Les Pelerins de les Useres

The Pilgrims of Les Useres ( H.V. Portola, 1983. )

Wow today i really need to put some effort in finding the supporting info for my blog! It didnt help that 'les pelerins' was spelt 'els pelegrins' on the card heh. But eventually i found out more about the interesting ritual on this photo.

In the spanish province of  Castellón (between Barcelona and Valencia) a pilgrimage takes place every year on the last friday of April. The 700 -year-old tradition sees the pilgrims of the village Les Useres setting out on their two-day walk to the sacred mountain of Penyagolosa to pray for rain and forgiveness. There are 13 hand-picked men dressed in special blue robes, accompanied by the village priests, but also the locals who carry supplies for the journey.

Private swap with Masha/forelka - thanks! :)

Sarah Kay

I was asked for a private swap, and chose this Sarah Kay card as i have none yet :) it reminds me of my childhood, more precisely of....is Miss Petticoat by Sarah Kay?! It looks like it may be, but i havent found much information on either...but thru this research i've discovered there are miss petticoat sticker albums for sale online, wow it would be so cool to have one of those as i used to collect the stickers  <3

I love it when something happens which triggers memories of times way passed, esp as i have such a weak memory capacity (my brain is like a piece of swiss cheese, i sometimes say :))  In any case, many Sarah Kay cards are somewhat too cutesy and romantic, but some are worth having!

Thank you Eule for this swap :)

Mucha - Lefèvre-Utile

 Cookie Box Label

Lefèvre-Utile (LU) is a brand of French biscuits, emblematic of the city of Nantes. The brand was founded in 1846; since 2007 it  is part of Kraft Foods.

Mucha did the lithograph for Lefèvre-Utile biscuits in 1896 - the whole picture is in my favourites :) this is a detail of that lithograph with different design for petites gaufrettes vanille - small vanilla wafers. yum :)))

Tagged in one of the offers tags, received from Siya/toy1001, thank you!

Ad Cards, Brazil

Photography Exhibition in Rio de Janeiro - 'Guardians of the Amazon Forest' 

 David Lynch - 'The dark Side of the Soul'

 Seabed 3D - Imax

Normally i dont exchange ad cards in an envelope - but the donkey card was just too good to be missed, and it had no place in the back whatsoever to put the address or the stamps. The same handicap follows the other two cards, so i was happy to get an envelope. It was great to swap with Cristina - obrigada :)

UNESCO - Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto - Ragusa, Italy

Ragusa is a town on the italian island of Sicily; it is roughly divided into Lower and Upper town, Ragusa Ibla being the lower, historic quarter. Together with seven other late baroque towns in the Val di Noto it has entered the whs Unesco list :)

Accidentally, Ragusa is also an italian name for the croatian pearl Dubrovnik..!

Pippi Långstrump, Sweden

The Pippi Langstrumpf card - complete with matching stamp! - was sent to me from a postcrossing meeting in Stockholm :) thanks to Anja from Germany! I hope they all had a wonderful time; I so hope to participate in one of these meetings soon...at least a small Croatian one :)

I guess Pippi Langstrumpf/Longstockings (written by Astrid Lindgren) is one of the most popular characters from children's classic books. I remember dressing up like her during the carnival, and jumping around leading the parade! Sometimes i wonder at myself for being so brave heh.



Gromit of 'Wallace&Gromit'

'Sixty seconds to blast-off...' - from 'A Grand Day Out'



Thanks to a private swap with Claire i FINALLY got my very 1st Wallace&Gromit card! I am a huge fan of this duo, esp Gromit as he is just sooooooo cute..! <3

The series contains four animated short films and a feature-length film. I have seen the first three shorties and can highly recommend them (esp if you are into quirky british humour): A Grand Day Out ('89), The Wrong Trousers ('93) & A Close Shave ('95). And of course the movie: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit ('05).

These fellas are made from moulded plasticine modelling clay on metal armatures, and filmed with stop motion clay animation. Their brilliant creator is Nick park of Aardman Animations - a studio based in Bristol (UK) and also responsible for the movies Chicken Run ('00) & Flushed Away ('06).

Recently i've also watched  Morph, which appears to be the first clay character this studio created, back in 1977! we are the same age :)))

Estonian Folklore

This card shows Laulu- ja tantsupidu / National Song and Dance Festival, which is held every five years in July (the last one in 2009). The festival is on the Unesco's Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage. The conductor Gustav Ernesaks (stamp) is one of the father figures of the Estonian Song Festival Tradition :) Thank you eret for sending this via CaCrr ;)

Terskey-Alatau Mountain Range, Kyrgyzstan

I was stoked when i received a request for private swap from Kyrgyzstan - it is not that easy to get a card from this enigmatic country! I received this great card showing the panoramic view (Teskey-Alatau) AND the native animal, reed wild cat :)))

Terskey-Alatau (or Teskey Ala-Too) is a mountain range in Tien-Shan, a large mountain system situated in central Asia (also spreading through China, Pakistan, India, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan...wow massive). The length of this range is 354km and the highest peak is staggering 5216m high!

