CANADA #3 Direct Swap

Thunderbird Park is a park in Victoria, British Columbia next to the Royal British Columbia Museum. The park is home to many totem poles (mostly Gitxsan, Haida, and Kwakwaka'wakw) and other First Nation monuments. The park takes its name from the mythological Thunderbird of Indigenous North American cultures which is depicted on many totem poles. The park is part of the Royal BC Museum Cultural Precinct, an area around the museum that contains a number of historical sites and monuments.

Thanks Raul!

Sent on: 04/11/2014
Received on: 24/11/2014
Travel time: 20 days

UKRAINE #1

The Potocki Palace in Lviv  was built in the 1880s as an urban seat of Alfred Józef Potocki, Minister-President of Austria. No cost was spared to make it the grandest nobleman's residence in the city. The French architect Louis Dauvergne elaborated all of Beaux-Arts stylisic devices to produce a hypertrophied imitation of a French hôtel particulier. An open, parklike setting was scored to give the mansion a sense of depth.

Thanks Natalie!

UA-1182606

INDONESIA #1 & #2 Direct Swap

Balinese dances are a very ancient dance tradition that is a part of the religious and artistic expression among the Balinese people, native to Bali island, Indonesia. Balinese dance is dynamic, angular and intensely expressive.The Balinese dancers express the story of dance-drama through the whole bodily gestures; fingers, hands and body gestures to head and eyes movements.

Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park is located in East Java, Indonesia, to the east of Malang and to the southeast of Surabaya, the capital of East Java. It is the only conservation area in Indonesia that has a sand sea, the Tengger Sand Sea (Indonesian: Laut Pasir Tengger), across which is the caldera of an ancient volcano (Tengger) from which four new volcanic cones have emerged. This unique feature covers a total area of 5,250 hectares at an altitude of about 2,100 m. The massif also contains the highest mountain in Java, Mount Semeru (3,676 m), four lakes and 50 rivers.

Thanks Brenda!

Sent on: 18/10/2014
Received on: 19/11/2014
Travel time: 32 days

TURKEY #2 Direct Swap

Safranbolu is a town and district of Karabük Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. It is about 200 kilometres (120 mi) north of Ankara and about a 100 km south of the Black Sea coast, or more precisely about 9 km north of the city of Karabük. The name of the town derives from 'saffron' and the Greek word 'polis' (city), since Safranbolu was a trading place and a center for growing saffron. Today saffron is still grown at the village of Davutobası which is 22 km east of Safranbolu and probably one of the best quality saffrons in the world.

Safranbolu was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1994 due to its well-preserved Ottoman era houses and architecture.

Thanks Azat!

Sent on: 09/10/2014
Received on: 19/11/2014
Travel time: 41 days

KAZAKHSTAN #1 Direct Swap

Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a contiguous transcontinental country in Central Asia, with its smaller part west of the Ural River in Europe. Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country by land area and the ninth largest country in the world; its territory of 2,727,300 square kilometres (1,053,000 sq mi) is larger than Western Europe. The terrain of Kazakhstan includes flatlands, steppe, taiga, rock canyons, hills, deltas, snow-capped mountains, and deserts. With an estimated 17 million people as of 2013.

Thanks Yelena!

Sent on: 14/10/2014
Received on: 18/11/2014
Travel time: 35 days

NEW ZEALAND #1 & #2 Direct Swap

Wellington is the capital city and second most populous urban area of New Zealand, with 393,600 residents. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range. It is the major population centre of the southern North Island, and is the administrative centre of the Wellington Region, which also includes the Kapiti Coast and Wairarapa. Wellington is the world's southernmost capital city of a sovereign state.

Mount Ruapehu, or just Ruapehu, is an active stratovolcano at the southern end of the Taupo Volcanic Zone in New Zealand. It is 23 kilometres northeast of Ohakune and 40 kilometres southwest of the southern shore of Lake Taupo, within Tongariro National Park. The North Island's major skifields and only glaciers are on its slopes. Ruapehu is one of the world's most active volcanoes and the largest active volcano in New Zealand. 

Thanks Kelly!

Sent on: 02/10/2014
Received on: 18/11/2014
Travel time: 47 days

GERMANY #8

Cham is the capital of the district of Cham in the Upper Palatinate in Bavaria in Germany. Cham lies within the Cham-Further lowland, which is bordered on the south by the Bavarian Forest and on the north by the Oberpfälzer Wald. The city lies on the Regen River, which joins the Danube at Regensburg.

Thanks Sven!

Sent on: 05/11/2014

Received on: 18/11/2014

Travel time: 13 days.