Cats, Portugal

As my final post today (yeah, I can hear your disappointment), are these two cat cards I sent myself from my trip to Portugal this winter...

The first one is a 3D card, and yeah can give you quite a dizzy feeling, while the second one is just an ordinary card.
However, the funny thing is that once they arrived I actually realized it was the same kitties we were talking about, in the same basket and on the same white cloth, haha.  I think that the 3D really deteriorated my perception here
But there is no such thing as too many cat cards now, is there?

Btw, how is the situation with the postal services where you live?
Here, since the airport has been closed (for over a month now). sending of cards has been very limited, it is just like 10 countries to which I may send cards too, but Postcrossing has been great, having adjusted its algorithm accordingly, so I can still take part in it and sending cards to these particular countries only
Well, none of those cards have arrived so far, but taking into account that the first ones I sent just last Monday, and everything is going through surface mail now (incl. countries like Germany or Ukraine), I think it will take a while... but im really curious to see how long will all this actually take now compared to the regular conditions... well as long as cards dont get lost, i dont mind the waiting...
I barely receive any mail... like two weeks ago I received several official cards, all from Germany... and this single official card yesterday from Finland... other than that, my mailbox has been rather lonely... but we will make up to it once this whole nonsense is over...

haha, ok I think i used too many food stamps here, esp. that traditional sweet Cavacas de Resende, from 2019
In the firsr part you can also see something I thought was some kind of bread but seems that it is another kind of sweet pastry, called Bolo de Ança (Ança's Cake). It is from a set of 7 gastronomy stamps issued in 2018. And here we also have one adorable otter, from a set of 6 stamps from 2016, showing mammal predators (i would never consider the poor otter a predator!)

In the second part, besides the sweets, we also have one stamp from a set of 7, issued in 2019, showing Figures in Portuguese History and Culture and this man here is Fontes Pereira de Melo, who was a Portuguese statesman and engineer. He was a leading parliamentarian and political figure of his time. Among other posts held, he was six times Minister of Finance and Minister of Public Works.
I guess he had deserved his spot on a stamp.

So, yaaay, the silence has been broken... hopefully wont be the only post of the year, haha

Anyways, hope you are all safe and sane... feel free to drop me a line in the comments and share your thoughts and experiences... take care, and dont forget to wash your hands! :)

Copenhagen, Denmark

And one more card for today which I have in my collection thanks to Genek.... and myself.

You may know or you may not know, in September last year I did a one day trip to Copenhagen. The fact that you may not have been informed about it through a postcard, is the ridiculously high postage rate... probably the most expensive one I have experienced so far (even worse than my last trip, whose postcards are on their way :P)

Anyways, it was great to see Copenhagen and even lovelier to meet Genek, even though the weather did play trick on us. However, that didn't ruin our experience of the Danish capital.
And out of the entire city, the colourful Nyhavn probably was my favourite spot!

Nyhavn, ninja style 

Nyhavn is a 17th-century waterfront, canal and entertainment district, stretching from Kongens Nytorv to the harbour front just south of the Royal Playhouse, lined by brightly coloured 17th and early 18th century townhouses and bars, cafes and restaurants. It also harbours many historical wooden ships

It was constructed by King Christian V from 1670 to 1673, dug by Swedish prisoners of war from the Dano-Swedish War 1658–1660. It is a gateway from the sea to the old inner city a King's Square, where ships handled cargo and fishermens' catch. 

It was notorious for beer, sailors, and prostitution. Danish author Hans Christian Andersen lived at Nyhavn for some 18 years.

 The first bridge across Nyhavn, which was a temporary wooden footbridge, opened on 6 February 1875. It was replaced by the current bridge in 1912.

                                                                    And, say cheese! 

A nice rose on the stamp (even though Im not a flower person), from a set of 5 stamps issued in 2018.


So, lets close the post for today. Wishing you all a nice week and a nice February!

Brussels, Belgium

By now some of you probably know already where I had spent my New Year holidays. May seem like an odd choice, but when you find cheap tickets for a place you havent been to before, you just grab the opportunity and make the best out of it, and I must say the trip was really fantastic.

