Mayon Volcano, Philippines

Hmmm...sometimes i think im overestimating myself with this every-day-update thing...but at least im trying :)

This really lovely card comes directly from the Philippines and shows the Mayon Volcano - a beautiful and symmetrical cone shaped volcano located in Albay province. Even though this volcano is very active at the moment, tourists keep coming, since they are fascinated by its almost perfect cone shape. Right now the Level 2 alert is in force due to the increased volcano activity in June and July. It is the most active volcano in the Philippines, having erupted 49 times in the past 400 years.
The current cone was formed through pyroclastic and lava flows from past eruptions.

The most destructive eruption of Mayon occurred on February 1, 1814. Lava flowed but not as much compared to the 1766 eruption. Instead, the volcano was belching dark ash and eventually bombarding the town with tephra  that buried the town of Cagsawa - only the bell tower of the town's church remained above the new surface.

Hmmm, it IS fascinating, this nature created thing...but i certainly wouldnt want to live near one...

this is a prepaid postcard...with  a lovely matching prepaid stamp....i guess these arent in the philatelic databases so i wont go and look up the information....the truth is, i feel rather lazy...and cranky :)

England

The back of the card says: Baroque, 1620-1800. Style in the Age of Magnificence.
My guess is that its supposed to promote some exhibition related to the Baroque style.

What really is on the card, i cant tell for sure...reminds me of one of those hanging chandeliers....which now that i mentioned it, reminds me of one of the episodes of "Only Fools and Horses". Well, if you live outside Europe, i dont know if you had watched it...but here it has been really popular, esp when i was a kid...now they are doing re-runs, and its still fun to watch. But there was this particular episode when Rodney, Del Boy and Grandad were trying to fix one of those chandeliers....ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.....boy, had i laughed the first time i watched it...let me see if i can find it on you tube....yyyaaaay, there it is!!!






poor Grandad :))

Anyway...the main point of this postcard was actually the stamp along with the postmark, since this card is posted in anUNDERGROUND post box....as you can read from the cancellation :)
Here are some details about it...and i thought it would be really cool to have one specially postmarked, so i signed up for it...and im glad i did...brought me a story for the postcard and a lovely cancellation :)
As for the stamp...it dates from June 2009...a really new issue...belongs to a set of 6 stamps which represent Mythical creatures, and here in particular, the Pixies...now i know how the band Pixies got their name actually :)

Gustav Mahler

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this card!!!!

This is Gustav Mahler...and Austrian composer and conductor (7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911). He was best known during his own lifetime as one of the leading orchestral and operatic conductors of the day. He has since come to be acknowledged as among the most important late Romantic/early Modernist composers, although his music was never completely accepted by the musical establishment of Vienna  while he was still alive. Mahler composed primarily symphonies and songs; however, his approach to genre often blurred the lines between orchestral Lied, symphony and symphonic poem. On this photo here, Gustav is 49 years old....
Unfortunately, im not familiar with Mahler's work, so i dont know what is it that i may recommend you....if YOU have something to suggest, im open for it...
well, i really liked this piece in particular, so i thought sharing it with you...and for some reason, i have a feeling i had heard it somewhere before...wasnt it on Tom and Jerry?

Holland

It may not be some mother's/women's day...but here is a bunch of tulips for you :)

Wow! These Dutch fields just seem amazing!  Esp. from this aerial point of view when you actually get to see their colours perplexing like this...just lovely!
Tulips are always associated with Holland/Netherlands...ok, i really dont know which name to use anymore, so ill stick to what the card says and the card this time says Holland...so be it Holland...anyway, as i was saying, although when you think of tulips, you probably first think of Holland, their name actually originated in the Persian Empire.The tulip, or lale as it is also called in Turkey (and in Macedonia!!!!!!) is a flower indigenous to Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and other parts of central Asia. Although, it is unclear who first brought the flower to northwest Europe, it is the Turks who made tulip known in Europe.
I remember i once read somewhere that tulips can be grown in every single colour, except blue! ehh, i dont know if this is really true, but how come that out of all the colours, my favourite one cant be a tulip...

Sometimes i wonder if its me the problem and why i cant find the English speaking sections at certain sites...like the one of the Dutch Post office....im pretty sure ive been seeing this stamp (or other values of it with a similar design) for ages...but right now i just cant give any info about it in particular...and frankly, im sleepy and tired and just not feeling ok...and yeah, lazy too :)

Well, off to sleep...

Greetings from Hell!

