Travelog for: Budd

Yesterday our host took us to her friend Guzel for a cup of tea with cheesecake.  We could see many interesting things in Guzel's house.
Guzel makes teddy bears and other toys, so we could make some photos with them:



And here we are with the woollen bag. Guzel bought it and decorated with woollen flowers. She made those flowers herself from water and wool.


Guzel brought us a wooden car and allowed us to play with it. It was so-o funny! ))



Guzel loves indoor plants so she has a lot of plants at home.
Here I'm with one of her plants and the wooden globus- Guzel decorated it with decoupage (I'm not sure how to write this word :


We also could play with a big bicycle. It stands in Guzel's bedroom.




We found an old clock- it was also rather big.


And here I'm with Guzel's cheesecake. It looks so-o tasty!
Guzel baked it herself.


By the way I liked the fridge in Guzel's kitchen very much, because there were many different toys and magnets on it's door


And this big cactus Guzel and her husband brought from Spain.


Some more plant. It has already reached the ceiling.




What a funny hedgehog! It's Guzel's first experience with oil paints:


We found some sports equipment and played there while Oksana and her friends where chatting.

Today is Rangler's last day in Novosibrsk with us. Tomorrow morning he will be on his way to England to Steve and Helly.
That's why we decide to have much fun today evening.
We played with Oksana's Guinea pigs and feed them with salad:


Then we watched the old Russian movie about children- how they were looking for the treasure. It was very interesting!


When the movie was over I offered to look for some treasure in Oksana's flat . Everybody liked my idea very much!
And can you imagine that in the end we found the place where Oksana keeps her money! )) We were very happy, but then Oksana saw us with her money and we had to run away from her 8))



We found the scales in the bedroom and we sat down on it to see our weight, but perhaps that scales was broken, because it didn't show anything


After that we decided to read some very interesting magazine about teddybears:


When we finished reading, I continued to examine
Oksana's flat.


And here's the fish clock. Oksana made it herself and
now this clock hangs in her bedroom:


Look! Here I'm with the dogs. Oksana made them of Papier Mache and the one of them is not finished- it has no ears, eyes and clothes:


And here MousyMouse and me are playing with a big toy dog:


Oksana has a Turkish drum at home so we had a chance to
play it. It was very noisy but extremely funny!


It's late already and we are going to sleep. We had such a nice time here with Rangler and we will miss him!
I hope we can meet someday again!

Today morning Rangler went to England... We already miss him very much!
Oksana took us to the post-office and after she sent Rangler we went to walk in the centre of the city. At first we were very sad, but soon we felt better. The whole week was rather cold- about-5'C and it was snowing much, so today is the first
day since April, 14 when we have +11'C. We enjoyed such warm weather very much!
We could the the famouse Vladimir Lenin's monument and the Novosibirsk Theatre of Opera and Ballet:






Look how much snow! It's left after the snow- fall that happened on Thursday:


The local museum:


In the garden near the theatre:



Here I'm climbing up the tree in the garden near the theatre:





Me in snow:


And who left these marks?..


Oh, it's a dove!

Yesterday a new TV came here. It's a small teddy bear- Hellen. She lives in England. She is so-o lovely! We all like her very much!


Russians have their Easter today, so I wish you Happy Easter!


Yesterday we helped Oksana to cook cheese soup and to dye eggs for Easter.


There is a tradition in Russia to dye eggs with onion husks:


Our Easter meal:


One more tradition in Russia is to cook Paskha-special Easter meal made from curd. Oksana explained us that Paskha
means "Easter" in Russian. We didn't cook it, but Oksana showed us it's picture, so now we know how it looks like.



The traditional shape of paskha is a pyramid, symbolizing Christ's tomb. It is traditionally made in a wooden mould assembly called pasotchnitza that can be taken apart for cleaning, but more modern materials, such as plastics, are used nowadays. On the sides of the paskha are engraved (using the mould) traditional religious symbols, such as the "Chi Ro" motif (Labarum), letters "GW" (X and B in Russian letters, standing for Chistos Voskrese which is the Slavonic equavalent of the Paschal greeting "Christ is Risen!"), the Cross, eggs, and a lance, all symbolizing Christ's Passion and Resurrection.

