Bulgaria

Believe it or not, I still havent visited the Bulgarian coastline, but that's why Chris has, and sent me this postcard along :))

The top picture shows a glimpse of the town of Pomorie, a seaside resort in southeastern Bulgaria on the Black Sea Coast.
The bottom left shows the Eurasian hoopoe bird, while for example the third one, one of the beautiful Bulgarian srain stamps, which Im proud to say, I stocked myself up with during my last trip there just recently. About the efficiency of the Bulgarian mail, in another post :)

Two stamps from the set of four mushrooms issued in 2014.

Rila Monastery, Bulgaria

One of the few official cards I received last year...the PC stats said that my mailbox last year was happy for only 27 days and that's not a result to be bragging about....but we all know by now that postcard-wise, 2015 cannot be considered one of the most successful years and it is pointless to be sticking to it...so lets hope for a brighter and more prosperous 2016 :)

BG-53544

The card shows the Rila Monastery founded in the 10th century and is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. (and even though it is not that far away I haven't visited it...yet).

It is traditionally thought that the monastery was founded by the hermit St. Ivan of Rila, whose name it bears, during the rule of Tsar Peter I (927-968). The hermit actually lived in a cave without any material possessions not far from the monastery's location, while the complex was built by his students, who came to the mountains to receive their education. Ever since its creation, the Rila Monastery has been supported and respected by the Bulgarian rulers. Large donations were made by almost every tsar of the Second Bulgarian Empire up until the Ottoman Conquest, making the monastery a cultural and spiritual centre of Bulgarian national consciousness that reached its apogee from the 12th to the 14th century. The Rila Monastery was reerected at its present place by Hrelyu, a feudal lord under Serbian suzerainty, during the first half of the 14th century. The oldest buildings in the complex date from this period -— the Tower of Hrelja (1334–1335) and a small church just next to it (1343). The bishop's throne and the rich-engraved gates of the monastery also belong to the time. However, the arrival of the Ottomans in the end of the 14th century was followed by numerous raids and a destruction of the monastery in the middle of the 15th century.

Unfortunately, many places that are considered a cultural heritage have been the subject of destruction...that is really sad and such a pity....

The colours of the card are really beautiful btw...esp. against that lovely blue sky and the green woods lurking in the background

the stamp was issued in 2012, showing the Bulgaria's Tourist Logo.....

Prohodna Cave, Bulgaria

a great Bulgarian card I received last year

It shows Prohodna, a karst cave in north central Bulgaria, located in the Iskar Gorge near the village of Karlukovo. The cave is known for the two eye-like holes in its ceiling, known as the Eyes of God or Oknata. They have formed due to erosion and they let light pass through into the cave.
The cave is 262 metres long, which makes it the longest cave passage in Bulgaria. It has two entrances which lie opposite one another, known respectively as the Small Entrance and the Big Entrance.

Speaking of caves, I recently visited the most amazing one I've ever been to! hopefully will have the chance to write about it on the blog one day :)

there are two stamps on the card: the right one is from a set of 4 stamps issued in 2012, representing Regions of Bulgaria, the northwestern region in particular. The other stamp is from a set of 5 stamps issued in 1999, representing gold treasures of Panagjurište (a Bulgarian town and municipality)

thanks a lot to Tsvetana for this great card!

Asenova Krepost, Bulgaria

always happy to receive written and stamped cards from Bulgaria since I do not get them very often :)

I got this one thanks to the thread I opened at the forum (and re-opened just today). So in case you think you can help me out with my favourite postcards, drop me a line :)
This great card shows Asen's Fortress, situated 2km south of Asenovgrad (grad = city), on a high rocky ridge on the left bank of the Asenitsa River.  The best preserved part of the fortress is the church Holy Mother of God from Petrich - 12th - 13th century. Close to it, there is an inscription by tsar Ivan Asen II.

the stamp on the right was issued in 2009, commemorating the 130th Anniversary of Sofia's Proclamation as Capital of Bulgaria. the other one is from a set of 6 definitives issued in 1999 representing Historical sites, fountains...
thanks a lot to Lilia for the great card!

Bulgaria

well, ive been out of the blogosphere for like over two weeks (hope you missed me :P)

reasons for the absence, several...mainly work-overload...and the bad fever i got over a week ago, and which is still lingering with me...i mean, im not feeling dead-beat as i used to, but i still dont feel well...i cant really explain it, but in general, i feel a bit crappy

well, of course, work piled up...partly my fault, i shouldnt accept assignments whenever and wherever but i always realize that too late...anyways, one of the two im currently working on is one of the most illiterate English texts ive seen...syntax? grammar? word order??? what is that? Even google translate provides better stuff! I got so annoyed with it that i just had to put it on hold, even though the deadline is Thursday plus another 80 pages (of normal English thank God) for next Wednesday...and time is running out...but i just really got fed up and...the thought of postcards brightened me up..so here i am :D

well, i had already picked today's cards time ago, so will post them today, and hopefully, wont take too long till next update...coz my postcard boxes are getting fuller and fuller....and something should be done about it...esp since 2012 is about to come, meaning new box for those postcards, and my room being one huge mess.

ok, enough chatting....

