Helsinki, Finland

a dreamy kind of an image..at least for me...

I received this card back in 2012 from Minna as RAS. This is how the main railway station in Helsinki looks like during the snowy winter days...I don't know if it is always so deserted and empty, but sure feels tranquil and if it wasn't (probably) freezing cold, it would be really nice to sit here for hours and find your peace of mind.....

a very, very cute Christmas stamp issued in 1996 in a set of 3 stamps. Love those auroras!!

Carnikava, Latvia

next comes an AWESOME official card from Latvia! The sender saw it in my favourites...and dropped one in the mail for me!

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the card shows the railway bridge over the river Gauja in Carnikava, which is a small village in Latvia.

Just a great great image...I love that deserted gloomy foggy atmosphere of a cold winter morning...well, that is just an assumption that it is a winter morning, but that;s how it feels to me...

here is one nice Train song for you.....

the sender made a great match, using the great Latvian train stamp from 2010. The small stamp represents the Coat of Arms and was issued this year.

Riga, Latvia

well, as for my last card today, i chose this lovely one from Latvia

im really thankful to Elena for being so kind and sending it to me...I absolutely love this card...not only coz it is railway related, but the colours feel so special too...the skies have some spectacular colour and i love the black wires crossing all over...they just give such a special touch to the overall image.

On this card you can see a railroad close to the centre of Riga while in the background is a medieval church and a modern office building of Swedbank....what a combination in total :)

thank you all for following and for giving such great contribution to my mailbox, and of course to this blog. Have a great weekend!!   

Glenfinnan Viaduct, Scotland

well, after bothering you with Jeniferever, ill let you relax with this fantastic Scottish view sent by my dear Anu. Scotland never ceases to amaze me with its wonders...

Do you know that this is actually a railway viaduct??! Oh , yes it is!! Ahh, what I would only give to go for a train ride here.....
The viaduct is on the West Highland Line in Glenfinnan, built between 1897 and 1901. Built entirely of concrete, the viaduct consists of 21 arches, each spanning 15m and has a maximum height of 30m offering spectacular views down Lochaber’s Loch Shiel.

Glenfinnan Viaduct has been used as a location in several films and television series, including Charlotte Gray, Monarch of the Glen, Stone of Destiny (film), and most famously Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in which a substantial sequence revolves around the Hogwarts Express crossing the viaduct. Its appearances in two subsequent Harry Potter films, The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Goblet of Fire, has cemented the association of the viaduct with the film series

Believe it or not, i cant recall i have watched any of these....I wouldnt mind taking a ride on Hogwarts Express though :P

the Queen stamp is from 2010 while the other is a part of the seven Christmas stamps issued in 2010.

Thanks so much again Anu! It is always such a pleasure to meet you in the mailbox! :)

Damascus, Syria

Well, here are some nice postcards, in order to make a closure of something that was a tiring but lovely weekend!

Silvan again prepared a splendid surprise for my mailbox, this time sending me a postcard from Syria, and no more or less, but a railway related one!!!!
This here is the Al-Hijaz (or Hejaz) Railway Station in Damascus, a very magnificent Ottoman Building. Even though this station is no longer in use, it still makes such a perfect postcard and such a thoughtful surprise!
The Hejaz railway ran from Damascus to Medina, through the Hejaz region of Arabia, with a branch line to Haifa, on the Mediterranean Sea. It was a part of the Ottoman railway network and was built in order to extend the previously existing line between Istanbul and Damascus all the way to the holy city of Mecca (eventually being able to reach only Medina due to the interruption of the construction works caused by the outbreak of World War I).

the stamp on the left is a definitive issued in 2009, representing President Bashar Al-Assad, while the other one was issued in 2006 in a set of 3 Fauna stamps, representing fish from Syria

Grodno, Belarus

Time for some railway stuff :)

This card comes from Grodno in Belarus, showing its Railway Station.

Picture (1) shows the Old Railway Station, which was built with the beginning of the railway service St. Petersburg - Warsaw (1867). In 1986, it was destroyed in connection with the building of a new railway station (picture 2). On the wall of the building there is a memorial plaque which reminds of the attempt of Grodno gymnasia students to get to L. Narbut troop during the uprising of 1863-1864. Near the station, there is a zoo founded in 1927 by a teacher Ya. Kokhanovski (picture 3).

