear!
She was a bit tired, so we just welcomed her and talked about our travel experiences!
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Posted Sep 6, 2009, 6:40 pm
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Graz, Austria - 2nd September 2009
By: marcie08
Hi Mom!
Today arrived a new TV here in Graz! His name is Michel, he comes from Germany.
My host-mom had a great day today - she got lots of cards from postcrossing.
Then we helped her writing her cards for postcrossing and we found some great cards.
I've learned that there are no kangoroos in Austria! But I guess you knew that...
Bye for today!
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Posted Sep 6, 2009, 8:59 pm
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Graz, Austria - 12th September 2009
By: marcie08
Hi Mom!
Today we had to say goodbye to LittleWestiePup, who is continuing his journey!
We had a Linzer cake and champagne. The Linzer cakes comes from the city Linz, which is in another part of Austria and this year's Cultural Capital of Europe. Graz was that, too, in 2003!
It was nice meeting Westie!
Bye!
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Posted Sep 15, 2009, 8:39 pm
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Graz, Austria - 13th September 2009
By: marcie08
Hi Mom!
We wanted to do some sightseeing today and started with the Opera House. But then it started to rain cats and dogs so we decided to postpone the sightseeing and went home to watch a DVD. We watched Marley and me. Have you seen that movie? It was a bit sad at the end, but I think that Marley, the dog, was really cute! And the popcorn and nachos were great
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Posted Sep 15, 2009, 8:56 pm
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Graz, Austria - 17th September 2009
By: marcie08
Hi Mom!
What a surprise!
When we opened the mailbox today, we found a card from Michel's mom! That was such a lovely surprise!
We TVs were of course really curious about the card and so we all sat in a circle while Michel showed us the card and told us about Hamburg and all the sight you can see on this card!
His stories about Hamburg were great for yet another rainy day in Graz!
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Posted Sep 18, 2009, 3:11 pm
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Bärnbach, Austria - 19th September 2009
By: marcie08
Hi Mom!
Today we went to the western parts of Styria, to a city called Bärnbach. The city was famous for its coal mining in former days. That's why you see me on some coals and the wagon!
We visited the (catholic) church of St. Barbara there. The church is named after St. Barbara because she is the patroness of miners. This church is quite famous as is was redesigned by the famous Austrian painter and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser. He designed many buildings for example the Hundertwasser-House in Vienna, the KunstHaus in Vienna, a thermal spa in Bad Blumau, the oncology ward of the University Hospital in Graz, to just name a few.
The inside of the church is mostly the same as it has been before the redecoration, there were just a few alterations made to the altar.
The outside of the church is very colorful with mosaics and nothing is really geometric. Everything is a bit different, no straight lines.
Therefore my post today is also really colorful!
There is a walkway around the church and the path is uneven, made of different stones, bricks, tarmac... You pass through many archways, which all stand for a different religion with symbols of this specific religion on the archway. And then there is one without any symbols. For all people who don't believe or have a different view of life. My host mom decided it would be best to photograph me under the "naked" archway as not to offend any of her guest's parents!
You can also see that the pathway has been decoreted with an autumn theme!
We were given an extended tour through the church and its history and then it was time for some meal! No pics of that though.
We then went on to another city. I'll tell you more about that soon!
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Posted Sep 21, 2009, 5:39 pm
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Piber, Austria - 19th September 2009
By: marcie08
Hi Mom!
After we had visited the church, we continued our travel to Piber. We went by car and were of course all buckled up!
We went to Piber, to the Federal Stud, which is part of the Vienna Spanish Riding School.
You can see the Lippizan horses there. They are born there and stay on there until they are old and/or good enough to go to Vienna. Just the best horses get a chance to go there, the others stay at Piber and you even can buy them there (prices start at € 3.000,--).
There is so much to learn about the horses, so we took a guided tour. I can't write down everything I learned that day, but you can find tons of information her: click me.
The horses that aren't white yet are the young ones. They are really curious and come to the fences looking for some sugar cubes! But you have to be careful as they try to taste anything that is near...
The big white horse you can see on one picture is a stallion. He has of course his own quarters! But he got really excited in his paddock, as the mares were there in the morning! You can also do carriage rides here and you also see some of the special costumes of the riders or carriage drivers!
I also took a picture of some information about the stallion stables!
That was really a great day!
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Posted Sep 29, 2009, 6:19 pm
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Leutschach, Austria - 20th September 2009
By: marcie08
Hi Mom!
Today we made a trip to the Southern Styria, the part which is located near the Slovenian border. This part is very famous for its vineyards. They grow for example Welschriesling, Weißburgunder, Chardonnay (here called Morillon) and Sauvignon Blanc.
We first went to a "Buschenschank". Wikipedia translates it with "inn"... well, thats a kind of restaurant, where the wine farmers serve cold meals which have must contain just products that are homemade. In former days they weren't allowed to buy products and serve them and they also weren't allowed to serve hot meals. Now the rules aren't that strictly any more, but mostly you still find cold meals.
