Twilight Express

This beautiful train came from Japan and is called Twilight Express. Its service started in July 1989, initially operating as a charter. In the following years other coaches were introduced. Between 2001-2002 the coaches underwent a program of interior refurbishment. But sadly, at the beginning of next year, its services are scheduled to be discontinued. The train shown in the postcard have an EF81 electric locomotive and runs on the Kosei railway line, operated by JR West.

The stamp belongs to a 10 stamps serie issued in October 2013 and shows the 1957 Odakyu 3000 romancecar.

Thank You, Nozomi !

Country: Japan

Description: Twilight Express on Kosei

Photo: Akira Yuasa

UNESCO Paoay Church

Another great postcard came from a specific RR and it's my first from Philippines. The Paoay Church (1694 - 1710) is an example of an earthquake baroque architecture. It got huge wall reinforcements (14 buttresses) on the sides and back of the building as a response to earthquake threats in the area. The materials used for the walls were a mixture of coral stone and bricks. Large coral stones were used at the lower level of the walls, while bricks, smaller and more manageable to transport, were used at the upper levels. Inside, the church looks empty, austere and stark, with few old images of saints and a simple wooden cross at the altar. Unfortunately, the original ceiling is no longer in existence today. The church is complemented with a bell tower located at its right-hand side and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993 under the collective group of Baroque Churches of the Philippines.
The stamps are nice, even if they look simple.
The 1 peso stamp (2013) features a Pinecone Fish (Monocentrus japonicus), also called the Pineapple Fish.
The 10 pesos stamp (2014) evokes the Birth Centenary of Apolinario Mabini, a Filipino revolutionary leader, educator, lawyer and statesman. Artwork by Kenneth V. Cantimbuhan.

Thank You, Jessica !

Country: Philippines

Description: St. Augustine Baroque Church (Paoay) - UNESCO 677

Publisher: Sterling Paper

Photo: Vik Peñas
Location: Paoay, Ilocos Norte

Orang Asli

This card came from my very first direct swap in PostCrossing. It started at the end of July. The recipient got my card in August. Mailed this one on 9th of September and it arrived 3 days ago. I didn't knew that Malaysia is a slow-mail country till now. But maybe it's an exception... Anyway, never loose hope !!!

It's my first Malaysian card and it show an aborigine (called Orang Asli) who plays a nose flute. The "Orang Asli" are made up of nearly 100 different ethnic sub-groups. These include around twenty in Peninsular Malaysia although administratively, they are categorized as Negrito, Senoi and Aboriginal Malay. Sabah and Sarawak, on the other hand, has between 30 to 40 distinct sub-groups each with an even more amazing number of languages and dialects. Malaysia has one of the oldest rainforests where there are still those jungle tribes who hunt with blowpipes using poisoned dart. They hunt monkeys, gibbons, squirrels and birds. They have their own dances and musical instruments like the one shown in the picture.

The nose flute is spread all over the Pacific Rim and partially in Africa, India and China.

The stamp (70 sen - 2010) shows an Negrito aborigine who "menyumpit" (hunts with a blowpipe). Primarily hunter-gathers, the Negrito people subsist on the bounty of Peninsular Malaysia's abundant rainforests for food as well as shelter.

Thank You,  SL Liew !

Country: Malaysia

Description: Orang Asli plays a nose flute

Publisher: Yacine Collection

Share Taiwan with the World

 

This beautiful watercolor painting came yesterday from Taiwan. It was made by Hibeetle (or Lim), a painter and graphic designer that lives on the island. He likes to share his hand-painted postcards with the others and he have an account at PostCrossing as well. The card itself is designed around Postcrossing idea. On the back it have a special place for Postcard ID and the date. As well it got a very artistic AIR MAIL design.

And something about the stamp... In 2008, the Taiwanese government started the electrification of the Hua-tung railway line (161 km) connecting the two cities located on the eastern coast of the island, Hualien and Taitung. This project was completed in 2014 and the Taiwanese Post issued on June 28, 2014 a special souvenir sheet evoking some portions of this Hua-tung railway line.
The 12NT$ shown here depicts the Taroko Express (in operation since February 2007), on a section of the Kecheng bridge (seen behind).

Thank You, Wei Shan !