The best thing about Brussels? Our AirBnb, which included 5 cats and one dog. Endless joy! One of the cats would scratch on our door every day to let him in, and he would just climb on the suitcase and fall asleep, waking only to the rustling sounds, knowing it was probably food. (Make a wild guess which one was the frequent visitor :D)

Brussels itself is nice, just too crowded for my taste. But it was nice to see it. It didnt make the list of places I would never really like to go back to again, so thats a plus.

the place shown on the card is called Mont des Arts (meaning Hill/Mount of the Arts) which probably makes it one of the best places for taking pictures, cos the view is really stunning (however when your personal photographer cannot really grasp the idea of a good picture, you will end up without one with you in it...)

Not big fan of spending time in museums, at least not those standard types of Art and History ones, but I do love some unique ones, esp if related to my interests and Brussels has this super cool Comics museum, where if nothing else, you will realize how ignorant you actually were about the comics' art cos it is not all Tin Tin and Smurfs and stuff...

and of course, Belgium wouldnt be Belgium without the waffles, but to my surprise and to the disbelief of many I got to eat only two...but they were real good!

and probably just the best nachos I've ever eaten, so if you are in Brussels, and feel like having nachos, go to the O'Reilly's Irish Pub - their food is just fantastic!

so all in all a great stay in this small county and would like to visit it again and explore more of it (aside from Brussels, we also got to see Brugge, Ghent and Leuven, so not bad, eh? :))

the only downside is the lack of cancellation (or as in case with my card, it was upside down) on just all the cards sent but when I think about it, that is way better than some pen scribbles.

There is one of the birds' definitives (not sure which year it was issued), and two stamps from a set of 10 issued in 2003, under the name This is Belgium. Different places across Belgium are represented, and on these two stamps it is Vilvoorde and Turnhout, where the latter is obviously known for its playing cards industry, hence the playing cards' symbols.

Luxembourg American Cemetery, Luxembourg

And more card for today, again, thanks to myself. Yeah, that trip to Belgium included also a one day trip to Luxembourg, however I apologise for the lack of cards from there, but time was really limited.
However, when I saw this cemetery card, I just knew I had to send it to myself. For a while I even thought that this may be just some cemetery dedicated to the American soldiers, elsewhere, but it is indeed in Luxembourg, so yeah, nice catch :)

Unfortunately, we didn't manage to visit it, but hopefully another time. Luxembourg is really cute plus they plan on introducing free public transport for all (buses, trams, trains...) so why not use that chance and explore more of it.

The cemetery was established on December 29, 1944 by the 609th Quartermaster Company of the U.S. Third Army while Allied Forces were stemming the enemy's desperate Ardennes Offensive, one of the critical battles of World War II. The city of Luxembourg served as headquarters for Gen. George S. Patton's U.S. Third Army. Gen. Patton is buried here.

5,073 service members lie here, many of whom lost their lives in the Battle of the Bulge and in the advance to the Rhine River.


As for Luxembourg itself, I guess it would be more appropriate to talk about it and show you pictures with some actual touristy view card :)

and yay, a cancellation! The stamp is a SEPAC issue from 2018, showing spectacular views (this one shows the Beaufort Castle located in Eastern Luxembourg)

And well, that would be it for today. Not too bad after so much silence!
Hope this 2019 had started well for you and has already brought you some lovely cards in the mailbox!

Till next time...

Greece

So, some of you know that recently I went to Greece....and that it was quite adventurous :)

So what follows is a longish post about my trip there with postcards, pictures and all :)


How come I ended up in Greece in the first place? Well, blame it on Sigur Rós....see, my initial plan was to go to the InMusic Festival like last year, esp. since I was kinda sure that Sigur Rós would also be part of it, since they were/are on tour, they are doing festivals only, and the dates really kinda fit...but as time went by I was becoming aware that there will be no sign pf Sigur Rós, ...there were some other good performers announced but not such favourites that would make a whole such trip worth while. So had to start thinking of plan B cos I was really determined that I just HAVE to go and see them live, not knowing ifI will have another chance in the future, and while looking at the tour dates, Athens seemed as the most feasible...so Athens it was. A friend of mine also decided to come, though frankly I was ready to go alone if necessary, I just wasn't willing to miss such an opportunity (and probably I should have gone alone, but oh well, one learns things from his own mistakes...but I won't get down to that since the other side has no chance of defending himself here :D)

And after everything (or at least we thought) was set, we started our journey with Thessaloniki being our first stop (there are no direct connections between Skopje and Athens) where we had to kill literally all day - we arrived there early in the morning and had a train to catch at 11pm (but that was the cheapest option since the other train rides cost like twice more....and we were of course on a budget).

