Luddie, Vienna, Austria

cyndir Posted Nov 13, 2008, 6:43 am	Luddie is looking for some new friends!  Her mommy has decided that it's time for her to meet new people, make new friends, and liven up some lives!  I hope someone out there is looking for a new, cute, and cuddly friend to take in a for a little while.
cyndir Posted Nov 15, 2008, 9:39 am	Luddie is very excited because tomorrow she'll be off to visit Katrin in Hamburg, Germany!  The first of many trips she hopes (and so does her mum).  Luddie's so excited she can barely contain herself!  It's going to be a looooonnng night for her mum. ;-P Yay for Katrin in Hamburg!
cyndir Posted Nov 17, 2008, 4:05 am	Ok, now I'm all packaged up and ready to go to the post office.  I hope it doesn't take too long as it's pretty cramped in this envelope.  I'm so excited!  I can't wait to meet my new friends!
cyndir Posted Nov 19, 2008, 2:02 am	Luddie is now on her way to Germany.  I hope she's ok, stuffed int that little envelope.  She's a dreamer, so hopefully she sleeps the whole way and has lots of sweet, sweet dreams.  I miss her already  but I'm sure she meet lots of people, make lots of friends, and have lots of fun.  I can't wait to hear all about it :-)
babyamy Posted Nov 25, 2008, 8:55 am	Hey, what's bumping on me? I've been dreaming so nice... And now there is a light... Let's stretch the trunk out of the envelope and see where I am. Look, there is a little bear... I'm still a bit sleepy after this long journey. This must be my first host's house... My host Katrin says that I made it trough the cutoms without any problems and now I'm going to stay with her for the rest of the year. This little bear is called Peti, it gave me a big welcome hug.
babyamy Posted Nov 25, 2008, 8:39 pm	Katrin took me to Hamburg today. From Monday to Thursday she's working in the archive of a museum in Hamburg. Her task today was not too exciting. She got an old photoalbum which photos she has already scaned. Now she has to write an entry for each photo in the database. Later this morning a box arrived and curious as girls are did we open it. It smelled terrible like tabacco, since there were many things from an archive in it which collects cigarettes and everything what belongs to this topic.  We discovered this old ad for Camel, it's from the 1940's While Katrin was working, I sat in front of the window and lokked at all the people passing by. During the lunch break, Katrin and I went for a walk because the sun was shining and it wasn't too cold outside. This strange thing is called TRUDE, it's a drill which was used to builda tunnel under the river Elbe. It's very huge! Then we walked along this small river to get some more fresh air. This is at the central station before we took the train back home. Do you like this Christmas decoration? This was a strange view...Why do you tie up the garbage can with a phone booth and a bench? We don't know. In the train I got my own seat...until and old lady came, who nearly seated on me! I decided to spend the way home safe in Katrin's bag.
babyamy Posted Nov 26, 2008, 7:55 pm	Katrin's mum has started to decorate the house for Christmas. When Katrin came back home today, Luddie and I had to show her what we had discovered. These two wooden figures are sitting on the window shelf on the first floor. The bells on this photo are typical for Katrin's hometown, the way they are looking is called Fayencen. This website is in German, but when you click on "Kellinghusener Jahresteller" in the left frame, you can see some more Fayencen. We even met a small version of Santa Clause or the "Weihnachtsmann", that's how he is called in German. He said that we can visit him again and then he will teach us some German Christmas poems.
babyamy Posted Nov 30, 2008, 6:15 pm	Today we went to Lübeck, it's an old city near the Baltic Sea. This is the most known sight of Lübeck, the "Holstentor". In front of the "Holstentor" there was this sleeping lion. It was snowing and raining the whole time, not the best weather to take photos outside... The Christmas fair, in the background St. Mary's Church. There were many many people and Katrin was scared to loose one of us, that's why she didn't take more photos.
babyamy Posted Dec 1, 2008, 8:44 am	Look at this! Although Katrin told her mum that she feels a bit to old to get an "Adventskalender", her parents gave her one with wine gum! The door number one was on the left button side... ...and behind the door was a little bag of gummi bears! Katrin shared them with us.
babyamy Posted Dec 1, 2008, 4:50 pm	Katrin had a day off from work today and had had big plans what she wanted to do today... well, she did about half of it...  She wrote a letter to on of her pen pals and was happy, that she could finally use her paper with Christmas motives. The most important work of the day: write the presentation about her work in the museum for next week's event at her university. Katrin didn't like this work, but it must be done. This was her favorite work: preparing surprise letters for some other TV hosts. Since she read the Christmas wishlist thread yesterday, she's been busy and this is the result: three letters filled with little surprises. And finally Katrin discovered unknown creativity, she draw this picture forsararingham's art sketchbook. It's nothing special, but Katrin is proud of it since she hated art class in school.
babyamy Posted Dec 4, 2008, 3:56 pm	Katrin came back home at bit earlier today and she grabed us to take some photos outside. She was a bit sad, that she didn't take us with her to Hamburg yesterday, since it has been snowing more or less the whole day. Today most of the snow has been melted away... This is the Christmas decoration in front of the front door. It was getting cold outside and we went back to the kitchen. Katrin wanted to show us, what she is going to eat for breakfast for the next years. This is millet, amaranth and     buckwheat. She eats it with fruits and cream. On Monday Katrin went to the doctor's and the doctor told her, that she isn't aloud to eat anything which includes milk, egg and wheat/gluten anymore when she don't want to become really sick. It seems like Katrin has to change her eating habits a lot, but she has some plans and is still in a good mood... But there was a surprise in the mailbox, that cheers Katrin up at once: It was a letter from Eryah... ... with a little Christmas surprise! Katrin fell in love with the little pig at once, but she is still looking for a nice place for it.
babyamy Posted Dec 7, 2008, 8:42 pm	Today is "Nikolaus", Katrin seemed to be a nice girl during the last year since the "Nikolaus" filled her shoes with many presents. Peti and I had to look. Katrin got some sweets and this little elk, but her boyfriend told her not send it away. Seems like he can read her mind, since the little elk has the perfect size to be a toyvoyager... We are in Schwerin now, we are visiting Katrin's boyfriend. This afternoon we'll go to the Christmas Fair...
babyamy Posted Dec 8, 2008, 8:06 pm	This afternoon Katrin and her boyfriend went for a quick walk over the Christmas market in Schwerin. On the way I saw this bull on the "Schlachtermarkt". This is the Christmas market on the market place, in the backgrpund is the cathedral of Schwerin. The holy family... and a little elephant. Can you see me? I also met the symbol of Schwerin, a rhinoceros!
babyamy Posted Dec 8, 2008, 8:11 pm	While Katrin was reading in the train back home, Peti and I decided to have a look at the landscape...as long as there was enough light outside. Back home in Kellinghusen I had to say goodbye the Peti since he is going to leave to visit his next host. I gave him a huge hug before he crawled into his envelope.
babyamy Posted Dec 8, 2008, 8:39 pm	Heya, look at this pile of letters! Ithink Katrin will be happy, when she comes back home. I'll hide behind it and try to scare her when she enters her room... Katrin screamed a bit when I said "buh" but then she laughed and started to open the letters. The two big ones are books for her boyfriend, the next one was a surprise letter from olgamaus filled with tea and chocolate. The last letter was a real surprise. At first I welcomed a new TV guest called Lady Sirina but then another plush toy leaves the envelope! When Katrin saw it she was thinking at once about turning it into a new TV...sometime next year, since she is too busy until March. Thank you Apperveilchen for this great surprise!
babyamy Posted Dec 10, 2008, 8:13 pm	We're back in the archive again! Katrin is still working with photos, but now with older ones. They are from the 1920es and show photos taken from a zeppelin. Me and a photo from Manhattan, New York City. It's lunch time and we are waiting for Katrin's boyfriend. It's his birthday today and in the bag is his present. Katrin also organised a pot of coffee for him.
babyamy Posted Dec 10, 2008, 8:25 pm	Back home in Kellinghusen Katrin decided to learn a bit English for her trip to California in January. Good for her that she has two American guests, we wanted to help her, but she didn't had any questions...
babyamy Posted Dec 14, 2008, 3:27 pm	Today is baking time! Katrin wanted to try to create a cake without using wheat flour. She is using flour made of     buckwheat instead. Here we have prapared the baking tray. We put some mandarines on the dough and sprinkled them with almonds. Waiting... ...but we were interrupted by the postman. He brought a little surprise letter for Christmas from Australia! Half an hour later a tasty smell filled the kitchen. The cake looked great and it tasted very good.
