India

I received this lovely card from a cute 3 year old who is trying to collect postcards with the help of her parents.
I love the fact this card is a square and not a rectangle like most cards, it's a cartoon representation of Ganesha, the elephant God.
Ganesha is known as the remover of obstacles and as the Lord of Beginnings and Obstacles, is the patron of arts and sciences and the deva (deity) of intellect and wisdom.

It came with lovely stamps celebrating Children's day in India!

धन्यवाद (Dhanyavād) Kiara!

Naughty X-mas from Costa Rica

This naughty Christmas card is from my friend Shirley, the funny thing is when I first saw it I didn't get it.

Gracias Shirley! 

Perú

I received this card a while ago from a friend from Ecuador (who also sent me this lovely card) who was on vacation in Peru at that time, and it's actually one of the first cards in my collection!

As mentioned in the postcard, San Juan de Letrán museum in Puno, Peru it's also a church and it has paintings that are part of the series of San Jean Baptiste and Santa Teresa de Jesús.

Gracias Peka!

La sagrada Familia

La Sagrada Familia is a place I have an obsession with (actually I have an obsession with all of Gaudi's work) therefore Barcelona is one of the cities I dream visiting soon.

The expiatory church of La Sagrada Família is a work on a grand scale which was begun on 19 March 1882 from a project by the diocesan architect Francisco de Paula del Villar (1828-1901). At the end of 1883 Gaudí was commissioned to carry on the works, a task which he did not abandon until his death in 1926. Since then different architects have continued the work after his original idea.

The building is in the centre of Barcelona, and over the years it has become one of the most universal signs of identity of the city and the country. It is visited by millions of people every year and many more study its architectural and religious content. 

It has always been an expiatory church, which means that since the outset, 131 years ago now, it has been built from donations. Gaudí himself said: "The expiatory church of La Sagrada Família is made by the people and is mirrored in them. It is a work that is in the hands of God and the will of the people." The building is still going on and could be finished some time in the first third of the 21st century.

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Gracias Fabienne! 

Euro 2012

I really love this card because I'm a huge football fan and I enjoyed pretty much every match of the Euro 2012 plus the team I was rooting for (Spain) won and one of my favorite players (David Silva) scored in the final! So it was great to receive an original card from this tournament! 

The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament was hosted for the first time by Poland and Ukraine, between 8 June and 1 July 2012. Euro 2012 set the record for both the highest aggregate attendance (1,440,896) and the highest average attendance per game (46,481) under the 16-team format (since 1996).

The final tournament featured 16 nations (the last European Championship to do so, from Euro 2016 onward, there will be 24 finalists). The tournament was played across eight venues, four in each host country.

The tournament opened with a 1-1 draw between Poland and Greece at the National Stadium in Warsaw on 8 June 2012. The final match took place on 1 July 2012 at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, where Spain defended their title with a 4–0 win over Italy. Spain became the first team to win two consecutive European Championships, and the first international team to win three straight major tournament titles (Euro 2008, World cup 2010 and Euro 2012).

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Dziekuje Karolina! 

12-12-12 from Vigo

A lovely card from Vigo, however what makes this card special is not it's "loveliness" but it's postmark, as you can see it was postmarked on 12/12/12, so it's a souvenir from the last repetitive date you and me will experience.

Vigo is a city and municipality situated in north-west Spain, in the Spanish autonomous community of Galicia, and on the ria, or bay, of the same name, on the Atlantic Ocean. Vigo is the most populous city in Galicia, and the 14th in Spain.

Some of Vigo's main sights:

• Casco Vello (historic centre)
• Porta do Sol, Policarpo Sanz and Alameda area (modern centre)
• Príncipe and Urzaiz Streets (commercial area)
• Celtic Castro ruins
• Castro fortress
• Cathedral of Santa Maria de Vigo
• La Alameda and Montero Ríos
• Auditorium Mar de Vigo
• Museums: Naturnova Museum, Museum of the sea, Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Castrelos, Verbum Casa das palabras, Pinacoteca de Vigo, Galician Center of Photography, Ethnographic Museum Liste, Pedro Barrié de la Maza Foundation.
• Beaches: Samil, Carril, Canido and Vao

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Muchas gracias Raquel!

