Isla de Tabarca, Spain

I don't know if blogger had been messing with the platform, but I just cannot seem to properly adjust the size of images... they either look too small or too big as if there is no in-between which used to seem just right... or maybe it is just me and remembering things the wrong way, heh..

Beautiful view of the small Tabarca island sent by Eva earlier this year.

It is the smallest permanently inhabited islet in Spain and seems that I've been quite nearby during my visit of Alicante (it is actually considered as part of the city) ... just a short ferry trip away...

A beatiful train wagon stamp on the left from 2018, commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Last Travelling Post Office (that is actually a sad occasion...)
The King Felipe VI stamps are from 2016.

Thank you so much Eva for thinking of me!

Bicycles, Spain

Next are two super cool bicycle cards from Spain!

The first one comes from the Balearic Islands, sent by dear Agi...I absolutely love the retro-look of this one and the color too...it is like a super best-friend for your every day errands ...it just looks like one very happy bike :)

and I think that a mushroom stamp collector would be quite envious on such a card:D These come from a set issued in 2013, and I'm far from a mushroom expert, but for the curious one, here you have, from left to right: Agaricus xanthoderma, Amanita pantherina and Marasmius oreades.

I received this other bicycle card just recently, for the favourites tag...not sure where this one is exactly...I can just hope that it is in Spain at least :)

the stamp is a rather glowing and shiny one and is from the set of two Christmas stamps issued in 2015.

Los Gigantes, Spain

A great card I received as a surprise from Veronica, showing the town of Los Gigantes (or "The Giants" in English) on the island of Tenerife.

The main feature are the giant rock formations, Acantilados de Los Gigantes, that rise from the sea to a height of 500-800 metres after which the town has been named.

looks like a nice typical resort town to me. Wouldnt mind spending a holiday here one day...

you know the guy on the blue stamp, dont you? Juan Carlos, King of Spain from 1975 to 2014. The other stamp says "I need Spain"....hahahaa...well, I don't know if I need it, but I certainly love the country...issued in 2013

Jaén, Spain

Last card for today came as an official sometime at the beginning of the year.

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It is a really lovely card, from the city of Jaén, showing the grand Jaén Cathedral, which is one of the most important Renaissance-style cathedrals. Construction began in 1570 and was completed in 1802. It is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin, and it was built to shelter the relic of the Holy Face, or Veil of Veronica, lodged at the major chapel and exposed to the public every Friday. Due to the length of time in its construction, different artistic styles can be appreciated, the most prominent being Renaissance; Andrés de Vandelvira the most important architect. He is the greatest exponent of the Andalusian Renaissance. It aspires to be listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO

so, if it does get listed as UNESCO whs, I already have the problem solved :P

The stamp on the right is from a set of 3 "Civic Values" stamps issued in 2012. This one is about "Getting distracted at the Driving Wheel"
. The other guy..well you know him, Juan Carlos, and those Spanish definitives :)

Ha! Cant believe it I did another update in just a few days! Well, hope you liked the cards...till next time...enjoy your autumn/spring days..depending where on the Earth you are :)

Torre de Hércules, Spain

another great surprise in my mailbox, this time coming from dear Bea, who decided to contribute to both my lighthouse and UNESCO collection! :)

the card shows the Tower of Hercules, which is an ancient Roman lighthouse, and a UNESCCO whs since 2009, located in the city of Coruña. It is the oldest Roman lighthouse in use nowadays and the oldest one in the world as well, built in the second century! (So I guess it did deserve to be inscribed on the UNESCO's list!)
And since I love myths, here is what is related to this lighthouse:
-According to a myth that blends Celtic and Greco-Roman elements, the hero Hercules slew the giant tyrant Geryon after three days and three nights of continuous battle. Hercules then—in a Celtic gesture— buried the head of Geryon with his weapons and ordered that a city be built on the site. The lighthouse atop a skull and crossbones representing the buried head of Hercules’ slain enemy appears in the coat-of-arms of the city of Coruña.
Another legend says that King Breogán, the founding father of the Galician Celtic nation, constructed here a massive tower of such a grand height that his sons could see a distant green shore from its top. The glimpse of that distant green land lured them to sail north to Ireland.

and the card comes with a matching stamp too!! ♥ ♥ ♥   It was issued in 2009 in  a set of 6 lighthouses' stamps! The definitives from the Juan Carlos' series are something you are familiar with I guess...if im not mistaken, the blue and the greyish one were issued in 2002, while the pink one should be from 2009...I hope i got it right :)

Muchas gracias por la sorpresa querida!!!

