One of my personally bought cards from my trip to Italy...I just dont know why the white lines around the letters for Toscana look soo annoying...as if they are simply screaming!
This past week has been really scarce on postcards...well, ive been somewhat left behind in sending cards lately as well, i focused more on some other kind of mail, so i think there lies the main reason...but i hope the following one will be more fruitful...i need mail, a LOT!
Its rather late, but i have a lot of stuff pending...i need to clean around a bit...i need to prepare stuff for work for the following week...i need to finish a book...i need to write some letters...
Oh, and today is 8th of March....international women's day...im not fond of holidays which are planned to be commemorated on one day only, coz they feel forced and all...but i do want to wish all women out there, Happy Women's Day...and to my mum ill buy something when she least expects it instead on a day like today when she is supposed to get something...plus i think, the day itself has lost a lot of its significance and the way its celebrated from the time when i was little for example...feels stranger and colder and simply alienated...just like the whole world around me....yeah, i need to get out of this mood, PRONTO! :)
See you during following week my dear postcard collectors!
I got this card back in time (in 2004 to be more precise) from Charity....wherever she goes, she always sends me postcards...even if she hasnt heard from me for ages, she always remembers to write....obviously not everyone is a lousy pal as me...
as she had written on the back, this one was sent when she and Scott were in Sin City for their anniversary and they were having a great time. I dont doubt that, knowing what all Vegas can offer...and its not just gambling and casinos....
the card shows the Spectacular Entrance of MGM Grand. It is a luxury hotel casino located on the Las Vegas Strip which opened as a Hollywood themed resort. The MGM Grand Las Vegas is the second largest hotel in the world and second largest hotel resort complex in the United States behind The Venetian.
The 30-floor main building is 293 feet (89 m) high and features five outdoor pools, rivers, and waterfalls that cover 6.6 acres, 35,000 m2 convention centre, the MGM Grand Garden Arena, CBS Television City, and the Grand Spa. It also houses numerous shops and night clubs, 16 restaurants, and the largest casino in Clark County.
It has 6,852 rooms! And it has a 13th floor (if we have in mind that many hotels dont have a 13th floor or use it as a vacant space, due to the notorious number 13...
This card shows "Les Jardins du Casino et la Place"
Well, thats what it says...I know that "Les Jardins" would be something like "The Gardens"...Casino, is, well, Casino...and "la Place" is just a name I guess....so its something like The Gardens of the Casino :)
The Monte Carlo Casino is one of the most famous tourist attractions of Monaco. The casino complex is a gambling facility which also includes the Grand Théâtre de Monte Carlo, an opera and ballet house, and the headquarters of the Ballets de Monte Carlo. It is situated in the Monte Carlo quarter although the citizens of Monaco are forbidden to enter the gaming rooms. It hosts the annual European Poker Tour Grand Final, the most prestigious poker tournament in Europe.
One of the many cards I had bought during my stay in Spain...and I think this has got to be the thing which definitely left me the greatest impression...the famous fountains in Barcelona..
Talking about them is pointless, coz you just HAVE to see them and experience the atmosphere...thats impossible to be done by talking about them, no matter how hard I try to convey the actual atmosphere...
Unfortunately I couldnt find any professional video about this attraction...just videos taken by tourists and you get to hear more their talking and the background noise, instead what you are actually supposed to hear....but still...here are some, so try to enjoy them :)
I love the way the music, the colours and the dancing of the water is synchronized and composed in the first place.
Ive read about other such fountains throughout the world...would love to get the chance to see them all...and if you happen to be in Barcelona, then you just MUSTN'T miss to see them!!
Yup, you've already seen this card, in case you wondered why it looked familiar to you...i pulled it back from the older-posted cards, along with the following one...
Well, as with most of my Monte Carlo cards (except for one) i have this one bought by myself when i went there...
I know i sholdnt be saying this, and that its ridiculous, but I used to have a problem of distinguishing the city from the state :D
I often used to mix them up and thing that Monaco is the city, Monte Carlo is the state...the whole concept of was something abstract to me...but of course, once you grow up, things get clearer, and reality starts functioning differently.
