Guadalajara. Mexico

Well, it seems like it is about time to say a few words here... yeah, been some silent few weeks, and as you have all experienced it in life, time just flies so fast, you know, the same old excuse of always :D
Well, we'll start this week (even though it may be like the only post for the week), with another fairy-dedicated post, and this time the random.org went for this Seattle guy that by now you are all fairly familiar with.... yep, it is Mr. Bryon!

It was more than a difficult task to decide what to choose from his pile of cards, so I guess I'll have to do more fairy posts in the future (as If I was so diligent about regular posts in the first place).

But anyways, lets get started and see a small part of Bryon's missiles on my mailbox ;-)

And first is up a card from Mexico's Guadalajara, where in the front you can see the Cabañas Cultural Institute with its copper dome, where its main attraction are the murals by José Clemente Orozco, which cover the main entrance hall.
Then there is the large Plaza Tapatia, covering 70,000 m2 and it says that this plaza ends at the Degollado Theatre, inaugurated in September 1866. The big question here is, find the theatre in the picture if you can :))

Speaking of Guadalajara, besides being named the American Capital of Culture for 2005 and hosting the 2011 Pan American Games, it is also the birthplace of Guillermo del Toro. If you still haven't seen his last masterpiece The Shape of Water, then I wholeheartedly recommend you to do so. Beautiful and heartwarming piece of art, with stunning performances, esp, the one by Sally Hawkins.

the stamp was issued in 2016, for the Closing of the International Year of the Light.

Monterrey, Mexico

as I said, no more trains for today :)

received in 2009...yep, 2009 indeed, from Jhonatan, as a result of a private swap....from the days when my mailbox would be all head-over-heels for receiving a card from Mexico :)
It may look like a single view, but actually it is a few iconic places in Monterrey combined in one picture, like for example the Commerce Beacon, the Fountain of Life, the Obispado Museum and the distinctive Saddle Mountain (or "El Cerro de la Silla").

the stamp is a definitive from a set of 4 issued in 2009, representing ceramic objects.

Oaxaca, Mexico

Ok, one more post for today...

this card arrived recently as a surprise from David, who sent me this gorgeous card showing the Tlacolula market in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Tlacolula (de Matamoros) is the main commercial center for the Tlacolula Valley area, and best known for its weekly open air market held on Sundays. This market is one of the oldest, largest and busiest in Oaxaca, mostly selling foodstuffs and other necessities for the many rural people which come into town on this day to shop

the two stamps are part of a gorgeous mini sheet containing six stamps issued this year, commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Heroic Deed in Veracruz.

Soooo....that would be all for now...frankly I feel a bit out of shape with regards to posting and writing and all, but hope to get back on track
Wont be making any promises about when the next post is going to happen...whether it will be soon or not so soon...but either way, hope you are all well, and thank you for still dropping by every now and then. =)

Till next time....

Lagos de Moreno, Mexico

Well, one more card for today that came as a swap a Mexican guy had organized for some high-school students...always nice to show the world to young people :)

Mine came from the 16 year old Jorge, who sent me this absolutely gorgeous card of Lagos de Moreno, located in the utmost northeastern part of the Mexican state of Jalisco
Lagos de Moreno is called by Mexicans, with some hyperbole, the "Athens of Jalisco" because of the numerous writers and poets who were born there
And if Im not mistaken, this thing lurking behind the bushes/trees is a baroque cathedral...while on the left, you can see a bridge...however, there are no information on the card so Im just relying on pictures from the net...

the stamp was issued in 2013 in a set of 5 "Philatelic Promotion" stamps and on this one you can see the painting La danza de la media luna (or 'dance of the half moon' by the Mexican artist Francisco Eppens  Helguera, painted in 1984.

Well, that would be all for today..Im honestly a bit shaken from the events tonight, so maybe the last two posts werent so extensive or talkative...but more next time...if something else doesn't strike us till then...ok, some dark sense of humour there..:)

Teotihuacan, Mexico

Well for quite some time I've been having this idea of making an update with some cards from my trips...coz yeah, sometimes I do remember to also send myself a card =) And well, here comes my first attempt of this kind...cards with stories...and cards I eventually always wonder, why have I sent myself THIS card out of so many others? But well I guess that's when I least have the idea what I already have in my collections...but at least I still haven't sent myself the exact double card :)
Btw, I got really frustrated again with Photobucket...it is a whole week left till the end of the month and I already received that stupid email of having exceeded my bandwidth?!!!! How, oh HOW come all of a sudden it is exceeded every single month when I never ever experienced it before??  What the hell has happened with Photobucket? Anyone from PB cares to answer? hm?? coz right now I am one really dissatisfied and rather pissed of user of your services...just so you know :)

