Tallinn, Estonia

21st June apart from being the first day of summer, is also the day with the longest daytime. Well here is one card especially dedicated to 2st of June

In Tallinn, the northern part of the sky doesnt get completely dark during nights from the 10th of May until the 2nd of August, but the time of "white nights" - the time when the whole sky stays luminous even at midnight (except if it is very cloudy) - begins in the last days of May and lasts until the middle of July. In summer, the astronomical midnight (the darkest time of the night) in Tallinn is at 1.21am (timezone GMT+ 3). Nights are the brightest for about 10 days before and after summer solstice (21 June)
This phenomenon has fascinated me since i was a kid....how some countries have months of daylight only and then months of darkness...though im not sure id prefer the total daylight time, since im more a night kind of person.

Speaking of the first day of the summer...it was soooo summerish here....raining all day long and just freezing...crazy....last week i was melting in the unbearable heat and now we have something that feels like late late autumn...but ok, i rather have this than the last week's 40 degrees....I just wish it didnt rain too often coz I need to go to the PO sometimes :)

As for the card itself, it portrays the St. Olaf's Church at midsummer midnight.
This church is nowadays 123.7m high. From 1549 to 1625, when the upper part of its tower was higher than today, St. Olaf's church was the tallest building in the world, 159m.

the stamp is from the EUROPA's astronomy issue of 2009.
Well I received this card last year but since I was out of town, I couldnt post it on the exact date, and felt it was inappropriate to post it at any other day...so here it is now!

And im really sorry for posting just one card today but im really in no state of mind to post more...after yesterday's events im still in some sort of utter disbelief of everything that happened, and im really out of focus. No no, its nothing bad...actually yesterday was sooo damn good that today, reality feels so depressing ...I wish i could have days like yesterday more often...they really bring me to life....

Tallinn, Estonia (02)

A really nice card showing an orthodox church in Tallinn, built by Russian Czar at the time when Estonia was still a part of the Russian Empire....no wonder it reminds me of some Russian churches ive seen (one in St. Petersburg in particular). The style is really familiar...

The church itself is simply beautiful...what i REALLY love about this card is the contrast of the church colour against the sky....white against blue is probably one of my favourite colour combinations. From outside my window, i can see three tall buildings...all white...at certain times, when the sky colour has this particular shade of blue, and the sun shines AT the buildings...their colour against the sky is simply amazing...its the same when some white birds can be seen in the sky....yeah, i do have a very soft spot for the blue colour.

Tallinn, Estonia

This one was sent to me by one of my former pen-friends, Christina Dulley from Sweden while she was on a holiday in Estonia. If I include certain people's full names is coz, with most of them i had lost contact unfortunately, so maybe (even though its like a chance 1:100000000000) someone who knows them ends up reading here, they may recognize them and tell them about it and all...I dont know....But I had really good friends among all those people, its really a pity that due to whatever reason we are not in touch anymore....I even have no idea where are they now, what they are doing, are they ok or no....but i would like them to know im thankful for all the cards they had sent me throughout the years.

Tallinn is the capital and the largest city in Estonia, and it lies on the northern coast of Estonia on the Gulf of Finland. Founded in 1154 it is thought to be Europe's oldest city.
The origin of the name "Tallinn(a)" is certain to be Estonian although the original meaning of the name is debated. It is usually thought to be derived from "Taani-linn(a)", meaning in Danish 'castle/town', after the Danes built the castle in place of the Estonian stronghold at Lindanisse. However, it could also have come from "tali-linna" ("winter-castle/town"), or "talu-linna" ("house/farmstead-castle/town"). The element -linna, riginally meant "fortress" but is used as a suffix in the formation of town names.
(My interest in etymology of names, i take it as professional damage :P sorry if you find it boring or annoying)
On the card you can see Tallinn's medieval Town Hall (Raekoda) where, the Tallinn Old Town has become a part of UNESCO's whs in 1997.