Spain

and as a last post, some Spanish markets! as most of you know, I went to Spain this summer....and I actually wanted to make an update only Spain-related, regarding each place ive seen, but ive realized it's gonna be way too time consuming, and an endless post, so I would go step by step, and talk about it through the Spanish posts here in the future.

Our first stop in Spain was Barcelona...the lovely Barcelona, with which I fell in love with, and i could definitely live there!
Now Barcelona is all in the name of Gaudi, but also has dozen of other things to offer, among which is the La Boqueria Market on La Rambla....this must have been one of the MOST FANTASTIC markets ive seen in my life!! So captivating! The colours of the market are amazing, esp. at the fruit stalls or ones offering fruit drinks! The colours of these are soooooooo vivid and arranged in such a way that it captures you at an instant! You feel like a small child at the greatest toy store and you just dont know where to look first!
The nuts, sweets and spices sections are a story for themselves as well.

Here I would like to share with you a few of the pictures Ive taken there...

yum-yum-yummie!!!

if you notice, the name Macedonia is hanging in there...for 2 euros :)

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

i dont think ive seen such colourful peppers at one place :)

well, Valencia was our last stop....another place I fell for...must be something coz of the Mediterranean Sea :)
Valencia has its central market as well, which we unfortunately didnt get the chance to see , but at least i have this lovely postcard from there

on the overall, I didnt really bring many cards from Spain...or at least not as many as i expected to...but they are good enough to tell the stories of what I have and have not seen :)

have a great, and not such a cold and rainy weekend!

Lastres, Spain

I like the colours on this card...the contrast of the blue against the other colours.

this card shows the city of Lastres, in the Autonomous Community of Asturias.
Milenna, the sender of the card, says that this city is very famous all over Spain coz the most popular TV series have been filmed there.
Well, speaking of Spanish TV Series (or Soap Operas as they are known better)....ive never been fond of those, and honestly, when they first started to be shown here, like over 10 years ago, people went mad for them, and all of a sudden, everybody wanted to study Spanish just coz of them...and with me such things have an opposite effect, and back then, I am sorry to admit this, but I hated the Spanish language. I just never like being a part of the masses blindly following something. And we were simply bombed with all sorts of Spanish, Portuguese, Latin/South American soap operas. Each TV station had a few of them and it was getting too much! Nowadays, things have calmed down, and when i have the chance sometimes, I turn on the TV and just listen to the language....but nowadays, I cant seem to find enough Spanish series...they seem to have lost their popularity on behalf of the ones coming from Turkey and India. So I guess Ive wasted my long-term chances to listen to the Spanish for free....ah well :)

the stamp is from a set of 2 Fauna stamps issued in 2010, showing butterflies. This one shows the Zygaena rhadamanthus. 

Canary Islands, Spain

My last card for today comes from dear Jurga, who saw this one in my favourites and wanted to surprise me!

And this is such a lovely, warm card...and when you take a look at its location on the map, just northwest of Africa, no wonder they have such a nice climate...(yeah, here is me speaking of the weather again...ive become like one of those old ladies who gather together in front of someone's gate and having nothing better to discuss of, talk of the weather...)
But actually, while we are at it, i have to mention something about ours...it's been a crazy day today...with believe it or not, 25 degrees...in the mid-November...that just feels totally crazy...after a lovely sunny and warm weekend, we had two days of rain and then all of a sudden we get full sunshine and warm temperatures...and just last week it was freezing cold....and then I wonder why i get ill....one really has to be immune and not be affected with such drastic weather changes, which in Macedonia seem to be more like a trend in the past years than something that happens every once in a while...though to be honest I prefer days like today..throughout the year...not too hot, not too cold...just perfect to go outside and enjoy the sunshine, plus have this small lovely breeze....but I bet that by tomorrow things will drastically change again...oh well....=/

And here is a very lovely stamp! I always get happy when I see something different than the stamps im more or less used to from a certain country....this one was issued this year, promoting Spanish tourism.....ummm, does look appealing, definitely!

Thanks so much again Jurga! For the card and the thoughtfulness! And to the rest,thanks again for dropping by and for reading...hope you werent TOO bored with my weather ramblings :P

Santander, Spain + Contest

A Fantastic card sent from my dear Beatriz.

