The Smallest Town In The World

Hum is a town in the central part of Istria peninsula, northwest Croatia. This small fortified habitation has maintained all the features of medieval urban architecture and organization. It has a population of only 17 people (2001 census), but is officially a town, and is the Guinness World Record holder for the smallest town in the world.

Its cool to have one of the Guiness -ests in one's country..! It looks perfectly charming too - I just looove the stone houses and cobbled streets. I have never been there but is of course on my list. Hvala Nato! :))

Alan Ford Comic Book Characters

Another nostalgic childhood-reminder for today - these are vivid characters from the Italian comic book Alan Ford, created by Max Bunker (Luciano Secchi) and Magnus (Roberto Raviola) and in print since 1969. This comic was immensely popular in former Yugoslavia (sadly not in the rest of Europe). Here is the synopsis, I'm sure you'll rate it promising ;)

Group TNT is an assembly of misfit secret agents, who operate from a flower shop in New York City, USA, which they use as a front for their secret headquarters. They are incompetent and lazy, yet intelligent and cunning, especially when it suits their own personal interests.

Oh wow I had to edit a misquote about this comic on wikipedia! My first edit heh. Because someone suggested Alan Ford only gained popularity in the last decade. The 1st postcard shows the iron-fisted and shrewd leader, the wheelchair-ridden Number One, a Methusalem character who embezzles the millions paid to the group by American government or city fathers for secret missions, while paying a pittance to his agents. The 2nd is everyone's favourite - Grunf,  a naturalized German-born inventor who comes up with all sorts of inventions doomed to failure. They are just soooo much fun! :)))

Baška And Jurandvor, Island Krk, Croatia

Island Krk was supposed to be our largest island, but recent measurements supposedly show that the neighbouring island of Cres is of the same area - 405.78 km² (can it be, to the square centimetre?!). They are located near Rijeka in the Bay of Kvarner, North Adriatic.

Krk  has been inhabited without interruption since the Neolithic age. Its located rather near the mainland and has been connected to it via a 1430m two-arch concrete bridge since 1980, one of the longest concrete bridges in the world. Baška is a settlement on the island, a cultural and historical centre famous for its inscribed stone monument from 1100 and a hundred-year tradition in tourism. Nearby Jurandvor is the place where Baška tablet was discovered by scholars in 1851 - its one of the first monuments containing an inscription in the Croatian language, written in the Glagolitic script.

This was/is one of the most important lessons we learn in school :)

My sister went there on a trip with her family (there are many of her postcards yet to be shown here!) and to the serious subject of Croatian history she added this cool postcard :))

Donkey Design Postcards, Croatia

More of donkey postcards from Dalmatia, from the series 'one design, different towns'. From Ady and Jelena :)

Rovinj, Croatia

A gorgeous sunset view of Rovinj and a cute donkey is a surprise card from Adi :) Rovinj is an Istrian town situated on the western coast of the peninsula. I have been there once for a day, and i wish to visit again because its gorgeous! Hvala Adi xD

Friends, Dalmatia

This is a card that I have in my offers album but I was happy to receive it from dear Tina who was on her yearly holiday in Croatia and got it for me :) It is one of my favourite donkey cards because it is a reminder of past laborious times in my region...and what can I say about the stamp? It looks so delicious I wanted to bite that corner of the postcard off! Još jednom hvala Tina ;)

UNESCO - Trogir, Croatia

A lovely surprise from Ivana - hvala :)

The historic centre of Trogir is one of the seven croatian Unesco sites. The town was founded in the 3rd cent. BC by Greek colonists and developed into important port until the Roman period. In the 11th cent. a diocese was established and in 1107 it gained an autonomous status. Trogir is the best-preserved Romanesque-Gothic complex in the whole of central Europe.

Donkey - Shaped Card, Croatia

I have a sort of a small collection with this kind of card - same donkey, different city views inside. Beside Rovinj I think I also have Pula and Zadar. Hvala Ady :)

Donkey And Camel Kids

Ahh so cute! The card is from Turkey but sent from Croatia - hvala Nenade na super iznenađenju! :)))

New Croatian Autumn Donkeys

Hvala nt! xx Jednog dana kad budes napokon ovo citala :D
New additions from dear Nat, who is so eagerly feeding my mailbox :D

Cartoon Donkey From Pula

Dear Nata sent me this colourful donkey from Pula :) i've noticed there are more and more cartoon shaped cards in whole of Croatia every year..!

