Palanga, Lithuania

Next comes an official I received earlier this year, showing the Sea Bridge of Palanga.

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It is considered to be the most popular bridge not just in Palanga, but in Lithuania as well.

At the end of the 19th century Palanga was ruled by Counts Tiškevičiai. They decided to build a dock for ships that could be used to transport bricks made in counts’ brickyard. The dock was built in 1884-1888 and vessel “Phoenix” cruised to Klaipeda and Liepaja. Later, when the export of bricks failed, the ship was used for transportation of passengers. Unfortunately, after storms the dock would be covered in sand so it was realized that the bridge was not suitable for navigation. Since 1892, the pier has become the most popular place for taking walks.
The impacts of time, sea waves and wind destroyed this structure, thus, a new pier of 470 meters in length was built on concrete poles in 1998.

The stamp was issued in 2015 for the World Day of Information Technology Development.

Curonian Spit, Lithuania

I posted about the Lithuanian part of the Curonian Spit once...but that was long long ago, so here is a small reminder...plus the cards are really beautiful, it is a shame to leave them at the bottom of some box or drawer.

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First one is an official received in 2013, showing the Great Dune. Nida is located on the Curonian Spit between the Curonian Lagoon and the Baltic Sea, and is the westernmost point of Lithuania and the Baltic states 

the stamp is from a set of two Lithuanian Red Book stamps issued in 2013, showing birds. On this one you can see the Tawny Pipit.

I received this second card also in 2013 as part of the Choose a Country RR. This reminds me that I haven't taken part in a RR in ages and it seems it's gonna stay that way for a while =/ Mainly cos of financial reasons, plus my general procrastinating habit, so I believe it aint fair to be engaging in activities that I cannot respond to properly.
Anyways...the card shows the Grabštas cape, that's also part of the Curonian Spit.

the stamp is from a set of two issued in 2009, portraying the Preserve the Polar Regions and Glaciers subject.

Anykščiai, Lithuania

A great Lithuanian card I received as an official.

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the card says to be showing the siaurukas (narrow gauge railway) train in the Anykščiai (someone wants to try pronouncing that?) station in Lithuania. Anykščiai is a ski resort town, so I guess it is cool that you can come here by train as well :)

that is a really lovely winter scene on the stamp! It is from the two Christmas stamps of 2012....well, dont get me started on OUR Christmas stamps...and speaking of stamps..there is one sad story about it but ill share it with you somewhere at the end

The Hill of Crosses, Lithuania

an amazing card sent to me by dear Inga

At first glance, it may not seem unusual, but if you take a better look, it gives you shivers!

This is the Hill of the Cross near the town of Šiauliai, where people freely erect crosses when they wish to thank God for some favours or to ask something from him.

Apart from crosses, here you can find giant crucifixes, statues and thousands of tiny effigies and rosaries.
The exact number of crosses is unknown, but the estimates say there were around 100,000 in 2006.

Wow!

The Consistuent Assembly, Lithuania

this card is one of the many dear Inga sent me...

this card is about the Constituent Asssembly which gathered in Kaunas on May 15, 1920. It then took the state's governance upon itself, declaring Lithuania to be a Democratic Republic. The Assembly then drafted the fundamental laws of the Lithuanian State: the Constitution (which consolidated democratic order), a Land Reform Law, and introduced the national currency - the Litas. It also founded the Lithuanian University in Kaunas in 1922. In 1926 president Stulginskis spoke on National Day festival: '...Today we commemorate the greatest event in our Nation's life - the moment, when this Lithuanian nation announced its Independence to the whole world.  In celebrating this event we should remember another, and no less important campaign - the gathering of the Constituent Assembly on the day when Lithuania started administering its internal and external affairs according to democratic parliamentary laws...' [Speeches at the May 5 celebrations]
(from the back of the card).

On the card you can see President Aleksandras Stulginkis, Prime Minister Leonas Bistras and Col. Pranas Tamasauskas, arriving at the May 15 celebrations. Kaunas, 1926
       

The Electric Train EJ 575, Lithuania

An amazing maxi card sent by Inga

This is the double-decker electric train EJ575, manufactured by Škoda Vagonka, Czech Republic.
Id really LOVE to get a ride on a double-decker train...it looks sooo cool...and yeah, if possible, id like to have a seat on the second floor and observe the world 'from above'.

Here you can see the train in action, coz i believe that a video is worth a thousand of words :)





such a cool train! I LOVE it!!

Trakai, Lithuania

For a long while i was simply craving to get a card showing the Trakai Castle....and then Inga came into my life, and sent me a bunch of fantastic Lithuanian cards, among which Trakai as well!

This is the Trakai Island Castle, with Trakai Town emerging in the distance.

This Gothic style castle was constructed by the Lithuanian Grand Dukes - Kęstutis and Vytautas at the end of XIV century and the first decade of 15th century.

Well, I just love this view of the castle, located among so much water...makes it just look so special and lovely!

Thank you so much Inga!!!