Ok, now down to the cards...I will start this update with a card from my last summer's trip to Mexico...the trip that was waiting to happen for years, finally did...for better or for worse...but here I sent myself a card from the pyramids of Teotihuacan...one very cool place and a must visit if you happen to be somewhere near by..

well, my trip to Teotihuacan happened on a Sunday...a day which turned to have a free entrance for all Mexican residents...the man at the door asked Diego (who was with me) where we were coming from...he answered...and seems that I looked like a Mexican somehow coz the man didn't question me anything..and I entered for free as well .something I paid for somewhat later...the deed had to be punished

the place here is vast, with two pyramids you can climb on, the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon...at the Avenue of the Dead...the climbing and the descending are a bit tricky on both...but you can climb to the top, unlike Chichen Itza for example
First we climbed the Moon pyramid...walked around...took pictures...bought some souvenirs too...and then waited in line to climb the Sun pyramid...and while waiting, nothing foretold us how it would all end...
The climbing on this one was a bit slower, due to the long queue of people ahead...but it was going pretty well...until we just got to the top...that's when the Gods of the Sun and the Moon and the whole damn Universe made me pay for having entered for free when I wasn't eligible for a free entrance. They sent a  thunderstorm! A huuuuuuugeeeeee thunderstorm! With the cloud just above your head...while you are damn stuck at the top of one of the largest buildings in whole Mesoamerica at a height of 70 something metres...and you can't go down, coz it is all just crowded with people who are all stuck just like you, and everyone is either kneeling down or in any other way trying to protect himself from the harsh winds and rain...and you just see umbrellas and hats flying around! it was terrible! just terrible! One of the rare moments when I was literally petrified about my life! While feeling the harsh raindrops over my bare skin (the cloud was so near us that it felt like stone needles are hitting against you), I was starting to think how Im gonna make it the news...she went to Mexico on a holiday, but didn't make it back home..and seriously, I am not exaggerating...at times I was wondering if it was maybe better to jump (?!!!) or just stay there at the mercy of the Aztec Gods. I don't know how long it all lasted....felt like forever...and I thought it was never going to end...and ruined the moment of having a picture taken...waving...while feeling like you are at the top of the world...once the rain somewhat stopped, all anyone could think of was to go down...a veeeeryyyyyy slow process coz you have all these stuck people...and then you have these slippery stairs...and the stairs are like three times the size of a normal stair...so it is not like you can just run your way down...and on top of that, you are shaking coz you are freezing...and of course, have no extra clothes for a changeover...so if this was the way to make sure I'll never forget the Pyramids of Teotihuacan, then it certainly worked!
Well, back then, it felt really scary...but I must say that on the other hand Im glad it happened...made it all more adventurous and rather unique...what made me laugh was, as we were leaving, there was this kid who was all crying coz the storm had freaked him out...and his mum comforted him with 'awww, come on, it was just like few drops of rain'...for the love of God woman, that was just a few drops of rain for you?

well, to commemorate the aftermath....the expression on my face says it all...and yeah, on that picture is the reason why for years I was whining about Mexico, and the reason why I should have gone back there...unfortunately, wasn't aware at all that, that was the beginning of the end, and that from that moment on, nothing will ever be the same, and that things will go downhill, until the point of no return and the impossibility to fix things..but that's how life is....I guess everything happens for a reason, even though not always we can understand that...

I like the clear cancellation the Mexican Postal Service used on the cards I sent...and all were mailed at the main post office in D.F...and they also had nice stamps...can't say there was a big variety, but this is one of the rare cases when I manage  to get something that is not a plain definitive or so (talking about the stamp on the left). It was issued in 2009 in a set of 5 Wild Lands' stamps, and this one here shows the Kronotsky Nature Reserve in Russia, on the Kamchatka Peninsula (odd to see something Russian on a Mexican stamp must admit).
The other stamp is from a set of 12 definitives issued in 2011

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

so, it's been a rather silent week...just felt on the down side in general....actually the entire of November was rather low...so I hope December will bring me something nicer on the overall...i wasnt that busy as usual, but somehow time flew away....and when i think of the fact that another year has almost gone by, i simply shudder at it....

