Novorossiysk, Russia

Wednesdays tend to be the days when I have most free time (apart from weekends). Today's been one such day. I can't deny I'd much rather have a full-time job than this much free time, but at least I have more time to do whatever I want. A large part of today has been spent in the kitchen (I made yummy, creamy tomato & cashew & basil pasta, and baked a loaf of cinnamon raisin swirl bread that was a bit of a failure as it ended up swelling up a lot and being very wide and flat, not at all how it's supposed to look like!) and in front of the computer doing postcard related things. ..which I'm continuing now. :p

Postcrossing has been a bit more special to me this month - a few days ago I reached the milestone of my 1,000th sent card being registered (in Portugal), and I'm also expecting to receive my 1,000th card some time later this month. I set up a little lottery in the Finnish community of the forum to celebrate the latter. I'm very curious as to where this card will come from; it seems like there's been a bit more variety with countries I've been receiving officials from recently.

The following card is not an official but came from a swap with Nastia in Russia. I actually got two cards in the envelope and I'll post the second card after this one...



It's always nice to see postcards from somewhere other than Moscow or St Petersburg (even if those two places seem very beautiful, too). This card shows Novorossiysk, a city in southern Russia and the main Russian port on the Black Sea, in Krasnodar Krai. It has a population of around 281,400 (in 2005).

The city sprawls along the shore of the non-freezing Tsemess Bay, which has been recognised since antiquity as one of the superior bays of the Black Sea.

The Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port – with the market capitalization of $1,110,000,000 and shares listed at Russian Trading System and London Stock Exchange – serves Russian sea trade with regions of Asia, Middle East, Africa, Mediterranean, and South America. It is the busiest oil port in the Black Sea and the terminus of the pipeline from the Tengiz Field, developed by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium.

Novorossiysk is also an industrial city, dependent on steel, food processing, and the production of metal goods and other manufactures. Extensive limestone quarries supply important cement factories in and around the city. The town is home to the Maritime State Academy and Novorossiysk Polytechnic Institute.



There was a crazy amount of stamps on the envelope! :D