Flat Dragon Unicorn Man in Vienna, Austria

Dear Aja,

A couple of days ago Flat Stanley "Dragon Unicorn Man" started his way back to your class!
I hope he had enjoyed his time in Vienna, although it is quite cold here right now.

Here some impressions of Flat Stanley's austrian vacations :-)

Here is the house he has been living in and the welcoming buddy Anna :-)

Vienna is the biggest city in Austria and has around 2 Mio. citizens! Together with modern districts, there is a huge area with large parks and green ground, on the West we have a large hill area covered with forest which is called the "Wienerwald" (=Vienna forest). Our house is located just at the start of this forest. Nevertheless, there is a perfect public transport connection to the city center and it took us only 20 Minutes with the old tram to get to the city center!

Starting from the middle of November, the Christmas markets take place all around Austria until the 24th of December. Flat Stanley has visited the most popular one - on the main city square called Stephansplatz. The market is located around the main church of Vienna - Stephansdom.

One the christmas market one can get various food and also hot drinks of sny kind! Like hot chocolate and hot wine, and also so cslled "Punsch"! Children love apple-cinnamon punsch or berry punsch! Here is the recipe of Christmas punch for kids:
https://babyfoode.com/blog/healthy-christmas-punch-for-toddler-kids-with-diy-fruit-sticks/

Also at the market stands you always find a lot of hand made and manufactured goods. You probably hsve seen these fairytale looking snowballs from glass introducing some figure or building. When you shake the ball a magic happens inside! These snowballs have been originally invented in Vienna! We have investigated the sortiment of the glass snowballs with Flat Stanley with great pleasure!

Vienna is also a city of music and arts! Flst stanley was accompanying us to the art class one day and has also learned to paint with acryl paint a little bit and had fun with participating kids!

On the other day we were passing by the famous garbage incineration plant which is located in the centre of Vienna and is calles Spittelau. It is a climate friendly plant and produces no smoke and dust. It also produces and delivers warm water and heating to many districts of the city! It was designed by famous austrian architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser. He is famous for making buildings with idea of environment protection and refusing the straight lines, and adding a lot of "life" like plants or trees to the buildings.

Here is another example of his art - "House of Hundertwasser":

On the last day of Flat Stanley Vacation we had luck to attend a very spooky traditional christmas time event and meet the Krampus!

Traditionally, young men dress up as the Krampus in the first two weeks of December, particularly in the evening of December 5, and roam the streets frightening children and women with rusty chains, hammers and bells. This figure is believed to originate from stories of house spirits such as kobolds or elves.

Our kids love this tradition and have absolutely no fear of being among the krampus crowd!

The event took place in the famous old amusement park in Vienna called "Prater". It has a lot of attractions and roller coasters, and we have shown the Flat Stanley some of them like the historical observation wheel "Riesenrad":

I hope that Flat Stanley had a good time here in Vienna and will maybe tell more as soon as he comes back to the school.

You are doing a really great job!!!

Huge respect and best wishes,

Daria