Monaco is a Constitutional Monarchy and Principality with Prince Albert II as Head of the State. The Grimaldi family family has ruled over Monaco since 1297 and the state's sovereignty was officially recognized by the Franco-Monegasque Treaty of 1861. Despite being independent, Monaco’s defence is still the responsibility of France. (now this, i didnt know...)
Monaco is the worlds most densely populated sovereign country and the world's smallest French speaking country...
I dont know if we got the wrong time, but i wasnt impressed much of Venice...when we went there, the weather in general was cold and rainy and windy...so i guess i couldnt expereince Venice the right way.
Well, at least I did get tonz of cards from there, so Venice is one of those places from where i have so many cards that frankly, im not craving to receive another one :)
This card shows an exceptional high-tide on St. Marco's square...so exceptional, that i dont know if im seeing right or no, but that guy on the card...is he actually walking through the water? Thats insane!! Unless something's wrong with my eyes and im not seeing it properly...the funny thing is that he is sooo calm about it and keeps walking as if he is going on an everyday trekking....i dont know...maybe for me its insane...for Venetians it may be a normal every day sight...
well, thats all for today...i need to get back to work...and go to work again later in the evening..i hate this scattered schedule im having, but i guess i dont have much of a choice but to put up with it...
Finally, here I AM!
I have absolutely NO idea where did my weekend go...stuck in work AND deadlines, that i had absolutely no time for this or anything for myself....not to mention that i didnt feel ok as well...really, i dont have the feeling that its Monday today...its more as if its the middle of the week...
I apologise to whom ever i owe an email or any kind of message/notification...one will be on your way as soon as possible...I just hope i wont miss someone in this pile of messages i need to send out :)
Heh, right now im having a break, though it wont surprise me that ill get a call by the end of the day, telling me i need to finish this or that...
And right now its raining as well...the weather had got sooo damn cold here during the weekend....believe it or not, just a few days ago it was 38 degrees, right now its 15!! These weather changes have made my brain just sooo blurry during the weekend, at times i needed to work the most...its a rapid rapid change, but thats how the weather is here...i wonder, how is the postman managing on his bike through this kind of rainy weather...and i do hope he'll bring some mail for me today, and that it wont get soaked
I dont mind the rain...really, if i have to choose between that terrible heat, and the rain, id go for the rain...i simply DONT function at a hot weather...rapid changes DO make me go down, but once it stabilizes, the rainy weather itself makes me feel ok....well, now if i need to go somewhere and do stuff, then no, i dont like the rain, but if im able to stay at home, then the rain just feels soo good...lifts me up...i know this is contrary to how most people feel towards the rain coz it tends to feel depressing, but to me in most cases, it feels good...of course, i have my bad days as well, and sometimes, i have found the rainy weather of why i dont feel ok, or why am i staying in bed all day...but everyone has those days, no?
ok....enough chit-chat...lets get down to why im actually here in the first place...im not supposed to be ranting :)
And, for starters, a card from my very favourite Vienna...I bought this one when i went there....
It shows the Schonebrunn Castle, which is probably one of the places in Vienna that left the greatest impression on me...the thing with Vienna is that when we went there, we had some issues with the agency who took us there, so in Vienna they left us on our own more or less....so we organized ourselves the way we wanted to, and frankly, thats why we got to see the face of Vienna we wouldnt have seen if we went through the city by the tour-bus....and one of the places we went to was Schonebrunn.....WOW...I so much loved it!!!
When you go there, with the ticket you get a pair of headphones and a tape, so as you walk through the castle it tells you exactly what you are seeing, how you should move and all....I simply enjoyed it!! No tour-guides, who just run forward and dont care one bit if you had actually heard what they had said or no...no crowd of nosiy students..it was me and 5 other friends....i think this was the first time that I ABSOLUTELY enjoyed a visit to some historical place....unfortunately we couldnt see the entire castle, due to the lack of time, and i really feel sorry for it, but of what i saw, i enjoyed every single moment of it.....
Oh, God...I so much miss Vienna!! :((((((
here is the song which to a great extent captures the emotions of feeling nostalgic about Vienna...I so much love this song...I loved it even before I ever went to Vienna, but afterwards, it just got a whole new meaning...