babyamy Posted Dec 14, 2008, 8:28 pm	Today Katrin wanted to discovers some streets of Kellinghusen where she hasn't been for quite a long time. We ended on the edge of this field...It looks very strange having this field in the middle of the city. Then Katrin remembered that she has been here to visit a circus when she was in primary school. This is the entrance of her kindergarten, it looks more colorful than she had it in mind. Well, it's been nearly 15 years when she has entered the house the last time... We had a nice walk through the town, but unfortunately the batteries of Katrin's camera didn't want to work anymore. Nice reason to spend some time around Kellinghusen again.
babyamy Posted Dec 15, 2008, 8:59 pm	Here we are preparing Katrin's breakfast for tomorrow. She has decided to eat kind of buckwheat flakes. This is her flour mill... ...and this are her "flakes". Well, it doesn't look very tasty and we mixed it with some  pumpkinseeds. Tomorrow we'll add some cream and some fruits and then it's ready to be eaten.
babyamy Posted Dec 18, 2008, 8:54 pm	When I woke up today, I was alone: Katrin took Lady Sirina with her to Hamburg. And me? I got a bit angry and when Katrin came back home this afternoon, I told her that I want updates for my travelog, too. This wasn't a problem since Katrin had to finish some things for swaps on swap-bot. She is a bit addicted to these things right know...  Here she let me help her stitch her swap-partner's name on a bookmark. Then we wrote some postcards for another swap. While Katrin was packing her suitcase for the weekend, I discovered ink and a quill. What is she going to do? I'm very curious and I jumped into the suitcase and made me as small as possible. There was just enough space left for an elephant like me.
babyamy Posted Dec 22, 2008, 8:11 pm	Here we are in the kitchen in Schwerin, where Katrin's boyfriend lives. Katrin did some very strange things this morning. She put peppermint leaves and black tea in a bowl of hot water and put a piece of paper in it. In the afternoon, the paper got a brown color and Katrin let it dry. Now I know what she's doing: Katrin is working on a letter for a swap on swap-bot! She used ink and a quill to let it look like a very old letter.
babyamy Posted Dec 22, 2008, 8:26 pm	Today the weather was nice (at least when we left the house), but very windy. We had a nice walk around the beautiful castle of Schwerin. The gouvernment of the "Bundesland" Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is situated here. The castle is on an island, this is the view back to the city: you can see the tower of the cathedral on the left, the white building in the middle is the state theater and the building on the right is the state museum. We met some ducks, they came right next to us before we scared them away... The church of the castle. This is the view over the lake of Schwerin. One of the old lantern at the back of the castle Me with the goddess Victoria It's showtime: Lady Sirina and I wanted to show our talent as actors. She got cought by a puma and I am going to rescue her. We did a great job, right?
babyamy Posted Dec 22, 2008, 8:37 pm	When we arrived in Hamburg central station with the train from Schwerin, Katrin got excited when we came to the platform where the train back to Kellinghusen leaves: It's the first time that she goes home with a two-storeyed train. Katrin chose this single seat because there is enough place for her suitcase. Back home there were many letters and postcards waiting for Katrin. We could also welcome a new guest: It's Sportie, who has just arrived from the US. Unfortunately her trip to Germany was really bumpy and she lost one eye. I hugged Sportie and Lady Sirina took a needle and a yarn and started to fix the eye which Katrin discovered in the envelope. And here we are with a smiling Sportie
babyamy Posted Dec 23, 2008, 7:57 pm	Today Katrin went to Hamburg to work. She came home later than she had planned - and her parents had already decorated the Christmas tree. This year it's classical in red with some wooden stars.  Can you see me?
babyamy Posted Dec 25, 2008, 10:11 am	MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Here is Germany the people are so lucky since they get their presents already on Christmas Eve! But let me tell you about my Christmas with Katrin's family: In the morning Katrin got her last Christmas cards, but she was a bit disappointed because she was waiting for another TV but it hasn't arrived in time.  But looking at the great cards let her smile again. Then we had to wait and wait and wait... We decided to visit the small "Weihnachtsmann" in the living room. He was happy to see us and told us some Christmas stories and poems. In the evening Katrin's mum finished the Christmas dinner - goose with potatoes, green beans and red cabbage. It smelled fantastic! And finally - the presents! These are all the presents from all family members for all family members mixed up. They looked great under the Christmas tree. Katrin's family plays a kind of game when they get the presents to make it more exciting. They roll the dice and everytime when a 1 appeared, one of the presents is chosen from the cluster. It's turned round and there is a name on it. This lucky one can open his or her present. It took more than an hour to open all the presents but we had a lot of fun.