Enoshima Electric Railway, Japan

A train card coming from Japan.

I like it how they have matched the colours of the train with the natural environment...looks real nice.
The Enoshima Electric Railway is said to be established in 1902 and runs between Fujisawa & Katase (Enoshima).
Its a local train...well, surely doesnt seem to be an express one :)
I recall some of the Murakami books talked of people taking the train to travel from A to B...i doubt it was one of these kind of trains...and this also reminds me i need to finish the Murakami book I started few months ago...but I just dont seem to have the focus for reading lately...nothing surprising =[

Apart from being a train card, there are also, two great train stamps! Bingo!!!
However, as it happens often with the Japanese stamps....I couldnt find much info about these. I hope that soon, the Stamps sector at the Japanese Postal site, will soon be translated into English.

Switzerland

Lovely lovely lovely card!

Not only coz its a train card but also coz of the wonderful sceneries...I dont know exactly where in Switzerland these sceneries are, but they surely are beautiful. As for the emblems around the pictures...they are the flags of the 26 Swiss cantons.
Since right now the tennis tournament in Doha is in progress, Switzerland reminds me of Federer...in all other occasions it would most probably remind me of cheese and chocolate :)

the first two stamps come from a set of 4, from the Cereals issue, and here you have the wheat and the rye.
the other stamp is from 2009, regarding the 2009 World Ice Hockey Championship.

Macedonia

A card that feels really special to me, and which is one of the Macedonian cards i REALLY like...coz in general, i dont think we have some magnificent choice of postcards here....and there is a story behind this card as well...which is about to follow below...

I bought this postcard not so long ago at a store here which started selling this series of postcards...they differ quite a lot to all the Macedonian postcards I have seen before...in design, quality, places they depict...and of course, price :) But i just cant resist buying some of them, so in case you have or will receive a card from this 'Macedonia' series from me, it means i consider you special ;)
As for this card, the moment i saw it i knew i had to get it, for myself...not because the image is just beautiful, but because it is also railway related..and gives so much to think about...
Anyways, the more i kept looking at this card, the more i felt something was being incomplete about it....and then it dawned on me...it was blank....probably at this moment you might be having an assumption how i solved it..so yeah, since i was having the right stamps at home, i did what i probably never really thought i would do, and i wrote and addressed the card to myself...I mean, i do send cards to myself when i go away, and thats not really odd...but to send a card to yourself from your own town...now i know thats a bit...ok, that it is VERY awkward and probably crazy to a certain extent...but i just couldnt resist it...and either way, i dont actually have many written and stamped Macedonian postcards...only a few actually, and since i developed this philatelic interest to a great level, means that im also interested in having written and stamped and CANCELLED cards from my own country as well...so i had to help myself, no? :P
well...here comes the *fun* part....i mailed the card on 28th November....thats last Saturday....at a post office thats like 40 minutes walk from my house...and wanna take a guess when did the card arrive??? YESTERDAY!!! 4th December!!! 6 days!!! Amazing 6 days it took this card to arrive to me sent from Skopje to Skopje!! It would have literally arrived faster if someone from the postal service walked from there....im still astonished about this...so if a card takes 6 days to arrive sent from my own city, then how can i possibly have faith in our postal service about all those internationally sent cards! I wrote about this on the forum, and there was this comment which said "its good that they havent sent it via Indonesia" :D :D :D :D

So yeah, there you go...thats my adventure with our postal service....though honestly, i think im gonna keep doing this in the future as well, coz otherwise i dont stand much of a chance to receive a written and stamped Macedonian postcard...call me crazy :)

I also love it what the image represents....the road to nowhere...or the road to the unknown....the rail just goes into the distance until a point where you cant follow it anymore...you dont know whether its gonna turn right or left, or if it goes beyond those mountains...you just cant tell whats ahead of you, until you actually get to the point...just like life is....though this calm atmosphere is one which gives hope along the winding-life-roads...

and here are the two stamps i used...the one on the right is from a set of two stamps issued in 1996 under the subject of  "Children - joy of the world". The other one is from 2006, from a set of 6 definitives which depict traditional copper ware from the 18th-19th century...and this in particular shows a šamdan. Whats its name in English, i honestly have no idea...

Banff National Park, Canada

A card that was waiting for me in the mailbox when i came back home.....and its one of those cards that make me go jump of joy!