My first Puerto Vallarta card was posted like over two years ago. This one here I received several months ago by Erin who spent some time here.
The card shows a sculpture called "The lovers". Having in regard the country it is coming from, I find this pretty ironic and sad at the same time....
this is one of the several sculptures that  decorate the 'malecón', which is a word used in Spanish-speaking countries for a stone-built embankment or esplanade along a waterfront.

there are three stamps on the card actually, but until i realized i had scanned it all wrong, it was too late and im honestly rather lazy to be doing it all over again :) anyways the third stamp is at the bottom and is the same as the reddish one. Both are definitives issued in 2010.

Mexico

A card from the so much spoken Mexico on this blog....this lovely surprise was sent by dear Rosa, back in 2009.

the card is said to show a parade with women of different states of the country in their traditional outfits. Well, Mexican outfits are rather lovely...so vibrant.
Speaking of surprises and postcards....this past week I was out of town, travelled around Macedonia, but to my great disappointment, no postcards were found....mainly due to the lack of time to actually look for them...or due to the fact that when I had the time, everything was closed. In the city of Strumica (located in the south-eastern part of Macedonia) I came across a souvenir shop, and from what I could see through the windows, there was something that looked like postcards, but unfortunately, being 10 pm, it was, of course, closed. Maybe I wouldnt have been able to send cards directly from there, but I really wanted to get something different in my stocks of cards.....but well, maybe next time Ill be more lucky and will have more time for that...

the card bears a label instead of a stamp....and what makes me glad about it is that it bears the name of Macedonia, next to the ISO Country code..... I was quite saddened lately to see that at the postcrossing spotlight, some people had to jump in and complain that it is not Macedonia but FYROM and blah blah blah...I mean, c'mon people, it is just sooo tiring to argue about this...let me at least enjoy in my one and only PC interview, dont ruin it.....and just to point it out, no FYROM or anti-Macedonian posts will be tolerated here....

thanks a lot to dear Rosa for the lovely card here! 

Chichén-Itzá, Mexico

Well, it's Friday...which by some latest logic means it's time to post some cards....i really dont know how i got stuck into this routine and why posting during the week become mission impossible....i mean, due to the latest change of events, i have much less free time and im really tired...but i didnt really expect id get THIS lousy....

And here is a card from my 'oh-i-want-a-card-from-there-oh-so-badly' country...ha, getting sort of sarcastic here, but it's nice to be able to use them regarding certain events...and today it is exactly two weeks since we AGAIN stopped talking to each other FOR GOOD....well, if he wants it to be like that, let it be like that...really, each time i get the impression that every single time he just kept looking for a reason of why we should not talk anymore ever again, and this time he found himself a pretty good one due to 'my fault'...so, there you go...back to the same old crappy status of always....meaning i will probably never get to see  Chichén-Itzá.....at least not with him....sad, eh....after all these years...but...im not gonna interfere anymore where im not wanted..really...when that person doesnt even bother to see your side of story and doesnt even believe what you say, but is persistent to sticking to his own point of view...well, not much i can do there...at least not for someone who aint interested in it...

Sorry for this pathetic rambling...but sometimes one just has to get it out of the system...coz when the person concerned doesnt want to listen, this blog doesnt complain and always willingly accepts whatever may happen to be on my mind...and im really grateful for that.

As for Chichén-Itzá.....this is what the back of the card says....This is a magnificent structure of Toltec influence of 24 metres height with stairs on each side and a small temple at the top. There is also an interior  temple which has a throne of red stone representing a jaguar with jade eyes.

Well, it's impressive in the least hand...and the Mayan civilization is one of the most fascinating things to me that has ever happened....

no real stamp on the card....i guess quite a lot of PO's in the world suffer either from the lack of stamps or from lazy postal workers....and now, i dont know if you have noticed, but this postal sticker, apart from the date and the price, also bears an item called 'destination'....and do you see whats actually written there?? It says RUSSIA! I really dont get it what kind of people are being employed at the post offices, but on many many occasions they have 'surprised me' with their total lack of knowledge on what their actual profession is...how could one write Russia, when the address clearly say 'Macedonia'...I mean, my country would be so proud to know all the points in the world it has been mistaken for so far....

btw, in case you soon receive a card from me which instead of a stamp will bear a sticker like this, i apologise in advance.but i cant always control this, regardless how much i try to give the best out of me.....

Frida Kahlo, Mexico

You probably recall the times when I was constantly whining how I have no Mexican cards and all...well, nowadays I have a few, thanks to some dear people out there who selflessly helped me with my Mexican collection plus some other people, who were happy to swap a card with me....
And so since it has been enough while since I posted my last Mexican card, I decided it was time for another one...so I was going through them, and decided to pick this...well, this is my one and only Frida Kahlo card, and it deserves some respect, knowing how great Kahlo has been....

