Merry Christmas 2015

Dear all, wishing you a Merry Christmas.

Lots of greetings from Finland's friend, Kirsimarja. She wrote on his postcard, "Lapland is the northeast part of Finland. People there have many different roots as else Finnish people."

On the postcard, there are activities like skiing, washing gold, fishing, and of course Santa Claus and reindeer.    

Native land (Oma maa) Finland

I received this awesome map postcard from Minna Susanne of Finland. 

She told me that in this postcard, I can know what are the Finns love..like bread, ice hockey, coffee, nature, Santa Claus (of course), northern light and etc. She also mentioned about Red House.

Did you noticed that the majority of all buildings (homes, barns, boat houses, every shed) are in red ? 

  

Restored Castles, France

The famous 
The Château de La Roche is a restored castle situated in the Saint-Priest-la-Roche, 20 km from Roanne. The castle stands on an island in the lake formed by the Villerest dam

Americae nova Tabula (New Map of America)

Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571-1638)

An important early map of Western Hemisphere. 

The above was in Le Grand Atlas,  French version. 

Native people of Greenland, Virginia, Florida, South America are shown in the ten vignettes.

A gorgeous World Map send by Kitty of Nederland.  

Cantons of Switzeland

I received this postcard from Gabriela of Switzerland. 

A country that looks so far away from where I am today. 

The Switzerland government, parliament and courts are organised on 3 levels, i.e. 

(1) Federal  

(2) 26 cantons (until 1976 : 25 cantons) 

(3) Communal 

The above postcard shows 25 nos of Coat of Arms in which Appenzell Ausserrhoden & Appenzell Innerrhoden counted as one. 

Slovakia Map Postcard

Rastislav of Zvolen send me this awesome Map Postcard. He is also nicely decorate the postcard, with beautiful stamps and stickers. Thank you !  

The postcard showing the major tourist attractions in Slovakia, like Banska Stiavnica, Bardejov, Spis castle, Vlkolinec, Wooden Churches)

Despite its rather small size, Slovakia offers great diversity of landscapes, untouched nature, numerous magic castles and charming historic towns.   

Slovakia stamps

441/2005 - Church in Pominovce

331/2013 - 20th Anniversary of Slovak Republic

567/2014 - Prezident of SR Andrej KISKA

Turkish Carpets / Rugs

A guide to Turkish Carpets / Rugs

Turkish rugs are usually woven on a wool or cotton foundation and the pile is usually made with good quality wool. The traditional style Turkish carpets are named for the city or region in which they were first made, similar to Persian carpets.

some of the rug types are : -

Bergama (Bergamo, Pergamum)

Turkish Kazak

Turkish Kilim

Turkish Sparta (Isparta)

A Comparative View of Waterfalls, Islands, Lakes, Rivers and Mountain in The Eastern Hemisphere

Katya of Moscow send me this Comparative View Postcard of the Eastern Hemisphere.

The Map Postcard depicting the comparative size of various mainland, such as Madagascar, Borneo, Sumatra, Java and etc. 

Mediterranean Sea, Caspian Sea , Bearing Sea, East & South China Sea, and Arabian Sea are located at Eastern Hemisphere.  

  

Further reading in World Atlas : A great circle divides the Earth into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres and is referenced by two Meridians. 

The Prime Meridian is the line of longitude at which longitude is defined to be 0°.

All countries located to the east of the Prime Meridian (0° longitude) are in the Eastern Hemisphere, while countries located to the west is called as Western Hemisphere. Asia and Australia are the only two continents that are entirely in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Map of Old Tokyo

I received this Map of Old Tokyo postcard from Terue. 

She told me that the old map was made in 1849. The central empty part is Castle, Edo-jo where a shogun (General) lived in those days. It is the Imperial place now. 

Inspiration : Illustration Map in making

Artwork : Aunyarat Watanabe. Aunyarat won 4th place runner-up in Creative & Curious Map Contest. 

Artwork : Silpakorn University in Bangkok by Ruji Techawieset

Artwork : Glimpse of Yangon, Myanmar by Ohn Mar WIN . 