You know how much i just love trains but these old steam locomotives have a special touch...they are just so stylish and beautiful....i mean, nowadays you have all those modern fast trains...but they dont come even close to these old-fashioned ones...
Funny thing about this card is that for a couple of days i was convinced it was called "The Tempest" and i was wondering if it was some Shakespeare etimology....then when i read better, it said "The Tempress"....until i finally figured out it was "The Empress"....i really need to see my optician...
The CP 2816 is a class H1b Hudson type locomotive built by Montreal Locomotive Works in December 1930. Initially the locomotive ran westward out of Winnipeg to Calgary and eastward to Fort William, Ontario (now part of Thunder Bay). Locomotive 2816 then moved into service on the Windsor-to-Quebec City corridor. Its last assignment was at the front of a Montreal-Rigaud commuter train, making its final revenue run on May 26, 1960. Having logged more than two million miles in active service, 2816's fires were extinguished.

Today, after a complete three-year rebuild, 2816 is restored to the original specifications with external details from the 1940/50s.

I dedicate this post to my dad, who is in hospital right now...i dont know if he had seen this card, but im 100% convinced he would love it...I also got him a train calendar and 3 railway-related DVD's from Germany...i hope once he comes home and has the chance to watch them, he would like them as well.

And I just wanna say the greatest thanks to Glenn for this splendid surprise....from both my dad and myself...its one card which makes two people VERY happy...

wohohohh, and a bunch of lovely stamps...you've already seen the ladybug one, issued in 2007.
Then, the stamp in the top right corner is of a very recent issue, October 19th to be more precise, called Lest We Forget, and i take the freedom to steal Glenn's post about this...being Canadian, i think you cant have a more appropriate person to steal information from. Great stamp!
The one next to it dates from September this year, and its called Mental Health. I wonder what kind of an image they would get if they happen to screen my brain some day....this stamp was issued in order to make the mental illness less of a taboo and something people should speak more freely about. The stamp, which features natural scenery flowing through the outline of a human figure, was designed by Vancouver’s Signals Design Group. A tree was chosen as the stamp’s central element because it symbolizes health, growth and maturity, all attainable for people affected by mental illness. The shape of the tree refers subtly to the human brain, while the path progresses towards better health and a fulfilled life.....amazing what kind of a story a stamp can bear.
The stamp next to it, the one with the egg, is one more of the Road Attraction series, issued in July this year, while the small stamp next to the lady bug...well, im not sure about this one...if i could read right, it is said to be issued in 1999...but then again, you know i can read things wrongly...and i couldnt really find some information about it, so i dont feel competent to give any further info...

Glenn, THANK YOU!!

Taiwan

My last card for today is another official one, coming from Taiwan, but my decision to show it was because it actually shows a train and i just wanted to ramble in a few words about my last train ride...

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Some of you may know that the weekend that just passed but the one before that, i was on a one day trip to Belgrade (as all my Belgrade trips end up to be), and as usual, i took the train to go back home. I think that if i had to spend all my nights sleeping on a train (in the bed wagoon of course)  I wouldnt mind one thing. I just love the solitude of the cabin, and then just hearing and feeling the sound of the train wheels...its nice to be sleeping while you are actually moving like that...feels like someone is singing you a lullaby :P

But really...its some specific, one of a kind feeling...esp coz outside it was extremely cold and on the inside it was nice and warm...and then you wake up, and open your eyes around dawn and you see mountains and trees moving in front of you...the only thing i dont like are the moments when borders approach...and when going from Belgrade to Skopje the border time is around 6am...so not the most convenient one, but i think i can neglect that fact and enjoy all the rest.

And if you are asking me about the train on the card...I honestly have NO idea where in Taiwan is this, its not even stated on the card...so its just some train...out there...in Taiwan

 

need to find some adequate Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese etc stamp sites written in English...otherwise i feel really ignorant...wanna guess why?

Gomel, Belarus

Its amazing how many train-related cards i had received ever since i mentioned in my wishlist that i love them!

I dont really know anything about this Belorussian town...and not much information are provided either...except that its situated in the southeastern part of the country, on the right bank of Sozh River, close to the border with Ukraine and in close proximity to Chernobyl. Uhmm...now thats not nice...esp. not when i take a look at how deserted the railway station seems...when i related to Chernobyl, it certainly doesnt leave a nice impression...