Anyways, after I picked the card, I recalled my last Mexican post....hmmm....and that's when thoughts started roaming through my head.
When I picked that card last time, I seem to have sort of invoked the spirits....after choosing that card, certain things Mexico-related happened, after I honestly gave up any hope they will happen ever again...and yeah, I was positively surprised....however, if you can see, the card itself shows a mummies' cemetery....I should have KNOWN it would mean that my entire mexican-related thing would simply go to hell or if i should express it literally on the card, it would just die out and would have to be mummified....no, it makes no sense, but thats how things turned out, unfortunately, despite my desire to make them otherwise....I guess i was just trying to turn a dead-end street into a two-way one...but that is the sad reality, and maybe one day I will be able to accept it without feeling this lump in my throat, and without wondering about "all that could've been".
However, thinking of what that previous Mexican card evoked, I started wondering, if it was actually possible that Frida Kahlo would have some effect too? And if yes, what would that be? Having in mind what her life was like, i honestly shudder at the thought...Im never gonna be a painter, thats for sure...I am a total anti-talent for such stuff...but when I think of Frida Kahlo, the first thing that comes to my mind is Mexico and painting...the second, is the tragic accident she was involved in and which left her with broken spine, collar, ribs...and when one thinks of it, cant help but feel the chill down the spine...
So I really dont know if this Kahlo card would invoke any real situations or no.....oh, NO NO NO, dont even THINK about it!! Im NOT gonna have a naked portrait of me taken, EVER! :P  Sorry :)))

Btw, Frida's husband was called Diego. Hmmm, could THAT be the hint? I think some of you DO get the point in that fact.

the stamps are from a set of 4 definitives issued in 2009 representing ceramic objects.

Guanajuato, Mexico

I feel like i have so many things to say, yet i dont know where to start....hopefully, the choice of cards will help me with it...

well, after a while, here is a precious Mexican card. actually I have several of them now, but i dont know why it took me so long to make the choice for a one....i guess i was keeping them possessively to myself.
It wouldnt have been THAT much of a great deal to post this card, but once more,  something happened which makes me believe that there are no coincidences......there is something out there which makes things happen with a reason.....I actually picked the cards for this update (whenever  I would have the chance to make it)....but I had way too much work to the in the meantime, so not until now I was able to post them...anyways, I pick the cards last Sunday, deciding to finally show a Mexican one....and then on Monday I wake up and Im left in disbelief with something that happened...after all this time...was i supposed to pick a Mexican card in order to invoke the spirits and make the world turn the way it did so the thing that happened, to happen? I know that this post will make a certain person cringe and hate me for this post, but oh well...
I know that right now you are probably dying of curiosity to know what happened.....but sorry, wont tell it :)
Its one of those things that you just find it hard to believe really happened, and you feel that if you talk about it loud, you will just disturb the good spirits and it will burst the bubble....but I just couldnt post this Mexican card without actually bringing this issue up.....

As for the card itself, its a very cool one! And its even a UNESCO, since it shows the historic part of Guanajuato. Here is shown a cemetery which is quite well-known for the mummies produced by unknown means. About 1 in 100 bodies buried here experienced natural mummification.  In the late 1800s the town instituted a "burial tax" for the families of the deceased. When some of the poorest families were unable to pay the tax, their relatives were dug up and placed on public view in a purpose-built museum. The museum holds 111 corpses resting on velvet pillows. Today, it is reported that the proceeds from the museum help fund the city's coffers to a considerable degree.

This card actually came from Rosa, who had already sent me this official amazing Mexican map card. And apart from another great card, I totally love the stamps too!

 the stamps are more than great, esp the train ones! Though unfortunately, i couldnt manage to find the exact info why or when they were issued...there is this confusing thing about these Mexican stamps, since they have two years indicated on them, and unfortunately, i couldnt find them in either section. As for the two stamps on top,, they are rather familiar I think....the Mexican post office issues these definitives each year, representing Arts and Antiques and Handicrafts....the ones on the card are from 2008

Mexico

Holá!
Yup, here i am! After a looong, tiring, but also very nice week i have to say.  I wont go into details about it, since there would be too many, and it would be too much time and space consuming and thats not my primary purpose to be here. Just want to say thanks to all those who were concerned with how i was and whats going on..sorry if i sounded too dramatic last time, but i really felt that way...im still not at ease with myself...but well, at least i managed to live through this past week, and for now thats what counts...as for the future...we'll see...but still....dont be surprised if you see drastic mood changes and how i view things around me :)