Country: Taiwan

Description: world map (with Taiwan) in watercolor painting

Publisher: Hibeetle

100th Anniversary King George V stamps

This is my first stamped postcard from Australia. Received today. I've got a few before but were unwritten, in an envelope. This is a MaxiCard that shows a 1924 letter with King George V stamp. From 1914 to 1937 this was the basic letter postage stamp (with color variation). During this period of time 11,800,000,000 stamps were produced. Together with the King’s profile, the stamp design also featured a kangaroo, emu, sprig of wattle and the crown. The first day of issue postmark shows the King's symbols and the date:17 June 2014.

There are other 3 postcards with vintage postal themes in this series.

On the back there is a pre-paid mark as seen in image above.

Thank  You, Agnieszka !

Country: Australia

Description: MaxiCard showing a 1924 letter

Publisher: Australia PostOffice

New Zealand Map

This card came as a RR themed message: to share a day of our lives on the back of a postcard. It's nice to get a glimpse of someone's day. Unfortunately, I cannot share it here due privacy rights.

New Zealand an island country situated in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country consists of two main landmasses: the North Island and the South Island, plus Stewart Island and other small islands. The main cities (shown on the map) are: Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton and Dunedin.

The stamps are lovely.

The 60 cents with lovely illustrations remains a mystery for me is a part of 2010 series called A slice of Heaven (Thanks Lynley for clearing this out). It shows Rotorua, a geothermal town in New Zealand.

The other two (70 cents each) are part of a larger collection (20 stamps) called "A Tiki Tour of New Zealand No. 2" (2012). All together they form the map of New Zealand. The ones that I got are from the southern part: Stewart Island and Dunedin area.

Thank You, Lynley !

Country: New Zealand

Description: physical map of New Zealand

Publisher: KiwiVista

Austrian arrows

Since joining PostCrossing I've receive some decorated postcards, but this one is THE BEST by far. It came from Switzerland and it really made my day!

The front of the postcard shows an Austrian Airlines airplane on the ground. (I cannot guess the airport). Firstly, because of the rich back postal decorations I could not identify it. But after digging a couple of minutes I've realized it's a Bombardier DHC-8-314 (identification number OE-LTI), no longer active in Austrian Airline fleet. The card is issued by AviationPostcards in an 500 pcs. limited amount.

The back decorations are (as you can see) outstanding. I love all: the lower washi tape airmail style, the personalized upper-left sticker. Also, the PostCrossing sticker is simply fabulous, stylish & elegant.Everything shows that the sender carefully embellish the postcard, making it a work of art.

The stamp issued in 2014 shows the Zytglogge Clock Tower, a landmark medieval tower in Bern.

Thank You,  Sabrina !

Country: Austria (but sent from Switzerland)

Description: Austrian Arrows Bombardier DHC-8-314

Publisher: AviationPostcards

Belgian Beer

This postcard came in a Belgian RR exchange group.
It shows a different Belgium Beer brands, since Belgium is well-known for its beer.
Augustijn, Bios - made by  Van Steenberge Brewery
Ename, Sloeber - made by Roman Brewery
Val-Dieu - made by Abbaye du Val-Dieu Brewery
Kasteel, Brigand - made by Van Honsebrouck Brewery
Kwak, Tripel Karmeliet - made by Bosteels Brewery
Maredsous, Vedett - made by Duvel Moortgat Brewery
Grimbergenbier - made by Grimbergenbier Brewery
Malheur -  made by Malheur Brewery
Brugse Zot - made by De Halve Maan Brewery
Chimay - made by Chimay Brewery
Hommel Bier - made by Van Eecke Brewery
Liefmans - made by Liefmans Brewery
Witkap - made by Witkap Brewery
St. Bernardus - made by St. Bernardus Brewery
Leffe - made by AB-InBev Brewery
Alvinne - made by Alvinne Brewery
Achel - made by St. Benedictus De Achelse Trapist Brewery
Gouden Carolus - made by  Het Anker Brewery
Postel - by Affligem Brewery
And some other unknown form 3 Fonteinen & Brasserie Dupont.
All the info was taken from Beer Planet website.
The stamp was issued in a series of 4+1 different stamps to celebrate 100 year Royal Institute of Meteorology KMI (2013) and is printed with heat-sensitive ink. If you blown hot air upon it, the tree will become red and autumn rainy clouds will appear. Under 25 Celsius degrees the color will return to normal green color. On the other stamps different weather symbols will appears, according to the season.

