The world in my mailbox: 2012

Friday, December 14, 2012

Yaaaay , an X-mas card !!!

hello people , here I'm again after quite a long break !! Christmas is just around the corner for most of us around here... I say this as we are officially the only Orthodox country who celebrates Christmas at the same day with the western world, while all other Orthodox countries are celebrating it at January 7 along with a sizeable minority here.... ok I cut the talk , and I go to the card ! It's the first Christmas card in years ( Cards from businesses and politicians to me as their dear customer of course are not to be counted), so it is a great feeling to receive a card from a dear person instead of e-cards or such !! This 3-D Christmas joy came from Belgium and my sweet buddy Andy ( and with a matching stamp too ).... thanks a lot dear and keep an eye on the mailbox :) Zalig Kerstfeest en Gelukkig Nieuwjaar ...No I don't speak Flemish , omniglot.com does , and as a matter of fact I hope it does correctly :D

Taipei , Taiwan

After the X-mas card lets move on with the viewcards received !! This one is as you can see from Taiwan ( thank you Minnie ) and shows the Office of the President in Taipei .

The Presidential Office Building houses the Office of the President of the Republic of China. The building, located in the Zhongzheng District in the national capital of Taipei, Republic of China, was designed by architect Uheiji Nagano during the period of Japanese rule of Taiwan (1895–1945). The structure originally housed the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan. Damaged in Allied bombing during World War II, the building was restored after the war by Chen Yi, the Governor-General of the Taiwan province. It became the Presidential Office in 1950 after the Republic of China lost control of mainland China and relocated the nation's capital to Taipei City at the end of the Chinese Civil War. (Wikipedia )

Lake Toba , Indonesia

The last one for today came from Indonesia ( thank you Mina ). It is showing Lake Toba . In Indonesian ot is called Danau Toba and is a lake and a supervolcano ( Now don't ask me what is the difference between a supervolcano and a normal one I really don't have the faintest idea ) . It is located in the Northern part of Sumatra island. It is the largest lake in Indonesia and the largest volcanic lake in the world . It is the site of a supervolcanic eruption that occured sometime between 69.000 & 77.000 years ago . It is the largest known explosive eruption anywhere on Earth in the last 25 million years! (ahm !!!) According to the Toba catastrophe theory , it had global consequences , killing most humans then alive and creating a population bottleneck in Central Eastern Africa and India that affected the genetic inheritance of all humans today . This hypothesis is not very widely accepted due to lack of evidence of any other animal decline or extinction even in enviromentally sensitive species , however it has been accepted that the eruption led to a volcanic winter with a worldwide decline of temperatures between 3 to 5°C ! ... By looking at the deep blue of the picture I would never have thought all this to be honest :)

Monday, November 19, 2012

Belgrade, Serbia

Long time , no see as not many cards have arrived these weeks . Now that I got a few I decide to update in order not to be totally behind with this . I'll start with a card from a city that I always plan to visit but I always fail to do so ! I was supposed to go there in September but it didn't work out !! But Ana did instead of me and like always remembered to drop me one card . Thanks dear ~I know I owe you ;-)

Nice , France

An official from France and especially from the beautiful city of Nice. It located in the southern part of France in the Mediterranean coast , in French Riviera very close to Italian border and Monaco !!

Stonington ( Maine ), USA

Official card from USA. Excellent view from the fishing village of Stonington in the state of Maine

The first people to live on Deer Isle, as early as 6,100 years ago, were Native Americans. Their descendants were known to early French explorers as Etchemins; some continued to live on the island even after Anglo-Americans established settlements. The first European to venture into the region was Estevan Gomez, a Portuguese working for the Spanish Crown. Gomez sailed his ship La Anunciada up Eggemoggin Reach, which divides Deer Isle from the mainland. The French, however, would be the most active in the region, establishing a fort in Castine and intermarrying with Abenaki natives. A body buried in full armor (believed to be French) was discovered on nearby Campbell Island. As of the census of 2000, there were 1,152 people, 502 households, and 326 families residing in the town. ( Wikipedia )

Funny card :)

An official one from Japan. Card is from "fuwamoco friends" series and it looks so typical Japanese :) Cutie

... and a cover

Last one for today a cover. Since I'm not really collecting them , I will just upload if I get any every now and then . It is not something extraordinary except that it is a letter from a very dear friend that we know each other for almost 20 years now ( * age alert * :D ). We never got the chance to meet so far ( hopefully we will in the future ) but I really think I know him after all these years of writing letter to each other. Even after some years of silence ( as years go by you simply can't keep at the same pace as when you were teenager ) we found each other again ( thanks to social media networks :D ) and decided to go back to letter writing !!

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Danshui, Taiwan

Hello again everybody ! A small update to show you the incoming mail for this week so far . Let's start with an official one from Taiwan. It depicts Danshui (or Tamsui ) which is a sea side district of New Taipei City , named after Tamsui River (means fresh water ).. Located in the northern part of the island it is popular as site for viewing the sunset in to the Taiwan strait (and that's what card is about ). So I guess that mountain slightly shown at the back is in mainland China , well maybe :D Thanks to Cathy ( or 多謝 :D)

Beijing , China

2nd card is from a private swap I had almost forgot it was arranged , you know sometimes mail from/to China can be really slow This particular one needed two months to arrive. It comes from Beijing and is showing the Palace Museum. It is situated in the center of the city , in Forbidden City it was established in 1925 and it is China's biggest museum. Many thanks to Roger or I'd better say 謝謝 :)

Turkey

...and the 3rd one comes from Turkey. My dear friend Bärbel spent her holidays in Turkey and she knows I love the country ( well , you know too just by looking at the amount of cards that are uploaded here) and she decided to drop one card in the postbox for me ( Vielen Dank ),
In the top row you can see (from left ) 1. Pamukkale 2. Alanya 3. Perge/Antalya &4. Bodrum/Muğla. In the bottom row (from left again) is 1. The Trajan Fountain in Ephesus 2. Anatolian experience 3. Troy/Çanakkale & 4. Nevşehir/Cappadocia while in the center is Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul !