Montreuil , France

Today was a day of glory for my mailbox :D 7 cards have arrived written and stamped ( see below :D) plus two envelopes , one from Sicily (Italy ) with 5 cards and one from Serbia with 17 (!) cards ! So today I will present all 7 and tomorrow I'll choose some from my envelopes to show you !( Or maybe the day after :D) . This is an official from France , from a lovely village in the north east ! Although a small place it has appeared in literature twice :
1. Lawrence Stern has visited the town in 1765 ! His visit was recounted in his novel " A sentimental journey through France and Italy ".
2. Montreuil was the setting for much of the early part of Victor Hugo's novel " Les Miserables".The novel's main character Jean Valjean served as a mayor there and also owned a big factory ! The town was the setting also for much of early conflict of Valjean and his antagonist Javert , as well as the birthplace of Fantine !

Tres tres belle carte-postale y merci beaucoup  a Sylvain .....

Turin , Italy

Italy is one of my favorite countries ( I have many btw ) and I'm lucky enough to live close enough and I have visited it twice ! Of course there is a lot of places that I didn't have the chance to see YET :D One of them is Turin ( Torino ). This is Piazza San Carlo which according to Renato ( the kind person who send this ) is one of the most beautiful ones in his city ! There are two Churches : of Santa Cristina & of San Carlo ( hence the name of the Square! Plus the Statue of Emanuele Filiberto (2nd Duke of Aosta & Crown Prince of Spain ) Grazie a Renato for this beautiful card !

Pordenone , Italy

This card brings me some nice memories ! Cause I have been to Pordenone myself even though I couldn't spend so much time there and enjoyed it ! Pordenone is a very cute town in the north east of Italy , very close to Venice ! It was created in the High Middle ages as a river port of the Noncello . The card shows "Chiesa della Santissima " ( in english Church of the Holiest ~woman~) so I assumed it is dedicated to Virgin Mary who is for the Catholics ( and for us the Orthodox Christians as well ) the holiest woman !  Card was sent as a thank you gift from Renato when he read in my card that I had visited his parents' hometown ! ( He lives In Torino ) Grazie -Grazie -Grazie !

Taipei , Taiwan

Another card has arrived from Taiwan as well ! This one is official . It's a view of the capital Taipei and Shin Kong Life Tower , one of their tallest buildings! I like cityviews so much ! Thanks Tiffany

Penghu. Taiwan

Let's go on with the next card from the far-far away country of Taiwan and a direct swap I had arranged, Isn't it a very romantic card ? At least it WAS for me , I love the sea ( the water in general ) and this structure looks like a double heart.  The note of Osaku brought me back to the real  (practical )world . The name is indeed " Double heart stone-hu" but it's a fish trap . Ooops :D In the high tide fish are swimming into the heart but when ebb is coming they can't swim out , so they are trapped ! Penghu Islands also knows as "Pescadores" ( Portuguese for fishermen ) are an archipelago off the Western coast of Taiwan consisting of 90 small islands ! Thanks Osamu :-)

Minsk , Belarus

Here it comes my next card for today . It's an official one from Minsk , Belarus ! Belarus is one of the countries in Europe I don't know many things about , but it seems to be a really beautiful country ! The card shows a panorama of the Upper Town of Minsk and the Trinity Suburb. Minsk is the capital and a major city of Belarus ( 1.8 million inhabitants ) as well as the Headquarters of " Commonwealth of Independent States"The oldest mentions of Minsk date back to 11th century , in 1326 it became part of Grand Duchy of Lithuania and received its town priviledges in 1499 Later it became the capital of the Minsk Vojvodship in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.It was annexed by Russia in 1793 as a consequence of the 2nd Partition of PolandDuring 1919-1991 it was the capital of Byelorussian SSR Many thanks to Dima &Luda for this card

Utah , USA

Who is bleaching my US postcards ?? :( It is the 2nd card I get from US and both of them have some white spots on the front side ... Do they take a dive in Atlantic before they get here?

