Podgorica, Montenegro

ok, one more card for today, sent by a long-absent postcrosser, but thanks to FB, I know he is doing just fine =)

The card shows the Church of St. George, which is the oldest Orthodox church in Podgorica, located at the foot of Gorica Hill, (that the town was named after). It was built between IX and XI century. During the turbulent history it had several repairs and rebuildings, so that its original look has not been fully preserved. The inside is decorated with frescoes that are the work of an anonymous artists.

Rajko used 3 nice stamps on this card...the two at the top were issued in 2010...the left one commemorates the 650th Anniversary of the Balsic Dinasty, while the other one is from a set of four Tourism stamps.
The bottom stamp was issued in 2011 in a set of two Art stamps (this one shows a painting by Vojo Stanić, a a Montenegrin painter and sculptor).

Hvala Riči na super razglednici i markice!!

So, that would be all for today folks! Till next time...

Monument of the fallen Krajina soldiers, Bosnia and Herzegovina

well, one more card for today that arrived from a swap last year...from the not-so-far-away Bosnia..well, not so far from here at least :)

The card shows, as the title of this post says, The monument to fallen Krajina soldiers, in the War for Liberation (1941-1945) against fascism. It is located at the top of the Banj Brdo (Banj Hill) at 431meters of altitude. It is around 5 kilometers away from the city of Banja Luka, and the road between Banja Luka and the monument on the Banj Hill is covered in concrete al the way long. The monument of the mausoleic type (13 meters high and 24 meters long), is a work of one of the greatest Yugoslav sculptors and craftsman of memorial plastic, Antun Augustinčić. It was erected at the place where, in June 1941, a Distric conference of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia for Bosanska Krajina was held together with a few counselings related to the rise of the rebellion. It was made from white stone from Brač. It has a unique form, special dinamic line and looked from afar, it seems like a bullet fired in the direction of Krajina (Kozara and Grmeč). At the front of the monument, above the entrance doors, there is a huge figure of a naked young man holding a flag in his hand. Sideways there are relieves which show the battle against the occupants and after-war construction. The monument was solemnly opened in 1961 and since then it has become a place where visitors come from all over the world. The monument was visited by Josip Broz Tito in 1966 who, before leaving the monument plateau, having looked back once more, said: “You have chosen a wonderful location for this monument. I think it is the greatest monument in Yugoslavia. When the stone gets used to this climate it shall look even more beautiful“.

this is an EUROPA stamp, from the 2008 series representing Letters.

Well, I hope you liked the cards chosen for today...and see you next time!

The First Postcrossing Meeting in Belgrade

well, ok...you should all know by now about the first postcrossing meeting that was held in Belgrade on 29 October 2011...if you dont know about it, you should probably blame your postman :)

It came too spontaneously, but turned out great...the only remark would be the lack of time :)
And one of the most special things about this meeting was the special postcard design we had, done by Renato. A really unique card, representing all the participants (by their usernames) and all that nicely arranged according to the country they were coming from! Can you spot me? :P
Personally I addressed way too many cards...and I have no idea how many we signed in total, but it was a LOT LOT LOT!!! Well, after all, it was the first meeting :)
Unfortunately, I didnt manage to send as many cards as I had originally planned...the time simply didnt allow it, and funny but after the postcard shopping, I ended up writing out ALL of the cards, even though I planned to bring back some home...so do the math :)
If you hadnt gotten a card from this meeting and you are sure your postman is the most reliable guy on Earth, then let us know for next time :)

and somehow this post was perfect to present this fantastic map card of Yugoslavia...it was sent to me by Renato as well, a few months before the meeting. Here all the former republics of Yugoslavia can be seen with their respective flags...and this is somewhat what our meeting was about...postcrossers from different parts of  former Yugoslavia...unfortunately, Montenegro, BiH and Slovenia were missing, but we wholeheartedly hope that on the next meeting, at least one representative from each republic would be present. Ill do my best to fill in the Macedonian spot :)

Renato used a really nice definitive from a set of 8 issued in 2007 with this one representing Kopaonik.

A big hug to all my PC meeting friends, and of course, to the ones who couldnt make it this time :)