Not longer before this beauty came to my letter-box, the sender contacted me very worried because she had sent this postcard to me and I hadn't received yet. I had to explain to her that Spain-Russia post takes longer than expected. A few days after I had assure the lady her postcard will arrive in here, I had it in my box. Oh how beautiful! ♥

That would be just one of my love-hate stories with postcards and Russia... I don't know why does it happen. I suppose it's a language issue, Latin and Cyrillic alphabets and so. It happens with China too. (Funny enough, no problem till today with Greece or Japan). 

I was amazed at this building and its colours. In Spain, we have the colours of nature surrounding us all year around so our buildings are plain stone, sober or intrincate, but bare. On the contrary, Northern countries have to mitigate many months of snow and cold with warm and richly coloured architecture.

Built between 1883 and 1907, it never served as a place of worship. It was closed by the Soviet government in 1930 (after it had been badly damaged and looted during the Revolution) and reopened in August 1997, after 27 years of restoration. Nowadays it is a Museum of Mosaics.

On the flip side, there was this 30 R stamp from 2011 commemorating Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games. My first Olympics related stamp! According to the stamps sheet, 

Volkonskiy Dolmen is a unique megalithic landmark located in Lazarevskoye forestry of the Sochi National Park. It is the only surviving monolithic dolmen in the Caucasus and it is protected by the state.

I have this friend named Toni. He was born and raised in France from Spanish parents and came back home when he was a teenager. We sometimes have fun on him calling him Antoine (which is how he is called by his French friends). He is a very special person, different, traveller, a dreamer. We share our love for interesting and uncommon subjects, art, cinema,...  He and I remain single in a group of friends full of couples with children. Maybe because of all of this, we stay closer and keep in touch more often than we do with other friends. We also share a soft spot for artsy and representative postcards from any place we visit. He is the only one of those friends who always remembers to send me a few words on a card instead of calling me on the phone. Thanks to him, I started getting my first postcards from foreign lands a few years ago.

However, as a true bohemian artist (a photographer) Toni often forgets to sign his cards and never writes the date. I don't worry too much about that because his handwriting is so bad that I cannot mistake his postcards for another's. If I ever have to host a lottery or giveaway, scanning one of his texts and asking for a transcription would be the contest. Everytime I get a card from him I have a lot of fun. I sometimes need about 15 mins to understand what is written! It is part of the ritual.

He is not the tidiest person: his car is often full of all kinds of garbage, or what I think it should be garbage but it turns out to be useful stuff for something, his backpack contains many papers, notebooks, pens and -- well, you understand what I mean. I am afraid this pretty little postcard came so damaged not because of the post service but because it had been stored among his things for a while before he sent it. This is his most recent card -- I received it today. That tells me he is currently living in Madrid.

Viva Madrid

This is a tasca, a tavern located in the centre of Madrid. Viva Madrid is its name and they offer Wines (top left) and Meals (top right).  Above the doors we can read Jesus, this is delicious! (left) and The best in the world (right). The façade is decorated with 18th century style tiles, with the city's coat of arms and a view of Cibeles fountain on the central panel.

Viva Madrid

C/ Manuel Fernández y González, 7

28014 Madrid

Puerta de Alcalá

The stamp is a class A (our "Forever") stamp showing the Puerta de Alcalá, a Neo-classical monumental gate in Madrid, matching the postcard theme: 18th century Madrid.

Back in the old times, before internet, there was snailmail spam too. Chain letters, letters to beg for money, all kind of weird stuff came to my letterbox. Sometimes I could recognize my classmates' writing, sometimes it came from an exotic and very foreign country.

This one came from India in 2003. It was a missionary asking for a donation. Who knows where did they get my address? However this letter was special. It was the first time I received anything from India so these stamps were totally new for me. And it was also the first time a letter came by Sea Mail! I mean, it has a Sea Mail mark on it! I still think it is awesome and keep the letter carefully folded away from damage. :-)

This week's theme is flowers or spring.

From time to time, there is someone who prefers receiving handmade cards and I really enjoy doodling a bit. I had this piece of good quality paper with a sample print of a design from my University years. It's good to relax drawing meaningless abstract flowers... ♪

My teacher used to say he could spot one of my works at first sight because they had elegant mix of colours. Back them, yellow and gray was one of my favourites -- I still think it is.

Not long after H.M. Queen Elizabeth II I had another royal visit, this time from the Netherlands: the Dutch Royal couple at the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria & Daniel Westling in Stockholm, June 19th 2010. I don't really like the gown she was wearing that day (she looks so stuffed in it that reminds me of a sausage!) but I am delighted at their visit because of their bright smiles. Now that the Dutch Royal family is having such a hard time looking at them so happy brings me a hint of hope.

I received this card on their 10th wedding anniversary. I still remember that day clearly -- I coulnd't attend their wedding on TV because a classmate was getting married on that day too. It was sunny and warm, spring just around the corner. May you live happily for another 100 years!

Postcard from: The Hague, the Netherlands.

Received: February 2012.

