Postcards for the weekend 44: City views (day time)

For this weekend's theme, I'm featuring city views at day time from Europe:

Friendship Gift Postcard, Sent from Helsinki
Sent 28 Dec 2016, Traveled 9,259 km

The old buildings in Helsinki City Centre gave me peace and calm. I truly wish I had more than just a 2-day weekend to discover this European capital city. If I'm not mistaken, the tall building in the background is St. John's Church. It stands out tall compared to the rest as it's resting on a hill.

Friendship Gift Postcard, Sent from The Hague
Traveled 10,530 km

Some of you may know that I have a Dutch mom (my biological mother is Filipino but I have a second mom). She sent me this postcard from the city where she works. I will visit Amsterdam this August and I'm figuring out if it's worth it to visit The Hague as well. I like this postcard for showing a contrast of old and new buildings.

Friendship Gift Postcard from Madrid
Traveled 11,374 km

Madrid ranks high on my list of cities I want to explore in depth in Europe. Here's Metropolis Building, an architectural wonder at the corner of Calle Alcala and Gran Via. The building features 4 statues representing Mining, Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce. Its round tower is covered by 30,000 leaves of 24-k gold.

Direct Swap, Sender: Anna
Traveled 10,059 km

Of all these five postcards, this is my favorite. I reckon this picture is taken close to the golden hour. I probably wouldn't have known about Ljubljana if not for this postcard. I don't know how to pronounce this city's name either so I need to ask Google for help. 

Friendship Gift Postcard, Sender: Dr. Arnold
Sent 12 March 2017, Traveled 10,252 km

This postcard steals my attention from that of Ljubljana. The buildings are way so much taller at one part of this city. Excellent vantage point for this postcard!

~ maria

You spoke, and I listened :D Starting this weekend, the time span of the linky is extended to 12 hours more, to accommodate different time zones.

Postcards for the weekend 38: Traditional festival

Direct Swap, Sender: Meylinda from Hong Kong
Sent: 19 Sep 2012, Traveled 1,129 km

Although I don't totally agree with seeing these children in what seems to be heavy facial make-up, it appears that it is part of the over-all traditional costume. The back of this card reads:

Cheung Chau Island Bun Festival. The children in the procession are the stars of the Bun Festival. Aged between five and eight, they are supported on frames and carried shoulder-high throughout the whole parade to create an elaborate, often whimsical tableau, often representing characters in history or mythology. 

 This festival is celebrated on the eighth day of the fourth month in Chinese Calendar. It usually coincides with Buddha's birthday (April/May). 

BY-691110, Sent by Marina from Minsk, Belarus
Sent: 1 Dec 2012, Traveled 8,926 km in 61 days

Despite my increasingly overwhelming tasks at work and frequent business trips, one of the reasons why I keep on writing about my postcards collection is the mix of emotions I get whenever I review my postcards album. Just like with this postcard, it's kind of hard to believe that it took 2 months to reach me! Wow! Having moved to Singapore, the postcards I receive normally traveled only for a week or two. I don't understand why most of my received postcards, while I was still in the Philippines, seem like they traveled forever to reach me when my home is less than 30 minutes by car from the post office ... well, okay, fair enough, perhaps the postman is always stuck in heavy traffic!

Moving on, this postcard shows the celebration of the Day of Belarusian Written Language in Kamenets. I didn't have the chance to find out on what year this took place. For this year, this festival will take place in Polotsk. Belarus is celebrating 500th Anniversary of the Belarusian Book Printing this year, 2017. More information on this festival can be found here: http://www.belarus.by/en/about-belarus/culture/den_bel_pism_en

SI-52097, Sender: Emil from eastern Slovenia
Sent: 20 Jan 2012, Traveled 9,938 km in 14 days

I'm quite pleased with the assortment of postcards I found for the theme this weekend: featuring children, to grown-ups, to animated creatures. This third and last postcard shows the Ptuj carnival called Kurentovanje. This carnival is celebrated to preserve the tradition for the ancient rite of spring. It usually lasts for a period of eleven days and consists of music and dancing, with the Kurent groups in masks with feathers and horns. I found this excellent page about the carnival, containing a detailed explanation about the masks and the costumes: http://www.slovenia.si/culture/tradition/kurents/

This theme educated me about traditional festivals that I'm sure I wouldn't have known at all if not for these postcards. Have a nice weekend everyone although it's a nay for me as I'm working both on Saturday & Sunday.

~maria

Stamps: Foods of the world

The stamps on top are food I'm most familiar with:

Satay from Indonesia - locally, satay is pronounced as sate. There are many variants and Sate Tambulinas (beef) is the most favored in Sulawesi, the western part -- according to my research. What sets apart the Indonesian satay from other skewers is the use of turmeric in the marinade. Normally, I get my satay with diced onions and sliced cucumber relish and the best part, peanut sauce.

