Travelog for: Sputnik

Great balls of fire! It's the last spacecousin! This is Sputnik, a rowdy alien from far, far away. He had a very long journey, but he's ready for another as he ventures out into the world before he goes to live with Jacob, age 11 around the human Christmas holiday.

He's just hanging around my house, waiting until it's time to leave. He did meet up with Gene Simmons who gave him some tips about successfully picking up the ladies.


Sputnik's travel plans:

ChristinaB-Austria(ARRIVED, HAD A GREAT TIME, THANK YOU!!! )
Lizette-South Africa(ARRIVED)
Vicki-South Africa


Will visit later:
Eryah-The Netherlands

Hello!

I safely arrived in Vienna/Austria today. I'm a bit tired so I have to relax before we'll go to a soccer training this afternoon.

I'm having a great time here in Austria! I'm in good company with 3 funny bears: Gulliver from Germany, Eldon from the UK and Glory the little Americain bear.

Last weekend we went to Wachau with our hosts. Wachau is a beautiful valley at the longside of river Danube. It is an UNESCO world heritage site and it is very beautiful. It's famous for its long history, the wineyards placed in terrasses and for the apricots planted there.

We visited a little village called "Dürnstein" which was very nice. There is a beautiful blue tower there just next to the river, we went for a walk through the wineyards (no wine at this time of the year ;() and then we climbed up all the way to the old castle. It was pretty exhausting but the view was wonderful from up there!

At the castle - have a look what a beautiful view!!

did alot of sightseeing here in Vienna! I never ever thought that there is sooo much to see in this city!

One day our host took Eldon and me downtown. And guess what! We got to see all these buildings in real that we only knew from pictures so far.

We started our guided tour at the city hall. Our host told us that there are always some events taking place at the big square in front of city hall: the Christmas market in December, the opera festival in summer, a circus somewhen in autumn and now we just missed a big ice-skating court.

Just opposite of the city hall there is the old imperial theatre and close to it we saw the Austrian Parliament.

We continued our walk to the wonderful "Volksgarten" where we found this temple. In summer there are millions of roses in this park and I guess it must be wonderful then, too!

Then we passed by "Hofburg", the former residence of the Habsburg family. Nowadays it hosts the Austrian National Library, the Spanish Riding School, the President's office and several museums.

There were these beautiful gates around Hofburg, Heldentor and Michaelertor, and when we went through one of them we arrived at "Graben", a very famous and expensive shopping street. I would have liked to buy a souvenir there - but I didn't have enough money!!

We arrived at "St. Stephen's" cathedral then which is said to be in the very center of the city. How amazing to see the colourful roof!!

Then we went on to the famous opera house. Oh, how much would I love to watch a play there!!

Close to the opera house we found "Karlsplatz" with one of the most beautiful subway stations built in a special style called "Jugendstil" which is very similar to "Art nouveau". At the same square we also found this beautiful church

Did you know that cafés are very, very important in Vienna? There are tons of them and I have been told that there are also special receipts of coffees that only exist in Vienna.

People here love sweets, too and I was really astonished when I saw all these beautiful rabbits, eggs, sculptures etc made of chocolate and marzipan. And of course I got to see the real "Sachertorte". Unfortunately we passed by in the early morning so the café was still closed...

Imagine, I also saw the famous "Giant Wheel"!! And then we went on to this very colourful house created by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. There is nothing special inside, just normal flats - but it is sooo beautiful. Our host told us that in this house there is a special "law" which says that every citizen can decorate the wall around his windows as he/she likes but only as far as they can reach with their arms.

Today we visited the big Easter market here in Vienna! It was really amazing to see all these wonderful eggs. We asked the sales woman there and she told us that there were more than 40.000 eggs waiting to be sold! Can you imagine how much work it is to paint them all?? Too much for a little bear...

When we came back home we put up the Easter decorations in the flat. We made a big kind of tree where we put alot of eggs - I was really a great help!! We also found some other decorations in the cellar, and then we baked a little sheep! It smelled sooo good and it was really hard not to try it now. Our host said that we would have to wait until Easter Sunday, then we may eat it.

We packed our stuff today and went to Upper Austria where the grandparents of our hosts live. It's in the very countryside and since it snowed alot during the past days our hosts suggested to go skiing. They did it very often this winter and were happy to go again - and so were Eldon and I because that way we got to see a real "Austrian" mountain called Krippenstein (it is more than 2.700 m high). It still snowed when we went there and it was a bit foggy so they pictures aren't so clear, but it was a wonderful day and we enjoyed playing in the snow alot!!

It was Easter Sunday today and we celebrated it in the countryside with the grandparents of our hosts.

Easterbunny came early in the morning and hit tons of eggs in the garden. Some of them were really hard to find - one was even in the bird's house!!

And guess what! Eldon and I went up so early that we really got to see him! Wow, hm?? We were sooo happy! How great that we could have our photo taken together with him!!

The kids were very excited about all the eggs and sweets and the oldest one even got a school bag which was hidden on a tree!!! It is a tradition here in Austria that kids who will start with school in autumn get their schoolbag from Easter bunny.

Sputnik and I ate many, many chocolate eggs and we felt a bit sick in the evening...

Sputnik has arrived!!

It has been raining non-stop here for the last week.......

So been trying to stay busy indoors.  Since I love different languages I decide to try and learn a little Mandarin/Chinese.