Thailand

The Toy story series are some one of my favorite movies since the first one came out, I think as a child the movie gave you the chance to imagine a whole new world your toys were living in.
Rex is one of my favorite characters probably because when I was a kid I was obsessed with dinosaurs (yeah I wasn't very girly...)

The card came with some really cool stamps depicting four different light festivals in Thailand!

Kohb-kun Thippawan! 

Lithuania

Vilnius is the capital and largest city of Lithuania. It lies on the bank of Neris river and has approximately 560,000 inhabitants.
Vilnius has always been a multinational city with Polish, Jewish, Russian and Belorussian minorities.
It's the cultural, educational, financial and political centre of the country. Known for its spectacular Old Town and its unique architecture.
Some of Vilnius main sights are:

• Old Town

• Gediminas Castle
• Upper Castle Museum

• Three Crosses Hill

• Vilnius Cathedral

• Uzupis District
• St. Ann's Church 

• St. Peter's and Paul's Church

• Artillery Bastion of Vilnius Defensive Wall

• Museum of Genocide Victims (KGB Museum)

• National Museum of Lithuania

• Frank Zappa Statue

• European Park

• Old Arsenal Building

• Contemporary Art Center

• Literatu Street 

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Ačiū Viktorija!

Matilda ♥

Matilda is a novel written by Roald Dahl in 1988, in case you haven't read it (I highly recommend it!) is the story of a little girl called Matilda whose parents are...well awful and pretty much ignore her so her whole world are books and after some adventures she discovers she has telekinetic powers. Along the story some other cool characters like Miss Honey and Miss Trenchbull (well she wasn't cool actually but she has a lot of importance on the story)
Probably Matilda is most known for the movie that came out in 1996 featuring Mara Wilson (as Matilda) and Danny DeVito (as her dad).

This postcard was issued by the Royal Mail along some other original illustrations in a series of Roald Dahl's stories as James and the giant peach, The witches, Fantastic Mr. Fox, etc.
The illustration on this card is from the original ones made by Quentin Blake and the design was in charge of Magpie studio.

I love this postcard a lot because Matilda is one of my favorite stories, I love both the book and the movie and as a kid I loved to pretend I was Matilda probably because I identified with her, well minus the awful parents, but I loved to read and I tried to fold spoons and move things with my mind... sadly I failed on that.
Love the fact it has a matching stamp as well!

Thank you so much Nat!!!

Jetoy cat

Jetoy choo choo is a South Korean design company whose main topic is cats in a lovely kind of vintage  art style, they have a bunch of things like postcards, pens, notebooks, bags, pencil cases, etc...

Jetoy postcards are quite popular along postcard collectors (and cat lovers).

Their webpage is here: http://www.jetoy.co.kr/ 

(It's in korean but they have an english part to shop) 

Dank je Rianne!

Lighthouses of Ukraine

A really cool map card featuring six lighthouses in Ukraine, all of them located in the South. 

The six lighthouses:

1. Vorontsovskyi- Is red and white, 26 meters high and is located in the port of Odessa

2. Luparivskyi Front-  Red and white, 15 meters and is located in Lupareve 

3. Yaltinskyi- Is white, 12 meters high and is in Yalta

4. Sarych-  Is also white and 15 meters high and is located in Mys Sarych

5. Berdianskyi- Red and white, 22 meters high and is located in Berdyansk 

6. Kyz-Aulskyi-  Is striped black and white, 28 meters high and is located in Jakovenkove 

Dyakuyu Olga!

Bathtub collage

A really cool piece of art along a lovely stamp of Venice!

Bathtub Collage #1 by Tom Wesselmann

This piece is currently at the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany

Grazie Paolo!

Ecuador

Indigenous girl of Ingapirca (Azuay, Ecuador) 

Ecuador is a country in Northwestern South America, with a Pacific Ocean coastline, lying on the Equator between Colombia, to the northeast, and Peru, to the south and east.

It has interesting landscapes featuring volcanoes, mountains and rain forests. Many cities and sites in Ecuador are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Such cities and best known places are the Galapagos Islands, and the city of Cuenca.

This card was from a friend I met a while ago who lives in Ecuador (not to be confused with the Equator, even tough the Equator passes through Ecuador...) and recently joined the postcard craze! (:

Gracias Peka!  