Šiauliai, Lithuania

The last card for today comes from Šiauliai in Lithuania. Yes, something that is not Vilnius or Kaunas or so :)

The card shows a view of the city and also the Sundial Square, where you can see the sculpture Shooter, which is a symbol of the city. This golden archer has been the city's landmark since 1986. He is also a pointer to the largest sundial in Lithuania. As the dial, the entire space in the metal figures are embedded. It is thought that out of Lithuania Šiauliai šaulys (Sagittarius) or Saul (Sun) are derived.

In order to clarify the word 'sundial'.....A sundial is a device that measures time by the position of the Sun. In common designs such as the horizontal sundial, the sun casts a shadow from its style onto a flat surface marked with lines indicating the hours of the day. As the sun moves across the sky, the shadow-edge progressively aligns with different hour-lines on the plate. Such designs rely on the style being aligned with the axis of the Earth's rotation. Hence, if such a sundial is to tell the correct time, the style must point towards true north (not the north or south magnetic pole) and the style's angle with horizontal must equal the sundial's geographical latitude.

Whats also really special about this card is that i received it from another Depeche Mode fan :D

The stamp is from the 2008 EUROPA series, from a set of 2, representing the Great Duchy of Lithuania. The subject in 2008 was Letters, and Lithuania in particular represented Letters of Gediminas for European Cities 1323

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I really love the shape of this card...not the easiest to handle though, esp. with those postal postcards-eating machines...

I think that even though I have a number of Lithuanian cards so far, most of them are multiviews, so im still missing singles from some of the places. Im still yearning for that great aerial view od Trakai....and I dont really have cards showing Kretinga for example or Šiaulai. Its a pity when there is such a diversity of places to get mainly Vilnius or Kaunas or such....I was super happy when I got my first Vilnius card, esp since it was a very beautiful one but i think its time to move to some other places in Lithuania too.

the stamp is a self-adhesive one from a set of 6 issued in 2008 portraying the Wooden Sacral Architecture of Lithuania, where this stamp in particular shows the Church of Uzventis 1703

Kaunas, Lithuania

I like this card....has some artistic tone...and i apologize for the card not being straight... guess i didnt pay much attention during the scanning...

Its my first card of Kaunas as well...I have some Lithuanian multiview cards where Kaunas is shown among the other places, but this is my first single view of it.
Kaunas it Lithuania's second largest city and a former temporary capital as well.
How the city got the name according to one of the legends:

Kaunas was established by Romans in ancient times. The head of this Romans group was the patrician Palemon, who had three sons: Barcus, Kunas and Sperus. Palemon went away from Rome, because he feared emperor Neron. So, he with his sons and other relatives came to Lithuania.  After his death his three sons shared out all Lithuania's land and  Kunas got the one where the city of Kaunas is standing nowadays.He also built the Kaunas castle, near the confluence of Nemunas and Neris rivers.

and i love the train related stamp :D
It was issued in August this year to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Railway in Lithuania.

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A great addition to my flags collection....i only wish it didnt have the postmarks on the front...it really ruins such a perfect card =|

The first of the former SSRs to break decisively with Moscow, Lithuania adopted its old tricolour as its official state flag in March 1989. Like the other Baltic states, and indeed, the other captive nations of the former USSR, the flag had been used during Lithuania's previous period of independence from Russia - from 1918 to 1940. In the flag, yellow stands for grain, green for forests, and red for the blood shed in defense of the nation.
According to the Grossen Flaggenbuch, the first horizontal triband adopted as Lithuanian national flag after WWI had the proportions 3:2. The current national flag, with proportions 2:1, is therefore not strictly a readoption of the pre-WWII flag.

there are also 3 really nice stamps on the card.
The one on the very right comes from a set of 3 issued in February this year showing the Coats of Arms of Lithuania, on this particular stamp Krekenava.
The stamp in the middle comes from the WWF series issued in 2008, with 8 stamps in the set, and here you can see the European Roller.
The last stamp on the very left is also from 2008 portraying the Wooden Sacral Architecture of Lithuania. There are 6 stamps in the set and this one shows the Church of Inturke from 1855.

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Im becoming more and more convinced that Lithuania is a place more than worth visiting. It seems to have such beautiful places about which i know just a little.

If there is something i MUST see if i ever go to Lithuania, apart from Vilnius of course, is the Trakai island. There is a really nice postcard ive seen around, showing an aerial view of it, and its something id really love to have in my collection (and probably then rant more about the place and all...). And definitely the Кuršiu Nerija National Park....if you recall my post about the Curonian Spit, then i should tell you that Кuršiu Nerija is a National Park in order to protect the unique ecosystem of the Curonian spit and the Curonian Lagoon.

the stamp is from a set of two, issued in 2008 to commemorate the XXIX Olympic Games in Beijing, where this stamp here portrays "Yachting. “Laser Radial” class"

Curonian Spit, Lithuania

When i went to the post office yesterday, the man at the desk looked at me, and said 'Hi, long time no see!'...having in mind that i really hadnt been to THAT post office for months, i was more than surprised to see that he remembers me...obviously i have left an impression with the pile of mail i send, and obviously im the only one who does that, so im the talk of the town, or in this case, the post offices :)
Well, i can just add another post office, to the list of ones where im a familiar face :)

I really like this card! Such nice sand formations!
The Curonian Spit is a 98 km long, thin, curved sand-dune spit that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea.
According to Baltic mythology the Curonian Spit was formed by a strong girl, Neringa, who was playing on the seahore. This child also appears in other myths (in some of which she is shown as a young strong woman, similar to a female version of the Greek Heracles).
Right now, the Curonian Spit  is home to the highest moving (drifting) sand dunes in Europe. Their average height is 35 m, but some attain the height of 60 m.