Another traditional Easter food is kulich.
It is a kind of Easter bread, traditional in the Orthodox Christian faith — Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, etc.

Traditionally during the Easter service, the kulich, which has been put into a basket and decorated with colourful flowers, is blessed by the priest. Leftover kulich that isn't blessed is eaten with Paskha for dessert. Blessed kulich is eaten before breakfast each day.
It is baked in tall, cylindrical tins (like coffee or fruit juice tins), and when cooled is decorated with white icing (which is slightly drizzled down the sides), colourful flowers, and XB "Christ is Risen") is decorated on the side. Kulich is only eaten during the 40 days after Paskha (Easter) until Pentecost.


Today is Morado and Mousy Mouse's last day in Novosibirsk with Oksana, me and Helen. Soon Oksana will take them  to the post-office and send to Moscow to Kristl. We all had much fun here and now Morado and Mousy Mouse feel a bit sad about their departure, but Oksana promises that  they will have nice time with Kristl too and  will see many interesting things in Moscow. Hope to meet all together sometime again!
I will miss my dear friends very much!

Oksana took me and Helen to the post-office to send our friends Mousy Mouse and Morado to Moscow.

The post office and near it:



Oksana showed us the Irish pub. It's called "St. Patrick's corner". You can see St Patrick on the roof of that pub. It looks very funy! And there is a tree (I guess it's a wild apple tree) near the pub with empty bottles on it's branches:



I could see the first green leaves on the trees!


This is the cinema-house. It was built many years ago, but it was reconstracted, so now it's a modern and popular cinema house- "Victory":


Here I'm near the casino- there are many casinos in Novosibrsk, but Oksana has never been there.


And here is a car- it's prize which you can have if you win in casino. Helen and me want to try Perhaps we will return to our mummies in our own cars! ))


Look what funy ladies!

And they have a cat. At first we didn't noticed it:


I could see the house which was built almost 100 years ago- in 1924. In fact it doesn't look so-o old at all.


We could see these lovely Easter bunnies in some shop window:


Finally we came to the church. As you already know today Russians celebrate Easter, so there are many people in every church. This one is the main in Novosibirsk. It's called
the Voznesensky Cathedral. I already showed it to you:


It looks very beautiful!






All these people came to the church to sanctify their Easter food and special church wine:




After that we went to Oksana's friend. At first we had Easter dinner there and then we traveled back home in a car.

Today morning we were very surprised when Helen Bear and me looked into the window- everything was white from snow! It turned out that while we were sleeping it started snowing.

Today is May,1 and Russians have a public  holiday.  May, 1 used to be International Workers' Day or Labour Day in the USSR, which celebrated the social and economic achievements of the labor movement. But in 1992 that holiday was renamed in The Day of Spring and Labour. But we still have demonstrations on May, 1. They are organized by different political parties (mostly by the party of the communists).
Today Helen and me had a chance to see such demonstration.
There were many people with flags and red ballons:






But besides that demonstration there was another one made by young people of Novosibirsk. It had no meaning- it was just a funny joke- most young people who took part in it, prepared some funny costumes, masks or had strange make up on their faces and they had  posters with  funny slogans (they can hardly be translated into English). In fact Helen and me liked that demonstration more than the demonstration of communists.

After the demonstration Oksana took us to the cafe where we had a very tasty breakfast.

Then we went for a walk about the city. We could see such a lovely small Chapel- St. Nickolas' Chapel:

And here we are in the Pervomaysky Garden- pervomaysky means "May,1":

It's written here Novonikolaevsk. Oksana told us that Novonikolaevsk is the old name of Novosibirsk. After October revolution in 1917 this city was renamed in Novosibirsk, which means New Siberia.
We saw a  horse in that garden- it looked very funny with it's red ears

And there was a women who was selling these lovely dolls:


Later we went to Ikea- we were looking for a present for Oksana's colleague.



So we bought a photo frame as a present and Oksana also bought some mirrows and a small chest of drawers for herself.
When we finished with our purchases we when to Ikea's cafe and drank cola and ate ice-cream there.