Another interesting part about this stamp is it's shape: similar to Belgium country map.

The funny part is this card came from a girl with no beer affinities: "I hate beer, don't like it at all. Yuck!". But she was kind enough to send me this.

Thank YOU, Cindy !

Country: Belgium

Description: different Belgian Beer plastic boxes

Publisher: Belgian Heritage

gift pack from TNT Belgium

Today another gift pack arrived in my inbox. The Belgium TNT were kind enough to send me some beautiful stickers and 4 of their fleet airplanes: BAel-46, B737, B747 and B777. One week ago I've send them a request if they can send me some airliners postcards for my collection and they just act by their motto: "shure we can". Thank you very much!

online postcard books

Never ordered online before from other countries. But since The Book Depository had some -49% off and offers free shipping worldwide, I took the chance and ordered 3 postcard books on 4th of September. Two of them arrived this morning. 

Bad part about any postcard book: you cannot choose what cards to buy (separately) and therefore you will get some crappy pictures as well. But those were really cheap and non-touristy. I don't mind. The majority will be send in RR groups to people with this kind of interest.

Always there is hope

This is a post for especially Postcrossers newbies. I know it's frustrating to wait weeks and months for your card to arrive, especially to Russia or China. But never ever lose hope. Want a reason? My VERY FIRST postcard sent to Russia 68 days ago arrived & got registered today. I am really glad.

gift pack from Austrian & Lufthansa

Today begun just outstanding. I received a 24 cards package with airliners cards from Austrian & Lufthansa. I am just out-of-this-world happy and excited. They were kind enough to write me something, too. The text translation: "Thank you very much for your inquiry. We send you couple postcards from Austrian Airlines & Lufthansa. We hope you will like them! We await you on our airplanes. All the best, Lufthansa Group team."

Yes, I like them VERY much.

Thank you !!!

Our Lady of Vladimir

This card arrived two days ago (9th of September), part of a Round Robin group. Given the fact that it was posted on 4th of September I could say it's quite fast for a Russian. Up to now, it's one of my favorites, along with Helsinki Cathedral and few other cards.

Our Lady of Vladimir (Богоматерь Владимирская) is a very well known orthodox icon, being a version of the Eleusa (tenderness) type.

Some say that it was painted by St. Luke himself, but we do not have historical evidences to sustain this. Around 1131 Luke Chrysoberges, the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople, sent the icon as a gift to Grand Duke Yury Dolgoruky of Kiev. The image was kept in Mezhyhirya Monastery until Andrey Bogolyubskiy (Dolgoruky's son) brought it to his favourite city, Vladimir, in 1155. The icon was taken from Vladimir to the new capital, Moscow, in 1395 during Timur Leng invasion and miraculously save the city.

In 1480 the wonder-working icon was saving Moscow again. This time from the invasion of Khan Achmed. For Russians it's a powerful symbol, a associated with the growth of Russian national consciousness based on the Muscovite state. 

Till 1917 the icon was kept on the iconoastasis of Kremlin Cathedral of Dormition. In 1918 it was partially restored and moved to Moscow Tretyakov Art Gallery where is hosted nowadays in St. Nicholas Chapel.

Few people know that it's actually a double-sided icon. On the back there are the instruments of Christ's Passion. Another interesting fact is that a detail of the Virgin's left eye and nose is part of the logo of Icon Productions, founded by Mel Gibson.

The stamps are nice too.

The first one (8.00) is a 2003 Europa Stamp depicting a walking girl.

The second (15p) was issued in 2011 and is a part of 3 stamp series History of the Russian Cossacks.

Thank You, Olga !

Country: Russia

Description: orthodox icon of Virgin Mary from Vladimir (12th century)

Publisher: Moscow Postcards

Location: St. Nicholas Chapel in Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

key and old books

There are a few online postcard-based stores that offers nice products. But if you're not living in the same country, the shipping fees are a killer for a few cards, even if they have big discounts. One of those shops is Postal Love, run from Wroclaw by Ewa Słocińska, a young designer passionate about postcards. 