Language: English.

Envelope: no.

Stamps: one Europa 1. Geeft groen. Licht stamp from 2011.

Thank you, Chantal!
{NL-1021452}

"All with Lorca" are five commemorative stamps issued in 2012 to raise the awareness and attrack tourism to help the reconstruction of this old city and its many cultural heritage buildings damaged by the 2011 Lorca earthquake, just two months after 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

♪ Top left: Palacio de Guevara. Guevara's palace.

♪ Top right: Colegiata de San Patricio. Saint Patrick collegiate church.

♪ Bottom left: Santuario de la Virgen de las Huertas. Virgin of Huertas sanctuary.

♪ Bottom right: Castillo de Lorca. Castle.

As I said before, these stamps mean a lot to me as some members of my family were affected by May 11th 2011 earthquake. They live just a few km away from Lorca but some of them work in the city. Thankfully they didn't get hit by the falling walls and roofs but the earthquake affected their jobs and properties.

Miraculously as well, this TV reporter who was filming the damages done by the foreshock went unharmed when the main shock ocurred. I remember watching it live and being appalled.

Today I was surprised by my postman with this wonderful postcard by Alfons Mucha. He made this litograph in 1911 for the Moravian Teachers' Choir (Pěvecké sdružení moravských učitelů). There is little information about this piece, which isn't as wide known as many of his other works. The Moravian Teachers' Choir performed many types of song, including folk music by Moravian composer Janáček. The girl in the poster wears a folk costume from Kyjov, Moravia (Czech Republic).

This is a design by Balenciaga -- the original belongs to the Fashion Museum in Madrid, Spain (Museo del Traje). It's part of a sheet of four stamps entitled Moda Española. The sheet is illustrated by clothes worn according to different hours of the day, and so the 0.39€ stamp reproduces a cocktail chantilly lace dress over transparent ivory taffeta, with tight waistline and full skirt. It was made in Paris between 1948-1950.

The other three stamps show a two-piece suit (0.42 €), a morning dress and matching coat (0.58 €) and a casual shirt dress (0.78 €).

Needless to say, I am mesmerized by this beautiful little piece of art. ♪

An aurora is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere. They illuminate the northern horizon as a greenish glow or sometimes a faint red, as if the sun were rising from an unusual direction. Discrete aurorae often display magnetic field lines or curtain-like structures, and can change within seconds or glow unchanging for hours, most often in fluorescent green.

I asked my penpal if the northern lights can be seen from his home in Nuuk and he sent me this as an answer. I cannot say anything else about this card but that I love it. The image says everything itself. Isn't our world wonderful enough to give us such amazing phenomena?

I have noticed many users from Postcrossing don't like free or ad cards. Perhaps because they are free and they feel cheated. But I don't mind because many of them are little pieces of art or design. I had this one among my favourites and Betty was so kind to send me one! She is a Dane living in Italy and sent me this Spanish card written in English. That made this swap a very international one. She is currently in the top 5 on most sent from Italy.

Afinet (Ágora de Filatelia en Internet) is a Spanish philately association. They released this postcard for their 5th anniversary. In the old days, postmen used to wish their customers a Merry Christmas with cards similar to this one. I am glad Afinet people recovered this tradition with this endearing postcard.

Who hasn't heard of San Francisco's cable cars? Who hasn't seen these steep hills on TV and films? Now I have a little piece of them of my own. No need to get dizzy taking one of these cars, I can just enjoy the card. What a fantastic view of the Bay from the top of the hill!

My second card from the US also means second stamp. Three little stamps this time instead of one, including St. Valentine's stamp from this year series (yay!). A "Forever" stamp too. These plus the Lancaster county one makes my eyes bright of joy.

~ Mailart from Germany ~

~ Bebenhausen Monastery, Tübingen (Baden-Würtemberg) ~

I love German stamp series of flowers. I wish Spanish post service released some nice stamps for a change! And this handmade envelope is absolutely gorgeus. I can assure you it's perfectly cut and made. Leonie is really talented with hand making stuff. Thanks~!

Although I am allergic to flowers, I love them. As I cannot get very close to them if I don't want to start sneezing like mad receiving flowers in postcards and stamps is the best way to enjoy them. Especially when they are species we don't have in the Mediterranean climate. I have never seen this Orchid Primrose in our gardens before. Beautiful!

Because it was sent with an economy class stamp, this postcard took longer than usual to arrive. But having such a cute stamp, who cares about shipping time?  Päivi Unenge designed this year's Finnish stamp collection for St. Valentine's day. I love it because, once again, the whole card is one-themed -- this time about flora. Let's water our plants with love so they can grow healthy. ♪

Do you like fish? I usually don't. But I am addicted to dried and salt fish. They don't taste as fish at all in my opinion and their flavour is very strong. One of the most common salt fishes in Spain is cod. And being Portugal our sibling country it couldn't be anything but their most common too. This card shows a groceries stand in the market in Lisbon, called manteigaria in Portuguese. This is one of my favourite postcards. It is just mouth-watering!