Roast goose from Hong Kong - this I believe is the "star" on the menu for most of the Chinese restaurants. It's crispy on the outside and tender in the inside. Here in Singapore, we often get the roast duck version. I'm not sure if I've ever tried roast goose at all.

The stamps at the bottom are foreign to me:

Kranjska klobasa from Slovenia - In English, it's Carniolan sausage. From my research, Slovenia has successfully entered it into PGI status. The sausage are joined at the ends by wooden skewers; often coming in pair. It's often served with bun and mustard.

Karjalanpiirakka from Finland - The pie has a TSG status in Europe. I'm a bit confused about the ingredients of this pie. In the end settled with, "This is rice pie but not any rice pie, it's a rice pie from Karelia." I read that the release of this stamp caused an online protest because it shows a store-bought pie not a traditional home-made version.

For more gastronomic stamps, check the page -- See it on a postcard.

~maria

Locked in love!

I am really fatigued today but I don't want to miss joining Guest Heart Thursday

twice in a row... My contribution for this week:

It came with a heart postcard, which can be found here. And I just realized,

how appropriate, I entitled that previous post, "Loving through death" and this one

 is "Locked in love!" -- this lovely coincidence warms up my heart 

and really justifies my staying up longer tonight for a GHT entry.

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It's a greeting stamp - pendant issued by Pošta Slovenije on 25 January 2013. 

The description for the stamp at the www.posta.si website reads:

"The latest greetings stamp bears the motif of one of the padlocks whose number 

is effectively growing from day  to day at the new Mesarski Most bridge in Ljubljana. 

By hanging up a locked padlock,  couples make a symbolic manifestation 

of their commitment to eternal love..."

------------------------------------------

I'm keeping this short and closing my eyes as soon as I post this...

I still have to wake up at 5:30 AM tomorrow, wish me sweet dreams, please. Thanks!

~maria

Loving through death

Sl-77760, Sender: Leonardo
Sent: 20 May 2013, Sent from Ljubljana, Slovenia
Received: 30 May 2013, Traveled 10,069 km in 10 days

What it's like to be a human --

It's dying without love

It's loving through death.

- Funny, Anna Kamieńska

~maria

Flowers of the earth

We're having an odd summer here in the Philippines. It has been raining at days when the sun is supposed to be showcasing its boldest grandeur...and ok, I stumbled upon this English proverb:

April showers bring forth May flowers. ^____^

Aha! That doesn't make me so grumpy about the rain and the floods anymore. Yep, May will be here soon. The young children will need an abundance of blooms to offer to the Virgin Mary every evening. Flores de Maria had always been something for me to look forward into for summer breaks from school.

My grandparents from both sides of the family grew flowers and vegetable garden. I remember both the impatience and amazement in watching the buds becoming more beautiful each day. I also remember the disappointment when the flowers are starting to wilt. How I wished the flowers would stay vibrant forever...held by sturdy stems. But they didn't and they won't. I guess that's life. But with every dying flower is a promise of another beauty waiting to be discovered somewhere in the garden :)

So much for my recollection and back to the topic: SUNDAY STAMPS :D I was unable to post stamps for quite a while now. I'm making up for that today. Since it's flowers/spring theme in Viridian's this week, here are the rest of the flower stamps from my collection:

My favorite! Red tulips are associated with eternal true love.

A 2007 flower stamp from Czechoslovakia. 

Cylamen is both a scientific and common name.

It is also called sowbread, persian violet, or primrose.

Issued in 18 March '09 under the Holy Days & Celebrations.

I wish someone can tell me what flower is this exactly...please.

I am taking a wild guess that it belongs to the genus Tagetes.

I need help on these stamps, too. I don't know how to read Japanese characters :(

My grandma's favorite!

 The flower that knows its chemistry --

The petals would be pink, purple, or blue depending on the soil's pH.

I was searching for info about this stamp, and here's what I found:

The deep blue color of the iris is associated with nobility --

its three petals symbolizes valor, wisdom and faith.

In mythology, Iris is the goddess of the rainbow.

In historical context, it's the fleur-de-lis of the French monarchy.

The greater pasque flower is listed under 'Jewels of Nature' 

in the official travel guide website of Slovenia.

And here's a flower art in stamp from Croatia. The design was made by

Orsat Frankovic and Ivana Vucic. This was a part of the 

Croatian Ethnographic Heritage - Posavina series.

I hope you enjoyed these flower stamps. Happy Sunday everyone and have a great week ahead!

~maria

p.s. If you want to see some flower stamps from my country, find them here.