Mario, Bellflower, CA

raina4fairy
raina4fairy@aol.com

Posted Jul 8, 2007, 6:59 pm
Mario has packed up his notebook and has put on his tag. He is ready to go see the world. Thanks to my sister Raina it looks like Mario will be leaving pretty soon.
raina4fairy
raina4fairy@aol.com

Posted Jul 8, 2007, 7:06 pm
Mario is packed up and traveling to the UK. I hope he makes it there ok. I have grown attached to him, he is almost like another little brother.
raina4fairy
raina4fairy@aol.com

Posted Jul 14, 2007, 5:16 am
Poor Mario is missing. Where could he be? It looks like he may be stuck in a postal strike. Most likely Bowser started the whole thing to keep him from his journeys. I am sure he will make it though. The good guys always make it in the end.
drakie


Posted Jul 16, 2007, 6:21 pm
Hi, I am here I arrived end of last week, but guess what, my hosts computer has broken, she is changing her server and its all gone caputted... so may take a week or two, but just to say mum I am ok, I have visited the Police €station, and sit in a police car, great eh!!!

Got a big bbq on saturday as it is a big birthday for my host so lots of food, food and more food, yipeeeeeeeee , will take lots of photo`s so as soon as connected can update you. 

Then in 2 weeks going to Nottm to see Robin Hood.... yeah

you will see me as soon as is possible, met Shirley Sheep, and Eddy Bear...
drakie


Posted Aug 13, 2007, 6:05 pm
Well its been a long time, my host is having big problems with her computer... change of service provider, and she is tearing her hair out.  On top of that, lost disc with pictures of ME on them, how could she.

Well I went to a BIG BBQ she had a BIG birthday but she wont tell me her age, I met all her friends, lots of sausages and burgers and kebabs, been dreaming of sausages ever since. 

We then went to Nottingham to see Robin Hood, Nottingham Forest and Notts County Football grounds but again the pictures got lost.

We went to a duck race, which was actually sad and exciting at the same time.  There are thousand of little duckies, the plastic tiny ones not a real person like me.  Well all these little duckies have a number on their bottoms and then put into big dustbins, tickets are sold with the numbers on.  Everyone is excitedly standing at the start of the race down the river, when lots of bulky men empty the dustbins over the river and then all the plastic little duckies swim for their lives... help.... in the excitement I nearly fell in too!!!!  then you race the duckies down the river until the end, and even more big men in the river with large waders on their feet, just in case they dont turn into duckies themselves!!! ha ha ha...

The men catch the first 7 ducks through the race line to see which lucky duckie has won a prize,  yeah sad I know but it was a bit exciting.  Well since most of the duckies landed on their heads!!!

We went to Sidmouth Folk Festival which is on every year, people come from all over the world watching all different types of musicians all along the sea front.... very jovial, had a little sing song myself.....  did check no one was listening first!!

Anyway that is all for now.  Pictures to follow as and when my hosts computer works, should be this week, but she is ringing them tomorrow to tell them off yet again......  oh dear.
becka_kate


Posted Nov 1, 2007, 8:28 am
Mario has arrived safely. He's currently catching up with Mei and meeting the other TV's staying here and will update his travelog with photos soon!

                                    *******************

Here are the photos as promised.....
Been kicking back with Mei in the hammock and enjoying the beautiful pre-summer weather (when it's not bucketing down rain and thunder storming!)
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becka_kate


Posted Nov 4, 2007, 5:51 am
We made a Sunday drive through the Royal National Park today. (Did you know Australian's drive on the left side of the road? I was a little concerned at first, but after a while got used to it!)
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The Royal National Park was established in 1879 and is the world's second oldest national park - after Yellowstone in the USA. In July 2006, this park was added to the National Heritage List, which are places with outstanding natural, Indigenous or historic heritage value to Australia.
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We spent a lot of time driving along the road as we were headed to Bundeena, which is 23km in from the highway. We saw lots of native plants and trees.

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We crossed the Audley Weir (which has a tendency to flood after heavy rains, but the sky was clear, so we knew we'd be ok getting back out!)
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At times it felt like we were never going to get there! The road just kept going on and on and on!
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But then we came over a bend and I could see water. My hosts and travel guides had told me I could play on the beach at Bundeena, so I knew we must be getting close!

becka_kate


Posted Nov 4, 2007, 6:02 am
Bundeena is a tiny beach side village in the Royal National Park. It is quite isolated even though it is right on the edge of the city. You can only access it by the long, winding drive we took or by a ferry service from Cronulla. Sometimes it is cut off by flooding at Audley, bushfires in the National Park or bad weather that makes it impossible for the ferry to run. The beach is very beautiful and a nice place to spend a Sunday afternoon relaxing.

