Travelog for: Happy Leopard

Today my mother decided I go travelling. I'm with her for years and only moved once within the same town to another house... Now I go to see more of the world! Maybe more than my mother has seen in her 28 years on this planet.

And guess what, my mother already found my first host!
I'm really excited, I go to Austria!

After that my mother is still looking for hosts for me (PM my mother if you are available). But I'm sure she will found the next and otherwise I will enjoy my trip to Austria.

I'm going to prepare myself. I think I will go travelling at the end of this week or next week... Before I leave I will come back here to say bye-bye!

I'm so happy!!!

Happy Leopard

This is a picture of me in the snow at home. I'm preparing for my trip to Austria. Mom told me that snow is more common in Austria than in the Netherlands. Last weeks there is much more snow here than in other winters.

I don't know yet if I start to travel tomorrow or a few days later, but I started to say bye bye to the other toys in the house.
The toys are in the bed of a two year old cute boy who loves to hug his cuddly toys. I don't think he will miss me much, because he has a lot of them and his bunny toy is his all time favourite... But I will miss him and the other toys...

I'm ready to go. Mom put me in a small box and write the address in Austria on top of it. I'm so excited. She's going to bring the package to the post office today. It's dark and narrow in here, hope my hair isn't a mess when I see my host in Austria...
Bye mom!

Hi Mom!

I'm here in Austria now with my new host mom. There are a few other toyvoyagers here: SandiRose, a grey bear - Mr. S, a friendly dog - Snuttig, a black dog who belongs to my host mom - and SunnyHH, a little bunny!

There is lots of snow here! So we decided to take a walk in a little forest nearby! We played in the snow there and I really enjoyed it.
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! Skiing is very popular here in Austria.

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!

The weather in Graz is not so great right now, it's always grey and cold and it snows almost every day! So it's not really the best weather for sightseeing, but we decided to have a look around the city anyway!

We started at the Main square and looked at the town hall. That's where the mayor has his office and where parts of the city's administration is located. You can also marry there.

Then we went on to the Franziskanerplatz to look at the church and the cloister. During the summer, you can sit outside of the small cafés and enjoy the sun and a cup of coffee.

We walked on to the Kunsthaus, the museum of contemporary art and photography. It was built for 2003, when Graz was cultural capital of Europe. The building looks quite strange and it is therefore called the "friendly alien".

Near the Kunsthaus is the second building that has been built for Graz 2003: The Murinsel, an artificial island in the Mur- the river, that floats through Graz. You can walk on the island, it has a small amphitheatre on it and a café inside of the island.

From the bridge from where we took the photograph, you also have a view up to the Schlossberg and the clock tower. Maybe we will go up there some day- when the weather is better so you can see the whole city from above!

On our way back home we went to a bakery and bought some Krapfen. It's Fasching here now and the Krapfen are some sweet yeast dumplings, fried in oil, filled with apricot jam and dusted with powdered sugar. You normally just eat it this time of the year.
Fasching is what other countries call Carneval. It's not that big in Austria as it is in Germany, but the most Southern country, Carinthia, has a lot of activities during this time of the year. Kids like to participate on the Faschings-Umzug, which is kind of a pageant, where you dress up in costumes and some have decorated wagons with music.

The Krapfen was really delicious! I want more 

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! I'm dressed as a flower, Snuttig is dressed as Winnie Pooh's friend, Tigger. Sandi Rose is a Swedish moose, Mr. S is 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 its 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 Happy Leopard 

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 Mr. S today. I'm a little sad, but he is going home to SunnyHH's mom, so I know that he will have a great time!

We put some sweets in the travelbox of our friends and then brought them to the postoffice.

I hope they will arrive soon!