Bought by myself....from my trip and our stop in Venice
I think that I have bought the most colourful and picturesque postcards in Venice....not as in "cartoon" picturesque...but they have some small details which make them so lively and interesting and colourful, as for example, the pencil on this one and what it has written...it makes the card so so so different than from what it would have been without it...well, it would have been just another usual touristic card, and i wouldnt have mind it, but i prefer it much more like this...
Venice....too many details to write about there...and i doubt im gonna be able to recall them all..but thats why we have PLENTY of Venice cards to take the time on it ;-)
I got so many cards from Paris back then that right now i don't think id like to see another Parisian card in my mailbox...even though I've seen some really nice views out there, its sites I have, more than once....i just don't find it thrilling to have it again.
The card here shows Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris...we didn't manage to visit it coz it was closing like at 5 or 6pm and we arrived just before closing time....
There is a book called "The hunchback of Notre Dame" by Victor Hugo....haven't read it, though i think I should....its Victor Hugo...should be worth reading....
I have many things to write about our visit to Paris....but there are many postcards as well from there, so we'll take it really slowly
One of the numerous cards I bought when i was in Barcelona, during my trip in 2004
There are several things i recall right now regarding Barcelona (which have nothing to do with historic facts or such).
I remember this part of the town which probably i could call one of the heaven places on Earth for me. It was a long street with loads of shops and most of them were music shops! Most of them probably didnt sell original CD's/DVD's but it was a pleasure to be able to see them....whenever i go abroad i get literally stuck in one of those Virgin/HMV shops, or whatever they happen to have there.
And I know that in some of the shops i saw Depeche Mode t-shirts and that was the first time in my life i have seen a DM t-shirt (coz music shops are rather retarded here) and I was soooo damn excited, and was ready to buy one, but needed to ask for a smaller number since those were something like XXXXL.....and i would have looked more than ridiculous in that...and when i asked the shop assistant for a smaller size, he responded in Spanish and said something like "para los niños" so I could figure out they only had sizes for guys.....aint that discrimination?! :)
But it was fun....
A card brought to me by my aunt from one of her summer holidays spent in Pula
I've been wanting to go with her as well at one of those holidays, but plans never were converted into something real unfortunately....though id LOVE to go on a summer holiday in Croatia....
When I was little, almost every year i went there with my parents, not in Pula, but in various summer resorts in Croatia....and i have so many wonderful memories from there...
We would usually set off in the middle of the night, i would sleep in the back of the car (my mum used to make the back-seat as a small bed) so i would've slept during the entire trip while my dad was driving.
During the day we would have stopped at some places and eventually get to our destination.
I LOVED my holidays in Croatia...i think that they represent like one of the most beautiful memories of my childhood....I still remember the scent of pine-woods which were fulfilling the air.....i remember the red-sand-cliffs which were by the paths we walked....i remember the hotels where we stayed at and how when we went for dinner/lunch, there was always a stall in front of the restaurant which showed whats on the menu and how i knew ahead if im gonna stay hungry or no (i can be too picky when it comes to food, when i was a kid i was a real disaster....thank god, through years, ive put some more items on my edible list)
I remember how they bought me my first plastic tennis rackets and a ball made of something like a sponge-material and how we played on a parking lot...i remember how i hated to wake up early for breakfast and how i always liked the image of the coffee with milk my mum was drinking yet, i wasnt allowed to have one...i always had tea, since i dont drink milk....i remember how my parents were saying i was younger than i actually was so we could get a discount for children under the age of 7 and how i always thought that the staff never believed us yet they could do nothing about it....ahhhh, i so much miss my summer holidays in Croatia....i so much miss my childhood and the good old times in general....
One of the reasons why i was excited to visit Monte Carlo was....no no no no, not coz of the casinos and all that luxury....i was thrilled to be present at a place where an F1 race is taking place....even though the time we went there, there was no race....but i was like...all those cars come here...all that fun is here...all that adrenaline is on these streets....and when we went through MC, our bus drove along some of the parts of the streets where the race is taking place and i was indescribably excited....foolish, i know :)
We did go to one of the casinos though....just that, they didnt let us where the real events were taking place, but at one, well, i dont know what its called, it was just a room with slot machines of various kinds....and of course, i didnt win anything, but i like those slot machines with coins coming out....they are fun...and i took one of those 'caps' as a souvenir...you know, those big 'bowls' they give you so you can keep your coins...which reminds me now to look for that...i have NO idea where i had put it....i think i use it to keep stuff....need to check.