And I would like to use this opportunity to present you a contest she is organizing at her blog. So if you are interested into penpalling, like cute/nice stationary for your letters and you enjoy decorating it with stickers maybe then this contest is for you. What you need to do? Well for starters you have to visit Penpalling and Letters, and read the contest article, right HERE. All the rules and how you need to proceed afterwards is given there. The contest is supported by TheCutestStickers.com and LetterSets.com. During the contest, you can also get a 10% discount, but to find out how, you will need to read the above mentioned article. Deadline is 21st September, so less than a month left to enter....better hurry :)

Well, personally I use plain papers for my letters since we barely have any nice stationery here and those sold are insanely expensive or are sold one small sheet per envelope....having in mind that my letters usually take 4 pages A4 format, what's sold here is simply ridiculous....so I need to use plain envelopes as well..but I LOVE decorating those with stickers...and when I put a nice stamp and use a colour pen to write the address, it looks nice eventually and not plain at all :)
So this contest seems to be like a jackpot for me, and Im surely gonna enter...I just hope that with my slowness I wont miss the deadline in the end :P

Sooooo. what are you waiting for?? Go go go!!!

Spain

Well, since the latest events are calling for it, here comes a Spanish post....and *cough cough cough*....yeah, a bit more ramblings about Rafa....sorry :)

But I am soooo happy, that I just have to give this event a significance. Mr. Nadal won Roland Garros!!! Again!! For the 5th time!!! (If he didnt have the problems he had last year, I think right now I would probably say that he won it for the 6th time...but well, thats how it is).
Well, apart from winning Roland Garros, he also regaind the 1st place on the ATP South African Rankings!!! Wohoooooooooooo!!! That calls for a double celebration!! And one more thing I must mention is that throughout the entire RG tournament, Rafa didnt drop a SINGLE set! He won all the matches by 3:0!!
The final match itself maybe wasnt of the greatest quality...was tense at times but not as much as plenty of other matches ive seen....but at least it was Nadal who won. I feel sorry for Soderling....he lost the final here last year....and Nadal told him today he was sorry and that he had played his best tennis so that he could beat him...and he did! I was honestly rather scared, coz it was Soderling last year who stood in Rafa's way and eliminated him in the first rounds....something I think was a shock for everyone, coz it was RG we were talking about, it was clay....but eventually we realized that the disappointments would follow throughout the year....thats how he lost his number one ranking and eventually fell to number 4! But *knock on wood*...this season Rafa has been playing his best tennis, and im really happy coz of that and really proud of him!

Well Rafa is actually from Mallorca, Manacor, but unfortunately i dont have a postcard related to it (or i might have overlooked it), so I decided to post a card with the map of entire Spain, where you can also have a glimpse where Manacor is situated..it is on the right side of the map, between Ibiza and Menorca. So thats where Rafa resides...at home...unlike many other sports' players who eventually move to some more fancy place, like Monte Carlo for example.

and here is a nice interview, taken sometime during RG 2010

And the second card was sent written and stamped, so it would be a pity to neglect the stamps. The one on the left is from a set of 4 issued in 2009, representing Renewable Energy Sources, this one shows Hydro.
The other stamp is also from 2009, showing a butterfly.

St. Simon, Spain

My last card today comes from dear Beatriz....which I also chose in order to share some other news with you...

well here we go....after so much wanting to do it, but being prevented to do so, I signed up for Spanish classes :D :D :D Yaaay!!! At last!! Since my self-study didnt lead anywhere....well, i got quite some knowledge from it, but im not disciplined enough to go with it all the way and honestly, i like working in a group, since its gives you the chance to actually communicate and of course, you can have things explained at first hand, plus get to learn that pronunciation...and I dont know, just feels more productive for me....plus I know I have it as an obligation Im paying for, so I WILL force myself to go to class even if i feel tired or lazy...if im self studying it at home, i will 99% dodge it and do something else...so for the sake of it, i signed up for Spanish classes..... I just hope it will last coz you know how it is with people....they sign up for something and eventually they realize they have no time for it or are too lazy and all....and the group goes to hell and I end up nowhere...so I really really hope this will remain....
Speaking of signing ups....I also continued with my German classes, and Ive been going to aerobics for about a month as well...and then I complain I have no time? Of course I dont...I just hope one day i wont mix up things and go to the wrong class :)
Well, im sorry i often misuse the cards and I actually use them to speak of something totally different, but you know I like it when i can relate a card to a real story and ramble about it :)

ok...you've had it enough for today...

