Vietnam Wall, USA

A cool official card I received last year..

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The card shows the Vietnam Wall in Washington D.C., which extends down into the earth past the names of 50,000 Americans who died in Vietnam, then up again into the daylight. Student designer Maya Ying Lin, who won the design competition, explained her entry: "Take a knife and cut open the earth, and with time the grass will heal it." (from the back of the card)

Well, for me time doesnt really heal things...just makes the pain more bearable and easier to deal with...but that counts for something, doesn't it?

I sometimes wonder, at walls like this...is there someone who actually gets to read ALL of the names? from beginning till the end? 

Not me, that's for sure...I just take a brief glimpse, and read a few...and sometimes some names catch my attention...but I surely won't go and read all 50,000 of them!

3 great stamps and one cute sticker!
On the stamps you have George Washington from 2011, and two of the 5 cars' stamps issued in 2013

The Imagine Peace Tower, Iceland

So...work has been really busy lately, plus some other daily chores...and somehow didnt have the time to dedicate to posting here or even writing cards in general...which makes me really behind in both...yeah, not a good way to kick off the year....not to mention the awful cough i caught...fortunately it has calmed down, so i can at least sleep more properly at night and talk without consequences...otherwise it was getting really unbearable..

Anyways, without further ado, let's see my choice for today. First is a lovely Icelandic card that Genek sent me for the favourites tag. And while i loved this card coz it represented Iceland, and had Northern Lights on it, i didnt really know it represented something else...and if it wasnt for this card I wouldnt have known that there is a memorial to John Lehnon in Iceland! You are surprised too maybe?
So turns out that Yoko Ono dedicated this artwork to John, and it is said to be a Tower of Light which emanates wisdom, healing and joy. It communicates awareness to the whole world that peace & love is what connects all lives on Earth. It symbolizes Lennon’s and Ono’s continuing campaign for world peace - which began in the sixties, was sealed by their marriage in 1969 and will continue forever. The Tower is located on Viðey Island in Kollafjörður Bay near Reykjavík, Iceland. It consists of a tall "tower of light", projected from a white stone monument that has the words "Imagine Peace" carved into it in 24 languages.

One of the mesmerising features of the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER is that the strength, intensity and brilliance of its light continually changes with the prevailing weather and atmospheric conditions unique to Iceland - creating a clear pillar of light on a cloudless night, beams irridescing with rainbow refractions in rain or snowfall, and brilliantly reflecting off and through any moving layers of cloud.

The Tower was unveiled on October 9th 2007, John Lennon’s 67th birthday.

Really admirable....and not such a usual location to pick....as if Yoko wanted this to be not so known about yet do something for her husband..I mean, if they talk about Iceland they either talk about volcanoes or economic crisis....i haven't seen this mentioned before, yet im glad to have learned something new.

Thank you Genek!

And here is the so very famous anthem (which honestly sometimes gets annoying to hear it very often on the radio. )

Unfortunately, nowadays is really difficult to imagine all the people living life in peace...

Bucharest, Romania

Second card for today is an official one from Romania (im happy coz I dont get many officials from there) and it shows the Eroilor Aerului monument, or in English, The Romanian Airmen Heroes Memorial.

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It is situated in the Aviators' Square in Bucharest and was built between 1930 and 1935.
The bronze structure is 20m high where bronze sculptures resting on an obelisk-shaped stone pedestal. On the top of the obelisk is the statue of a flying man with his wings outstretched. Three aviators, each in a different stage of flight attempt, are depicted around the base of the obelisk. On the pedestal are the aviators' insignia, helmet and equipment, as well as engraved plaques with the names of Romanian airmen who had crashed to their deaths by the time the monument was built. These men died pursuing various goals: skill development, performance, adventure and fighting in World War I. The first name is that of Gheorghe Caranda, killed on 20 April 1912 on an airfield during a training flight; the last is that of Sava Rotaru, killed on 29 May 1934 in thick fog in the hills around Cernavodă. After the official dedication, 99 additional names have been posted on the North bottom side of the pedestal.

I love such cards....they may be sad in nature, but they tell some great stories as well.

The stamp is from a set of 4 issued in 2007 representing Romanian pottery, and here you can see a pot handcrafted in Transylvania. 

Berlin, Germany

Here is a card with some special thrill....I hope this wont sound wrong or creepy, but memorial centres and cemeteries are fascinating me...I dont know...they have some sort of tranquility note that eases me in a certain kind of way...i dont think i can explain it properly, so i wont try to do so...otherwise,  i will tangle up myself in my own flow of thoughts :)

Here you can see the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, situated in Berlin also known as the Holocaust Memorial since its a commemoration to the Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
According to Eisenman's project text, the stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. A 2005 copy of the Foundation for the Memorial's official English tourist pamphlet, however, states that the design represents a radical approach to the traditional concept of a memorial, partly because Eisenman did not use any symbolism. An attached underground "Place of Information"holds the names of all known Jewish Holocaust victims, obtained from the Israeli museum Yad Vashem.

I think i will definitely add Memorials and Cemeteries to my wishlist....