Have to add that there were AWESOME cars parked on the lot in front of the casino...gorgeous, huge, furious, expensive cars....
Hopefully until some of the next Monte Carlo cards, i will recall what else we had visited there (im certain there was something else) plus a bit info about the place itself...
Bought from my trip around Europe, and our visit of Spain.
We stayed in Lloret de Mar and one thing im gonna definitely remember this place for, is the amount of food we ate at the hotel.....it was self-service and after days of sort of starvation, here, we couldnt get enough of it....as we had never seen food before....im ashamed to even think how the hotel staff were looking at us or the other people who stayed there....
But we couldnt help it, since apart that it was self-service, there was PLENTY of food to choose from...tasty and delicious.
Unfortunately, we didnt see much of Lloret....except that we spent one night at a disco, which was awfully boring, at least for me, and one rushed morning through some shops....while in Spain, we mainly spent our days in travelling around
Lloret de Mar, is a city with more than thousand years of history, which has become an important tourist destination, dynamic and modern located in the matchless Costa Brava of Catalonia, in the northeast of Spain.It is adjacent to Blanes and Tossa de Mar and is 75 kilometers from Barcelona. It is the second largest town in the Selva county of Catalonia. It has a population density of approximately 130 inhabitants per kilometer squared.During the tourist season, the number of people in Lloret (both inhabitants and tourists) often reaches 200,000. For decades it has attracted summer visitors mainly from Northern Europe and it is now the most important resort in Costa Brava.
I bought this one during my trip in 2004 when we visited several European countries. A terribly tiring trip, yet, if i could, i would go through it all over again!
While most of people got back home with new clothes, Ana spent most of her money on music, mugs and....yeah, postcards :)
We stayed in Italy several days (in Rome, Venice and Firenze).
Our trip to Pisa to see the leaning tower was an experience, one of a kind. Due to traffic jams and all, we literally crawled on the motorways. We arrived in Pisa, believe it or not around 2am....dark as hell, and on top of that, it was raining. We got out of the buses and followed the ones who were leading us. For some reason the walk took rather long, even though i thought we had been parked near the tower. Anyway, it was quite creepy, that at 2am, when everything is absolutely quiet, we wander the streets of a place we've never been before, not to mention how tired and sleepy we were....and please, who the hell goes sightseeing at 2am in the morning??? or maybe it was 3am actually, i cant tell exactly. But since this was like the only chance to see it, there wasnt much of a choice. So after a decent walk in the rain, we turn at a corner and....tadadaaaa!!!! There it is!!!! And my instant reaction was: THIS is IT??!! For THIS we've been walking so long in the rain? You have no idea how poor and simple and plain and unattractive it seemed. From all the pictures i had seen of it before, what was in front of me was a great disappointment. Absolutely nothing could have been seen properly. The picture on the card below is a total opposite from what we saw. But, well....I blame it on the hour and the weather. Neither the pictures we took look any good. So, it is a "memorable" experience indeed :)))
The walk back to the buses was a group of chattered students at 3am, passing by houses of people who were probably already asleep and who probably wondered, who the hell are these people making such a noise at this hour? (just for the record, it was 3 buses full of students, where approx. each bus has 45-50 passengers....so do the math :)
The Tower of Pisa is the bell tower of the Cathedral, situated on the Piazza del Duomo. Its construction began in the august of 1173 and continued (with two long interruptions) for about two hundred years, in full fidelity to the original project, whose architect is still uncertain. In the past it was widely believed that the inclination of the Tower was part of the project ever since its beginning, but now we know that it is not so. The Tower was designed to be "vertical" (and even if it did not lean it would still be one of the most remarkable bell towers in Europe), and started to incline during its construction. Both because of its inclination, and its beauty, from 1173 up to the present the Tower has been the object of very special attention. During its construction efforts were made to halt the incipient inclination through the use of special construction devices; later columns and other damaged parts were substituted in more than one occasion; today, interventions are being carried out within the sub-soil in order to significantly reduce the inclination and to make sure that Tower will have a long life.
