Wendy, Kyiv, Ukraine

evaFF Posted Jan 19, 2010, 5:11 pm	Hello,there! I'm Wendy. I love flying and traveling veeeery much!!! Guess where I am now? An airport? Yes,you are right!!! I'm in the PuDong Airport of Shanghai,China. This is my first trip,I will go to Hong Kang with my owner eva. Although I'm good at flying, it is the first time for me to take a plane,a little nervous and a lot of excitement Hong Kang,I'm coming!!! MY "Mug Shot"photo are as followed ~haha
evaFF Posted Jan 20, 2010, 6:12 am	Hiiiii~~every one Although I have been experiencing some turbulence, I arrived in Hong Kang safe and sound. Aha,I'm now in Hong Kang!!! Today,eva asks me where to go first,of course the Ocean Park is my cup of teaaaa!!! So,We are en route to the Ocean Park. Ready set go!!!haha We reach the park.I see a lot of people here,although today is not the weekend.I guess the reason is that the ocean park is tooo attractive and amazing!!! In the Ocean Park.I'm  experiencing various interesting things. I take a cable car I play the roller coaster I meet many friends here,seals,penguins and so on. Hey~~ believe or not,I also find a panda here!!!
evaFF Posted Jan 21, 2010, 11:53 am	Hi,there! Today,I went to the Lamma Island. It is really a peaceful place in this hustle and bustle city! sunshine ,beach and tall trees  shading the streets make it a fantastic place! I enjoy every minute on the island!
evaFF Posted Jan 22, 2010, 12:46 pm	Hi,everyone!Nice to see you again! Today I visit the Tsiam Sha Tsui ,Kowloon. In the daytime,I take pictures in the Avenue of Stars! Just followed as the Hollywood,you can find about 100 Hong Kang film workers 'commemorative plaques here. Do you see my small figure with Jackie Chen's hands? HaHa~~Though as a girl,I am fond of Kung fu and his action movies! At night,I roam along the sea.The night scene is so charming!
evaFF Posted Feb 25, 2010, 1:09 pm	Hello~~~ Tomorrow I will be on my way to Germany! Olgamaus will be my host! See you~~I hope it will not take long to get there. These photos are my stay with Eva and toy friends in home Shanghai. ~~~
olgamaus Posted Mar 3, 2010, 9:32 pm	Hi Mummy, I arrived in Germany today after a rather short trip. I was welcomed by my host Katja and the ToyVoyagers Cilly, Ragamuffin, Henry the Adventure Hound, BineHH and Wolle. They all gave me a warm welcome. Katja says "thank you" for the pretty mobile phone charm. She really likes it. Katja showed me the living room so I could relax for a while. But as soon as I was sitting on the sofa two furry things jumped around like greased lightning. Katja is keeping two ferret ladies. This one is Shiva, she was hunting for a plush mouse. She probably did not recognize that I am a duck. I'm sure she thought that I was a bee  So I watched her playing with the mouse. The other ferret was hunting a little ball under the sofa. Tomorrow Katja will show me around the city. Bye Wendy
olgamaus Posted Mar 4, 2010, 7:56 pm	Hi Mummy, the weather is great here at the moment - but it is cold! It was so nice at the weekend but now it is about freezing point. Katja showed us around in her lunch break. First I'll show you the city  hall. There is a large space in front of it, the farmer's market is here twice a week.     Here on this space you can find a pillar with a lion, the heraldic animal of Remscheid. This is one of the entrances of the shopping mall. Here you can see the central bus station. This lorry is a present from Remscheid's twin city Wansbeck in England. From this bridge I can see the bus station once more. Here is a little park in the middle of the city. We walked to another district than, to Hasten,which is one of the oldest districts of the municipal area. Here you can see many of the typical "Bergische Häuser" (hosues of this region). They are often covered with slate or they are also often half-timbered houses. This is an elementary school. This park belongs to a museum site. The Patrician villa in the background contains a museum and you can also find the "German Tool Museum" here. Im Remscheid tools are produced since middle ages. In the garden you can find some large machines. Remscheid is surrounded by large forests with deep valleys. Than we had to return to work, but this time we took the bus to get back to the city centre. Bye Wendy
olgamaus Posted Mar 6, 2010, 6:19 pm	Hi Mummy, I was really surprised when I had a look out of the window this morning. Snow! What a surprise! I couldn't wait to go out so we went to the municipal park in the afternoon. On the first photo you can see where I am living at the moment. Katja is living in the house on the left side, in the attic storey. The following photos were taken on the way to the park. We had to walk less than 10 minutes to get there. Soon we reached the park. The observatory is situated here in the park. This is a memorial dedicated to the dead of several wars before WW I. I had a lot of fun playing in the snow with Wolle. Here is a frozen pond. Turtles and ducks are living here. I did not see any duck, they seem to be hiding in a safe place. We left the park than. I saw those pretty yellow painted houses. The police headquarter is situated here. A small park is located in front of the building. You can find a pillar here, showing the coat of arms of Remscheid. It is dedicated to Remscheids twin town Quimper in France. After playing in the snow we are completely wet. We had to go home than. Bye Wendy