Well, not as the perfect way to welcome you, but thats what the card says...:)

I know many of you probably know about this place already and this card in particular, which has become one of my favorites ever since i first saw it long time ago. Not just coz it comes from Hell, but coz it looks like one as well, with those red skies which seem to blow fire...all we need is the devil and his trident breaking off from the skies...
But i have to say that people from Hell have done a good job by popularizing their place this way...and it IS an attraction indeed...i mean, how many of you can brag that you live in the Hell itself...literally?
Believe it or not, only around 350 people can do it, since thats how many residents Hell actually has.
The station that is on the postcard is called Hell station...so yeah, if you had arrived here, you really must have been a very bad person :)
But if you look down to the real meaning of Hell, taking in account Norwegian language, then Hell can actually mean "luck" while Hell stems from the Old Norse word 'hellir' which means 'overhang' or 'cliff cave'. In modern Norwegian the actual word for Hell is 'helvete'....which now reminds me of Helvetia...but i really dont want to get down to some research about it now :)

And there is this special Hell cancellation as well!
The stamp was issued in January 2009, and comes from a set of 3 called Wildlife in Norway IV, where here you can see the Roe Deer.

A HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGEEE Thank you to both Sverre and Glenn! If it wasnt for them, i wouldnt have had this card now. They both know how it happened, and im more than grateful for their help!

Portugal

A great card! Not only coz it shows a cat which looks like Kimi, but coz it was sent from one of the Postcrossing meetings!

The card is from the Portuguese meeting which happened in Coimbra, on 31st May. And they thought of me, for which im really happy! As you can see, they had all signed the card...so thats why i wanted to show it to you, i thought its what mattered a lot to the postcard...i think that i know most of the people there :)

There is a huuge meeting coming soon...in Helsinki...and its gonna last for 3 days....and i so much wish i could go...im sure they'll have loads of fun coz apart from writing postcards, they're gonna have some nice excursions and well at some of the Finnish places....uhmm, i hope there will be at least someone at that meeting who will think of me and send me a card....i would really like to have one, from this probably biggest meeting so far! 

As far as this card is concerned, i think that it's Marta's fault why i have it...well, its her signature on my address at least ;)

They used a very nice stamp as well, issued in February 2009. It comes from a set of 7 stamps total, called Bicentenary of Charles Darwin's Birth 1809-2009.

Sweden

Ive been getting some really nice official cards lately and this one aint an exception...a map card! Coming from Sweden! Jack Pot!

SE-11277

And its such a lovely map...just my kind, colourful and picturesque! And this one is also happy...just look at that smiling sun :D
Uhmm, well...Sweden is a bit more 'up' not lying down at such an angle, but i think that this is like seeing Sweden from a different angle perspective so thats why it seems like this.
The subtitle "Midnattssolens Rike" means "The Land/Country of the Midnight Sun"
I still wonder why such a lack of Swedish postcards in my collection...or now that ive mentioned it, Danish as well. As for Norwegian...well, i must say that ive been lucky lately about it...just in the past few days i received TWO Norwegian cards...both very lovely...and i know some others are on my way too...so im wohoo happy!
Speaking of it...today my mum told me how she has this colleague whose daughter was on post-grad studies in Norway, and how its the country which pays an entire scholarship for it...and then comes one of the things i hate to hear "Why cant YOU do something about it and go?" ...well, coz i just CANT...if it was that simple i would have been a Norwegian or Mexican citizen time ago...but im stiiiiil stuck here...

and two lovely stamps...where the right one is Pipi Longstockings!! And i Love Pipi! It was issued in 2007 at a set of 4 stamps, with the primary theme called Mankind (Children), and here you can see Pipi baking :)
The stamp on the left is from a set of 4 stamps, issued in 2004, under the subject of Regional Houses, where this one is depicting a Scanian Farm House.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

As for our last stop today, ill take you to San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Lately ive been trying to get back to the 4 postcards per update. Of course, it takes a bit more time then when doing 3 cards, but i really think i should get back on track with all the posting...and for that i need to post more cards. Well, 5 per update is a bit overestimating myself....so ill just stick to 4 whenever possible...3 aint bad either...better 3 than none...but if i can manage 3, then i can manage 4 so...

here you have a view of Condado area in foreground and Isla Verde and airport in the background...and im still trying to figure out where the airport is actually..its a bit foggy in the back there :)
However, Isla Verde actually belongs to the city of Carolina, and the airport as well, even though many people mistakenly associate it to San Juan...well, thats how i understood it at first as well.
While as for El Condado, it does belong to San Juan :)

Im already familiar with the Simpsons stamps...but the others caught my attention, esp. the star one, since i dont recall i have seen it before.
This 3-cent "make up rate" stamp was first issued in June 2002 and features a star highlighted in red, white and blue. As for the small stamp at the bottom... it is a full pane of 20 2–cent Navajo Necklace definitive stamps.