Killing that time in Thessaloniki turned out to be pretty easy, since Dimitris was very kind and offered to come and meet all the way from Komotini (which is like 250 km away, just FYI).

It was great to meet him (you may know that in general I haven't always had the luck of meeting a postcrosser when travelling somewhere, so each time I can it is like pure joy :))

We spent the day chilling out at the sea with some coffee (well, the Greek frappe), strolling around, plus he helped me find the Post Office so that I could mail the cards we wrote (Greece is one of those countries like Macedonia with no functional mailboxes around the city, but you have to find a Post Office and mail them either from the counter or drop them in the mailbox in front of the PO).
Well, not many of you will get a card from Thessaloniki, sorry for that, but due to the time constraints I only chose a few people whom I realized were our common friends (thank you Facebook). But most of you who have received a card can thank Dimitris for the lovely stamps (eventually I had to stock up again in Athens :P)

This is the one I sent to myself, showing a night view of St. Demetrus church (which right now I cannot recall if we saw it or not). After Dimitris left, my friend and I took one of those Free Walking Tours, but I was kinda tired and with my heavy backpack on my bag and with the heat, I honestly didn't pay much attention to what the girl was saying. However, I always recommend a Free Walking Tour if you are going somewhere...well they are not really free, but these people work for tips, so it is in their favour to actually make the tour fun and interesting, so in general they try harder :)

Dimitris and I in Thessaloniki, by the sea :)

me just chilling out by the Aegan Sea (ok, just posing for the picture, but it was good to have the back-pack off my back for a while :))

me feeding some pigeons in the centre of Thessaloniki

something that was supposed to be coffee, but turned out much better (has ice-cream inside). I regret I didn't remember the name of the cafe, cos it was a really nice one, plus the waitress was really kind.

and now a few pictures from the trains and the train station :D

and all would have been well if our wagon wasn't doomed for this: 

a bunch of children climbing over seats, tables, crawling on the floor, under the seats...and a bunch of noisy grown ups - I don't know if they were refugees or something (they had like hundreds of bags with them) and I really feel with them, but when you lack the basic code of ethics it gets really annoying...in the end we really had to change the wagon cos the noise was getting unbearable and I really needed to get some sleep after being awake from like 5 am in the morning...and we weren't the only ones who in the end looked for a wagon that was calmer...everyone who was not part of this gang had left...and I just couldn't believe it that out of 8 wagons, I had to pick THIS one :)

yeah, we were talking about a card here as well, and here come the stamps...3 fantastic ones!  The first and the third one are Diving stamps from a set of 6 issued in 2015, while the middle one is from a set of 12 issued in 2014 under the name "Month of Folk Art"
Now you know that eternal nonsense between Macedonia and Greece, and I was wondering if my cards to Macedonia would suffer some damage when the postal clerk see the name Macedonia written on them (there is no such force which would make me to use FYROM) and funny enough, this card from Thessaloniki had the name of Macedonia crossed out, so that below it they would write Macedoine! I mean, is this a joke, or what??! :D What's the point here?!! I was expecting "Recognized by Greece as FYROM" or so, but why on Earth would someone just replace it with "Macedoine"?? That is like in French or?? Well I really had a good laugh over this one I must say :))))


Ok...so a few words now about our days in Athens, since that was our main destination (I didn't however sent myself a card showing Athens, but chose this Greetings from... one. Dimitris brought me a number of these so I thought it was cool to use it (those of you who had received a GF card, blame it on Dimitris :)) There were some nice cheap postcards on offer btw on the way to the Acropolis..

I've been to Athens before, though as with Thessaloniki, I couldn't remember a thing :)
If one thing can be said for sure about our few days there is that we got lost more than once, which personally didn't bother me, I mean what can I do...but my friend turned out pretty grumpy about it in the end (and just about everything in general, but oh well...lesson learned).