Source : They Draw and Travel 

Inspired by the submission of stunning Illustrated maps by all illustrator around the world in They Draw and Travel. The social media platform is created by Nate Padavick and Salli Swindell, a brother and sister team. Nate and Salli have a passion for travel and they draw inspiration from new locales and come up with some of their best artistic creations while on the road exploring! 

Welcome to Russia (Map)

I received a postcard from Helena, posted from Russia.

In fact, the three colours i.e. white, blue and red horizontally lay on the Map Postcard represent the tricolor flag of the Russian Federation.

Suomi Finland Map Postcard

Mitä kuuluu? (MEE-ta KOO-loo?) means "How are you" in Finnish. 
My first Map Postcard received in 2015 via Postcrossing portal. 
This Map Postcard incorporates Things-to-Do and Flora fauna of Finland. 
Finland (in Swedish) and Suomi (in Finnish). Finland is a Nordic country in Northern Europe bordered by Sweden to the west, Norway to the north and Russia to the east. 

Iconic Map of Turkey

Sandy from Hong Kong sent me an Iconic Postcard.
It's obvious that the country shows in the postcard is the Republic of Turkey as the country's coastline bordering the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea.  

Sandy pasted some beautiful Hong Kong stamps showing the Po Pin Chau , Collared Scops Owl and Year of Horse.   

Map and Scenery of Saône-et-Loire, France

 A very cute postcard I received from Anne, France. 

The puppy holding a calligraphy pen :)

Beautiful Saône-et-Loire is located at south of Burgundy. The place is well known for its Romanesque church and castle. The gastronomic specialties such as Charolais beef, the Bresse poultry and Maconnais Wines.

If I have given a chance to visit this place, I would like to include Roche de Solutré (Solutré Rock) ~ a prehistoric site and The Paray-le-Monial basilica (remarkable Romanesque art) in my travel plan. 

  

The French stamp depicting Marianne, designed by Ciappa & Kawena

Lithuania adopt Euro

Received from Gintare from Lithuania. 

She told me that starting from Jan 1,2015 , Litas (Lithuanian Currency) 

was replaced by the Euro. This made Lithuania, the last three Baltic states to adopt the euro, 

after Estonia (2011) and Latvia (2014).

The postcard received and posted on my sister-blog 

from 2009, 2010 & 2011 showed the stamps in Lithuanian Litas (LT) unit. 

National Park : Bayerischer Wald

The postcard was sent by Gigi on Feb 2015 and pasted the matching flora fauna stamp on the postcard. She mentioned in the postcard that there was a lot of snows in Feb.

This postcard shows the Bavarian Forest National Park during winter time and  Bayerischer Wald (Wald is meant as 'forest' in German) is the first National Park in Germany. The National Park extends to Czech side.  

Shanghai Map Postcard

I was over the moon when the postcard from Ming of China delivered to my doorstep on Mar 2015. This is an uneven shaped postcard, roughly measured 19 x 13cm 

The blue lake is known as Shichaihai (大运河~什刹海) which comprising of Qianhai (前海)、

Houhai (后海) and Xihai (西海). The brown-ish square icons, old buildings once lived by famous people like Former Residence of Song Ching Ling, Mao Ze Dong, Feng Guo Zhang, Zhang ZhiDong, Guo Mo Rou, Mei Lan Fang scatter in this area.

What amaze me about this postcard is the detailed drawing of each building, especially on the roof design. Most of the old buildings are adopting Hsuan-Shan (悬山) rooftop construction, which is considered commonly used in traditional civil building in China since the Song Dynasty (about 10th Century A.D.). 

The reason of Hsuan-Shan rooftop is widely used in southern China due to it's rainproof functionality.    

This little map postcard surely will help me and you if you are planning to travel to Shanghai. 

Map of Belarus's famous Architecture

The image of architecture of Belarus in anticlockwise direction, start from 9 o clock.. 

Mir Castle Complex, Kosava Castle, Palance and Park Ensemble in Homiem St Barbara's Church AND

Architectural, Residential and Cultural Complex of the Radzivils in Niasviz at the middle