olgamaus Posted Mar 12, 2010, 4:03 pm	Hi Mummy, we still have fantastic weather so we took a walk today with Katja's brother-in-law. We parked the car in a housing area with lots of new built houses. A TV-tower is situated here on top of the hill. We walked across open fields. In the background you can see the outskirts of the neighbour city Wuppertal. We rested in the sun for a while. Here you can see the motorway A1 in the background. Katja told us that a terrible storm destroyed large parts of this forest about three years ago. Since than you can see the motorway. When we went back to the car we walked along some farms. Bye for today Wendy
olgamaus Posted Mar 17, 2010, 5:08 pm	Hi Mummy, after more than a week with really bad weather we took a short walk in the city centre today. During this rainy week most of the snow melted. Still at Katja's workplace in a law firm, we said goodbye to BineHH. She is leaving today. She will visit her next host in Japan. Here you can see the main entrance of  the shopping mall. This is the public library. The slate covered house on the right side contains an art gallery, on the left side you can see a restaurant and bar, it is called "Miró". The next photo is showing another side of  the shopping mall with the tower of the city hall in the background. Underneath the large building only busses and taxis are allowed to drive through. We went into the shopping mall to buy a few things. The floor is decorated with real small gardens,  full of spring flowers. Bye for today Wendy
olgamaus Posted Mar 17, 2010, 5:29 pm	Hi Mummy, an new guest arrived yesterday, Captain Caramel from England. Katja took me, Captain Caramel and Wolle with her in the morning when she went to work. Today the weather is really good so we went out for a walk when Katja finished work. We went through the shopping street than. At the end of the shopping street you find a place where a farmer's market is held twice a week. Close to the central station you can find many industrial plants. Katja showed us a special path for pedestrians and cyclists: The Route of Tools. This is a path built on a closed railway track. It is about 5 km long and it is connecting the central station with the district Hasten. You can walk along this path with getting into contact with too much traffic. Of course you have to cross some streets. This path was sponsored by local tool producing companies, that's why it is called "Route of Tools". Tools are produced here in Remscheid since middle ages. Here you can see signs with the logos of some of the sponsoring companies. Here you can see the former slaughterhouse. This building complex is under monument protection nowadays. All along the route you can find industrial buildings. Some are still used, others are dilapidated. We had to cross the street here. Here are more logo signs. The first sign is showing the coat of arms of Remscheid. We went home than. Bye Wendy
olgamaus Posted Mar 18, 2010, 6:11 pm	Hi Mummy, we enjoyed the midday sun in the open kitchen window. In the afternoon we took a walk to the  municipal park. Katja wanted to show us the second half of the Route of Tools. To get there we went through the park. At the slope of this hill you can see the district where the  Route of Tools is ending. Lots of allotment gardens belong to this park. The Route of Tools is ending here. This time we'll walk it into the other direction. You can find artwork of a local artist here. We found large "tools" stamped into the tarmac. We rested on this bench which was made of a giant screw clamp. This is where we ended our walk yesterday. Bye Wendy
olgamaus Posted Mar 24, 2010, 8:41 pm	Hi Mummy, once more we took a walk in Katja's lunch break. Winter seems to be gone now, it is about 15°C outside. We went downhill to a district called "Steinberg". In the background you can already see the rural outskirts. Here are allotment gardens. A small path is leading downhill through those gardens. In the valley you can see many old houses. Katja showed us another district, "Rath" than. This is a housing area with a lot of old houses, lots of terraced houses and other one-family houses. Here is a lot of green around On our way back to the city centre we had a stop at a garden center. Work calls! Love Wendy