This stamp features artist Lou Nolan's painted detail of a Navajo silver and turquoise necklace with sand-cast squash blossoms set with polished blue turquoise nuggets. Nolan based his painting on a photograph by Peter T. Furst. The necklace itself belongs to a private collector and is believed to have been made sometime during the 1940s or 1950s.

Tinian Island, Northern Mariana Islands

A small warning before you start reading...im REALLY cranky and edgy...ive been having some awful throat pain these past few days and i just dont know what to do about it anymore...its not one of those times when you just keep coughing...i barely do...but i cant swallow without feeling how pain is killing me...and whatever i had tried has some short-term solutions....so im just really irritable and i think i would blow if someone just said hello....boy, that even rhymed :)

Well, at times like this my ironic and cynical sense of humour usually prevails, but i hope it wont be too obvious in the posts...yet i do feel like making a post, esp. since im reaaaaaaaalllly left behind with all  my cards and i just want to show them all at once but of course thats impossible, on the other hand not showing any is even worse, though procrastination aint something unfamiliar to me....
When i received this card it caused a huge confusion...it arrived while i wasnt there (ok, i know this aint an excuse), so when i came back after 3 weeks i had a huge pile of mail waiting, this card among....and i dont know if its coz there were too many cards, why i didnt pay enough attention or i ws just so self-centered that oh well, you know, i know everything...i couldnt recall i had arranged a swap with this person and i couldnt find it anywhere in my records that i was waiting a card from her, so my solution to the problem was that this must be an official card! But wait...you havent heard it all...after determining its an official, my notice was that i had received a card from the US, from Tinian Island and that i need the ID to register it....yeah, i thought it was US, since it had the US stamp of course, and moreover, at the address, there was the postal code which had MP in front, and without any thinking i was convinced it was Mississippi!!! Maybe if i did google about Tinian Island, many things would have been clearer, but oh well....eventually turned out that it isnt an official, but a swap...and its not from the US  but from the Northern Mariana Islands...it took me a while to realize that i actually have a new country in my collection! And thank God someone actually contacted me about it, otherwise i would have really believed it all this time that its a US card....its a pity that they have no stamps of their own....that would have made things much easier as well...
But yeah, thats how i ruined myself, my own chance to rejoice the fact i have a new country in my collection...ignorance may be blessed but not always...so dont run from classes, pay attention to your lessons, do your homeworks...it will be all worthwhile one day ;)))

As for the stamp...as i already told you, its just a US stamp.....but it has the NMI cancellation, and thats what makes it worth it :)

thanks a lot Jude for the card, and sorry for the inconvenience and misunderstanding :)

Japan

This card feels like a real jack-pot....it is both a map and a flag in one!!!!

Did i tell you i actually had coke today? i hate coke and i dont like those soft-drinks in general....but due to its CO2, Coke is said to be helpful sometimes with sore throats since it kills the bacteria...and at my first sip i felt like in heaven....but i think that eventually i just had too much of it and didnt really get the desired effect (its like when you are on drugs....when you see how good it makes you feel you just want more and more....and before any assumptions, im NOT doing any drugs..:) I just cant determine if im feeling better or worse....at least i DID manage to get to the post office and dispatch some mail i had prepared and get some stamps, since as usual, im out of stamps....and wasnt i supposed to talk of Japan actually? hmmm, oh well...its my blog :) And nothing smart really comes to my mind right now when Japan is in question....except that im not really fond of manga and anime in case you wondered....

and im not a fan of Hello Kitty either...even though i have a pair of lingerie with it...well, i just love that kind of lingerie, so i didnt really care if it had Hello Kitty on it or something else... and i  should really start learning how to read some Japanese so i can figure out in which year the stamps were printed, so that i can find them more easily and obtain the necessary information...the set of Hello Kitty stamps i came across, issued in 2004, were rather different than the stamp here....so im just really not sure about it...

Коčani, Macedonia

You cant possibly imagine my reaction when i found this in my mailbox some days ago....yeah, its not a bought card, but a sent one...from my own country!