We were sitting on the balcony there, looking over the hills and the vineyards. We had a "Brettljause", kind of a Ploughman's lunch. Well, it's a wooden board (in the traditional version) or a plate (in the modern version) with different kinds of ham, bacon, cheese, pickles and so on. And a glass of white wine, of course!
Then we went for a little walk, through the hills and vineyards, up to a small plateau. We rested on a bench there, because it was a little bit steep climbing this hill...
And then we saw this really strange thing...it looked like a windmill, but it makes a strange sound when its windy... My host mom told me that's a very common thing here and called "Klapotetz". And there's a reason for its sound: It was built in the vineyards to scare away the birds who were eating the grapes!
Later we had roasted chestnuts, which are always made here in the vineyards when the grape harvest starts in autumn. And then they drink a special drink here called "Sturm" (translated storm). That's a wine in fermentation stage and it's only available for a short time every year.
After this day I was really tired because I have eaten soooo much!
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Posted Sep 29, 2009, 7:41 pm
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Graz, Austria - 24th September 2009
By: marcie08
Hi Mom!
Today we had to say Goodbye to Michel! He continued his travel! I will miss him and hope that he will have a great time with his new host!
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Posted Sep 29, 2009, 8:11 pm
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Graz, Austria - 29th October 2009
By: marcie08
Hi Mom!
Here are some pictures from a very nice football (soccer) evening last week! We were watching a Europe League Game on Tv and were dressed with scarfs from our host mom's favorite team, SK Puntigamer Sturm Graz. That was fun! We had Pizza and some other fast food!
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Posted Oct 29, 2009, 4:23 pm
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Graz, Austria - 4th November 2009
By: marcie08
Hi Mom!
We went for another sightseeing trip through the city of Graz and we were lucky because it was such a beautiful autumn day!
First we went to the Murinsel, an artificial island in the river Mur. It was built when Graz was Cultural Capital of Europe in 2003. You can see different views of the island.
From one of the bridges over the river you also have a great view up on the Schlossberg and you can see the Uhrturm! There are many ways to go up the Schlossberg, for example the staircase and also the funicular railway. When you look between the trees you see the two red cars going up and down.
We then went over one of the bridges again onto the other side of the Mur and went along the river. We came to Mariahilfer-Place with the white Mariahilfer-Church and went on to the Kunsthaus.
That's the Museum for art and photography and it looks quite funny. It was also built for the Cultural Capital of Europe 2003. Parts of the building are old, from the 19th century and the other part, including the blue bubble are new. The building is also called "the friendly alien" for its unusual form. There are lights on the bubble, kind of illuminated rings and they can display lots of different patterns in the evening (you can see a photo of that if you follow this link). You see me and my friends on a small model of the Kunsthaus, made for the blind, so that they can touch it and know what the building looks like.
At the end of our tour we went to the Franziskanerplatz and looked at the Franziskaner-Church.
I hope you like the pictures!
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Posted Nov 4, 2009, 11:12 am
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Graz, Austria - 11th November 2009
By: marcie08
Hi Mom!
Brrrr....it's getting winter here! The days are getting shorter and it is also getting dark earlier. We enjoy our time inside where it is warm and snuggle up with a cup of tea and a blanket!
And one day, we even had the first snow this autumn/winter. I saw the first snow! It was soooo exciting! It was quite heavy and for a few minutes everything was white. But soon the snow melted away.
I'm waitng for the first big snow here so we can have a snowball fight or build a snowman! I hope it will soon start to snow again!!!
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Posted Nov 11, 2009, 12:59 pm
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Graz, Austria - 16th November 2009
By: marcie08
Hi Mom!
Today we went shopping. My host mom is a bit unlucky with electronical things lately, first the computer, now the cell phone. So we went to the city center and looked for a new phone. We finally agreed on a phone and when we returned home, we toyvoyagers had to explain the phone to our host mom... she is not really friends with her new phone yet .... but we're proud of her when she manages to take a call
We also bought some baby clothes because a friend of our host mom just had a baby boy. We tried the clothes on and we found out that we are even smaller than newborns!
That was fun.
Maybe I'll get such a cap and some gloves for Christmas!
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Posted Nov 23, 2009, 12:52 pm
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Graz, Austria - 26th November 2009
By: marcie08
Hi Mom!
In preparation for the upcoming Christmas Time - here in Austria they call this time "Advent" - we did some cleaning!
First we loaded the washing machine, put in some washing powder or more a liquid. We even wanted a turn in the machine, but our host mom told us that it would be too dangerous for us... So we just sat there and watched the clothes turning!
Then we went in the kitchen to load and unload the dish washer. After having cleaned the kitchen we went on to the living room and used a glass cleaner to clean the glass table there and last but not least we took a tour on the hoover!
When everything was clean we did a little nap on the couch!
I think we were good TVs today, kind of Santa's little helper
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Posted Nov 28, 2009, 8:16 pm
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