Palestine breakfast

I was really lucky earlier this year and was one of the winners in a Palestine postcard lottery in the Postcrossing group on Facebook. This postcard makes me hungry!!

This is the typical Palestinian breakfast, consisting of humos, foul, falafel and olive oil (and some sort of flat bread and vegetables). It looks really yummy, I'd love to try this! Those falafels look quite different to the ones I've had before, though, I hadn't realised you could make them in this kind of shape as well.

Metro Bridge and Smolenskaya Embankment, Moscow, Russia

Another transport-related postcard.. and another surprise :) I won this card in MZebra's lottery on the Postcrossing forum earlier this year. I had had this card in my favourites for a while so I was really happy to receive one at last!

This postcard shows the Metro bridge and Smolenskaya Embankment in Moscow, Russia. I was trying to dig some info in Wikipedia but didn't have much success. I have no idea if this is the same bridge as th eSmolensky Metro Bridge...?

Ulm, Germany

I'm not usually too fond of multiviews but this one is a really nice exception and I really, really like this card! I won it in a lottery on the Postcrossing forum a while back. (Speaking of lotteries, I've been lucky enough to win a couple recently so I've been thinking of having my own as well. I've got an idea in mind and if everything goes as planned, I should be able to put it up next weekend. Keep an eye on the lottery section of the forum if you're interested!)



Ulm is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 (2006), forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and traditions as a former Free Imperial City. Today, it is an economic centre due to its varied industries, and it is the seat of a university (University of Ulm, founded in 1967). Internationally, Ulm is primarily known for having the church with the tallest steeple in the world, the Gothic minster (Ulm Minster, German: Ulmer Münster) and as the birthplace of Albert Einstein.



The stamp was issued earlier this year and shows the old town of Regensburg, which is a Unesco site.

Yogyakarta, Indonesia

I don't normally have any luck in lotteries and such, which is also why I never buy scratch cards - what's the point when I'm not going to win anything? :P ..sooo, I was really surprised when I recently won a lot of goodies in a lottery on the postcrossing forum. ..and it was hosted by Shinta, a wonderful Indonesian postcrosser. :) To celebrate, I started my own lottery today. It's here if you want to join. :) Well, that lottery is also to celebrate the fact that I finally finished my big translation assignment yesterday. Or I hope I did, if the client doesn't want any extra work done and is happy with what I've done...



This is one of the many postcards Shinta sent me. This is one of my favourites - I love seeing street views and ordinary life on postcards (wish I could find such cards here, too...).

Yogyakarta is renowned as a centre of classical Javanese fine art and culture such as batik, ballet, drama, music, poetry, and puppet shows. It is also famous as a centre for Indonesian higher education and the seat of Gadjah Mada University, one of the three most prestigious universities in Indonesia. Yogyakarta was the Indonesian capital during the Indonesian National Revolution from 1945 to 1949. It has a population of roughly 388,000.



...and here's another card from Shinta, showing a typical Indonesian market where you can (=must) bargain over the price, and have a chit-chat with the seller. :)



There were so many pretty, colourful stamps on the envelope! The one on top left is from a set of 6 stamps issued in 2010, showing Indonesian Cultural Heritage. The one next to it is from a set of 2 stamps from 2009, a joint issue with Iran. The stamp on the right is from a set of 7 stamps issued in 2008, with the theme "Road to Jakarta". The bird stamp was issued in 2008 and comes from a set of 11 (or 12?) stamps depicting Indonesian flora and fauna. The stamp at the bottom is from a set of 3 stamps issued in 2009 to commemorate the Year of the Ox.

99.9.9-9

It's been a very busy week. Several training days, aikido, aikido club meeting... and I'm not sure how much I'll be able to relax this weekend, either :( Tomorrow I'm going to a friend's birthday party, though, that should be fun!

I've received lots of very nice postcards in the past two weeks and there are so many I want to post about here. I thought I'd start with this very cool card from Taiwan, I won it in a lottery on the postcrossing forum (and yes, I'll organise my own lottery when I have more time).



This is what the sender, Shu-i, explained about the card and the cancellations:

2010 is the 99th year of the Republic of China Era. As it is September, 9th today, we will get a postmark dated as 99.9.9-9. The last 9 refers to postmark made around 9:00 a.m. In Chinese, 9 pronounced the same as (jiou) which means "lasting for a long time." In this way, people here think it's quite a good number to express their love (some people choose to get married today !) or see it as a lucky number for healthy, friendship, happiness..etc.

The words on the front side mean "Happy Teacher's Day!" The Teacher's Day is on September 28th in Taiwan, which is also Confucius' (a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period) birthday.



..and here's the special cancellation. :)

Landsort, Sweden

I've been pretty lucky recently - I've participated in lotteries on the postcrossing forum and I've actually won three in a relatively short space of time! I think I should host my own lottery some time soon.. Last time I did it was so much fun! Anyway, this is one of the cards I've won.



Landsort is a Swedish village and a lighthouse on the island of Öja. The tower was built in 1689, with an upper conical iron section added in 1870. Open fires have been lit here since a long time ago.

The first "real" lighthouse was lit in 1651, and until the now standing tower was built a couple of different buildings was used as a lighthouse. The 1689 tower was constructed to carry an open fire which ran on coal. In 1840, a colza oil lamp was installed. The flame ran on paraffin from 1887, and in 1938 it was electrified. Today the Swedish Maritime Administration owns and runs the lighthouse.

I've lived next to Sweden most of my life and yet I only have a few postcards from Sweden. A bit strange... I have a couple from my parents when they've visited Stockholm, but that's about it. It's strange how Postcrossing has never picked up in Sweden. Maybe it's the expensive stamp prices? Surely it can't be a lack of postcards or anything like that - a Finnish postcrosser told me that postcards are actually cheaper in Sweden than in Finland. It would be nice to see more postcards from Sweden!



This card was mailed from Norway (and had a cute little Norwegian flag sticker on the back of the card :)). The stamp is from a set of 3 stamps issued in 2008, depicting Wildlife in Norway. This one here is the Elk.

From Russia with love

One more card from Russia for today. ...and such a great card, too! I won it in a lottery Julia held for her 1st postcrossing anniversary. I was one of the lucky winners. :)



There's a little bit of basic information on the back of the card:

Russian Federation
Capital: Moscow
Area: 17 075 400 km2
Population: 141 927 297 people

I keep forgetting how huge Russia is... I got one reminder again yesterday when I received a card from my postcard pal Katya who lives in Moscow. She told me she's thinking of going to St Petersburg for a visit as it "isn't far from here" - about 600 miles away! I'm not sure if it would be that much if you travelled from the southernmost point of England to the northernmost point of Scotland...! So yeah, it's definitely all very relative.

I also love the colours and the little matryoshka dolls on the card!



Julia used such nice stamps on the card, too. They are from a set of 4 stamps issued in 2009, representing World Cultural Heritage in Russia. These here show Solovetsky Islands.