First ill start today with two great Bulgarian map cards.

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the first one arrived as an official (yay, my first official from Bulgaria) and the map card represents Bulgarian national costumes. I had enlarged the card for you to see better, coz the national costumes have numbers assigned according to the region, so in case you are interested, this is how they go:

1. Sofia region
2. North-Western region
3. The Middle Danube Plain
4. North-eastern Region
5. Thracian Lowland
6. South-eastern Region
7. Eastern Region
8. South-western region
9. Rodopi District

Cant pick a favourite....but number 7 really cracks me up coz of all that variety of colours and patterns :)))

the second map card is fantastic in shape, and is rather big too...this one represents the Bulgarian cities with some more significant sites of the regions. Yana, the sender, even wrote to me in Macedonian and told me that I will never get lost now in Bulgaria, coz i have a map...really sweet :)

 Well, i havent been to Bulgaria for years...last time i did was at the Uni when with two other colleagues we went to Sofia..ha ha, that was one trip of a kind...but we would have had less reasons to laugh at nowadays if it wasnt for that trip.
Unlike many Macedonians, ive never spent my summer holidays in Bulgaria...for the Macedonians it is convenient since it is not far, and is cheap....but personally ive never been attracted to it...and not to get misunderstood...i have nothing against it, just that for me, the Adriatic Sea is irreplaceable, as well as the smell of pines along the Croatian coast....ok, the Mediterranean Sea in Valencia was fantastic too, but Adriatic remains number one for me (until I maybe get the chance to taste the ocean...)

and Yana picked great stamps too!! The train stamp is from a set of two stamps issued in 2008, commemorating the 120 years of Orient Express. The other is from a set of four butterflies' stamps issued in 2004.

Bansko, Bulgaria

It is an ironic thing that, cards from some very neighbouring countries, are very rare in my collection...Bulgaria, even though it is my eastern next-door neighbour, is a country i dont have many cards from...and lets not mention how many of them are written and stamped...same goes with Albania, I think I told you about it in a recent post...

This isnt a written and stamped one, a friend brought it to me some months ago from a trip to Bulgaria...and thats when I realized that it's been a long while since i had gotten something from that country....plus she brought me a magnet too, so im really happy :D (My magnet collecting is not something from long ago actually...started out sometime last year and im wondering how could i have been ignoring it all these years...but of course, it is a rather expensive hobby, so im taking it gradually...in Macedonia it can be rather problematic when you go to the PO and want to send one, but i wont get into that right now).

Anyways, this card comes from Bansko....famous as a ski resort...sometimes can be confused with Bansko located in Macedonia, which is both a village and a spa, and people with all sorts of rheumatic and other health problems go there...i guess that since it is situated near the border with Bulgaria, hence the same name.

My friend said that in Bansko they had great saunas and spas, but awful barbecue.

Bulgaria

I know this will be surprising to many, but for me, postcard wise, Bulgaria is a rare country (esp. for written and stamped cards) even though its so close to here...but there, i have more Brazilian cards in my collection, than Bulgarian....ironic....

and i got this one thanks to the Slavic RR.....probably my favourite RR ever...
The only place i have been to from the places shown on the card is actually Sofia...and even that was time time ago (i cant count my visit in 2006 regarding the DM concert coz then i didnt see a single thing from Sofia except the Locomotiv stadium where the concert was held)
I was wondering...if Bulgaria hadnt imposed the visa issue, would i have been visiting it more often or would it have been the same as now...ive never been there on a summer holiday even though its a huge trend among Macedonians...id like to see the *new* Bulgaria though...or the one that developed after entering the EU...
Well, since there is also the Rila Monastery on these pictures, ill label this under UNESCO as well..even though its just a small image and not a single view card....i still have my doubts about this issue, and whether i should label such multiview cards as UNESCO...but for now i still stick to it.....the other day i tried to update my UNESCO list with the sites im having but its a bit tough, as counting my postcards is as well...and btw, im also sick and have an annoying cold and just feel f***** up in general coz of it with total lack of energy and desire to do anything...plus there are some other things in question which add up to it, but more about it some other time...

the huge stamp was issued in May this year and comes from a set of 4 stamps representing Fauna and Night Birds of Prey...Owls in particular, and here the Strix Uralensis is shown.
the other smaller stamp comes from a set of 6 definitives issued in 1999 representing Historical sites, fountains...