US-459079

And oh yeah, you are not imagining things...this IS indeed a Mexican card....and believe it or not, its an official....BUT, there is this BIG but...it was sent from the US...since as the sender told me, she lives on the border and since the Mexican postal service aint that reliable, she sends her cards from the US...so that was a sort of a cold shower...i would have really loved to receive a card with a Mexican ID...but maybe some other time. However, the moment i registered this card, i also asked the girl if she would be so kind and swap cards with me, but to send it from Mexico itself, so Mexican stamp, Mexican postmark etc, doesnt matter how long the card would take to get to me...and she agreed...so now im just waiting for it to pop up in my mailbox...and until it does, here is this other official card.
Another big plus/bonus for the card is that its a map card!!! To be honest, when i found this one in my mailbox, i got pretty confused, since first i looked at the stamp...and it was a US one...then i looked at the ID...again US one...i didnt at first notice that the map shows Mexico, but i thought that its a US map which has caught a glimpse of Mexico...and then i actually read the text and then i actually noticed that the map shows Mexico, and that the so-called glimpse was from the US...so thats when the excitement began :D And i have to say im really happy to have this card....sort of brings me certain warmth around the heart...awkward, no?

the stamp...i think you know it already...i had it posted just not so long ago...and yeah, a small repetition to avoid any confusion...the card was sent from the US, not Mexico, hence the US stamp...

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Well, good day to everyone....and regardless how unbelievable it is to you, this IS indeed a Mexican postcard, written and stamped and addressed to ME!!! Sounds surreal, no? Yeah, to me too...especially since i got this card as a total surprise sent by Glenn's son, since Glenn had asked him to send me a postcard. Muchas gracias to both of them :)

well, after so much whining about how much i want/need to have a postcard from Mexico, i think that i should finally shut up and dont annoy you with it anymore (which doesnt mean im putting a ban on Mexican postcards, no no no...:)))
hmmmm...I know many of you had probably been wondering why so much persistence on Mexico, when all the time i was saying that my favourite country in the world is Norway, followed by Iceland and so....and Mexico is not only on a total different side of the continent, but is totally different in many aspects as well, starting from the climate...you have a literal cold-hot extreme here....well, just as i love Nordic mythology, i respect Mexican history a lot, and i really think its fascinating, but the real itch for the Mexican postcard(s) is far more sentimental and deep, since, well, Mexico is my undestined future-home-to-be. Unfortunately, if i take a look at the current situation (and look back to it as well), im pretty doomed to end up living somewhere else, and have Mexico remained as something to keep longing for or something to haunt me as a memory....but well, the Macedonia-Mexico relations have pretty much deteriorated lately, or better say, they have been like that for a long long time...well, 20000 km arent easy to manage, so its no surprise.
Who is to blame? I dont know...putting blames doesnt solve things nor makes one feel better....its just how it is and i guess one has to accept it.
The ironic part regarding postcards....it is ironic indeed to have someone live in Mexico and yet that someone never sends you a single postcard, even though he knows how much you love them.
But well, here is my Mexican postcard i so much longed for, and honestly, having it brings me some weird peace of mind...cant explain it.
Well, i think that now, the puzzle got a bit solved to you and has filled in many of those missing places where you were wondering, why the hell she so much cries for a Mexican postcard....now you know.

And here come the stamps which are really nice. I just need to tell you something regarding the Mexican Postal service...Glenn told me that his son was in Mexico in April, but if you take a look at the stamps, they are postmarked June...where has it been in the meantime, no one knows, but im more than glad that it arrived eventually....as they say it, better late than never ;)
There is just something that confuses me about the stamps. As you can see, they have the date of 2008, but when i searched for the info, it said that they were issued in 2005, with the 2005 date on them...so im not really sure where im heading to here, and if this is some sort of re-issue, or something else.
However, both of the stamps belong to a set of 18 of Fine Arts, depicting Handicrafts, where the one on the left shows a Tin Cockerel (Sculpture) while the one on the right shows a Vase (Ceramic and Glass).
Thanks again a lot to Glenn and his son for this extra special postcard!

Playa del Carmen, Mexico

That friend of my aunt is one lucky person to have travelled to soooo many places..

Due to a number of reasons, im not gonna get into details for this one.....just a question...can anyone get me a ticket and visa to Mexico? Im gonna give him or her all my cards....plus send him or her cards from there on daily basis until i send out every possible Mexican card ever published.....anyone?   Im deadly serious, so give it a thought....