Yangon , Myanmar

... and from my Balkan neighborhood and one of my possible future destination to a life time dream Burma ! This card has traveled to me from Yangon but in an envelope , but nonetheless it's one of my little gems  It is showing Sule Pagoda /It is an excellent landmark , it is said to be more than 2,000 years old and contains a hair given by the Buddha to two Burmese mercahnts !The golden pagoda is unusual in that its octagonal shape continues right up to the bell and inverted bowl.It is surrounded by small shops and all familiar non-religious services such as astrologists , palmists and so on . Located in downtown Yangon the former capital of Myanmar . Capital has moved to Naypyidaw in 2005 but Yangon still remains the biggest city in the country as well as the centre of cultural , educational , social life . Thanks for the card Soe 

Belgrade , Serbia

Things in the "postcrossing" are going great : my card to Belarus was delivered plus a swap was arranged as well, so 3 cards are on my way now :D In the meantime I'm still in the mood of writing in this blog , so here it comes a card from my neighborhood in the Balkans ! Belgrade , Serbia ! Belgrade ( Beograd in Serbian ) means the "White City" , lies at the confluence of Danube and Sava rivers , it has been the capital of Yugoslavia from it's creation in 1918 until its final dissolution in 2006., when the last ex-YU republic that was still in union with Serbia , Montenegro declared its independence ! Today it's the capital of Serbia and it's largest city.

It is one of the places which I hope to visit soon ! I heard its night life is excellent plus I would like to meet my old Serbian friends whom I miss a lot ! This card was send in 2000 from my dearest Jelena in team work with my other crazy mate Sylvia , while Sylvia was visiting Belgrade !It is not stamped , it has a postal sticker instead , which was popular in my letters coming from Serbia !! Hvala ti puno Jeja ( & Skipka :D )

Salt Lake City, Utah

I'm happy , happy ,happy :) After my complaints about post offices' delays last night , today my first two cards were registered so that means that the first 2 cards are coming on my way ( wonder where from ). I even arranged a private swap with the German lady so it has been a great day ! In the meantime here is one of my most special cards from Salt Lake City , Utah in the U.S. It's written and stamped and sent from SLC , from a dear friend from Italy , when he moved from his native country to Utah ! This beautiful city was founded by Brigham Young and his fellow Mormons in 1847 on their way to the West ! Today it's a city of about 1.145.905 people , it still the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (as the Mormons are officially named ) but only about the half of SLC population are members of the Church ! Before Mormon settlement the tribes of Ute, Paiute and Shoshone had dwelt in the valley for thousands of years .
On the top left of the card you see the Salt Lake Temple which is the biggest and most famous of Mormon Temples,  it took 40 years to complete, it's  the 6th temple completed by the church and the 4th operating temple built after the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois !
Top right you see the State Capitol Building .
Bottom left shows Bonneville Salt Flats in Great Salt Lake &

Bottom right is Bingham Copper Mine . Grazie Manuele :)

Lost City , South Africa

One more card for today. Tonight I really feel like writing so I have to compensate in advance for those days to come when I won't be in writing mood ! So now it's the turn of South Africa and Lost City,. The card was mailed to me in 1995 from my Italian friend Giovanni while he was visiting South Africa ... Most of the cards i belong were sent in the 90's when I was a very active pen-paller :) Giovanni has traveled to many amzing places and was kind enough to share the joy with my mailbox ! According to the back of the card" The crater of a long extinct volcano is the setting for the Sun City and Lost City Hotel and casino complex" ! it's located in Pilanesberg , Bophuthatswana. Pilanesberg is located in north-west province of South Africa and the name comes from a historic Tschwana chief named"Pilane". Mille Grazie Giovanni

Iguazu falls , Brazil

I'm a really impatient person in general and in that particular point it has to do with "Postcrossing" ! Well not about that site itself but the "long" time the post offices take to get a card from point A to point B !I registered in Postcrossing 13 days ago and all at once I requested 5 addresses which is the limit for the beginners ! Posted the cards on very same day. About 2 of those I'm almost sure that they are going to delay as they are going one of them  to China and the other to Russia and to be exact in the Russian Far East in Sakha Republic ( also known as Yakutia )! The other two are going to Ukraine & Belarus so they might also delay a bit , even though there is everyday connection from my city to both Kiyv and  Minsk. But I was really hoping that the 5th card would reach its destination within a week or 10 days mostly as it is heading to Germany ! When it will be registered the first card will be coming on my way plus only then I will be able to message other postcrossers about private swap ! Yes , true , I'm "talking" too much. I told you , I'm impatient !
Well , as the days are passing I'm digging my old ones and here I have one from Brazil showing the famous Iguazu falls.  Iguazu falls are in the border of Brazil ( the Brazilian state of Parana to be more exact ) and Argentina (the Argentinian province Misiones). The name of the falls and the river itself of course comes from Guarani words " y" that means water and "uasu" that means big ! According to a local legend , a god was planning to marry one beautiful woman called Naipi , who fled with her mortal lover Taroba in a canoe. This -of course - outraged the god , that sliced the river , created those waterfalls and condemned the two lovers to an eternal fall ...

