Travelog for: Batgirl

Hello! Batgirl, here. I'm pleased to meet you!

I live with my adopted mom in Minnesota, USA. It's a pleasant place to live, and I have lots of friends! It's currently cold, and blustery with snow outside. I am looking forward to meeting new friends and visiting new, and exciting places!


I'm a crime-fighting bear with an attitude to match! I live to protect, and help creatures wherever I may go. I help kittens get down from high places, and children cross the street. I also take down any baddies I see causing mischief! Always alert and eager for justice-- that's me!

Gotta dash! I'll write a little more later. Toodles~!
-Batgirl

ZOOOM!!! Away I go~! I'm gonna hop into this envelope and travel someplace new. WOO HOO! I'm so excited!

Will they like me? What will I see? When will I get there? I will just have to MAKE this a fun trip! La la la la la la la~!

Wish me luck!

I finally am in Italy!!!!

It was a very long journey and I'm soooo tired!!!!! 

Luckily, I got a warm welcome! Other than my host, Francy, I met the whole family: Trifolo the rabbit, Wellington the penguin, and other 2 ToyVoyager who already are staying with them, Cessy the little bear ad Kazumi the leopard.

Quite a lot of people! 





They were very curious when I told them I come from the USA, because nobody of them has been in America yet, so they all started asking me a lot of questions!
I told them a bit about home, but I was sleepy.... 





Finally, Francy told them I needed some rest, and I was able to get some sleep. Francy told me I should wait the weekend to start exploring, as she's not at home during the week... that's just fine, I'll have a couple days to recover from the journey! 

Hi Mum!

We went sightseeing today! I was again full of energy as usual, I just neede some action! 

We visited all the main attractions in the city center. Torino looks like a quiet place, maybe a bit boring for me... 

But there are a lot of nice palaces. They told me the used to belong to a Royal family who reigned over Italy in 1800s.
There are a lot of them!

This is the Royal Palace itself....





... here you can see the palace where the Queen used to live (I'm a bit confused.... shouldn't the Queen live with the King???)








Look at this one, it has a quite uncommon shape, don't you think? I like it! 





We also walked to the river, to see the Gran Madre Church, and to enjoy the breeze on the brigde... 








After all this walking, we had a rest in another historical square. The guy on the horse is King Charles-something....  can't remember what she said...








Not bad as a first visit, mm? 

Hi Mum!

I'm sorry I didn't write you earlier, but I really didn't do anything special lately... 

This was Cessy's last weeked in Torino, so Francy took us to a special place:





This tall building you see behind me is called "Mole", and we went on the top of it!

The queue to enter was more than one hour long, so Francy had plenty of time to explain us something about it. She told us it was originally built to be a Synagogue, but then it became too expensive for the Jew community, so they made a museum out if it. It now hosts the museum of cinema. There is also a sort of "urban legend" that Torino University student can't go on the top of the Mole, if they will they will never graduate! 
Francy graduated one year ago, so no risk about it - but it's her first time to go up as well! 

Oh, finally it's our turn to go up....

... and here we are! Torino overview from the different sides!








When we came out, the night was starting falling down, so I could see it lighted!









As we came back home, we did a little farewell party to say goodbye to Cessy. There also was a cake!








Later on, Kazumi and I helped Cessy picking a postcard for her next host, and we prepared her envelope to make it confortable for the journey...








Hope she will have a safe travelling!

Happy St. Patrick Day, mum! 

Yesterday evening my host Francy went to a St. Patrick party, but for some reason she didn't want us to go... she said we are too young for this kind of things... 

But she took us a little souvenir! 

Hi Mum!

Today, Francy took some time to teach me how to cook a real Italian pasta! 

First of all, I cut some fresh vegetables and briefly cooked the in a pan...







Look how much I cooked!




Then I cut the vegetables in small pieces...





... and put them back in the pan, with some tomato sauce








Now, the water to cook the pasta in is boiling, so I have to add salt...






... and put the pasta in!





After 10 minutes, the pasta is ready to be taken out!





And I put it in the pan with the vegetables and tomato





Here it is! Doesn't it look yummy??? It actually was!!! 

Looks like spring has finally come! 

As the sun is shining today, we decided to go to the park and have a pic-nic!

So, Francy took us to the Valentino park in Turin, and we picked a spot in the grass to put our blanket on. Looks like a nice place, mm? 





It was a relaxing day.... Kazumi and I started with a little sunbathing....





... then we played for a while with a silver, shining ball... not so easy to run in the grass!





As it was a pic-nic, we also had some sandwiches for lunch!





We spent a few more hours in the park, Kazumi read her favourite manga over and over, while I just relaxed, had a chat with my host and enjoyed watching the people around! 

Today is Easter, Happy Easter!!!! 