The card is super beautiful nonetheless and it comes from Utah , which I guess it's one of my favorite States . It shows Monument Valley (Tse Bii Ndzisgaii in Navajo language ) in Utah desert ! It located on the Arizona -Utah state line within the range of Navajo Nation reservation accessible from U.S Highway 163 ( I'll try to remember this if I ever get there :D ) It has been the location for shooting numerous scenes for films and TV series ! No wonder why it seems so familiar ! Absolutely love it!!!  Thanks Sierra :-)

Idaho USA

From Russia to United States and to the state of Idaho , specifically :) Card came a little bit destroyed , but I like it anyway . I love the less known states more than the trendy ones :D  Three Island Crossing is a state park of Idaho , used by pioneers as a part of Oregon Trail until 1869 when Gus Glenn built a ferry across the river about two miles upstream . Thanks Mist ;-)

St Petersburg Russia

and we stay in Russia but we move up to St Petersburg or to ex - Leningrad ;-) Why do I mention Leningrad? Well the card says so , as it is an old Soviet era one , in amazing perfect condition though , not intented to complain ;-) It is showing St Isaacs Square , a major square in the city near Mariinsky Palace ... However the card is an official from Ukraine , but I will list it as Russian of course .. Thank you Anna

Moscow , Russia

.... and from Poland to their neighbours in Russia. Postcard is an official one from Moscow . Shows the V.V.C , meaning the Exposition Center of Russia . According to the sender it is a favorite spot for Russian to go for a walk or riding their bicycle or roller -skate . The fountain is called " Friendship of nations " ;-)

Spashibo bolshoe Irina

Warszawa , Poland

Today was a happy day for my mailbox , as 3 official postcrossing plus one arranged swap  have arrived ;-) Let's start with the arranged one , coming from Poland ... Poland was along with Ukraine the hosts of European Championship of football :) So here you are the Warszawa stadium which hosted the opening game of the tournament between Poland & my country , Greece ;-) We also won against Russia in that stadium ,eliminating them and going through instead of them to the quarter finals of the tournament ;-) Nice memories from that stadium so it had to come to my collection Dzekuje Karolina ( I know , I know I wrote it wrong :P)

Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia

Yaaaayy ! My first official postcrossing card arrived from .... Malaysia ! It is not my first ever from there but it's extra cool to begin your new phase of collection with an exotic land :D And here you are the famous Petronas Towers the landmark of Kuala Lumpur. Designed by Argentinian architects, were the tallest buildings in the world until Taipei 101 was completed but they are still the tallest twin buildings in the world. Each one has 88 floors ( I should be working there on the top floor & when the elevators are off :D) They are connected with a bridge between 41st and 42nd floor , which is available to tourist visits , but there is a daily limit of 1700 visitors. This bridge also can be used in emergency situations so people can evacuate the endagered tower to the other one ... Tower 1 is totally used by Petronas and its subsidiaries while Tower 2 is available for lease ... Some of companies you can there include : Microsoft , Reuters , Al- Jazeera, IBM , Bloomberg etc etc .... Terima Kasih  TJ :)

Freiberg, Germany

Although I still haven't received my first official postacard yet ,( 4 of mine are recieved so I guees it's a matter of time and I won't complain :D ), my first arranged direct swap card is here :)) It comes from Germany , a country that I got so many postcards in the past. Nevertheless excitement is still the same no matter how many cards you have from a place ...:) This particular one comes from Freiberg ( a city that I always confuse with Freiburg ). Freiberg lies in " Free State of Saxony " and is the administrative centre of Mittelsachsen district ! It was built in 1186.In 1944 a subcamp of Flossenburg concntration camp was built outside the town of Freiberg. It housed over 500 female survivors of other camps including Auschwitz Birkenau. In 1985 Mormons built their Freiberg Germany temple due to the large number of memmbers in the region. The temple serves the whole area of Eastern Germany and a big part of East Europe! 

As for the lovely building of the picture all I could found was in German http://www.schloss-freudenstein.net/ ...

And all I can say is vielen Dank Antje