 (sobretodo por el recuerdo de la tanga de Thomas XD)

Polish Folklore

A really cool card featuring little figurines dressed with the typical attire of different regions of Poland.

I think polish culture is very colorful and even tough it's different it remembers me a bit about mexican folklore. 

And here's a video of the representation of a famous polish dance: 

 

Dziekuje Agnieszka!

Colorful London

A really cheerful and cute card from London! 

Noisy, vibrant and truly multicultural, London is a megalopolis of people, ideas and frenetic energy. The capital and largest city of both the United Kingdom and of England, it is also the largest city in Western Europe and the European Union. Situated on the River Thames in South-East England, Greater London has an official population of a little over 8 million (although the figure of 14 million for the city's metropolitan area more accurately reflects its size and importance). Considered one of two of the world's leading "global cities", London remains an international capital of culture, music, education, fashion, politics, finance and trade.

Greater London consists of 32 London boroughs and the City of London that, together with the office of the Mayor of London, form the basis for London's local government. The Mayor of London is elected by London residents and should not be confused with the Lord Mayor of the City of London. The names of several boroughs, such as Westminster or Camden, are well-known, others less so, such as Wandsworth or Lewisham (that's where I lived when I was in London actually). 

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Thank you very much Catherine!

St. Basil's Cathedral

A beautiful card of one, if not the most emblematic building of Russia under the snow along some really cool stamps! 

Although it's known to everyone as St. Basil's, this legendary building is officially called "The Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin by the Moat". The popular alternative refers to Basil the Blessed, a Muscovite 'holy fool' who was buried on the site (in the Trinity Cathedral that once stood here) a few years before the present building was erected.

The Cathedral was ordered by Ivan the Terrible to mark the 1552 capture of Kazan from Mongol forces. It was completed in 1560. Nothing is known about the builders, Barma and Postnik Yakovlev, except their names and the dubious legend that Ivan had them blinded so that they could not create anything to compare. Historians unanimously state that this is nothing but urban folklore.

The Cathedral is now a museum however once a year a service is held in the Cathedral, on the Day of Intercession in October.

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Spasibo Yulia!

Kazan Cathedral

The Cathedral of our Lady of Kazan (along with a matching stamp of the Cathedral!)

Kazan Cathedral, constructed between 1801 and 1811 by the architect Andrei Voronikhin, was built to an enormous scale and boasts an impressive stone colonnade, encircling a small garden and central fountain. The cathedral was inspired by the Basilica of St. Peter’s in Rome and was intended to be the country’s main Orthodox Church. After the war of 1812 (during which Napoleon was defeated) the church became a monument to Russian victory. Captured enemy banners were put in the cathedral and the famous Russian Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov, who won the most important campaign of 1812, was buried inside the church.

The cathedral was named after the "miracle-making" icon of Our Lady of Kazan, which the church housed till the early 1930s. 

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Spasibo Marina!

Berlin

Another lovely card from Berlin, you can read my other Berlin entry here. 

For this entry I'll leave a Berlin song I really like (and you can listen to it as you read the other entry):

Fort Fisher

As it can be read on the back of the postcard:

Fort Fisher Historic Site

Kure Beach, NC 

"Charge of Marines on the Transverse". This imaginative painting by J.O. Davidson depicts the naval assault on the Northeast Bastion, January 15th, 1865. Equipped with pistols and cutlasses, the poorly armed sailors, 2,200 strong, were repulsed with heavy losses (approximately 300 casualties).

And Stephanie mentions that during the Civil war, Fort Fisher was a confederate fort that protected Wilmington, the city she currently lives in. 

I think the stamps match perfectly 

Thank you Stephanie!

Balinese dancers

Theater and dance is an integral part of Balinese culture. Balinese dances are famous all over the world and the Balinese themselves take them very seriously. Birthdays, weddings, and temples festivals are all occasions for dramatic performances and dance is inextricably linked with the Balinese religion. The commercial performances for tourists that are today offered on a daily basis in several places of Bali do not have of course the same religious significance and atmosphere of a dance that is performed at a real temple festival.

Some of the different Balinese dances are Kecak, Barong, Kebyar duduk and Legong.

The girls on this postcards are Legong dancers, in legends Legong is the heavenly dance of divine nymphs. Of all classical Balinese dances, it remains the quintessence of femininity and grace. Girls from the age of five aspire to be selected to represent the community as Legong dancers.

