Travelog for: Mousy Mouse

Tonight we all watched the traditional Christmas carols on television. Australia has two main Carols - one from the Domain in Sydney on Channel 7, and one from Melbourne on Channel 9, usually on Xmas eve...which automatically makes the Sydney ones better That's the ongoing Sydney Versus Melbourne conflict I've heard about!

We saw the Wiggles (a very, very popular kids' singing group, and a lot of adults like them too!) and their friends Dorothy the Dinosaur, Wags the Dog, and Captain Feathersword! A friendly pirate with a feather for a sword!

Look! Santa came in on a New South Wales Police helicopter!!

icitaiwan sent this to Nik in a Postcrossing swap!

Nik gave us our very own Toy Voyager-sized Christmas tree!

CHRISTMAS EVE!!!

Nik took us to see some of Stroud's Xmas lights tonight. It was wonderful - a full moon and a warm night. Feels strange to be experiencing a warm Christmas!
The lights are hard to photograph, but we got this one of Australia's famous "Six White Boomers"
A boomer is another name for a big male kangaroo, and in Australia Santa's sleigh is pulled by six snow-white kangaroos!

CHRISTMAS DAY!!!

Santa found us!!

What could this be...

Look what I got!

Hi everyone! Today I've finally arrived in Russia, Novosibirsk to my new host Oksana. What a nice surprise! I met Rangler here! Here we are:

We made friends with Oksana's teddy bear Lu- she was so kind and lovely!

I also made friends with Oksana's cat. At first I was afraid of it, but the cat turned out to be very  friendly.

We played the Turkish drum-dumbek. Oksana said we were very noisy


I found Russian valenki in Oksana's flat and tried them on. I looked very funny with them- they were too big for me.
Oksana told us about valenki- Valenki (Russian: âàëåíêè — plural, âàëåíîê (valenok) — singular) are traditional Russian winter footwear, essentially felt boots. Its very name, valenki literally means, "made by felting". Valenki are made of wool felt. They are not water-resistant, therefore they are sometimes worn with galoshes to protect the felt. Galoshes also protect the valenki soles from wear and tear. As such, valenki were the footwear of choice for many Russians. Since the second half of the 20th century, valenki have lost most of their appeal in cities, due to their association with rustic style of dress.

In the 20th century, an improvement in technology allowed manufacturers to vulcanize rubber overshoe-style protection right onto valenki to provide better water and piercing protection while retaining the advantages of the felt.

In many Russian towns, like Myshkin, valenki are an important craft worthy of display in a museum.

Valenki are a part of the Russian army uniform in winter. Although opponents point out that valenki are not perfect footwear for fast movements, it should be noted that both winter boots and valenki are worn in the Russian army and that valenki are generally preferred for lower temperatures.



And here Rangler and I are playing with  a dog. It's not a real dog- it's made of Papier mache.

Today Oksana has taken us into the Irish pub for a lunch. Rangler and I liked that place very much!






And after the lunch we went for a walk. It's been rather warm
in the afternoon- about +2, but cloudy. We could see many snow. It was melting so there were lots of pools on the roads.





We saw that very beautiful church. It's called Voznesensky Cathedral.

Today Oksana has received two more toyvoyagers- Morado and Budd. Now we have such a good company! We are like 4 musketeers!


Oksana had a meeting with her friends in the cafe so she had to go. But we asked her to take us with her.
In the cafe we saw many girls and women (Oksana's friends). It turned out that they all make handmade teddybears. We could see many of them there. Some were very lovely!







Oksana promised to take us for a walk tomorrow and perhaps we will go to the movie

Today we all have gone to the movies. We watched a cartoon about an elephant "Horton" and a fantasy movie "The Spiderwick Chronicles". We liked both films very much! 

And after that we went for a walk. The day temperature was about +6'C, so the snow was melting and there was lots of deep pools.






By the way HAPPY EASTER!  Oksana told me that in Russia  they would celebrate Easter later- on April, 27.

Yesterday our friend Morado had his birthday and Oksana took me, Morado, Budd and Rangler into the Irish pub. At first we had our lunch there and after that we were playing while Oksana and her friend were chatting.




Then we went for a walk and bought a very tasty ice-cream.
When we returned into Oksana's office we ate our ice-cream and played. Morado liked his birthday very much!

We have such a nice weather now in Novosibirsk- it's sunny and about +5'C. Yesterday our host took us us for a long walk about the city. We enjoyed it very much!
Look, we could see these birds:



The streets are still full of puddles, but if such sunny weather stays longer, the roads will be dry soon.





Here I'm in front of some Novosibirsk institute (university). At first I thought it was some theatre, but Oksana said that I was wrong.



We could find a pine forrest. It's  situated not far from the main road- the Bogdan Khmelnitsky street. We envied those people who lived near that forrest- they could walk there everyday.

We could see there many houses for birds!


And here I'm near the monunents of some women.
There are 3 monuments in fact-




Here I'm near the Stadium "Sibiria":


Some iron sculptures:


And here it is a sculpture of  a crow from the famouse fable of Ivan Krylov "The Crow and the Fox":




Then we saw a drag-store with a sculpture of Doctor Aibolit
(Doctor Doolittle) in front of it:








The Palace of Culture:



I liked these old green buildings very much.


We could find the House with the yard where we could see some sculptures from Lewis Carrol's book "Alice. Looking through the looking glass"








The sculpture of a poet:



The sculpture of a clown: