15 November 2014

Les îles du Salut

Not to be confused with the independent country Guyana.
French Guiana is further East, and spaceport of the European Space Agency ESA.

postcard, french guiana
Click to enlarge
The pictures are from the Islands of Salvation near the coast of French Guiana. I'm also attaching two pictures of the envelope, which I find particularly pretty:

french guiana, envelope


french guiana, envelope


All the stamps you can find in French Guiana are French, too, and the Euro is used as currency. Here, you can see Marianne, a national symbol of France. At least I think it's here. Hope I'm not confusing her with Marlène or Marie, she would be furious.

stamp, france, french guiana, 20g

10 November 2014

Republic square

postcard, armenia, yerevan
Click to enlarge
Here you can see government building of Armenia, to be found at Republic square in Yerevan. It used to be called Lenin square and even featured a large statue of the communist politician, which was later replaced by a TV monitor. The clock you can see on the tower is 4 meters wide. Amazing!

The symbols are letters from the Armenian Alphabet, Ը and Ճ.

stamps, armenia, alphabet, Ը, Ճ

Mountains and tits

postcard, andorra
Click to enlarge

A beautiful view of Escaldes-Engordany, second largest town of Andorra. This country is located in the Pyrenees mountains, between France and Spain. On the left of the picture, you can already see parts of Andorra la Vella, the capital. The building in in the middle with the pointy blue tower
Centre Termolúdic Caldae, a spa.

I've also received some Eurasian blue tits (cyanistes caeruleus). They look hot.

stamp, andorra, cyanistes caeruleus, eurasian blue tits

A Winter View

postcard, Russia, kremlin
Click to enlarge
This is the kremlin in Penza, a town of half a million inhabitants, some 600km southwestern of Moscow. The picture was taken in 1913 and you can see the town's kremlin on it. A year after that, the Russian Empire got involved in World War I. Four years later, two revolutions turned the country upside-down, leading to a civil war and, ultimately, the foundation of the Soviet Union.

More pretty kremlins can be found on the stamps.
On the left: Kazan Kremlin.
On the right: Ryazan Kremlin.

kremlin, kazan, ryazan

Gamcheon Culture Village

postcard, south korea, busan
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This is Gamcheon, a village near Busan, the second largest town of South Korea. The village is quite famous for its curious looks and some movies were shot there. You can read a more detailed report about this place here.

06 November 2014

Piazza del Plebiscito


postcard, italy, piazza del plebiscito
click to enlarge
This beautiful card is from - you may have guessed already - Napoli. The piazza del plebiscito sees a lot of visitors particularly at nighttime. The church with the large cupola on the right is called San Francesco di Paola. You can see the Mediterranean Sea in the back and the Vesuvius would be on the left if the card was even wider.

The stamp is from the national instruments series and shows the launeddas, a Sardinian woodwind instrument.

stamp, italy, europe

Petronas Towers

postcard, malaysia, kuala lumpur, suria KLCC
click to enlarge
Backside:
 "Suria KLCC, the podium block of PETRONAS Twin Towers, houses a shopping complex, art gallery, a petrol-science centre and the PETRONAS Philharmonic Orchestra Hall."

 The left stamp shows Rambutan (nephelium lappaceum), a plant similar to lychee. On the right, you can see two lotus flowers.


lotus, rambutan, nelumbium nelumbo, nephelium lappaceum