The thing with Macedonia is that the places where a friend can send you a card from is most probably Ohrid...as for the others its like a real rarity, so receiving something like this in my mailbox was just a call for joy! A friend who lives there just decided to send me one, coz he knows im a postcard nuts :)
I still havent sent myself a postcard from Skopje...though i probably will soon...since they raised the prices and i may buy some of those new stamps and stick one to my own cards and send it to myself...well, if i could do it from Montenegro, why not from here...even though it sounds to be totally retard...
what should you know about Kočani...its a town in eastern Macedonia, not very far from the border with Bulgaria...and i have never really been there...
Its called the city of rice, and ever since i was little, when my parents would go to the market to buy rice, they always preferred to buy the Kočani rice, due to its high-quality. Rice is among my very favourite kinds of food...though nowadays i prefer the brown rice, whicn unfortunately doesnt come from Kočani and which more unfortunately is hell more expensive...but i just have this thing when it comes to nutrition, that if i can i go for brown bread, brown rice, brown sugar...low-fat stuff (milk/butter/cheese) etc..but if you ever have a chance to try this Macedonian rice, do give it a go...

hmmm, something ive been talking about over and over again...the stamp issue in Macedonia...and that postal workers here dont really use stamps but these automated machine stamps....thats why i always end up prepared with stamps before sending something...well, ALWAYS when it comes to postcards, almost always when it comes to stuff sent in an envelope...coz if i dont, you will most probably receive a postcard with this sort of a stamp, and its not a fancy one, is it?

Route 66

oh well, despite everything, ive managed to make an update today...with certain things going haywire every now and then, but yeah, you were warned...and my throat is still killing me..

as you might suppose, a Route 66 card means actually a Depeche Mode post...not much news about it...except that i think this is the most misfortunate tour ever....coz they end up cancelling shows quite often...for various reasons...first the stomach virus, then Dave hurt his knee or so, then due to logistics they couldnt manage certain places so of course they cancelled them...then doctors advised Dave to rest his voice, so again cancellations...on the other hand some other new dates are being added...a real chaos...and in all that chaos, i still havent got a chance to see them...=|

well...just one of my very favourite songs from the last album....Miles Away....or, The truth is, you're miles away.......*sigh*




see ya!

Macau

Yes, it is my first Macau card indeed...and i love it :)

Macau in a great deal reminds me of my childhood...i had this set of books called Chinese/Japanese/Vietnamese etc traditional stories...so i somewhat read a lot about this part of the world, yet it was Macau which as a name left the deepest prints into my memory...im not sure why...but its name reminds me of a huge cup of hot-chocolate...
As for the card, you can see the Statue of Kun Iam which is the most impressive and magnificent of the three most famous temples of Macau (the other two are A-Ma Temple and Lin Fung Temple). With a history dating back as early as 1632 in the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644), it has many similarities with ancient Chinese temples. It is also known as the site of the first Sino-American treaty which was signed in 1844.

Kun Iam Temple has three main shrines suited one behind another. It consists of one Hall of Sakyamuni, one Buddha of Longevity Hall and one Kun Iam Hall with several small shrines around these three main halls. Facing the gate of the Buddhist monastery, the Hall of Sakyamuni is dedicated with three gilded statues. The statue of Sakyamuni sits in the middle. A bronze bell, over 300 years old, hangs beside the hall. Buddha of Longevity adorns the Longevity Hall. Serene and mild, this statue is a symbol of Buddha's purpose: to deliver all living creatures from torment. Kun Iam Hall is the most important hall of the temple. Kun Iam, arrayed in embroidered silk and in crown, is flanked by the Eighteen Buddhas. One of them is said to be carved in the image of Marco Polo who studied Buddhism in the temple.

At the back of the temple are terraced gardens. The first Sino-American treaty Wong Ha (Wangxia) Treaty was signed on one of the stone desks here. In addition, many calligraphic masterpieces and cultural relics are brought together in this temple.

the great stamp comes from a set of 8 definitives issued in 2008, with the World Heritage as their subject.

Indian Symbols

Probably one of my all time favourite cards....and it comes as an official!

US-420558

The sender says that she chose to send me this card since i love educational cards...well, this one aint only educational but extremely cool as well...i dont know if ill ever get into a situation to have to decipher these symbols but for those that have a higher probability, this might be helpful....just zoom in :)
The back of the card says:
- The earliest writings of the American Indians were those of signs and symbols. These symbols are always apparent in their handicraft and jewelry.

my favourite symbols: sun rays, thunderbird, butterfly, 4 ages, sun symbols, running water....

well, just a great great card! i absolutely love love love it!

well....i think you are already familiar with the stamps...speaking of stamps...i again overheard that some postage prices might go up here....urghhh!

Beijing, China

And another official card for today...a really great card as well...

CN-85533

Comes from Beijing, and it shows the Palace Museum. It was established on October 10, 1925, and is China's largest museum. It is also known as the 'Purple' Forbidden City in Chinese, or the Forbidden City as it is commonly known in English. It covers 720,000 square meters and was the imperial palace for a succession of twenty-four emperors and their dynasties during the Ming and Qing periods of Chinese history. The museum is also China's largest and most complete architectural grouping of ancient halls. Construction was begun in 1420, the eighteenth year of Yongle, so that the site hasexisted for the past 580 years.
More than 70 halls of various sizes, containing more than 9,000 rooms, comprise the Forbidden City. These halls are aligned along a north-south axis, and extend out on either side in an east-west symmetry. The central axis not only passes through the Purple Forbidden City, but extends south to Yongding Gate and north to the Bell and Drum Towers, for a length of some eight kilometers. This passage through the entire city of Beijing symbolizes the centrality of the imperial power: the imperial seat is at the very center of this line. The architectural design lines up the buildings in neat array and with imposing scale. In a concentrated form, this assemblage expresses China's artistic traditions in the setting of China's unique architectural style.

well, that also makes it a UNESCO whs as well...

As for the stamp...well no stamp...just a red machined print...and i thought this didnt happen in China :)
Well it IS a pity, since China has such great and various stamps....

Marigot Bay, St. Lucia

It sucks to have a cold...in the middle of the summer...to feel like being ran over by an express Münich-Belgrade train...im also starting to think that i might have a hay-fever as well, or some other sort of allergy since my nose keeps getting irritated very easily and i keep sneezing and feeling an annoying itch....and why am i actually rambling this in the first place....just excuse me if my posts seem absent-minded....i just feel that way...

St. Lucia....another country ticked off the list...honestly, i have no idea whats the exact number so far, since i have a few unposted as well, and i think i somewhat got lost in all this country-counting...so i dont know if there will be a contest for the 200th received country :D
Being in the West Indies, it surely seems like one of those 'heavenly places on Earth...speaking of West Indies...there was this time at work, i was working on some text and it had the West Indies mentioned...and i actually didnt know that it referred to the Caribbean...i even had to re-check in the dictionary afterwards, just not to make a fool of myself and say something wrong...
Well...Marigot Bay is a bay...well, of course it is a bay...in the Caribbean, located in the west coast of St. Lucia.It is surrounded on three sides by steep, emerald-colored hills.

It is famed as the setting for the 1967 film version of Hugh Lofting's classic Doctor Dolitle books. The bay is used for the scenes involving the shipwreck, the fictional Great Pink Sea Snail and the construction of the harness for the Giant Lunar Moth.
So, if you have watched the movie, then you know what im talking about....if you havent (like me) then you are probably not familiar with it..,but at least i learned something :)

And lest i not forget....thank you Glenn for the card! :)

Switzerland

Here is one of the many lovely maps in mu collection, waiting to see the light of the blog :) I hope you map-card lovers arent too jealous...;)

Have i ever told you that my mum used to work as an au-pair in Switzerland when she was young...somewhere in her twenties.
She had been taking care of this small boy, i dont recall his name, but i know he was blond and adorable. And of course, my mum had loved it there...and said how you can just leave your shoes or bike in front of your door and they will be there next time you need to pick them up...compared to here, they'll find a way to steal your bike from a chain-locked basement.
My mum knows French, so that really helped her to get around in Switzerland (im not really sure in which city she stayed though) and in general, it was much easier back then to find a job like that abroad...nowadays, bureaucracy is gonna rip your head off.
And one day when she went to the post office, since she wanted to make a call home of course...she was waiting and waiting and waiting for the operator to get her the connection...and eventually she asked what was taking so long...the operator replied 'well be patient Miss...you cant get Africa so easily....'??????
Hmmm...back then it wasnt even Macedonia..it was Yugoslavia...and Yugoslavia was much widely known than Macedonia is today...and Switzerland wasnt so far from the border with Yugoslavia...how could she possibly think that Yugoslavia is in Africa...and i complain about the ignorance people have today...

Richmond, USA

I really love this unusual-shaped card, sent to me by dear Chrissy.

Here is Richmond, Virginia's Capitol...and this building is the State Capitol Complex...well, not a very inventive name :)
In the heart of downtown, east of 9th Street, between Broad and Main, where squirrels play beneath the many magnolia trees, the Virginia State Capitol Complex exemplifies the "Old South" and provides a refreshing contrast to the "New South" business district surrounding it.

and here are some lovely stamps, where apart from the famous Simpsons guys, you have two additional ones, a fox and a bear...if you ever get to have some spare bear card, you can send one to Chrissy since she is a bear-lover, and  a card like that would make her super-happy :)
Oh, and if you wonder why so many stamps for a single card...it actually came in an envelope along with a long letter and two other cards...and some stickers...:)

thanks for the great Chrissy...I hope you are doing ok, and we miss you :)

Panama

Man....i feel so blank...its scary....i dont know if coffee, my best friend is gonna be any helpful...ive done loads of work...and still have some left to do...im beginning to wonder if thats coz i really have loads of work to do, or is it coz im so inefficient and there is always something left...i have a feeling that this fella on the picture is giving me some ridiculing look...or pitiful...i dont know...

He is really pretty....i love his vibrant colours. His name is Guacamaya.....his nicknames are Macaw and Ara..call him whichever suits you best..i think that he also might be a Scarlet Macaw...but you know how it goes with birds and animals...each species has its sub-species which slightly can differ from the original guy....

His eyes seem like a piece of glass or crystal glued over his skin....unnatural but beautiful.
They are exotic birds, said to be living in the wilds of Central and South America...


Scarlet macaws prefer undisturbed rainforest. They eat fruits, nuts, flowers and nectar, and they often eat unripe fruit and nuts that other animals avoid. These macaws also eat clay from river banks. No one is sure why they do this, but the clay seems to be important to them. One hypothesis is that the clay helps the parrots to digest poisonous chemicals found in the unripe fruit they eat.
A pair of scarlet macaws raises one or two young each season in a tree cavity nest. The young birds often stay with their parents for up to two years. The adult parrots will not rear another clutch until the young leave the nest. As a result, the number of macaws increases slowly.
Deforestation has had a big impact on the scarlet macaws. Without their natural habitat, they stop building nests and producing young, and can have difficulty finding enough to eat. Unfortunately, deforestation can be hard to stop because people need land to grow food. A lot of scarlet macaws have been taken from the wild to be sold as pets.

well, as for a pet...it is nice to have him at home...he surely is beautiful...but im much happier to see these birds in their natural habitats, where they belong in the first place.

Mala Fatra, Slovakia

Seems like a beautiful Slovakian National Park...

National Park of Malá Fatra is situated in the westernmost Slovak high mountains Malá Fatra. Gorges rock peaks and an attractive ridge tour are among its attractions.The Krivánska part of the Malá Fatra Mts. was designated the Protected Landscape Area in 1967 for unusual abundance of its natural assets and the plant and animal species it contains. It was re-classified in 1988 to National Park Malá Fatra. It spreads on an area of 226 square kilometres. The area of its protective zone is 233 square kilometres.

The main subject of protection is the territory with varied geological history and dissected relief forms, rare and precious biocenoses, flora and fauna, and the exceptional value of forest and mountain compounds with precious dwarf pinewoods,Verdrapacious animals such as the wolf, lynx or bear.

nice....reminds me i want to get out of here...

Hong Kong

Im not sure what Hong Kong is celebrating here...but surely looks nice :)

This is the Victoria Harbour....sometimes i have a feeling that all my HK cards show one or two places only... hopefully ill get two more different HK places soon...or not so soon :) And maybe a magnet too....which is something like my latest discovered new passion for stuff...as if i dont already have NO room to place stuff.
The Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbour situated between HK Island and the Kowloon Peninsula.The harbour's deep, sheltered waters and strategic location on the South China Sea was instrumental in Hong Kong's establishment as a British colony and its subsequent development as a trading centre.

Long famous for its spectacular views, the harbour is a major tourist attraction of Hong Kong. Lying in the middle of the territory's dense urban region, the harbour is the site of annual fireworks displays and its promenades are popular gathering places for tourists and residents.

I feel like what i wrote is a deja vu of some previous post....

Jamaica

Sometimes i dont post for days....sometimes i end up posting several days in a row....even though im still sort of tight with time...but i just really need to catch up with my received cards (though being realistic, i could be posting every single day until the end of the year and i still wont be done)...and being realistic for the second time, writing here feels therapeutic, so in a way i NEED to do it....its one of the things which apart from great mail in the mailbox, help me get through the day...lame, no? But at least there ARE things i can do when im feeling in one of those moods.....

And a card that made my day when i received it....you know im crazy about flag cards, and this one here is just perfect. I think that the GTKY ladies really want to spoil me sometimes :))) And this one travelled for like two months to get to me...but it did arrive eventually! And a huuuuuge thank you and a biiiiig hug to Wendy for sending me this one...i absolutely LOVE IT!.