Sofia, Bulgaria

An oldish card, dating back from 1969, given to me by my mum's late friend

This is one of the rare cards i have which have some sort of a smudged postmark on the front....i still dont get it why some cards end up like that, but for surely they just ruin the view on the card...at least on this one, it aint that noticable

Btw, this card shows the National Theatre "Ivan Vazov" in Sofia (in Bulgarian it would be -Народен театър „Иван Вазов“-) It is the oldest and most authoritative theatre in the country and one of the important landmarks of Sofia. It was founded in 1904, and named after the prominent writer Ivan Vazov. It  has a well-equipped main stage with 750 seats, a smaller 120-seat stage and an additional 70-seat one on the fourth floor.

Sofia, Bulgaria

I have no idea how old exactly this card is...but its old...there is no date on it...its unwritten, so i cant determine its age...I even have no idea how it had ended up in my collection, but according to some guesses, i think its from my late grandmother...or from my mum..I have a relative, who lived in Bulgaria, then moved to the US, and as for now, as far as i know, he comes and goes....but ive never met him, though we had tried to arrange it several times..

I could go into some stories now...but since i cant confirm the origin of this card, i dont actually find it appropriate to tella story, which aint actually related to the postcard

So, ill just tell you. that on the card you can see the city centre of Sofia...or how it looked back in time, when this picture was taken...

ahhhh, keep your fingers crossed for me that i do go to Sofia the 18th May next year....id give anything to go there then and attend what i want to attend...not telling ahead...coz i have no idea what the chances are of it to happen..but man, id be sooo damn happy if it comes true...

Velingrad, Bulgaria

an oldish card....well, dont know how old exactly, but i think its from this century :)


My aunt brought it to me from there...well, she prefers to hand me in the cards instead send them....im not sure why exactly is that so, but i dont complain...at least i do get a card in the end :)))

Velingrad is a place in Bulgaria which is a touristic spot, but as a health resort. So people mainly go there to heal from whatever they are suffering....it is mainly aimed for physical treatement, but due to the nature of the place, you will rest your mind as well, so probably once you go back home, you will feel totally refreshed and recharged.
In case you wonder what "Клептуза" stands for...that is one of the hottest SPA hotels in Velingrad....well, i cant see a hotel on the picture, but thats what google says.

On one hand, it sounds nice to go to a place like this, away from the street jungle, and give your entire being a nice treat....on the other, i wonder if i wont be way too bored here, coz there isnt much to do and in general, older people tend to go to places like this....and i definitely dont expect to find any fancy cards to send out :)

ps. those white clouds on the card....by now you should now where they originate from :)

Albena, Bulgaria

Sofia, Bulgaria

Sunny Beach, Bulgaria

Nessebar, Bulgaria

My friend Kate sent this to me when she went on a holiday here

Kate is a friend from high-school with whom i stayed friends when we continued at university as well...eventually she moved to Italy and got married there....and we were still in touch....until like two years ago, when we ceased contact....and i still think it was my turn to write to her...but you know how it goes...once it gets lingered too much, eventually it gets harder and harder to make yourself sit down and write something until one day you realize two years had passed...which is too much...and what im gonna say? Im sorry, but i was lazy/forgetful/not in the mood? Though honestly, i avoid writing to people when my mood is at some low level....but still its stupid as an excuse...

i just wonder one thing about this card...is this the part of Nessebar which is inscribed as a UNESCO or am i wrong?

Sofia, Bulgaria

I got this when i went to Bulgaria on a one day trip, just can't recall which year it was...

As far as i can remember, i went with two other colleagues from University to Sofia, in order to get some books we needed....well, we didn't get most of the things we needed but the trip was one to remember...at times maybe a bit scary, but in general it was fun..I will never forget the cab in which we got in...we agreed with the cab driver that he takes us to the place we needed to go for 5 DM (deutch marks, the euro didn't exist then). When we got to the place, he asked for 15 DM...we were all puzzled and asked how come its 15 when we agreed on 5...and his response was: ooh, thats 5 for each of you! - I was like ready to blow, but figured out the we are not in the position to argue especially since we are not in our own country...so we looked through our wallets, gathered 15 DM in coins and he refused to take them, coz listen to this, he ONLY accepted NOTES, NO COINS!!!
We got him the damn notes, got out, smashed the door totally pissed off and ventured for our one day journey in Sofia.....more about that, in some other post maybe