Although it has been heavily contaminated with radioactive debris following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster,  residents were never evacuated from Gomel and general population continued to grow.

ok....that was more than i ever wanted to know....

the stamp on the left comes from a set of 8 stamps issued in 2006, representing Garden Flowers, with this one showing a Tulip, while the other stamp, from what you can see, comes from the EUROPA series, issued in 2004, where this stamp bears the title Vacation Mushrooming......

Padang Pajang, Indonesia

the last card for today comes from Indonesia and showing, if i can say so, my favourite means of transport.

Ever since i had put the trains and railways on my wishlist, i noticed how people have started actually sending me such cards about which im extremely glad! Otherwise, i would have never had all those train-related cards i had received lately :)
this card here shows a railroad in Padang Panjang in Indonesia. Did you know that although Indonesia has over 18000 islands, only TWO have railroads??? thats a shame...
now that i think about it, i havent travelled by train for almost a year....im either on the bus or in the car...and im not sure i will have an opportunity in the near future to travel by train....but i do miss that tk tk..tk tk...tk tk sound the trains make...and there is nothing better than travelling at night, in a sleeping cabin and being there just by yourself...mmmmmmmmmmmmm

as for the stamps, from what i could gather..there are four in the set (here you see two of them) and they were issued in May this year, regarding the World Ocean Conference, where Indonesia was the host between 11 - 15 May, and in commemorating this event, the stamp series were issued.
The stamp design beautifully captures the under water life consists of Coral Reef, Blueringed Anglefish, Anemone Shrimp, Goldback Anthias and Green Sea Turtle. 

Mumbai, India

Especially for Ksenia...and all other railway lovers....this is the Shivaji Terminus, the busiest railway station in Mumbai! And if you take a closer look, you will actually see a river of people...and well, it even seems scary :) I honestly dont like crowded places...they make me feel uncomfortable with myself...and i definitely wouldnt want to travel in an overcrowded train. It happened to me when i was a kid and when i was going with my grandparents on a visit in Serbia...we actually had to STAND in the hall for most of the trip...the only place we could sit on was on our bags...can you actually imagine? a trip of 300km or so in that manner?

Well, this busiest railway has earned its status of a UNESCO and it was built by the British in the 18th century. Ever wanna take a ride on a train somewhere in India??? Take a look...



and another one...



hmmmm...not your dream ride i guess...

well, lets see the stamps...there were two on the top, where they are supposed to be, and one at the bottom right corner, right below the address.
Both of these are commemorative stamps (yess! i learned the difference between 'commemorative' and 'definitive' ) The stamp on the right was issued in December 2006 to commemorate the worlds' aids day, while the one next to it is from the 2008 Jasmine collection and belongs to the category of scented stamps...and it does smell indeed...its lovely!

As for this rose stamp....it is a definitive issued in 2002, featuring a rose...though i cant say im utterly sure about the validity of this information....

Well, in any case, thanks a lot to Nagi for sending me this absolutely great card!  

Railway, Brazil

My first ever railway-related received postcard! And a great one!

I got this card along with a few other Brazilian cards from Karina...when i saw she had train cards, i knew i had to have one...honestly, i more wanted to get it coz of my dad, then me...i love trains, but i know my dad is fascinated by them even more and understands things about them WAAYY to more than i do...i mean, a few times he had asked the engine driver if he could stay in his cabin for a while so that he can observe the ride from there...and he had been allowed! Maybe one day i will have the same chance as well...
My dad also used to watch a German channel called Bahn.tv...and its pretty self-explanatory, it dealt with railways and trains, mainly from Germany, but also trains and rides worldwide were presented...often there were shows where they would follow an entire ride, from beginning to end, filmed at the drivers' cabin...it was beautiful to see all that....i dont know, maybe i had already told you this, so im just repeating myself now...its just a pity that the channel aint available anymore...well, at least my dad cant follow the broadcast anymore...


And since all the cards came in an envelope, i cant feature individual stamps for each card, so ill just show them all now...and i have to say WOW...a bunch of great Brazilian stamps..the envelope looks just great coz its so lovely and colourful! I really wonder...why did it take me so long to decide to show stamps as well...they are just sooo great!!

Karina, muy obrigado!!