The Jamaican flag was first flown on August 6 1962, Jamaica's Independence day.....wow wow wow....hold it...that is TODAY!!! Ok...i SWEAR when i was choosing the cards for this update i had no idea about this...and now when i rewind things, i know while ago Wendy mentioned that she wont have mail today since its Independence Day, but you know, its one of the things you read but dont really grasp the meaning of it...and i had already chosen my cards for today since yesterday (yeah, honestly i have so many great cards that i choose them right after i make an update and wait till the next day to post them...)
Sooo....Happy Independence day to Jamaica, and im happy that so unconsciously i chose this card for today..i mean, i could have posted it yesterday or tomorrow...but there you go...i have my 6th sense sometimes :)
So anyway....let me continue..The colours of the Jamaican flag are Gold, Black and Green (I actually thought it was yellow all this time).
The Black represents the many hardships endured and yet to come.
Green is for Jamaica's agricultural resources and also represents hope.
Gold represents the natural wealth of the island's nation and natural beauty bestowed on Jamaica by the golden sunlight.

the stamp is from a set of 8 definitives issued in 2006. its part III of this subject regarding Classical architecture, where here you can see Devon House St. Andrew

again an enormous thank you to Wendy for this FAB card! Love it!!

St. Louis, USA

Here is an evening view of the historic city of St. Louis in Missouri.

The Gateway Arch is located on the banks of the Mississippi river, and it is the tallest national monument in the USA. This stainless steel-plated arch spans 630 feet at ground level from outer edge to outer edge and is 630 feet tall. There is a tram which takes visitors to the top for a spectacular view from the observation room.
Im a bit confused about the 'tram' thing, but thats what the back of the card says. Either way, it MUST be an amazing view from there...

the stamps used on the card are really nice too. The hearty stamp on the left is a commemorative one issued in 2008 under the Love issue series, called All heart....its also self-adhesive. The design focuses on a large, bright red heart that is transporting its owner to an unseen beloved who will be gifted with this heart full of love.
Well said....i wonder if this bright red heart can transport me over the Atlantic....

Singapore

The last card i chose for today comes from Singapore...again with the focus on the Singapore Flyer, but this time more how the view seems FROM it, not ON it...

Not so long ago i read this book, where at a certain point this Japanese woman told her story how once when she went to Switzerland, she went for a walk and to this amusement park where she decided to take a ride on some sort of a vehicle like this. It was before closing time, and she was like the only one with a ticket for the ride...and the guard was an old drunk man....
The rides for these usually last one whole circle...but with her, things went wrong....while being on the inside, the ride stopped, the lights of the park eventually went off, and there was utter silence...you know, like you are in a dream, yet everything is real...she tried to catch someone's attention by screaming and throwing things but nothing worked...eventually she fell asleep and they found her the following day...a policeman found her wallet on the ground and figured out what must have happened...thing is, after this event, her entire hair had gone white...just like that, without any reasonable logical explanation...due to stress or something else, i dont know...still, nothing pleasant at all.
If you like Murakami, then you can read Sputnik Sweetheart...maybe not my favourite book by him, yet i think its worth the reading...and Murakami  IS one of my favourite authors....but whys and such, for some other time

as for the stamp,  it was issued in 2008...showing the King of Fruits, the famous Durian...many say that it has a very unpleasant smell, but im really curious to try it...i have a feeling that it tastes reaaaalyy good :)

Andorra

Its been such a lousy day so far.....one of those days when you just feel wrong about everything...i think you know what kind of a day im talking about...when you just feel as if you are either spreading the worst karma around you...sounds familiar?
No mail today either...though i mustnt complain...i cant get mail on daily basis...and yesterday i received some great stuff....but still...it just adds to my non-feeling good mood :)

Here is a quite special card...not coz its from a new country only, but coz its also a map card...which makes it like being the cherry on top of a delicious chocolate cake...
I havent been to Andorra, but this man i met once, said that Andorra had to be his favourite place out of all countries he has been to, since Andorra had some beautiful old architecture he enjoyed...some small narrow streets with an ancient spirit....well, if i am to judge according to the architecture pictures on the card, it does seem so..
As for Andorra....the basics you should know about it is that its 470km^2. It is a landlocked country in Southwestern Europe and its residents have the have the highest human life expectancy in the world at the average of 85 years...it is also one of the tax haven countries...so you should take it into consideration if you want to move out some day. And make sure you learn some Catalan before you go...and send me a postcard once you get there ;)

Dubrovnik, Croatia

A card i bought this summer, on my one-day trip to Dubrovnik...last time i went there was when i was really little, so honestly i barely remember anything..so it was more than worth it to pay this visit....