And it has been added on the UNESCO whs list as well, so another UNESCO card in my collection! Yippie!

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Here comes Lithuania....a multiview with several of its cities.

So far I only have Vilnius on the Lithuanian postcards. Ive been wanting to get a postcard from Trakai...you know, that lovely, breathtaking aerial view....if anyone has it, please let me know :)
This what the sender has written on the card...a really nice summary i have to say :)

Trakai is a small city about 25km far from Vilnius. There is the best place to taste national Lithuanian food.
Klaipeda is a port. A lot of Lithuania's pop music "stars" live in this city. And pop music in Lithuania is pretty bad.
Nida....it is a piece of paradise.

Anyway, i have a small favour to ask here. I got this and another Lithuanian card from Laima, sent from England. Laima, if you read this, can you please leave a message or contact me, coz i cant find your address and ive been wanting to send you cards ever since i received your envelope...if you read this, or if anyone else who reads this happens to know Laima, please help me :)

Kernavė, Lithuania

A new UNESCO site, coming from Lithuania....really beautiful i must say!

Kernavė is a tourist and archeological village in Southeast Lithuania. A Lithuanian state cultural reserve was established in Kernavė in 2003.
The card is showing the Pajauta valley and the fortress mounds. 

The area of Kernavė was sparingly inhabited at the end of the Paleolithic era with the number of settlements significantly increasing in the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras.
In later years, the remains of city were covered with an aluvian earth layer, that formed wet peat. It preserved most of the relics intact, and it is a treasure trove for archaeologists leading some to call Kernavė the Troy of Lithuania.

Vilnius, Lithuania (02)

Well, i just had a class postponed, so i have like an hour free and ive decided to make an update here...well, if i was informed about this earlier, the update would have already been done by now, but oh well..at least i can do it...honestly, if i could, i wouldnt be going to work at all tonight coz its raining cats and dogs outside...i already got soaked twice (last night and this morning) and im definitely gonna get soaked again...umbrellas just dont help sometimes....its impossible for them to protect you against reckless drivers

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This is an official card I got from Lithuania...believe it or not, it took me almost all day until i actually realized it was an official...since i was expecting a swap card from there, i thought it was it...i found it odd there was no name but i thought it got covered under the "Prioritaire" sticker...and by a total accident in the evening (the day i got the card) i noticed an ID....funny thing is, the ratio of my received cards, had already overcome the sent ones, so i wasnt at all even expecting an official, but there you go :)

The card here shows St.Anne's Church, which is a Roman Catholic church in the old town of Vilnius, and hence, it makes it a UNESCO whs. It is situated on the right bank of the Vilnia river and is a prominent example of both Flamboyant Gothic and Brick Gothic styles.

The sender says that he likes to have quite a few beers nearby, in a big park, just that its become forbidden.
This made me laugh, coz in our park here (the biggest one) young people enjoy sitting on the grass and having a drink...and it is a nice feeling to be with some friends, have a chat in the fresh open air, with some music coming from the clubs in the vicinity, and have some wine, or whatever you are drinking....i totally cant stand beer, dont know why...neither any clean alcohol...mixed with juice, yup, tastes good...but pure alochol, a-a...just feels too strong for me, and not at all appealing...

well...the summer's over...so no park-gatherings until next season...the autumn arrived way too quickly, and way too unexpectedly this year....its been raining for days, its cold-freezing (10 degrees) which for September is just insane...here, even in October, the temperatures are around 30 degrees....I dont like the heat, but i dont like this weather right now either...esp. not when i need to go somewhere...if i could stay at home i probably wouldnt have minded too much...

Vilnius, Lithuania

Not so long ago i had a card from Minsk, and told you that I love the name Minsk but that there is also another town from the former USSR whose name is one of my very favorites....and i as well said that getting a card from there its not within sight...until the other day, totally unexpectedly, i found an official card in my mailbox!!!! With its name written on the front of the card!! I still cant believe it!!!!

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And there it is....it is Vilnius I was talking about, but didnt want to reveal the name until i get the actual card.
There is something in the combination of consonants and vowels why the name of this city sounds soooooooo incredibly appealing to me! I absolutely love it! In some sense reminds me of Linus from Snoopy and Charlie Brown. That name is also my favourite from that cartoon.

The card itself is asolutely beautiful as well...and on top of that, i have a new country added to my collection...yup, this is my very first card from Lithuania :)

Hooooorraaaayyy!!!