Barcelona, Spain

Card I received as an official time ago....love it!

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I just regret not having seen this during my trip to Barcelona...i love this building! Well, we saw Sagrada Familia, and of course, only from the outside...but we didnt even pass by this one =[.
This is the Casa Batlló, built in 1877. The local name of the building is House of Bones (Casa dels ossos) and it does 
indeed have a visceral, skeletal, organic quality .
The building looks very remarkable — like everything Gaudí designed, only identifiable as Modernisme or Art Nouveau in the broadest sense. The ground floor, in particular, is rather astonishing with tracery, irregular oval windows and flowing sculpted stone work.
Much of the facade  is decorated with a mosaic  made of broken ceramic tiles  that starts in shades of golden orange moving into greenish blues. The roof is arched and was linked to the back of a dragon or dinosaur. 
 A common theory about the building is that the rounded feature to the left of centre, terminating at the top in a turret and cross, represents the sword of St. George - patron of Catalonia.  

the stamp is from a set of two issued in January this year, depicting flora and fauna

Teide, Spain

Another lovely UNESCO card!

Declared a national park in 1954, the Parque Nacional de las Cañadas del Teide includes an enormous volcanic crater 48 km in circumference, out of which rises Mount Teide (pronounced the same as Lady) at a staggering 3.718 metres, making it the highest mountain in the whole of Spain.

The park itself lies at around 2000 metres above sea level and in winter snow falls, gale winds blow and the roads are sometimes closed off. During the summer months this arid landscape which gives the impression of having walked into a cowboy movie, can reach temperatures above 40C.

Access to the now extinct volcano is either by foot or by cable car that will carry you almost to the very summit. From the peak, on a clear day, you are in heaven and have breathtaking views of Gran canaria, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro. This is the Canary Islands most visited tourist attraction and must not be missed.

The stamp used is self-adhesive and comes from a set of two issued in April this year showing Flowers...with the Gladiouls portrayed here

Madrid, Spain

One reason why i really love this card is the illumination against the bricks of the bridge and the building on the hill...along with the dark blue sky, the combination of colours is just lovely.

Puente de Segovia (or the Bridge of Segovia) is the oldest bridge in Madrid.Its nine ancient arches spread across the Manzanares river in a symbolic act of union of the city's past and present. It was commissioned in 1582 by Felipe II. The king selected the architect Juan of Herrera to complete the task.Made of granite, it's very solid and durable. During the Spanish Civil War it was of crucial importance to the two struggling sides, as it's one of the main entrances to the city. In an attempt to prevent the nationalists from taking over the capital, the republicans blew up a part of it.

this card came along with some others in an envelope, so here is the stamp. Its from a 2008  issue dedicated to the Flora and Fauna, called Dahlia and European Bee-eater.
This is the stamp showing the Dahlia which is considered to be the Mexican national flower. The stamp is self-adhesive.

France/Spain

Did you go somewhere for the holidays? I mean, here, many people took off somewhere, since it was 1st May on Friday, and then there was the weekend, and this town was  empty...I dont know about you, but personally i dont like such kind of holidays...mainly coz they make me feel lonely in some sense...

I really like this card, not only coz it shows a map, but also, Santiago de Compostela is actually a UNESCO whs! So, this is what you can call, i killed two flies in one shot ;) And I actually found it a bit confusing, since the majority of the map belongs to France, but Santiago is actually in Spain...so hence i put both countries...and yeah, ill admit, until I actually googled, only France was in the label...
Here is what the back of the card says:
Its about the difficult ways which crosses France, for a very ancient pilgrimage going to Spain, to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The ways and their monuments belong to the UNESCO whs list.
 Which reminds me, i should update my UNESCO whs list....sometime soon...

Tenerife, Spain

I got this card from Sean in Spain, and im extra happy to have my first card from Tenerife. Well Tenerife IS a Spanish Island and is actually the largest one of the seven Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa.
Now since i didnt really pay much attention to Geography at school, History even less...some years ago, i used to think that Tenerife is just an island for itself and not under any other government and to make it worse, i used to think its somewhere either near Seychelles or Virgin Islands or Hawaii....yeah...have a laugh...