As with most excursions, you get to see the historic places only, as in this case, we went to the Old City only....you dont have the time to wander through the rest of the city...but well, better something than nothing.
I must say that Dubrovnik is absolutely beautiful and has some charisma....compared to other touristic places ive visited, here the entire place just radiates with beauty...coming from all those beautiful people around...by this i mean people who capture you with their simplicity in their looks and behaviour, yet they are full of some modest dignity....smiling joyful faces all around...
the downside...its insanely expensive...postcards included.....so i couldnt really grab much...but i still bought a few for myself and maybe some to trade or give away...we'll see.
Another thing that will remain in my memories....the absolutely delicious ice cream which among other flavours, had a Mojito one as well...superb! Just that one scoop was 1 Euro worth...here i can get like 3 or 4 scoops for the same money, but truth is, its not the same ice-cream, and the scoops there were REALLY huge....personally, i ate 7.....first i bought 3, and then after i finished my sightseeing, i bought 4 more while waiting for the bus...i still dont know how my throat had survived :)
In Dubrovnik as with the most excursions, we were with a guide...but i left the group soon afterwards, since i felt as if i was waisting my time with him...some guides just have this thing to take you to places which are not of a greatest interest, and when you tell them you want to visit the City Walls (which are like a must-see when you visit Dubrovnik) he tells you that its tiring and you wont have time and blah blah blah....so of course, i left the group, got my ticket and went to the city walls...the only thing i regret is that i hadnt charged my camera batteries before i left, since after a while, they were empty, and i just couldnt take many pictures...still, im grateful for the ones i managed to make...ill show you some now, and ill leave some for another update....
I also bought myself two lovely mugs in Dubrovnik...and i almost bought a Depeche Mode T-shirt, which wasnt that expensive, but i thought to myself that i should be a bit more careful with my finances :)
Maybe Dubrovnik didnt bring so many memories, but certain parts of Croatia on the way did...like the resorts we went to each summer when i was little...i recognized this hotel we stayed at, but it was abandoned...yet the building was still there...summarized....i loved the trip and i loved Dubrovnik and would love to go back there...

the pictures...have to tell you that i LOVE my new camera...i just still need to explore loads of its options...but  I love it!!! Sony just doesnt let you down...

View of the Old City...we stopped for a few minutes in order to be able to take some pics since the photographing point was just perfect...

The typical narrow streets in Dubrovnik...they are just lovely...but from a touristic point of view...wouldnt want to reside there in any sense...it would feel as if you are living in a museum...people constantly passing by your door or window, lurking into your backyard...just no privacy....

My first 3 scoops of delicious ice-cream...Mojito...biscuits...coconut...

The Old City Fortress...

ahhh, memories memories....

Alaska, USA

Finally!! ALASKA!! Well, i thought that this was my first Alaska card, but when i checked my collection i realized i already have a card from there showing a lighthouse...so this can be considered as my first scenic/view Alaska card :) And such an amazing one...

this is the Spit of Round Island, at the Bering Sea...also known as Walrus Island...The Walrus Islands earned their name because of the big concentration of walruses in the adjacent waters of these islands every summer, the largest concentration being in Round Island. There are actually 3 different Walrus Islands in Alaska, but only one corresponds to the name of the Round Island.
What I just really want to know is whether across the waters, the land you can see is Russia, or im just imagining things....This island group was first explored by Captain James Cook in 1785. The Russian name for a walrus is "Morzh", in Macedonian its the same....just that the Cyrillic version of it is Морж..

Esztergom, Hungary

I have a BUNCH of Hungarian cards....but the vast majority from them are showing Budapest...and its cards i had bought myself...so receiving one in my mailbox, written and stamped, is a REAL refreshment!!

The card shows the city of Esztergom which is about 50km north-west of Budapest...lying on the right bank of the Danube river, which forms the border with Slovakia there.
It was Hungary's capital from the 10th till the mid 13th century...it is still the seat of the prímás of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary.
One of the newest sights in Esztergom is the Maria Valeria bridge, connecting the city with the city of Šturovo in Slovakia.
Some think the name comes from Isztergam (Iszter meaning Danube and Gam referring to the nearby river Garam.

the stamp on the left was issued in 2004 with its Primary Theme "Politics and Government - National Symbols"...the other stamp was issued in 1999...has to do something with NATO...but i didnt manage to find much info about this one..