Travelog for: S

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!

Hi Mom!

In the last post I told you it's a coming and going... today another toyvoyager arrived. His name is HappyLeopard. He is from the Netherlands!

And he brought lots of snow with him! So we decided to take a walk in a little forest nearby! We played in the snow there.
Wow, there was a lot of snow and it was really cold too. You can see that by the frozen lake - my host mom told me that there are normally some fish in there, but they are now deep down in this lake and not visible from the outside!

Our walk made us really hungry and luckily we have been invited to our host-grandpa! We had a really nice meal there: Spareribs 
In the afternoon we watched the ski-race on tv!

That was a great day!

Hi Mom!

We went to a big celebration today!

The Styrian branch of the Austrian nurses association celebrated their 40th anniversary. The celebration was held in the Old University building of Graz, a beautifully newly renovated building in the city center.
And because my host mom's stepmom is the president of the Styrian Association we have been invited, too!

There were nurses of all ages present, some who have founded the Styrian branch and some who have just been newly qualified! We also saw a dance performance of nursing students and a quartett of musicians played classical music!

Some nurses were given honorary medals and flowers! We also got some flowers because we took some of the decoration home with us!

After the official program has ended, we were allowed to join the queue for the buffet. No photos because we were too immersed in our food 

Hi Mom!

Today we have been invited to a birthday celebration. Therefore we had to get a present ready: We went to a shop where you can choose from a huge variety of different oils and vinegars and some alcoholic stuff. First you have to choose the design of the bottle and then you can see how they fill the bottle with the chosen oil from a big barrel.
We bought 5 different flavours as it was a 50th birthday celebration. You can see us with the parcel!

Then we went to a restaurant and had a great meal there- as ususal, no photos from the food! We are always to busy eating for taking pics 

Bye for today!

Hi Mom!

Becasue it is always so cold outside, we decided to make a nice cake, to warm ourselves up. We looked through a cookbook and chose a quick apple pastry recipe.

You need some puff pastry, apples, lemon juice, sugar and apricot jam. First you have to wash the apples and remove the apple cores. Then you slice it and put it in a bowl with lemon juice and sugar.
You have to cut the pastry and put the dough in tins, then you spread the dough with jam and line it with the apples.
Put it in the preheated oven and bake it. After approximately 20 minutes you can remove the tins from the oven, but you have to be careful as those are really hot. Our host mom told us to stay away from the oven and wait until the cakes have cooled a bit!
But then we were finally allowed to eat them! Mmmmmmhhhhhh delicious!

Bye for today!

Happy Valentine's day, Mom!

Here are some flowers for you:

Hi Mom!


Today is what people call here: "Faschingsdienstag". That means kind of "Carnival-Tuesday". It's the last day of carnival time and a day, when everyone is putting on a fancy dress. It's a great day especially for kids, as school closes up earlier and many offices have reduced business hours.

In the afternoon, everyone gathers in the city center to watch the traditional parade. Everyone can join this parade and the best costumes get a prize.
But we watched the parade on tv because you have to get early to the city center to get a place where you can watch the parade. But in front of the tv, all of us had great seats and we watched the colorful parade and the great costumes.

And of course we also dressed up! You can see us wearing our costumes! Happy Leopard is dressed as a flower, Snuttig is dressed as Winnie Pooh's friend, Tigger. Sandi Rose is a Swedish moose, and I'm a pretty angel and our SunnyHH is a soccer player!

What do you think of our fancy dresses?

We had a great time today, eating Krapfen, watching the parade and playing games!

Hi Mom!


Today we went to a neighboring town, called Thal bei Graz. That's actually where Arnold Schwarzenegger grew up. There's a lake where you can ice-skate or play hockey. Near the lake is a golf course, but now, in the winter, there are also cross-country slopes! You can see the signs indicating the easier slopes (blue and red) and those for trained skiers (black).
But we just went for a walk. It was a beautiful winterday, with sun  We also saw animal-tracks! I guess it's been a cat and some birds, but I'm not entirely sure... Can you guess what kind of animals made the tracks!
All I know is that it hasn't been a dog

Winterly greetings to you!

Hi Mom!

My host mom received a nice surprise today! Guess what, she got a small package with a stuffed Elmo from Sesame Street in it!
But Elmo was sooo flat, because he was vacuum-packed! He needed some air to expand to his real size.
We helped him to escape his package and then he told us about his friends from Sesame Street.

Maybe he will become a toyvoyager, too? We have to wait and see!

Hi Mom!

Today we went to a nearby town called St. Radegund. From there we took the cablecar up to the Schöckel. That's a mountain near Graz and the people like to hike up there all year round. We took the easy way, but walked around at the top of the Schöckel. Up there is a huge tower with antennae for the tv reception. We even found some animal tracks again!

That was a beautiful day!

Hi Mom!

I had to say Goodbye to Snuttig and the other friends today. I'm a little sad, as I have spent quite some time here in Graz... But I'm going to SunnyHH's mom, so I know that I will have a great time!

The others put some sweets in our travelbox and then brought us to the postoffice.

I hope I will arrive soon!

Hello Mum,

today I reached Sülfeld, where RikeH and Dicker Kumpel are living.

Dicker Kumpel gave me a warm welcome.



Then he introduced me to the other guys here. It seems to be a great place – some of them are here for months now.



We talked a lot – and Snuttig and I shared our sweets with the others.



Greetings
S

Hi Mum,

because the weather outside is horrible, we had to stay inside the house. But RikeH offered us delicious cakes. Look, they are really big.



It's too cold outside – there were'nt any tulips, but we had some inside. They were wonderful.



After eating two big peaces of cake I relaxed and talked to the fishes.



Bye for now

S

Hello Mum,

today we started our trip to Amrum Island – a nice German Island in the North Sea. We drove some hours – unfortunately the winter came back yesterday, but we arrived safe on the Coast – and saw our Ferry – called Schleswig-Holstein.



Here you see me inside  - with the typical greeting – Moin Moin.



I went outside – the weather was sunny – but it was cold.



We stopped at another Island, called Föhr. Some people left the Ferry, but we went on to Amrum.



What a great trip. I will write more from Amrum soon.



yours
S

Hello Mum,

today we explored Norddorf, the village, where we live. First we saw this funny stone.
The language is not German, but the language from Amrum.



In this gate is written  - better dead than slave. We say – better travelling than staying at home.



One of the wonderful old houses here.



We went into a nice café. I had a nice apple pie. And a hot chocolate with Grand Marnier. It was so yummy.



On our way back we saw another great house.



Hugs
S