Today we were walking in the Narymsky garden. It was the last day of Easter week so there was some celebration in the garden- with a concert, fair and different games. We could see many people in old Russian traditional clothes.











And in the evening Oksana took me and Helen to her drum class. It was very interesting there! We were allowed to play a real drum djembe from Africa!

Today Russians celebrate the Victory Day- this day marks the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in the Second World War commonly referred to in the Soviet Union as the Great Patriotic War. This capitulation was signed late in the evening on May 8, 1945 (May 9 in the Moscow time zone), following the original capitulation Germany signed earlier to the joint Allied forces. The Soviet government announced the victory early on May 9 after the signing ceremony in Berlin.

The May 9 Victory Day is celebrated in most of the successor states to the Soviet Union, especially in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The day is traditionally marked by ceremonial military parades with the most prominent one being traditionally held in Moscow on the Red Square.


There was a parade in Novosibirsk too- it was held on the Lenin's Square and there were lots of people, so that we couldn't see the parade very well

But we could see the exhibition of military machines. It was very interesting.







Then we went to the park to watch the fountains- they've just began to work after winter break.
On our way to the park we found this wall with drawings:



Look! What a lovely bear-fountain!


And this fountain is much bigger than the one with a bear:


We saw these boys and girls in the blue uniform near the memorial to the Heroes of the USSR:



We also found the place where some people were preparing everything for the evening fireworks:


The weather was so warm and sunny so that we couldn't help admiring the nature in the park:






When we saw that sculpture, we at first thought it was made of snow, but it turned out to be made of white stone



And this monument is a present to Novosibirsk from the Armenian community of the city. It was made for the 2000th anniversary of Christianity:


We met many veterans of the Great Patriotic War:






In the evening there were fireworks on the Lenin's square. Thousands of people came there to watch it. It was the most beautiful fireworks me and Helen bear ever saw!

Today Oksana took me and Helen bear to the Zoo.








Here we saw some dinosaurs- they looked very big and dangerous, but of course they were not real






Look what a lovely animal! It's a lemur.


And here is a small exhibition of the birds' houses- they all
look very interesting! I could live in any of them



And it's a lynxs.


We could see many birds there- some were very-very big!


And this animal is very unusual, because it's not a lioness- it's a crossbreed of a lion and a tiger. And it lives with a lion.
We also saw a white tiger.



I'm with a deer:











Do you know this animal? Oksana says in Russian it's called "mangust", but we couldn't translate it into English.






We are with some forest flowers:



We saw some big bears in the Zoo!





As you see we met many interesting animals and birds and spent a wonderful day!

The last few days we had  hot and sunny weather in Novosibirsk and we enjoyed walking in the parks. Many trees and flowers are in blossom now and the city looks wonderful!

Look what an interesting sculpture of a policeman and  traffic lights we found!  Isn't it funny?



What a pink miracle! Oksana says that it's an almond-tree.


And here's the sculpture of 2 storks- the symbol of a new family. Newly-weds like to make photos near these storks.





Wild apple tree is in blossom. It smells so-o tasty!



Some wild flowers:

Today Mittens has arrived and we were very happy to meet it!
Oksana made these photos on our way back to Oksana's work from the post-office. Dandelions are everywhere here and they look like small suns in the green grass.



What I like about May in Novosibirsk, that there are many trees and flowers in blossom now:



And here we are already in the office with a teddy bear Timosha. It looks very sweet! Oksana's friend made it.

What a nice and quiet day we have had today! It's Saturday and we decided to rest at home the whole day. So we were sleeping till 11 a.m., then we helped Oksana to do some work about the flat, went into the supermarket to buy some food and went to the post office to receive a package with 2 other TVs-
Teddy Bear Donald and NormaNikkers. We became friends at once! What a pitty that tomorrow Helen Bear and me have to leave to our next hosts

Today is the first day of summer! It's a children's holiday today in Russia. What a pitty that I won't see it, because in a few minutes Oksana will send me to Steve an Helly to England Oh, I feel very excited and happy that soon I will visit England, but still I don't want to part with my new friends- Oksana and other TVs- Mittens, Hellen Bear, Norma Nikkers and Donald.
Helen Bear, I will bring your "mother" Helly warm greetings from you!