Postcards for the weekend 70: Mountains

PL-1276730, sent from Warsaw
Traveled 9,406 km in 15 days

Tatra Mountains is a natural border between Poland and Slovakia. They are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian range.

Postcard sent to self, traveled 10,588 km

If you look closely at the upper rightmost image, you will see the Mont Blanc overlooking the villages of Beaufortain. I fell in love with this place. It has a quiet charm during the summer of my visit, August 2017. It was super relaxing to hear the cowbells and just soak in the slow pace of village life. 

Friendship Postcard, Sent from Ushuaia
Traveled 14,020 km

Moving southwest, we have here the Martial Mountains towering over the southernmost city in the world, Ushuaia. I almost didn't want to believe it as I thought a city in New Zealand is in a lower latitude ... boy, I'm wrong!

Posting about mountains for this weekend is a good learning experience for me in physical geography.

Happy weekend everyone,

~maria

Postcards for the weekend 69: Aerial Views

In as much as I love looking close into details, I also enjoy looking at the "big picture". For views of a "big picture" this weekend, I have for you:

Sent from Helsinki on 28 Dec 2016, Traveled 9,323 km

Suomenlinna - an inhabited sea fortress built on 6 islands. My Finnish penpal, Tuija went and mentioned that if not because of the cold, she would have wanted to spend the whole day there. I totally missed the chance to see the place myself when I visited Finland back in April last year. And you guessed it right, the culprit was also the cold weather.

Sent from Dubrovnik on 6 Aug 2013, Traveled 9,925 km

Dubrovnik - another filming location for one of my favorite TV series, Game of Thrones. I've been to Valletta, Malta, one of the first filming locations. If I look into this Dubrovnik aerial view sans the name of the city, could have easily mistaken it for Valletta. This postcard was also sent by Tuija, 5 years ago when I was still living in Manila.

Sent from Frankfurt on 12 March 2017, Traveled 10,252 km

Frankfurt - an aerial view of the city that I received a month prior to my layover there, while on my way to Malta. I remember challenging myself whether I would actually be able to spot this view during the descent and ascent of my incoming and outgoing flights. I didn't! Now I'm strongly leaning on wanting to see the city in person and getting to these buildings and for real. I've never been to any German city and my feet are itching for adventures there. 

Which of these places have you been to? Which place/city (not necessarily any of these 3), would you like to see for your next adventure?

Happy weekend, 

~maria

Postcards for the weekend 68: Winter Scenes

The temperature has been dropping here in Singapore. It was around 26 two weeks ago and now it's at 22 degrees Celsius. Standing in the kitchen earlier this evening while hanging my laundry to dry, I feel the chill with the wind continuously blowing stronger than usual. This isn't normal for us here with the temperature normally ranging from 29 to 34 degrees Celsius throughout the year. 

Friendship Gift Postcard, Sent from Sweden

It makes me wonder how much cooler it is for countries where there's actually winter and where nature freezes around you. Thank you, Monica for sending me this "really snowy Christmas card". You're right, I don't get to see snow here on my side of the world. There are no four seasons in Southeast Asia. 

Private Swap, sent from Taipei, Taiwan
Traveled 1,161 km

Tracing upwards though, like in China -- some parts do freeze. Here's a frost-covered UNESCO World Heritage Site Wulingyuan Scenic & Interest Area in Hunan Province, China. According to the sender of this postcard, James Cameron's floating islands on his movie, Avatar was based on the quartz-sandstone pillars on the backdrop.

Have a nice weekend and stay warm, folks!

~maria

Postcards for the weekend 67: A cup of coffee

DE-6803592, Sent from Germany
Traveled 10,360 km in 16 days

Here is my first Postcards for the Weekend post. And unfortunately, it's another post that needs to start with another apology. I realized that I have edited the linky for the weekend of 16 Dec instead of creating a new one for last weekend. I'm truly sorry about this and for all the other weekends wherein I was late in posting. With work being constantly busy, I have been pondering again whether to discontinue the linky party or not. But then, I'm going to miss all my friends who have been sharing with me this Postcards for the Weekend tradition for more than a year now. So, I'm pushing on! 

DE-6790870, Sent from Halle
Traveled 10,029 km in 20 days

Here are a couple of postcards that I received yesterday. I guess, I just need more cups of coffee to stay on top of things ;-)

I wish you all a nice weekend,

~maria