Today one of their cards arrived in my mailbox, traveling from... Canada, in a RR exchange. I always liked books, especially old ones. And I still got this "virus" inside me. But not only visual sight is a pleasure, but also the lecture itself. As somebody pointed out: "A book makes you smarter only if you read it".

The stamps are also great.

The first (P) features a b&w photo of Canadian pop and country singer K.D. Lang, issued in July 2014 as part of the Canadian Country Artists series. (To be honest, firstly, I thought it's a male).

The 1.20$ stamp bear an 1895 William Notman photography of Indian chief Sitting Bull and the bison hunter Buffalo Bill in Montreal. Postage is part in 2014 second set of Canadian photography stamp series.

The 1cent stamp shows a Lady Bug (Hippodamia convergens), as a part of insect serie issued in 2007.

The 22 cents stamp shows a Monarch Butterfly (Danaus Plexippus), issued in 2014.

Thank You, Christine !

Country: Poland (but sent from Canada)

Description: key and old books

Photo: peerayot

Publisher: Postal Love

Flughafen Airport

Thins thank you card was sent from Kassel, Germany, 200 km far from Frankfurt.

The huge Frankfurt Flughafen Airport is the busiest passenger traffic in Germany and and the third in Europe after London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle airports. In 2012-2013 winter, this airport served 264 destinations in 113 countries, making it the airport with the most international destinations in the world.

Between 2005 and 2007 a large Airbus A380 maintenance facility was built at Frankfurt Airport because Lufthansa wanted to station their future A380-aircraft-fleet here. Their first A380 went into operation in June 2010 and was baptized... Frankfurt am Main. And the second one was called Munich.

About the stamp I've already wrote here.

Thank You, Rumi !

Country: Germany

Description: Frankfurt am Main Flughafen Airport

Pubslisher: Fotoverlag HUBER

Location: here

Rostock Harbor

Today card came from Germany and it's an bird-eye view of the Rostck, the largest city in the north German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Town's roots date back to 11th century, when a group of Elbe Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc (which means broadening of a river). In 14th century the city joined the Hanseatic League and this move had a very positive effect of city's development. In  1419 The University of Rostock was founded, one of the oldest in the World and Europe. In modern times (WWII) large parts of the central city were destroyed by Allied bombing in 1942 and 1944. Nowadays it's one of the German industrial ports at Baltic Sea.

In the card there is the City's harbor (Stadthafen) and in the left the St. Peter Church (Petrikirche). It's a popular meeting place to sit by the water and enjoy the evening

The ND 0,75 € postage was issued in 2013 as a commemorative stamp: 50 years of Fehmarn Sound Bridge (50 Jahre Fehmarnsundbrücke).

Thank You, Holger !

Country: Germany

Description: Aerial view of Rostock harbor area (Stadthafen)

Photo: J. Knobloch

Publisher: Schöning GmbH & Co.

Location: here

game on

I didn't knew that a postcard can be used in other ways beside admire & collect it (yes, we could count bookmarking as well). But the card received few days ago proved me the contrary: you can play with it.

Name of the game? Wie moet er bier halen? (Who should get a beer?)

The rules are quite simple: you have to cut the center circle, put your middle finger inside and rotate it on the table. The person who it points to should get a beer. Nice!

The stamp has no face value and it's a part of Dutch Icons series. These stamps are marked "International 1" and are intended for international mail items up to 20g. As of 1 January 2014, the stamps Europe and Rest of World have been combined into the stamp International suitable for all destinations abroad.

Near the stamp there is a postal mark with the text schrijven zegt meer (= writing says more). It's the Dutch's Postal service way to encourage sending more and more letters and cards.

Thank You, Marjolein !

Country: Netherlands

Description: Play (Post)Card "Who should get a beer?"

Photo: Eelke de Blouw 

Publisher: boomerang.nl

Bussy Postcrossing Days

In this weekend it was a truly madness. I had to prepare almost 50 cards for shipping in different Round Robin groups. I had to comply with their favorites (some of them quite hard for me) and check & double check their received galleries to avoid duplicates. After all cards were prepared (written and stamped) I had to scan them and add to sent .xls list and online calendar for 2 reasons: to avoid sending the same card to the same user in the future and to have the proof that the cards were sent.

And when I thought all was over, I received another personal message with another 50 addresses. Huh...

I guess no blogging for another few days.