On the card you can see a dragon tree, which can be found only on the Canary Islands and a few places in Africa. This one is called Dracaena Draco, or just Drago...cool name for a tree :)

The tree is characterised by a single or multiple trunk growing up to 12 m tall (rarely more), with a dense umbrella-shaped canopy of thick leaves. It grows slowly, requiring about ten years to reach 1 m tall. Dracaena draco does not display annual rings and age can only be estimated by the number of branch forking occurrences (indicating the number of flowering episodes) and measuring the frequency of flowering (less than annual). Some specimens are believed to be up to 650 years old; the oldest is growing at Icod de los Vinos in northwest Tenerife ( yaayy, thats the one on the card ;-)

When the bark or leaves are cut, it secretes a reddish resin known as Dragon's Blood, used in ancient Roman and mediaeval magic and alchemy then believed by the users to be the dried blood of  dragons.

Mmmm, i love such myths and stories, about dragons and alchemy in particular...there is something fascinating at it, even though if i were an alchemist, i would have been a terrible one :) But i love reading and learning about it...

Thanks a lot Sean for the card...i love it when apart from having a really cool card, i get to learn something new as well.
 

Spain

If several days ago i told you that we had snow, than what we have today cant be compared to it one bit :) Everything is absolutely covered in snow, its all white and beautiful...aaaannd, icy and slippery :)) But it is  lovely indeed, and it keeps snowing and snowing......the only thing i kept wondering today is whether my postman worked at all or no....the conditions werent really in his favour, and i would feel sorry if he had to go out in a weather like this (even though thats his job in the first place)....but so far, i have had no mail this year and i really hoped i would get some today...but nope :(
Luckily i have a great pile of postcards in stock, otherwise i would have nothing to post in here...but im well equipped i must say :P
I hope ill have some mail on Monday....it would be disappointing if i dont :)
And since the weather conditions are as they are, its a great reason to stay at home and have a nice quiet evening....and make an update :)

well, my first card to post today is my Christmas gift from dear Marta...along with the Christmas card she had sent me, she included this Spanish flag card coz she knows how nuts I am about them...and she got one for me when she had gone to Spain....wanna try and guess my reaction when i saw it? :)))

The Spanish flag has suffered various changes over its history. Under Franco's dictatorship the flag lost the colour mauve appearing on the Republican flag, and incorporated two important symbols, the eagle and the shield of the Catholic monarchy.

In 1977, two years after Franco's death, the eagle was slightly modified, and in 1981 it would disappear completely, leaving the current red/yellow/red with crowned arms.
The new Spanish flag has three horizontal bands of red (top), yellow (double width) and red, with the national coat of arms on the hoist side of the yellow band. The shield includes the royal seal, which is flanked by two crowned pillars (the Pillars of Hercules) bearing the inscription Plus Ultra. 
According to Spanish legislation, the height of the coat of arms should measure two fifths of the flag's width (i.e. hoist), and should appear in the middle of the yellow stripe. The flag's usual proportions are a length measuring three halves its width, in which case the distance from the hoist of the shield's vertical axis should be half the flag's width. In other instances (should the flag be either shorter in length or square) the coat of arms should appear in the centre.

Marta, do you have the slightest idea how happy you made me? :))

Spain

I dont have a particular video to post here as it was the case above with Japan...so i guess ill just give a boring factfile post :)))

Spain is the world's 51st-largest country, bordering Portugal on the west, Gibraltar and Morroco on the south, on the northeast, along the Pyrenees it borders France and Andorra. Spain also includes the Balearic islands in the Mediterranean sea, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean and a number of uninhabited islands on the Mediterranean side of the strite of Gibraltar known as "Plazas de Soberania"...

ok....need to go back to work...duh :(   

Barcelona, Spain (04)

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!!

Barcelona, Spain (03)

A friend of mine brought this one to me from her honeymoon...

Its a friend I can say ive practically known for my entire life..we went to kindergarden together...we went to primary school together, in the same class...got separated during high-school, and without any intentional purpose, we ended up together at university...and i was something like a bridesmaid at her wedding! :)
Well, i sometimes think that for such traditional events, we have way too much people involved, and im not really certain what are their corresponding English equivalents...or if the English vocabulary has ANY in the first place...but well, at least you get the picture :)

Just that, now this made me wonder if she had ever dropped by at this blog or no...i havent really been going with a fluorescent ad around my neck about it....and i dont think she has ever mentioned something about it (like a comment, critic, question...)...so my guess is 'no'....well, if she ever gets to comment on this card, means she had seen it :P