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Terima kasih Sara! 

Chicago

Chicago is a huge vibrant city and sprawling metropolitian area. It is the home of the blues and the truth of jazz, the heart of comedy and the first builder of the skyscraper. Here, the age of railroads found its center, and airplanes followed. It is one of the world's great cities, and yet the metropolitan luxuries of theater, shopping, and fine dining have barely put a dent in real Midwestern friendliness. It's a city with a swagger, but without the surliness or even the fake smiles that can be found in other cities.

As the hub of the Midwest, Chicago is easy to find, its picturesque skyline calls across the waters of huge Lake Michigan, a first impression that soon reveals world-class museums of art and science, miles of sandy beaches, huge parks and public art, and perhaps the finest downtown collection of architecture in the world.

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I sent this to myself so a self than-you again :P

Italy

Il Golfo di Napoli

Napoli in Italy, is the capital of the Campania region. The city is the third most populated municipality (city proper) of Italy, but the second metropolitan area, after Milan. It was founded between the 7th and 6th centuries BC by the Greeks and was named Neapolis, which means new city.

The southern part of Italy includes great tourist attractions as the dramatic ruins of Pompeii, the romantic Amalfi Coast and Capri, laidback Apulia and stunning beaches of Calabria, as well as up-and-coming agritourism that help making Italy's less visited region a great place to explore.

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Grazie Matt!

Panda

This is such a cute postcard!

Wild pandas live only in remote, mountainous regions in central China. These high bamboo forests are cool and wet, just as pandas like it. They may climb as high as 13,000 feet (3,962 meters) to feed on higher slopes in the summer season. They may appear sedentary, but they are skilled tree-climbers and efficient swimmers.

Giant pandas are solitary. They have a highly developed sense of smell that males use to avoid each other and to find females for mating in the spring. After a five-month pregnancy, females give birth to a cub or two, though they cannot care for both twins.
There are only about 1,000 giant pandas left in the wild. Perhaps 100 pandas live in zoos, where they are always among the most popular attractions. Much of what we know about pandas comes from study of these zoo animals, because their wild cousins are so rare and elusive.

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谢谢 (xièxiè) to the anonymous sender, unfortunately this person forgot to write their name 

Dresden

Dresden is the capital of the German federal-state of Saxony. Located on the Elbe River, it is an industrial, governmental, and cultural center, known worldwide for the Bruehl's Terrace and its historic landmarks in the Old Town (Altstadt).

Dresden has about ten million tourists a year, most of them from Germany. The Zwinger was rebuilt in 1964, the Semper Opera house in 1985, and the now most famous landmark of Dresden, the Frauenkirche, in 2005. When asked what they like most about their city, Dresden citizens will reply Old Town (which is quite compact, even though it has a lot of well-known attractions and museums of worldwide meaning), Dresden-Neustadt (an alternative central quarter) and the surroundings like the wine town Radebeul, the climbing area Saxon Switzerland, lots of castles, and most of the city landscape of about 80 quarters.

The city can look a bit gloomy, as most of the pre-war buildings are still black and burnt, but this also is one of the attractions of the city, as there are not many other German cities (apart from Berlin) where evidence of WW2 is so visible.

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Danke Sille!

Pula

Pula is a nice town at the tip of the Istrian peninsula, Croatia. Its history started about 3000 years ago when it was built by Illyrians. Romans occupied Istria in 177 B.C. After destruction of Western Roman empire, Istrian peninsula was devastated by Ostrogoths. Slavs came in Istria during migration period in 7th century but mostly lived on countryside. At that time Pula was still inhabited mostly by Italians. Landlords in Pula changed quite frequently in middle ages from republic of Venice to Genoa to Illyrian Provinces to Austria–Hungary and many others. After second world war it has been part of Croatia. 

This card shows The Arena, the 6th largest surviving Roman amphitheatre. Towering over the nearby buildings this huge structure was barely saved from destruction several times during its life, mostly by various Venetians with plans to take it to Venice stone by stone as demonstration of the might of the Venetian empire. Many stones were taken to build houses and other structures around Pula, but fortunately this practice was stopped before the whole structure was destroyed. Entry gives you access to wander the inside of the Colosseum and visit the caverns beneath. 

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Hvala Nenad!