Berlin Bear, PampleMoose and I had a lot of fun on the beach before having a late lunch and heading back 'home'
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We all thought we'd enjoy living in one of these houses!
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Look at the view you would have!
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Before we could go home, we just had to experience life in a gum tree in honour of one of our hosts, Kalli
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becka_kate


Posted Nov 6, 2007, 5:52 am
Today is the first Tuesday in November, which means that it is Melbourne Cup Day!
Melbourne Cup Day is Australia's most famous Tuesday. At 3.00 pm AEST, on the first Tuesday in November, Australians everywhere stop for one of the world's most famous horse races - the Melbourne Cup.

It is called "The Race That Stops a Nation" and even those who don't usually bet try their luck with a small wager or entry into a 'sweep' - a lottery in which each ticket-holder is matched with a randomly drawn horse. (Our host had a small win in the $1 sweep at work, but doesn't know how much she's won yet!)

Us ToyVoyagers decided to get in on the action - one problem though, we had no money  :( so we just had to pick a horse to barrack for. I chose Scenic Shot (#15).

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Then it was time for the race to start. It was so exciting!
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And, guess what!  :o
My horse my horse didn't win or place. I was a little disappointed :(, but still it was a fun afternoon.
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becka_kate


Posted Nov 17, 2007, 4:46 am
Today I visited Nan Tien Temple at Wollongong with my host, her mum and cousins.
It was about a 1 hour drive down the coast but I enjoyed taking in the scenery. A lot of it is the same Royal National Park we visited last weekend. I also enjoyed the nice sunny day after a week of heavy rain! The boys made sure that I didn’t miss any of the view while travelling in the back seat.
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Our first stop was Sublime Point to take it the view of where we'd be going from the lookout.
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Our eventual destination (for lunch) is on the 3rd peninsula you can see in this photo. On a clearer day you get a much better view of the lighthouse on the point, but today was still a little hazy from the poor weather!
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Look at the view - you can see why they call it "Sublime"
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And just get a look at how steep the Illawarra Escarpment is! Can you believe they used to use ox carts to transport wood and coal up the mountain and back to Sydney?
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The lookout had these really cool Morton Bay fig trees. The boys we were travelling with had the idea to climb them. I decided to join them. I really like this tree climbing thing!
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Look at this pretty flower. It is an Australian native called a Grevillia. They don't have much of a fragrance, but birds enjoy eating the nectar the grevillia's produce.
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Here I am at Nan Tien Temple near Wollongong. "Nan Tien" in Chinese, literally means "Paradise of the South". This is the biggest Buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere. It also has the largest terracotta tile roof of any building in the southern hemisphere. This is the "Great Hero Hall" which is the largest of the two shrines. We went inside and enjoyed the sense of peace that you can’t help but feel here.
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I found this poster of a Buddhist teaching outside the great hall. It says
“Everyday is a good day.
Everywhere is a good place.
Everyone is a good friend.
Every family is a good relative.”

A good thought for ToyVoyagers too, don’t you think?
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Look at the great view from the Temple.
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There are a lot of Buddhist statues around the beautiful gardens.
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It is such a nice place to just sit and relax and take in the natural surroundings (if you can ignore the sounds of the cars whizzing by on the highway!!)
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becka_kate


Posted Nov 17, 2007, 4:48 am
It was getting late in the day and we were all hungry so we went into Wollongong to get fish and chips for lunch and watch the water.
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Luckily, being so late in the afternoon (almost 3:30!) the fish and chip shop was not as busy as normal and we could get seats right out front (not a normal occurrence on such a nice day!)
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Look at those seagulls. Would you believe that one of them had the audacity to steal a piece of fish directly out the hands of Bec's mum right when we all weren't looking!?!
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That building at the end of the pier used to be a fish and chip co-op but is now an expensive seafood restaurant. Behind it is the lighthouse Cassiopeia visited when she came to Wollongong with Bec & Kalli
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Following lunch it was time to head home. We chose to take the older, more scenic route rather than the same expressway we'd travelled down on. The old highway follows the coast and winds through the old coal mining villages.
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becka_kate


Posted Nov 17, 2007, 4:51 am
We had to follow tradition and watch the hang gliders and get an ice cream cone from the ice cream truck at Stanwell Tops on the way home.
There weren't that many about as it was getting really late in the day. They're so brave! We all agreed that it's probably ok once you're up there, but taking that last step off the cliff?? No way!
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BTW - That's the Tasman Sea you can see to the right of me!