olgamaus Posted Mar 27, 2010, 10:00 pm	Hi Mummy, we made a trip to the region Vulkan Eifel, situated in the northwest of the state Rhineland-Palatinate, in the Eifel Mountains , that is defined to a large extent by its volcanic geological history. Characteristic of the Vulkan Eifel are its typical explosion crater lakes or maars, and numerous other signs of volcanic activity such as lava streams, volcanic tuffs,  and volcanic craters. We visited the Dauner Maare, a group of three maars close to each other. A maar is a broad, low-relief volcanic crater that is caused by  an explosion caused by groundwater coming into contact with hot lava or magma. A maar than fills with water to form a relatively shallow crater lake. When we parked the car close to one of the maars we read some information signs. This is Weinfelder Maar, Its diameter is 525 m and it is about 51 m deep. Soon we reached the next maar, Schalkenmehrerer Maar. Its diameter is 575 m and it is about 21 m deep. This region is a nature protection area. We went into this small town Schalkenmehren. Here we saw fantastic statues which made cut with a chainsaw out of tree trunks. We walked round the maar and went back to Weinfelder Maar. We walked uphill to have an overlook from a nearby mountain which is called "Mäuseberg" (mice mountain). Even from half of the height of this mountain we had a great view at the surrounding landscape. We reached the top of the mountain and rested here for a while. Here on top of the hill we saw this tower. You can climb onto it. Here you can see the third one of the Dauner Maare, Gemündener Maar, the smallest one with only 325 m diameter. We had a look at this sign which is showing the names of the mountains you can see from here. When we walked back downhill we saw this: a ski-lift. This was a wonderful trip and I liked to see this fantastic landscape. Unbelievably the sun was shining when we drove back home. Bye Wendy
olgamaus Posted Apr 1, 2010, 5:25 pm	Hi Mummy, today we took a walk in the neigbour town Solingen. Katja wanted to show me Schloss Burg, a medieval castle. We startet in Solingen-Unterburg, an old district situated at the River Wupper. You can walk uphill to the castle or you can take a chair-lift. Of course we walked to the castle, we had to walk through a forest for some time. The first flowers! We reached an outlook pavilion than. From here you can overview the valley of the River Wupper. The castle came into sight than. Schloss Burg was built in 1133 by Count Adolf I von Berg on a hill above the river Wupper.That's why this region is called "Bergisches Land". Many people believe that it's name refers to the landscape with hills and valleys. (For those who do not speak German: The German word for mountain or hill is "Berg", so many people think that the name "Bergisches Land" means "land with many hills" ) About a hundred years later it was enlarged by Count Engelberg II von Berg. The equestrian sculpture in the courtyard is showing him. In Thirty Years War (17th century) many parts of the castle were destroyed. It was rebuilt then, but it was used for industrial purposes for many years. In the end of the 19th century they began to rebuild it as it appears today. In the castle courtyard you can find souvenir shops and shops whose owners are doing an "old" handcraft. For example someone makes soap, another makes brushes, then you can buy things that were used by knights for the kids, like swords and helmets.  I also saw this sculpture. Here is the end point of the chair-lift. From here you can see how steep this hill is. We left the castle than and went further. We walked through a rural outskirt of Solingen, Hoehrath. We came to another forest. In the background you can see the city centre of Remsheid high upon the hill on the right side ... ... and also Schloss Burg in the distance. We walked downhill until we reached the River Wupper. We followed the river to get back to the car. We reached Unterburg than. Katja showed us this statue, showing a "Kiepenkerl". In ancient times all sorts of goods were transported by men who carried the goods in large panniers on their back. This rangy landscape was too steep for horses. Those persons were called "Kiepenkerl". This one has sweet pretzels in his pannier, a local delicacy. Katja bought pretzels for us in a bakery. We will taste them with a coffee later. Bye Wendy
olgamaus Posted Apr 1, 2010, 5:29 pm	Hi Mummy, we tasted the pretzels today. They are really delicious. Wolle left us today. She is visiting another host in Wuppertal for a few days. Wuppertal is one of the heighbour cities of Remscheid. Bye Wendy
olgamaus Posted Apr 3, 2010, 10:56 pm	Hi Mummy, we made a hiking tour today. They have a hiking  trail in the neighbour city Wuppertal, it is called "Rund um Wuppertal" (Around Wuppertal). It is surrounding the municipal area of the city and it is about 120 km long. It is divided into several sections. We made two of them today, it must have been about 16 km. We started our tour in Muengsten, here you can meet the River Wupper once more. From here we had to walk uphill (we always have to walk uphill, I believe). We saw a lot of cut  trees here, funny faces were painted where branches had been cut off. Our path was following the outer borders of the municipal area. In the background you can see Remscheid. We rested on this chestnut tree, Can you see its buds? We were walking along a valley with  a motorway feeder road running through. We found some horned violets. We walked through a small hamlet. In the middle of the forest we reached a tram station. This is a stop station of a historical tram which once connected several outskirts of Wuppertal. The main track is closed and a "museum-tram" is following a part of the former track on a few days in the year. Also in the forest we saw this old industrial building, a historical grindery. It was built in the 1850 years. From a nearby