I'll start with the hostel - we stayed at the Zorbas Hostel and I would really recommend it to anyone staying in Athens, esp. if you are on a budget. It is nothing fancy, not much of a socializing atmosphere, but was perfect for what I needed and the stuff are super kind and friendly. We were in the 8-bed dorm and it was clean, spacious, with its own nice bathroom. And I was amazed at how considerate everyone else was in the room, when they arrived late at night or had to take off early in the morning.
We arrived like at 6 in the morning and even though we couldn't check-in, they let us have a shower - I felt reborn after it.
The hostel is like 2 minutes walk from the metro station from where you can get just anywhere in Athens, it is 15 minutes walk from the train station (which is perfect for when you arrive early in the morning, esp. if you don't know your way around Athens - this one is super easy to find).
And in the nearest vicinity there was one of the chain fast-food Restaurants called Everest, which was open 24/7 - really good coffee, tasty pies, and very reasonable prices.
When it comes to food in Athens, I would recommend:

- Koulouri - something like bagels - I tried them at this bakery called Το Κουλούρι του Ψυρρή - crunchy, tasty and ridiculously cheap (they also sold doughnuts). Again very simple ones, but tasty.
Located at Karaiskaki 23.

- Greek pies - at the Ariston Bakery - probably the best best best pies I have ever tried! Two euros a piece, but I cannot even describe how tasty they were - and so many different fillings to choose from! I had one with leek-feta cheese and one with red peppers...heavenly taste, heavenly!!
Located at oulis 10

- Falafel - again, probably the best falafel I have tried, though unlike with the pies, I haven't really tried falafel at many different places. This place was simply called Falafellas and besides the falafel they sell other things too, which I assume are as delicious as this one. What got my attention is that there was constantly a line of people waiting in front of it. There are no chairs or tables, but if you are lucky, you will find a spot on one of the nearby benches.
It is a pity I didn't think of taking pictures of the above mentioned food - here is one of the falafel (the big version) - not a decent picture, but just to give you an idea

you can find it at Aiolou 51.

And after so many salty things, time for something sweet...and I think it couldn't get sweeter than this. A place called Serbetospito - one thing's for sure, it's gonna drive you crazy coz you won't know what to choose...everything is so delightful..and in such huge portions - no diets will work here.
Here, you be the judge

you can find it at Pl. Iroon 1

In Athens I was delighted to have had the chance to meet with Despina and spend a cool evening with her under the Acropolis....drinking tsipouro :)

I like trying out new foods and drinks....and I have already tried things like Ouzo or Metaxa so I decided to choose the tsipouro from the menu (they had some Greek beers, but you know I am a party-breaker when it comes to beer).
Well, my relationship with the tsipouro won't be long-lasting..it is good, but just way too strong for my taste. I did finish the glass though but I did feel rather tipsy afterwards :)

And now the main reason I went there were Sigur Rós, whose performance was part of the Athens Release Festival. Prior to my trip to Athens, I have never heard any of the other bands performing, so of course, I gave them a try to see if I was gonna be bored or not...and to my utmost surprise, I loved them all! So I knew it was gonna be a great day/night...and it was...one of the best times of my life.

We arrived at the venue quite early...we actually wanted to visit the Pireaus before the event since it was one metro station away, but with our luck, on that day the metro didn't go all the way to Pireaus, but ended its journey at Faliro. So we ended up waiting there for a few hours but luckily that day it was cloudy and even windy, so we didn't boil under the sun. And of course I ended up in the first row! I didn't even have to fight for it :D

The festival opened with a band called Afformance - a fantastic Greek band! But they had the bad luck of playing first when there were still barely any people there. But they didnt show any disappointment or so - they were just happy to play...and I really hope that after the festival they have acquired more supporters - they really deserve it (I won't get into posting songs from each of the performers since I know this post has gotten way too long...but I do recommend you give them all a try on YouTube and maybe you will like something)

Next were Theodore and his band- if you want an emotional performance that will give you the goosebumps then you will like this. All his songs are kinda sad but not depressing. There was also a girl performing within the band and she was like a really nice touch to the overall performance.

Third on stage were DIIV - a very very cool US band, with amazing positivity on stage, esp by Andrew Bailey, the guitar player - he just wouldn't stop jumping and smiling!
At the end of the show, I took a picture, without being aware of the actual moment that a picture was being taken from the opposite side as well...btw, the guy in the blue t-shirt is the Andrew - see, still all smiling :)

...which ended up like this :D Yeah, that's me in the middle taking a picture with my phone :D The guy behind me is my friend, while the girl with the black glasses on my left is a very cool Slovenian girl I met at the festival! (who has seen Sigur Rós 8 times so far...I told her I hated her...not very polite, but just came out of me :)))

The 4th on stage were the Black Angels - another superb psychedelic rock band from the US. Their music is really powerful, their performance on stage as well, esp with all the visual effects accompanying the show. They were like the perfect intro for what was about to follow....

And finally,  there were Sigur Rós...no pictures, no words could describe their performance. Sigur Rós are simply out of this world and so unique and incomparable to anything else. I know their music is specific and not for everyone's ears but really people, what you will experience at a Sigur Rós performance, you will not experience it anywhere else. To make things even more perfect, it started raining - rain at concerts is usually not welcomed, but here, the rain was a perfect addition to the overall emotional overwhelming feeling. I was shocked, I was speechless, I was crying - I really wasn't prepared for what I had experienced - and this made the whole trip more than worthwhile and one of the best decisions in my life.

I don't have much experience in uploading my own videos here, so hopefully this will work...Sigur Rós performing Sæglópur live in the rain - that person shouting her lungs out is me (well, I am the one recording this so I am shouting into my own phone, what can I do :))
Before the festival I loved Sigur Rós - after it, I also fell in love with them.

(if the video doesn't work, I will eventually upload it to YouTube and take it from there).

Ok, so that was like the day before the last...and in the morning there was some strike on the subway until like 10 am...so the next day I jokingly asked the receptionist if there was some strike again...he checked things online and said like, subway is working, buses are working..so it is all fine - well the railway is not working but you don't need that anyway.....wait wait wait!!! WHAT????!!!!!  What do you mean I don't need that anyway??That's the thing we need the most cos we are leaving tonight!!!!! Ermm...he got confused and said that they were on strike until late in the evening so we should go and check directly...oh boy, doesn't sound good.

So we go to the railway station (thank God it is nearby the hostel) there are some notifications, all in Greek, but there are some kind people around to explain things....and things are as follows - there is a strike like every three hours...so for three hours there are trains running, then in the next three hours everything is on stand by...BUT the rule doesn't apply to ALL the trains from Athens to Thessaloniki - there will be NONE in the next three days! Perfect, just perfect! :D I just couldn't believe it honestly, despite the fact that I often hear that somebody in the Greek transport is on strike :)

So, what to do...well first, finish writing the postcards of course, hell with the strike and all :)

Then we had to decide if we were gonna stay for 3 more days or find a bus back to Thessaloniki. Personally I didn't feel like staying for 3 more days cos that would have turned out more expensive on the overall (the train company said we would have our money reimbursed, and we really did after a few days), so in the end, the 43 euros bus ticket to Thessaloniki was the cheaper option than staying for three more days (for comparison, the return train ticket was 30 euros...)

Again, all is well that ends well...we got back home safe and sound....and even though a number of things didn't go as planned, I had a fantastic time! Fantastic!

Here are two more pictures for the end of this post, with some cool street-art from Athens:

and of course, the stamp (if you have survived up to here :))

one more from the Diving series - and as you can see, no issues with Macedonia on this one...go figure :)

Again, I would like to wholeheartedly thank Dimitris and Despina for taking their time to spend time with me - I really really appreciate it, esp. since I always love to hang out with the locals. I hope to see you again in the future! :)

Vienna, Austria

It has been a while since I've posted something from my trips here and cards have seemed to pile up, so it is about time to decrease that pile and take a short tour from my last year trips...and a few extra cards :)
Now before I get down to this, in case you sometimes don't get a card from me from my travels, it may be cos of a few reasons:

- time-constraints....sometimes my agenda is so tight, that I just dont have that right time to write some cards =/

- finances...frankly, this may be the most frequent reason...being a freelancer, I travel on the budget most of the time, and sometimes money is unfortunately limited =/

- change of address...some of you people end up moving and I either had no idea about it, or hadn't noted the correct address down and the card doesn't reach you...although I must point out the Norwegian Postal system has done a tremendous job here, delivering a card to someone who didn't live at the address for over a year :)

- and last but not least, the card gets lost....and right now I am so frustrated with the Spanish postal system, cos it has delivered like just half of the cards I've sent from my last trip..HALF! And we are speaking about like more than 40 cards here....HALF delivered...and it's been a month!! It is just outrageous!! It is not just about the money here, but also the thrill, you know...you send surprise cards to people, and then there is no sign of it...disastrous!

well, anyways, lets see what was on the agenda last year...I did this update somewhat chronologically...