Olive Tree, Dalmatia

Lets start this day with a lovely olive tree, complete with a lovely olive tree stamp, Croatia :)))

Istrian Donkeys

My very dear postcrossing friend Natasha is always on a lookout for new donkey cards for my collection :=D Last time she sent a batch of four, and some more still trotting their way to my mailbox! Fala Nato, mislin da znaš koliko san oduševljena! <3

Medvedgrad/Zagreb, Croatia

This beautiful view of Zagreb from Medvedgrad was sent to me by my dear postcrossing-friend Goran :) I have been to Zagreb a few times, but never had the time or opportunity to visit the surrounding area.

Medvedgrad (bear-town) is a medieval fortified town on the southern slope of Medvednica mountain. It was built in the 13th century, after the devastating Mongol invasion. From here you can enjoy one of the most beautiful views of Zagreb, especially at night :)

Lace From Hvar

When i was a child i used to go to church a lot, which is something my mum encouraged. I enjoyed the stories from The Bible, the religious teachings...and at one opportunity, when i was visiting my cousin in Zadar as a 12-year-old, i met a really nice priest and a nun in the local church of St. Mary's Assumption. They later moved to Hvar, and i was sent these two postcards showing lace - which is made by the nuns from the Benedictine monastery in Hvar from the threads of agava leaves.

Hvar lace, together with Lepoglava lace and perhaps the most renowned Pag lace, was inscribed in the Unesco's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Croatian National Costumes

Fridays are not busy around here...not yet that is. Its a great opportunity to update my blog - not only with recently received cards, but also with some jewels from the archives :) I am a big fan of cards showing national costumes; alas i am not able to participate in tags and round robins with that theme, coz here in Croatia such cards are almost non-existant :( in my region Dalmatia most cards are related to the sea - which makes perfect sense of course, but please i beg you add some diversity!!! Croatia has such rich and interesting folklore, i am sure people would love to see it and show it to others!

And i will show you what i've got :)

This card shows the national costumes of a small seaside town Pakoštane. It is actually not far from where i live, but there is quite a difference from our local national costumes :) I've picked up this card...14 years ago, wow. i was still a student, and was in a stage of  'maniacal surge' as i was buying every postcard in sight (which seriously affected my monthly allowance...bellies were empty, ehm). I was sort of stashing them, which helped a bit later on when i started with the much better plan of actually exchanging them. This one i had to keep, it is sort of a rarity! (though i've never been to Pakoštane since, so i cannot really confirm this statement heh)

Another card very dear to me, and for an extra reason: it is from my mum's old collection. I was so excited when i found out that mum was also collecting postcards as a teenager :) She gave it up after she got married...but decided to keep what was there, and was happy to pass the collection on to me, (her sweet brilliant daughter :P)

The card shows a traditional festival called 'Đakovački Vezovi' (Embroideries of Djakovo). Djakovo is a small town in Slavonia region, 37km southwest of Osijek, with population of ca. 21 000 inhabitans. The festival was founded in 1967 and has become one of the regionally most popular festivals of its kind. It lasts for 2 weeks and usually ends on the 1st week of July, when the procession of the folklore groups from all over Croatia takes place. Would love to witness that one day..!

My Workplace

As the summer season is heating up, i've decided to show you my workplace (as i work in tourism) which happens to be my living place too..! This is why I am not able to send postcards everyday. So what i do is i stock up on cards and stamps when i'm home, and send the cards via the company boat.

The ACI marina Piškera is situated in the National Park Kornati.

There are no private houses on this island; the power is produced by generators, the water brought over by a boat. As there is no power from 12:00h-18:00h i have to sign off now heh. (and i've just realised i had written about Piškera when i started the blog last summer - but here is a postcard to visualise everything i was going on about.)

More Donkeys, Yay

This was a great surprise from Claire! I have a substantial collection of UK donkeys but am always superhappy about any new addition :D

Another surprise, this time from Goran, sent from his holiday in Zadar :)

My first bulgarian donkey, from the Rhodope Mountains! And a lovely stamp to accompany it :)

Donkeys!

My primary collection are donkeys :D

I have always loved donkeys. I have a blurry memory of my grandad having a donkey in a barn next to our house...but I must have been very little. Nowdays donkeys are becoming quite rare, in our region Dalmatia where they were a main mean of transport more than half a century ago. People were mainly living off land and its fruits, as well as the sea. Some fields - as I have learned myself recently - were off the main roads and up the rocky hills, and without donkeys people would have had real trouble reaching them.

In these new times the far-away fields have become neglected and almost everyone has a car. Last time I've seen donkeys was on a festivity in a nearby village, where a donkey race was held as a tourist attraction. There is a small island off the coast of Šibenik where all the remaining donkeys are being taken care of - its a comforting thought, that someone still cares for these creatures...

Anyways, these are some of the dearest postcards in my collection...