We celebrated this day at Francy's parents'.

People use to give each other chocolate eggs on Easter, and Francy's family already had collected a few!





After Easter lunch, Kazumi and I came to know one of those was actually for ouselves!!!! Isn't this a nice surprise??? 





We opened it right away to see the surprise!!!!











It was a Charmy Kitty pencils case, isn't it pretty? Of course, we also enjoyed the chocolate!

Mmmm not good news today... traditionally, the day after Easter people go for a pic-nic... but the weather is not really nice today, it's windy and not very warm.. 

Nonetheless, we decided to go for a short walk on a signed path.





We enjoyed the landscape and played a little around the nature...

















The flowers already are in bloom anyway, spring should come back again very soon! 

Hi Mummy!!!!

You see, today my host Francy had to go to Milan for a job interview, so Kazumi and I decided to go with her to watch her steps... and to have a look around! 

Unluckily, we couldn't go in the office with her 
But we found how to spend the time she was away in a local playground! 
















As soon as she came back, we went for a little touristic tour of the city, first of all we saw the Dome, the main attraction of the city 



The weather was not so good, you see...  but we went on and reached the most famous theatre in Milan, "La Scala"







Right outside of it, there's Leonardo Da Vinci's statue. Francy told us one of his most famous masterpiece, "The Last Supper", is in Milan itself, but in a place we had no time to reach 




But, we still had time to go for shopping in the city galleries! 




Then we got back in Torino by train. But it looks like our trips are not over yet... we're travelling again tomorrow!!!! 

So, we are on the move again!!! 

Yesterday, Trifolo, Kazumi and me had a long drive from Torino down to Bologna, as my host had to take another job interview (let's hope she'll get a job, at least!  ). Don't you worry mum, we stayed in the back seats, with our safety belt!



So, yesterday we spent most of the day in the car, but today we had some time to do some sightseen! 

Bologna isn't a very touristic city, but it looks very old and nice. Francy told us Bologna University was the very first one to be founded in Europe, in the 1100s, so this makes the city very ancient, but also populated by a lot of young people! 

The main attractions are the 2 towers in the city center, called the "Asinelli Tower" (the taller one) and the "Garisenda Tower" (this one doesn't look very solid, does it?  )




We went a bit around the city, we looked and the main square's palaces and monuments...










We may have not taken a lot of pictures, but we actually walked a lot! We were all very relieved when we got back to our hotel and soon fell asleep...




Tomorrow morning we'll be travelling again, so we have to rest! 

Hi Mum! 

Guess were we are today???



Yes, this is Florence!!!! 
It looks so beautiful... 

We started from Pitti Palace, with its Boboli Gardens...



We also went into the Palace to see an exhibition about Japan... we spent there almost the whole day, Kazumi was very excited about it and took quite a lot of pictures, but I actually found it a bit boring... so I just had a rest in Francy's bag, as we woke up so early to come here....

Luckily, on our way to the hotel we had something to see... 



Here you can see the two of us with the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge), were all the jewelry shops are... lot of gold! 

We still have one more day in Florence, can't wait to see some more art! 

Today, we finally could do some sightseeing in Florence! 

The weather was not so fine and it rained every now and then, but the city really was very beautiful!

Like all the Italian cities, the Cathedral in one of the main attractions, this one is colourful, and I also learnt it's the 4th biggest Cathedral in the world!  This is why we couldn't manage to make it all fit in one photo, just the façade...




Then we moved on to Piazza della Signoria (Signoria Square). Here, we saw the Town Hall, "Palazzo Vecchio" (Old Palace). It was formerly called "Palazzo della Signoria" (Signoria Palace), as Florence Governor used to live in there. It was a bit difficult to understand what "Signoria" stands for, but I think it's how the Government was called at that times... 



Around the square, there are a lot of other things to see, you almost don't know where to go first!

So, we saw the Fountain of Neptune




and the famous David by Michelangelo... well, not the real one, this one is a copy they put in the square....




the original one in into the Uffizi Gallery, a very very famous museum full of masterpieces of Italian Renaissance... and of tourists!!! We didn't dare to queue here... 




It already was quite late, and it's an almost-5-hours drive from Florence back home, so we had to leave... we still had some big clouds over us.



While travelling, both Kazumi and me came to know our next hosts' names, so it's almost time to leave Italy. It makes me a bit sad, but who know what kind of adventures are waiting for me next! 

Today is the big day! I'm leaving Francy's house!


Kazumi and I wrote our next hosts' addresses on the envelopes. Funny, I'm from USA and going to Germany, while she's from Germany and now travelling to USA! 







Greetings time!!!!! Goodbye Trifolo, goodbye Wellington, goodbye Kazumi...











Here I am, travelling again! Hope I'll be soon in Gerany!!!!