outlook platform we had a great overwiev. We reached a part of the forest than which is an arboretum, a collection of trees. From the 1820 years "foreign" trees were planted here, from 1900 A.D. trees from other continents were planted. After WW II trees from Northern America were planted in search of fast growing trees. The arboretum is divided into several parts (one for each  continent) and our hiking trail was running through it. I don't know exactly what sort of tree this is, but it certainly is not a local tree. Someone carved figures out of tree trunks. I saw owls, little trees and mushrooms. This is a  marker is telling you that you are in the region "Northern America". We went to the bus than to drive home. In the background you can see Remscheid again, the two towers are the city hall and the water tower. Bye Wendyl
olgamaus Posted Apr 7, 2010, 6:01 pm	Hi Mummy, it's Easter Sunday! Katja's family is visiting us. We are having a wonderful brunch. We have marinated "matjes", several sorts of chesse and and ham, a carrot soup with ginger and egg-filled toast. I even tasted sparkling wine - yummy In Germany everybody is given an Easter basket as a present. They are filled with sweets, cooked and coloured eggs and a small Easter decoration. In the afternoon we had coffee with some sweets. Now I'm filled with meringue and cookies Bye Wendy
olgamaus Posted Apr 9, 2010, 11:29 pm	Hi Mummy, we took a walk today in one of the valleys which are connecting the city centre with the districts Lennep and Luettringhausen. Both are rather old districts which had their own municipality before they were suburbanized to Remscheid. You can find forests and pasture land here. The forest soil is covered with anemones now, we saw white and yellow anemones. There are only a few houses in the valley. We had to walk uphill in the meantime. A good overview was the reward for this effort. We walked into the centre of Luettringhausen and had a look at the historic city hall of the district. Bye Wendy
olgamaus Posted Apr 12, 2010, 2:51 pm	Hi Mummy, we made walk to day in Remscheid-Hasten. We went through the municipal park to get there. Katja showed me an indoor swimming pool which is only for schools and swimming clubs. Here are also alltoment gardens. The first flowers are blooming, here it is forsythia. Of coruse I like yellow flowers most of all Here in Hasten you can find industrial buildings close to dwellings. Here you can see "Keiper", a famous company which produces car seats and custom car seats, also for Formula One cars. We were reaching the oldest parts of the district than. It seems as if you'd only walk uphill here Here you can also see old industrial buildings and new ones between dwellings. A pretty Patrician Villa came into sight. It is a museum and I have seen it before, but only the rear side. It was built in the 1790 years. Do you remember that I have been here when we still had snow? And here is the pond which was frozen when I was here the last time. In the park in front of the police station I found more yellow flowers. Bye Wendy
olgamaus Posted Apr 12, 2010, 4:34 pm	Hi Mummy, I really enjoyed my stay here in Germany but now it's time to visit somebody else Katja helped me to prepare my envelope and to write a postcard to my next host. Next stop will be Ukraine! Tomorrow I will hop into my envelope and travel to Ukraine. Hope to arrive there soon. Love Wendy
okurochkin Posted May 3, 2010, 3:59 pm	Great news, Wendy has finally arrived! This is the very first moment after a release from the envelope: P.S.: larger size photos will be hosted on my Nokia Ovi web album
okurochkin Posted May 3, 2010, 4:05 pm	It's good to be out of the envelope; but Wendy feel somewhat shy in a new place, so a good observation point is something everyone appreciates in this situation. Just to get used to the course of things
okurochkin Posted May 7, 2010, 11:29 am	Today we took a short walk around the city center. At first, we passed by the St. Vladimir's cathedral, where most of national religious holidays are celebrated.
okurochkin Posted May 7, 2010, 11:39 am	Then we saw the National Universtity (which my host has been attending for 5 years), and the park in front of it. The park is a popular place for mid-day walks, and also a gathering point for many elderly people who spend many hours there playing chess and draughts. In front of the university's central entrance stands a monument to Taras Shevchenko - a great Ukrainian poet and painter, whose name the university carries.
okurochkin Posted May 8, 2010, 10:12 pm	Today we took advantage of the nice weather and went to a local park. First off, Wendy spotted a large flowerbed of blooming narcissus.
okurochkin Posted May 8, 2010, 10:14 pm	Then we passed by a small artificial lake in the Victory Park. Local people enjoy feeding the ducks here, as they are rather funny when they eat
okurochkin Posted May 8, 2010, 10:20 pm	...  and finally we reached our destination for today - the so-called "one wall building"  From many vantage points it appears as a free standing wall. In reality it is under construction now and actually has a triangular form.

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