First in April, it was Vienna...

Even though I've been to Vienna before, I didn't mind having it on the agenda again cos my previous encounter with this fantastic city was in 2004, so it was about time to refresh those memories...and what can I say, I fell in love with it again...
Went there with my two travelling buddies, Marija and Sašo for the Easter holidays, and it was a cool trip from the very start...we went by bus (yeah, I know I know Vienna is far, but here a lot of trips are organized by bus since it also makes them very affordable)...and for the first time in my life I got to sit right behind the driver...and had this fantastic view in front of me while we were on the road...no other people's heads or seats, just a great view! I was so thrilled, that I barely slept...just didn't want to miss out something...ok, I admit, the driver was this charming man, so I just kinda wanted to chat with him, even though I am quite terrible when chatting to people I don't know and extremely clumsy when it is a person I like in question....but well making a fool of myself isn't something new :)

Then we had to cross the Hungarian border...but the guy from the Travel Agency got a call that there is a huge line of buses waiting at the Horgos-Roszke border that's usually used, so they all decided that we would go to the Kelebija-Tompa one...based on my passport stamp.
Even though we arrived there in the middle of the night, last thing I'd expected was that we would wake up the people working there...they were actually surprised to see us, wondered how on Earth did we know about that border crossing and openly told us NOT to come to their border crossing on our way back....huh?!!
One of the man who was stamping the passports asked our tour-guide to sing something in Macedonian if we wanted to cross the border...huh again??  And it is one of those moments when you don't know if you should burst out laughing or play it cool cos you don't know what consequences it may have...

Anyways, we arrived in Vienna, in beautiful sunshine, and the first day of course was the usual sightseeing...that's when I found this Hundertwasser card, scribbled it on the bus and dropped it in the mailbox...Hunderwasser is like one of my favourite spots in Vienna...it is like the Austrian Gaudi.

We also got to visit the Belvedere...and a bit later I posted it on Facebook...just to realize that my friend from Taiwan, HsuPeng was also there just an hour or so later! I couldnt believe it at the coincidence...I mean what are the chances that you end up at the same spot with a friend from a totally different part of the world?!! Well, we didnt manage to see each other then of course, we both had our own packed agendas, but we caught up a few months later here in Skopje :)

On the second day we weren't really in Vienna (see the next post), and on the third day, we went to the Donaturm first - me hanging there

and then afterwards, most of the people went to Schönbrunn...but being that I've already visited the place, didnt feel like going again...well one of my friends has been there too and our first idea was to go back to Belvedere and see the Klimt exhibition...but I changed my mind and went to Prater instead...I like Klimt, but honestly I'm kinda fed up with museums and cathedrals and all...don't get me wrong about this..I love art and history...but sometimes when my time at a place is so limited (and it always is), I don't feel like spending half or an entire day at a museum...Id rather be doing something else even if that means just chilling out with coffee and observing people or just walking around...anyways, this time Prater won, cos I totally love roller-coasters and there was no way Id choose Klimt over this :)

well, of course, the meeting point later was at Schönbrunn, so since my friend and I arrived there a bit early, we took a walk around the gardens...and of course, took a few pictures :)

and unfortunately, after Schönbrunn, we started our journey back home...so yeah, a really short stay...but a great one...and it wouldnt be me if I didnt get to drink coffee/eat something sweet whenever possible :) Highly recommend the Ice Cream parlour on Schwedenplatz...and the other ones were awesome, but can't possibly recall the names...the one with the Mozart liquer was Castelletto - that was actually more like a restaurant, but with a really cool atmosphere...and I think the one with the cake was somewhere on Stephansplatz...I always kinda mix Schweden and Stephansplatz...

are you still with me??!! Good :)

two stamps on the card...the one on the right was issued in 2003 in a set of two stamps titled "Holidays in Austria" and this one shows Mondsee...the bird stamp is from the two Fauna stamps issued in 2010, with this one showing European Roller.

so, briefly..or maybe not that briefly, that was Vienna :)