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| Piața Unirii in Focșani |
This postcard marked a milestone on my postcrossing stats: postcard number 50! That meant I could send ten cards at a time, which I actually don't (because I don't have the money). Mircea sent it from his hometown. He is on top 5 senders from Romania.
Piața Unirii means Unification Square and is located in downtown Focșani. The obelisc is called Monument of the Unification.
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| Pulmonaria officinalis (left) & Amaranthus caudatus (right) |
Two beautiful nature stamps from 2012. The Pulmonaria officinalis is 1L and is paired with the brown bear; the Amaranthus caudatus (love-lies-bleeding) is 60 bani and comes with the turkey.
Postcard from: Focșani, Moldavia, Romania.
Received: May 2012.
Language: English.
Envelope: no.
Stamps: one 1L and another 60 bani from the animals and flowers series.
Thanks, Mircea!
{RO-43719}
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| Andalucía |
This fabulous flower shaped card came from a small town in the Andalusian mountain range. Thanks to its four petals divided by half, it contains the eight provinces of the region. On them, you can see their most notable features. From top, clock-wise:
♪ Cádiz: beach.
♪
Jaén:
Cathedral, UNESCO World Heritage Site aspirant.
♪
Málaga: aerial view of the
city.
♪ Almería: beach.
On the centre, a scene of bullfighting and the name of the region. Many topics related to Spain (like flamenco & bullfighting) are actually from Andalusian origin and not common in other areas of the country.
Isn't it simply gorgeous?! ♥
Postcard from: Valdepeñas de Jaén, Jaén, Spain.
Received: June 2012.
Language: Spanish.
Envelope: no!
Stamps: one 0.36€ from the "Todos con Lorca" series,
Ayuntamiento (Town Hall).
¡Muchas gracias,
Juan!
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| Germany |
A multiview from Germany. These are my identified landmarks -- feel free to comment and correct me or add another:
♦
Castle ruins from Heidelberg
♦
Castle Neuschwanstein from Bavaria, near Füssen
♦
Augustus Bridge from Dresden
♦ Beer Maid wearing
Dirndl from the
Oktoberfest
♦
Deutsches Eck from Koblenz
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| Gradierbau (left) & Altstadt Regensburg (right) |
The stamp is for my
UNESCO World Heritage collection! It shows
Ratisbon's Cathedral in the Old City. Its face value is 0.75€ and was issued in 2011. The special postmark features a graduation tower (
Gradierbau), part of
Bad Dürkheim's spa facilities. My first special postmark! ♥
Another themed postcard: German landmarks.
Postcard from: Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Received: March 2012.
Language: English.
Envelope: no.
Stamps: one 0.75€ Altstadt Regenburg from 2011.
Thank you, Liuba!
{DE-1283650}
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| Feldberg im Taunus |
Aussichtsturm Großer Feldberg (Taunus), 881 m. Hesse, Germany.
Postcard from: Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Received: February 2012.
Language: English.
Envelope: no.
Stamps: two 0.55€ Post Tower of Bonn machine stamps.
Danke,
Marta!
{DE-1229151}
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| Thun, gateway to the Bernese Oberland |
Switzerland. A spring postcard showing the town of Thun, the lake and the castle. What a beautiful sturdy castle from the Middle Ages they have! Nowadays, the castle is a history museum where you can see medieval weaponry and armours. Yum! In my hometown we have a castle from the 12th century too and I must say there is no doubt about which one is the coolest one.
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| Film scene (top) and mountains (bottom) |
However I am a little sad with the stamps because I cannot identify them! They are nice though. The 80 cts stamp is from 1995 and looks like a film scene. The 60 cts depicts the Swiss mountains.
Postcard from: Thun, Bernese Oberland (Highlands), Switzerland.
Received: February 2012.
Language: English.
Envelope: no.
Stamps: one film 0.80 Swiss franc and one mountains 0.60.
Thank you, Nathalie!
{CH-100954}
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| Stare Misto L’vova (Lviv's Old Town) |
From the veeeery cold (sender's own words) Ukraine, this postcard came to my postbox today. Sometimes multiviews are disappoiting to some people. I partly understand that, they don't allow you to see the image clearly because they are too small. But when you don't know the country they are not only usually beautiful (it depends on the design, of course) but helpful too. I like them! Some places from the historic
Old Town are featured here. It is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998.
I also learnt the name of the city in several languages: Lviv (Ukranian), Lwów (Polish), Lemberg (German) and Leopolis (Latin & Spanish). It means City of Lions.
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| Triitsi |
Postcard from: Lviv, Ukraine.
Received: February 2012.
Language: English.
Envelope: no.
Stamps: one stamp for international postage featuring the lovely painting of a typical Ukrainian wooden Christmas three-candle sticks, called
triitsi.
Thank you very much, Nataly!
{UA-201841}
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| Palm grove |
This is the second Spanish postcard I send to Greenland. This one is from my hometown and shows three different views of the
palm grove (
UNESCO World Heritage Site). I didn't take any picture of the other one before I sent it but it was nice too.
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| Charaxes iasius |
And this is the stamp that is now being sold in Spain for European post. I really like it when they feature animals and nature (and include their scientific name!). My handwriting hasn't improve yet though. Not as pretty as the butterfly. But yep, it's Latin. I have a Latin speaker penpal in Greenland. How cool is that?!