This card has come to me written and stamped ( I must find the way to scan and upload the stamps only ) back in 1996 by my Saudi Arabian penfriend at those times during his holidays in Brazil/Argentina ! Thank you Maher :))

Mount Everest Nepal

What about some cold and snow ? Anywhere better than the top of world ? Yes it's Mt Everest as seen from Kalapatthar. According to Wikipedia Kala Patthar meaning "Black Rock in Nepali and Hindi, is a Mountain in Nepalese Himalayas . It appears as a big brown bump below the impressive south face of Pumori. Many trekkers are attempting to summit Kala Patthar since it provides the most accesible point to view Mt Everest  from base camp to peak as due to the structure of Everest the peak cannot be seen from the base camp The views of Everest , Lhotse and Nuptse are spectacular from almost everywhere on Kala Patthar. Also the world's highest webcam is located there.

Unfortunately this card was not mailed to me from Nepal itself ! I got it from my Nepali workmate with the bunch of others. One day he came to work with a pile of postards to show us his country. Even though my collection of postcards was not on its active phase I couldn't resist having one from Nepal so I asked him and he generously gave them all to me ( I'll eventually upload them ). What a bliss !! Thank you Nitesh :)

Acherontas River Epirus Greece

The 1st postcard I decided to publish from my own country Greece ! Although my country is famous for its sunny islands and its antiquities , I decided to first post a river ! Yes , we have beautiful mountains and rivers too , but they haven't been so famous yet neither by foreigners nor by ourselves ! I bought myself this card on my 1st trip ever to Epirus ( it lies in northwest of Greece and borders with Albania ). This was my first time I 've been by a river and I even did rafting in these waters ( or I tried to do to be honest ) With the temperature being stuck on 38C here I surely miss these chilly waters ! :)

Trail lake - Moose Pass Alaska

Here is another card I have received recently and I think it's my 1st postacard from Alaska ever ! ( I have to look through my albums but with this heat here ,it's not the right time !) However this postard did not come from Alaska but from my dear friend Silvana from Germany ! According to the printed text on the back of the card this is a beautiful blue glacier-fed lake located in a deep fjord like valley carved by the now receded Trail Glacier. It is situated 29 miles north of Seward on the Kenai peninsula . It is a favorite starting point for photography flights , day fly in fishing trips &remote cabin fly-outs. A world-famous bush and float flying school using Super Cabs is based here ... Vielen Dank Silvana !

Lake Ohrid

So here I try to upload a card although it's not part of the postcrossing project. It comes from Ohrid a really beautiful lake side town in the Balkans! Sent by Ana , the person responsible for my being readdicted to cards ! ( Blagodaram Ana :D)

I finally decided what to do with my blog ! In the beginning I thought to make a "general " thing that I would use somehow like a diary and write whatever would come to my mind. Attempt unsuccessful ... seemed rather impossible to concentrate my thoughts in an interesting post . 2nd attempt was to create an online music contest as music is one of my passions , but my lack of skills in editing videos prevented me from even starting it !
 So here you are my 3rd and hopefully successful edition of this poor blogspot ! When I was a teenager I was exchanging snail mail with people from all over the world. Different people , different cultures from every corner of our little Earth have been always fascinating ! There are so many beautiful corners on our beautiful planet that probably I will never have the chance to visit ! And what would the 2nd best thing to this ....? Yes , postacards !  I have kept through the years all the postcards my penfriends were sending me plus those one I have bought my myself during my few trips in my lovely Mediterranean neighborhood !
 A few weeks ago I read something on the Internet about the world's most remoted inhabited island named Tristan da Cunha  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_da_Cunha) ! The whole thing was intriguing ... As I was reading the wikipedia article about it I saw that one thing that brings income to this little paradise is coins and stamps being sold to collectors worldwide and decided to google it again at least to have a glimpse of what it would like .. And I found a really beautiful postcard-blog ( I hope that one day I will have a biiig collection like Ana does ) , contacted the blogger , she introduced " Postcrossing" project to me ...and that was it ...The old passion for postcards is back :)
I'm a fresh new postcrosser , haven't received my 1st card yet but hopefully it will be a total bliss !
I'll keep you posted !