Colors of Rajasthan

I absolutely love the colors of this card and the hexagon shaped stamp! 

From the cackle of its colour-charged cities to the luminous splendor of its sun-kissed desert, Rajasthan is romantic India wrapped in gaudy royal robes. 

A vast and wonder-laced state with treasures more sublime than those of fable, the Land of the Kings paints a bold image. Compiling a must-see list in Rajasthan can cripple the fussy traveller: Meherangarh looming over bright blue Jodhpur, the giant gold sandcastle at Jaisalmer, the palaces and pageantry of Udaipur, Pushkar’s reverent yet carnival charm, the storybook whimsy of Bundi and the havelis (traditional, ornately decorated residences) sprinkled through Shekhawati.

 Like a microcosm of Mother India, there’s also abundant wildlife and warm people, glitz and camels, soulful music, glittering saris, tottering turbans and a surprisingly rich cuisine.

The state is diagonally divided into the hilly southeastern region and the barren northwestern Great Thar Desert, which extends across the border into Pakistan – now accessible via train. The highest point is reached at the pleasant hill station of Mt Abu.

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धन्यवाद (Dhanyavād) Sita!

Estonia

A lovely map from Estonia along a stamp of "Estcube-1" the first estonian satellite 

Estonia is a Baltic state in eastern Europe. It has land borders with Latvia and Russia. With a coastline on the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland, Estonia also has sea borders with Finland and Sweden.

Although the smallest of the Baltic countries, Estonia makes its presence felt in the region with its lovely seaside towns, quaint country villages and verdant forests and marshlands, all of which set the scene for discovering many cultural and natural gems. Yet Estonia is also known for magnificent castles, pristine islands and a cosmopolitan capital amid medieval splendour. It's no wonder Estonia is no longer Europe's best-kept secret.

Covering vast swaths of Estonia, forests, wooded meadows and under-appreciated bog form the backdrop to numerous activities. Hiking over wooded trails, horse riding along coastline and canoeing over flooded forests can link you to the ancient wilderness. There's also great bird-watching, cross-country skiing in winter and swimming in crystal-clear lakes and rivers in summer. This all makes a nice prelude to a sauna, one of the national pastimes.

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Aitäh Zoja!

Logroño

A really lovely (and long) postcard from Logroño showing the towers of La Redonda (The Cathedral) and Portales street 

Logroño is located to the North of the centre of La Rioja, by the Ebro’s riverside, 386 metres above sea level. The St. James's Way crosses the city.

Logroño has proudly conserved its historical past without restraining its future development. Together with the renovated ancient city centre, its modern layout has large streets, avenues, parks and gardens. In addition, it is a city of great services and many possibilities for leisure and free time.

Today it is delightful to walk up and down the Calle Portales, that since its remodelling and pedestrianizing in 1995 has recovered the vitality and charm of past times where you can enjoy a relaxed shopping. In this traditional Logroño street the most typical city shops can be found in perfect coexistence with the most modern establishments.

The people of Logroño are proud to have a great number of restaurants, all of great quality. Besides, the "chiquiteo" (drinking chiquitos, small glasses of wine from bar to bar with a group if friends), one  of the most attractive customs for the visitor you can to the most varied and succulent "pintxos" (appetizers) in town.

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Gracias Conchi!

Belgian Pralines

A really yummy postcard from Belgium! The stamp's glue was supposed to taste like chocolate and guess what, the stamp actually smells like chocolate! It brings really good memories to me because I used to have a belgian neighbor while growing up and he made and sold chocolate... I was his faithful client

Belgium is famed for its high quality chocolate and over 2,000 chocolatiers, both small and large. Belgium's association with chocolate goes back as far as 1635 when the country was under Spanish occupation and during the early 20th century, the country was able to import cocoa from its colony, the Belgian Congo. Today, chocolate is very popular in Belgium with 172,000 tonnes produced each year, and widely exported.

What makes Belgian chocolate unique is the quality of ingredients (many aspects of its composition are regulated by law) and adherence to traditional manufacturing techniques. In particular, vegetable-base fats are not used. Many firms produce their chocolates by hand which is very laborious and explains the prevalence of small, independent chocolate outlets which are also popular with tourists. Famous chocolate companies, like Neuhaus and Guylian strictly follow traditional (and sometimes secret) recipes for their products.

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Merci Katrien! 

The taste of Austria

The food looks so yummy and the stamps are awesome!

Over the hundreds of years of Austria's existence, a unique tradition of Austrian Cuisine has emerged. Its traditional and well-known recipes attract millions of tourists each year. Austria's rich Cuisine is a result of its history as a multi-national empire, where all kinds of different cultures contributed their very own nuances.

The Habsburg Empire stretched from the borders of Imperial Russia to the Adriatic and consisted of more than a dozen nationalities with over 51 million people speaking sixteen different languages. Within the last seven centuries, the cosmopolitan Habsburg rule extended over Switzerland, Alsace, Burgundy, Spain, Holland, Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy. All of the above have influenced Austria's cuisine in their own way.  

Many a recipes and ingredients have been washed ashore by Austria's melting pot of pan-european cooking by accident or as a coincidence or war.

Apart from the foreign influences on Austrian cuisine, every Austrian features their own local dishes: Frittatensuppe (crêpe soup) comes from Styria, Speckknödel (bacon dumplings) from Tyrol; and Salzburg, Mozart’s home, has contributed the so-called Salzburger Nockerln, a sweet soufflé made from egg whites.

Check out the source for more interesting info! 

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Danke Anita!

Hi from BSPS

I got another card from Black Sheep Postal Service (you can see the other one here), they sell hand made postcards and offer the option to mail them for you. In my other entry I talk more about who they are and how they work; my favorite thing about them is they get all the cool and different stamps that are issued by US Postal Service, so you know for sure you'll get some nice stamps like I did! 

Thank you Justin!