Did you know that this area (called Bald Point) is important in the history of flight because in 1894 a man called Lawrence Hargreaves was the first man in the world to fly with the help of four box kites on the beach below here?

becka_kate


Posted Nov 17, 2007, 11:48 pm
This afternoon we travelled into Darling Harbour to go the Backpacker and Adventure Traveller Expo at the Convention Centre to help Bec & Kalli with their travel plans.

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Those white posts are part of the roof of the Convention Centre. The centre was built in 1988 as a part of the Australian Bicentennial celebrations and I guess they're supposed to represent the tall ships that bought the English to Australia in 1788?
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After we'd collected a lot of information, brochures and other stuff we took some time to explore Darling Harbour. It was very crowded, probably because it was such a nice day after a week of heavy rain and cool weather.
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This is part of the city skyline. The tall building in the middle is World Tower, which is the tallest residential building in New South Wales, and the second tallest in Australia. It is so big it has it's own postcode!
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The playground next to Tumbalong Park with Sydney Tower in the background (plus Macca's and the funny red and blue building used to be Sega World, but is now an game centre)
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The park around the lake is a great place to sit and eat lunch & in fact we did just that!
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Buzzing around Darling Harbour are all these mini trains that take you from one place to another, as well as advertising various tourist destinations in the precinct. This one is advertising the Lindt chocolate café. Yum! My host would love to go there!
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In the background is Tumbalong Park where very often cultural festivals are held. Today it was the Egyptian Festival.


The sun was getting hot and there is a great gelato stand ..... so we stopped and had gelato! Yum! I know it doesn’t look that great, but the strawberry and chocolate mixed together was great! It had to be eaten quickly before it melted everywhere.
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This is the view we had while we consuming gelato. It was a very popular place to sit and enjoy the sun today.
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becka_kate


Posted Nov 17, 2007, 11:59 pm
After the gelato it was time to run and jump on a ferry to get to Circular Quay. My host tells me there's no better way to make the trip home from Darling Harbour, and on a day like today I'd have to agree. (Although the humans escorting us did get a little sunburnt sitting on the outside deck so us TV's would get a better view of the Harbour!)

The green trees are hiding the Sydney Observatory on Observatory Hill, which you may remember Mei visiting a few weeks ago? The colourful building are a part of the docks, where you used to often see giant fleets of cars being delivered by container ships. There are plans now to redevelop the land for residential towers. Guess the people in the buildings behind there (one of whom used to be Bec's boss!) are not happy about losing their beautiful views!
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The famous Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Two icons in one pic!
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And then it was time to get on the train and go home.
ChristinaB


Posted Jan 16, 2008, 12:04 pm
After these wonderful summer adventures in Australia I arrived at the opposite part of the world today: Vienna/Austria. It is really freezy here but I had no time to complain because right after I was unpacked from my envelpe my host put me into a suitcase and I was told that we would go to visit their relatives in Upper Austria and then continue our little trip to Salzburg for skiing.
drakie


Posted Jan 17, 2008, 5:01 pm
Well my host and hubby and his mum all went on a lovely break to see the lights at Blackpool, it was a lovely day on the Saturday.  We went to the big fair and we saw a lovely sunset.

On the Sunday we went to see an exhibition of Beatrix Potter, wow did I have fun, I sat and had a chat with Mrs Tiggy Winkle the hedgehog, spoke to Jeremy Toad, sat in the bucket of Mrs Piggy and was naughty with Peter Rabbit.  It was a great Exhibition and we saw the drawings of Beatrix Potter which she sketched for her books.

The weather was great on the Saturday but as usual with the lovely English weather it rained on the Sunday, but as we were inside it did not matter much.  We then had cream tea and made the long journey home.

Well my trip is about come to an end, I have had fun, my host is not happy with her computer so it will take take time for an update.  But next I go away, lets hope its warmer than here....
drakie


Posted Jan 17, 2008, 5:03 pm
We went to see the Summer fair in seaton with the floats all dressed up, people were dancing and singing in the street, and i had a wonderful view.
drakie


Posted Jan 17, 2008, 5:05 pm
We went to see one of my hosts friends who was poorly and not at work.  She lives in Minehead a sea side town, I decided to take a stoll along the beach, and for a change it did not rain... wonderful....  I decided I would rest in a deckchair and enjoy the sun, what a life...

On the way back we passed through Dunster, a pretty little village I got a little lost amongst the flowers, but I am on the pictures.... honest.
drakie


Posted Jan 17, 2008, 5:09 pm
We had a trip to the seaside again, in the dark... strange people these English....  anyway... this is the walkway which was used in the film An Officer and a Gentleman, never heard of it myself but I think my host is showing her age, I told her I would believe anything she said.   
ChristinaB


Posted Jan 30, 2008, 11:07 am
I finally arrived in Austria after a looong journey from Australia. Immideately after I was picked up from the mailbox in Vienna my hosts told me that we would go on a skiing holiday to a place called Zell am See (near Salzburg).

And so we did! We had a great time there. Did a lot of walks through the town and the surroundings and the scenery was really beautiful. I'm in good company with some other Toyvoyagers so we have alot of fun! Some of us even went up a big mountain by cablecar (I couldn't because I was too big and didn't fit in the rucksack anymore... What a pitty, but I saw the mountains nevertheless and played in the snow and the others showed me a photo from the very top of the mountain...)

Here you can see me in Bad Hofgastein where we visited an indoor pool - very relaxing ;)

ChristinaB


Posted Jan 30, 2008, 11:09 am
Since my host loves Salzburg and since it was only about 100 km from Zell am See we once went there to do some sightseeing and enjoy a lóng walk through the city center. So I got to see the old fortress on the hill, had a walk through "Getreidegasse", the most famous street in Salzburg where I also saw the house where Mozart was born. Then we went to listen to the bells in a tower called "Glockenspiel", had a look at the big dome and we also visited Mirabell castle. I was told that it is very beautiful to walk through its park in summer when they have tons of flowers growing there!
ChristinaB


Posted Jan 31, 2008, 12:22 pm
We are back in Vienna now and already did alot of sightseeing! Unfortunately the weather is rather bad here (no sun at all for more than 3 weeks, after these wonderful days in Australia that's pretty hard for me ;) ) so everything is a bit grey here. But I must admit, I like Vienna nevertheless.

A few days ago we had a looong walk through the city center. I saw Hofburg which was the BIG castle of the Habsburg family in former times. Nowadays I was told it hosts the President's office, the national library and some museums. Ah, and the Lippizzaner, the famous horses here in Vienna. Well, I didn't see them - but some other horses. They are everywhere in the city to go sightseeing with tourists and people call them "Fiaker"

ChristinaB


Posted Jan 31, 2008, 12:28 pm
Did you know that Vienna is full of cafés? Wonderful cafés I must admit - and they are full of delicious things: cakes, biscuits and whatever! I even saw this elephant made of Marzipan in one of the café's windows. Wow, hm?

I also got to see St.Stephen's cathedral, the very, very big church in the center of Vienna. And then there was the opera! Oh, lŕ lŕ! I would have loved to go inside but we couldn't since it was closed. They were preparing everything for the famous opera ball which will take place this evening. If I could at least go there... But my host said that would be impossible since I don't have my smoking with my and they have very strict rules concerning clothes there. But she promised me that we will watch it on TV! And we will have our own party tonight since it is carneval! My host said she has a surprise for me, Kanga and our friends living here... What will it be?
ChristinaB


Posted Jan 31, 2008, 12:31 pm
I also saw the Giant Wheel!!! It is sooo famous I was told! It is located in an amusement park called "Prater" but it was on winter holiday when we came there...

So we continued our sightseeing tour to the House created by Hundertwasser. Isn't it beautiful? I'd love to live in there! Next time I come to Vienna I'll search for a host living in this house because I was told that there are normal flats inside. So there must also be somebody inside who wants to host me - right???
ChristinaB


Posted Jan 31, 2008, 12:38 pm
Yesterday we went to Schönbrunn Palace. It was also one of the Habsburg family's castles - seemed to be a kind of "richies" these Habsburgs...

Oh, the castle was beautiful! And the park! Wow! We had a long walk, saw all these different fountains and even went up the hill to the point of view called "Gloriette". Wonderful, really! And then - do you know what we did then? We went to the zoo!!! There is one in the park of the Palace, a really big one and it was really impressive to see all these animals. My host got a bit angry because they have a new Panda baby there and she wanted to see it - but there were soooo many people waiting infront of the Panda house so we couldn't go inside. But all the other animals were fascinating, too!
ChristinaB


Posted Feb 5, 2008, 7:42 pm
Carneval in Austria! Oh, how funny! We had a real party, Kanga & I and all the toys living here! We ate these delicious things called "Krapfen" and danced and played some funny games!
raina4fairy
raina4fairy@aol.com

Posted Apr 1, 2008, 8:04 pm
Mario decided to come and visit Raina for awhile. It has been awhile since he had seen her. He is going to have a look around the convent before going on his way.

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