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| FI-1422572, Sent from Vihti, Finland Sent: 10 May 2012, Traveled 8,964 km in 25 days |
Finland is the latest addition to the list of countries I've visited so far. I went there during the third weekend of April to meet my pen friend from Kuopio. It was a lovely meeting and I learned that Finland is celebrating its 100 Years of Independence this year. This card arrived with a matching stamp for the flag on the postcard.
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| Friendship Gift Postcard, Sent from Boras, Sweden Sent: 5 March 2017, Traveled 9,926 km |
The trip to Finland was a side trip that I made as a part of my business trip to Gothenburg, Sweden. Less than a month prior to my trip, I received this card from Monica of Beyond the Lone Islands. Thanks to Monica's message at the back, I was able to properly select the clothes needed for the cold & wet northern European weather. It was so much colder in Gothenburg as compared to the April weather I remember from my first visit in 2015. And oh, my side visit to Helsinki gave me my first ever hail storm and wet snow fall experience! I finally saw snow! Some of you might remember that I was ranting about it in one of my posts after missing it from my Japan trip back in November 2016.
Thanks to these two cards, I learned that all Nordic countries except Greenland have adopted the Nordic Cross flag.
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| Postcrossing Private Swap, Sent from Victoria, Australia, Sent on 13 September 2011, Traveled 6,185 km in 9 days |
This postcard has appeared here in my blog 5 years ago. I noticed it in my scanned postcards folder while looking for postcards for our theme and decided to narrow down my search to flags with cross/crosses on it. There's a long article in wiki about this flag and it's quite an interesting read for those who are interested in their national and political history.
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| Friendship Gift Postcard, Sent from Oxfordshire, UK Sent: 13 Nov 2013, Traveled 10,777 km |
As I'm sure most or all of us know, the Union Jack emblem exist on the National Flag of Australia, the country being a member of the Commonwealth. On the London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom card above, we have the widespread Union Jack, the flag of UK as a bright and beautiful backdrop. The Union Jack is a union of three historical crosses: Saint Andrew's, Saint Patrick's, and Saint George's.
The similarities of the Nordic country flags to that of the Union Jack has made me very curious. My research has landed me into a well-written article in Quora. Apparently, the Nordic cross gave rise to the flags of the British Isles, among which are the historical crosses that currently comprise the Union Jack.
I learned so much while researching about the postcards I've chosen for the theme this weekend! Yay!
~maria
Interesting about the Nordic Cross flags, Maria. I'm not sure if I ever even thought about that before. I certainly would not have been able to place or tell the colours of those belonging to the British isles (Orkney, Shetland).
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that flags is an interesting theme in order to learn about geography and history. I like the postcards you shared today, especially the first one with the lighthouse, so beautiful picture. And glad that you finally experienced the snow!
ReplyDeleteLooks to be a nice breezy day on the Swedish card with a timeless feel to it. Flags and banners have interesting histories. Nice you didn't miss out on the snow and hail and even better you could then leave for warmer climes.
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