babyamy Posted Dec 29, 2008, 4:57 pm	Today is the first Christmas day, this is how the German call December 25. Katrin and her family went to visit her grandparents where they also meet some other relatives. They were talking a lot and Katrin nearly forgot to take some photos, but here we are with the rest of the cakes.
babyamy Posted Dec 30, 2008, 10:58 am	While Katrin and Sportie spent the weekend Schwerin, Lady Sirina and I opened one of Katrin's letters which arrived today. She had told us, that she is waiting for another guest coming from Austria and hey, there was a letter from Austria in the right size. But when we opened the letter, there wasn't a TV in it but bag! It was a little Christmas surprise from Greycat!
babyamy Posted Dec 30, 2008, 3:52 pm	Today Katrin and her brother decided to bring all their "small" money, just 1, 2 and 5 cents, to the bank. This is the "money-bag"... ... and here we are with all the coins! At the bank they got more than 7 Euros for  they coins and now they start to collect them again.
babyamy Posted Jan 2, 2009, 11:07 am	It's the last day of the year and it started with some bad news: Katrin got this broken envelope in a plastic bag. On the plastic bag it says that the German Post put the envelope into this bag because it was damaged. The really sad thing is, that in this envelope where some postcards and some brochures, but there should have been another TV, Leo Lion. He is now somewhere lost in the mail.  Here it's dinner time and on "Silvester", that's how New Year's Eve is called in German, Katrin's family usually eats Raclette. Everybody gets a little pan and can choose from all this great food and heat it and     scalloped it with cheese. Yummi! Later in the evening Katrin's boyfriend mixed some cocktails for us. We all ended up a little bit drunk because we wanted to try everything. Katrin stopped us and told her boyfriend to mix just some juices together. So he did, but I saw, that he always added a little bit of wodka... After midnight we went outside to welcome the new year with some fireworks. Katrin had bought some rockets and a lot of beautiful fountains. We tried to take some photos, but it didn't really work...
babyamy Posted Jan 2, 2009, 11:13 am	Happy New Year!!!
babyamy Posted Jan 2, 2009, 12:35 pm	My time with Katrin is over now. I hugged Sportie and Lady Sirina goodbye before I crawled into my envelope. The journey won't take to long since my next destination is Wienna in Austria. Katrin also gave me a bit chewing gum for the journey
Greycat Posted Jan 28, 2009, 3:02 pm	Hello! Gosh, this was a long travel! I finally arrived in Austria last friday and I have no idea why this took sooo long! Anyway, today we were allowed to accompany  Conny to her mum's school (she's a teacher), where Conny is giving private lessons. As you can see, she taught us a little German. First we did a task Conny's mum does with children who don't know much German, afterwards Conny showed us how to write "My name is Luddie and I'm a Toyvoyager". That was fun. I also met another toy elephant, he was really big! And there was a pretty strange wooden guy, don't ask me what he's doing in this school .  Finally we took a pic in front of the school. The sign says: "Primary school  of the City of Vienna". On our way back we stopped on a bridge leading across the so called "Donaukanal", where suddenly a whole bunch of seagulls appeared. I hope you like the pics! And I hope the weather's going to be better soon! Then we're going to see some more of the city Big hug from Vienna, Luddie
Greycat Posted Feb 1, 2009, 4:26 pm	Hello Mum, guess what, within the last three days three more guests arrived here: Lucky Duck, Big Bird and Nintje. It's pretty crowded around here now  , but we have a lot of fun altogether, it's like our own little family . Today we decided to take a group picture, so we'd never forget each other. I hope you like it, a big hug from Vienna, Luddie
Greycat Posted Feb 2, 2009, 2:48 pm	Hallo! Today I went to the Prater to see the GIANTWHEEL of Vienna, but it was really,really cold outside! Greetings from my hosts, with love your Luddie
Greycat Posted Feb 12, 2009, 7:10 pm	Today I´ve seen the Stephansdom - the big cathedral in the center of Vienna, you know? And then I walked through the famous Kärntnerstraße to the Opera. There will be the world famous Viennese Opernball next week, on thursday. Pictures of this event are shown all over the world...and my host will be part of it. She gives her ´debut`, that means it´s her first time to visit this famous ( and normally really expensive) ball and this young couples "start" the ball with their dancing. They have to prove their abilities in vienna waltz and were selected, because they were good! So, pay attention, perhaps you will see her ?

Back