Asmara, Eritrea

Time for some cards and another post....written from under the blanket....i love the convenience and commodity lap-tops offer....though due to lack of physical activities lately and having to do all tasks seated, my back has started to hurt....its not very pleasant....but problem is, with this weather we are having outside, i dont have much of a chance to move around....except round the house....maybe ill take a walk tomorrow....

And as you already could read, here is an Eritrea card....oh yeah!!! :D Sent by my new friend Sami who along with his letter wanted to surprise me with a card as well...yippie!! You dont get Eritrea cards every day, no?

Its just that i still owe him a letter....have gotten EXTREMELY behind with all that due to work lately...but im slowly trying to catch up...and who knows, maybe ill be able to clean all that backlog of letters by New Year....which leaves me two weeks to go....i might be just too optimistic and overestimating myself...but we'll see

I honestly dont know much about Eritrea, but im surprised with the efficiency of the postal service, since African countries (except for S.Africa, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco maybe) are a bit infamous when it comes to mail, since it either takes too long to arrive (we are speaking of months here) or it never arrives....well, i have had good experiences with Mauritius and Nigeria as well....so i guess you never know

Asmara is Eritrea's capital, and there are several interesting stories related to it.

It was known to be an exceptionally modern city, not only because of its architecture, but Asmara also had more traffic lights than Rome did when the city was being built. Asmara was an early example of an ideal modern city created by architects, an idea which was introduced into many cities across the world, such as Brasilia, but which was not altogether popular. Features include designated city zoning and planning, wide treed boulevards, political areas and districts and space and scope for development. Asmara was not built for the Eritreans however; the Italians built it primarily for themselves. One unfortunate aspect of the city's planning was separate areas designated for Italians and Eritreans, each disproportionately sized.
The city has been regarded as "New Rome" or "Italy's African City" due to its quintessential Italian touch, not only for the architecture, but also for the wide streets, piazzas and coffee bars
Asmara is also highly praised for its peaceful, crime-free environment. It is one of the cleanest cities of Africa.
And another thing is that it has been proposed as a UNESCO whs for its outstanding examples of 20th century architecture and town planning. Many of these historic buildings are not currently being taken care of and there is a serious risk that this heritage could be lost. Thats a pity......not taking care of the cultural and historic heritage. But if it does get accepted into the UNESCO whs list, then im already covered with this card and can immediately tick it off the list :P

the nice stamp was issued in 2000....if im not mistaken, its a set of 10 stamps, called Millenium, representing the Eritrean flag and local scenes. On this stamp of 7 nafka, along with the flag, you can see the state emblem as well.