The reed wild cat is actually called the jungle cat. though it inhabits savannas, tropical dry forests and reedbeds. It can be found in the large area from egypt in the west to Indochina in the east. Its quite common in India but on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species elsewhere. The jungle cat is considered to be the largest remaining species of the wild cat genus Felis - ranging from 55 to 94cm in length!

Thank you very much Anna for this swap, and wonderful stamps! One of them is from the sheet of 10, celebrating 2200 years of the Kyrgyz statehood. Sharban Baatyr is an important person in the Kyrgiz history but i cant find any information online! :( The other one shows folk art, beautiful :)

Slovenian Animals

Slovenia is a beautiful country bordering Croatia to the north - just how beautiful it is i will show one day when i post the cards from my journey :) in the meantime here are two great animal cards that i received via tags!

Slovenia' terrain is mostly hilly or mountainous, and over half of the country is covered with forests (i wish we had forests around here!). In the Kočevje area is the largest remnant of primeval forests in the country, situated in the far south. There live these cute creatures, the brown bears.

Received from Vesna - thank you!!!

Now this is something really special - an animal specific in so many ways, it is a challenge to name them all here! In school we learnt about Olm as the endemic species of the ex-yugoslavian state, as it only lives in the river Soča basin, southern Slovenia, southwestern Croatia and Herzegovina.

It is only now that i learnt its english and latin names (Proteus), as we always called it 'čovječja ribica', meaning 'man fish' or 'human fish' - because of the colour of its skin, which lacks pigmentation due to underground dwelling. For the same reason this amphibian is blind and entirely aquatic.

I think this is a wonderful photo to represent the Olm, thank you Tina! :))

August Official Cards

In august I've sent the maximum of offical cards, twice (13 cards). As many have been registered lately i am eagerly awaiting what is to arrive from destinations unknown! the last three that i've received were quite strange in a way...Actually one is a self-printed oversized photo-card from a journey, which makes it interesting and special :) The 2nd one is...i dont know, strange art! The 3rd one is a reprint of an old ad and equally strange with the satan lurking in the background, brrr. heh.

 US-1215801

 FI-1152960

DE-989992

Key West, Florida

Key West is the southernmost city in the Continental United States. It is situated some 200km southwest of Miami, and 170km north of Cuba. Its best-known as a seaport destination for passenger cruise ships, and is also a starting point for visiting the nearby Florida Keys, a coral archipelago.
You can see the Seven Mile Bridge, one of the longest when it was built. It connects Knight's Key to Little Duck Key in the Lower Keys and is almost 11km long.

My friend Ash ( a frequent 'visitor' of my blog) was stationed there for a short period in July. As always he was so thoughtful to send cards to show the places he's been to :))

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

Irish Countryside

I think Ireland is one of those countries everyone is in love with <3

Another card from sister's drawer (she has helped me a lot in enlargening my collection, what with her received cards, what with sending me many on her own :*) - typical irish countryside scene, almost dreamlike...makes you wanna take off your shoes and run up the hills...! (i also love talking to sheep :D)

The Fruits Of Sicily - And Yes A Donkey!

And so the time fliiiiiiiiiies when one is busy...i cannot believe its been so long since my last post...! but the peak of the tourist season is definately over, at least in the nautical sector...and after a zillion changes in travelling plans, stapling my own finger, being sent to a different work station over the weekend - i can more-or-less peacefully continue (while hoping for a few days off to go home...)

Today i will only post two random cards from my collection, as it will be tomorrow that i'll be back at my pc desk.



This card was sent to my sis from a dear friend while she was on vacation. such a bright card, i love it! And of course the donkey is there too :) Its still very hot here in Dalmatia, and these images seem to suit the overall mediterranean atmosphere (we are eating grapes grown in the garden) :)))

Arad Fort, Bahrain

Another great swap on the official site - written(but not)stamped card from Bahrain, my 1st from there!

The card shows the Arad Fort, built in the 15th century in the typical islamic style of that time. Due to its strategic location overlooking many sea passages of Muhharaq Island it was used as a defensive fortress throughout the centuries. Last time it was restored in the 1980s using traditional materials (coral stone, lime, tree trunks) to keep the authenticity.

Saleh was even so thoughtful to write a few words in Croatian - thank you! :))

The Jersey Cow

 A Milkmaid with Jersey Cow and Calf

Until now i had a few Jersey cards in my collection, but none were addressed to me - so i was really happy when i managed to arrange a private swap on the official postcrossing web-site :) I love this vintage-looking card showing the well-known Jersey cattle originally bred on the island. Its a breed of small dairy cattle, highly regarded for the high butterfat content of its milk, and the lower maintenance costs.

The milkmaid is wearing the traditional Jersey folk costume :=D

Thank you Martin for this great swap!

Golden Spike Locomotives, USA

     Locomotives at the joining of the transcontinental rails reenactment at

Golden Spike national Monument, Promontory Summit, Utah.

Old locomotives are sooo cool :))) Vacation RR - big thanks to Tina/mmtnsage :=D

Monasteries In Serbia

Ahh I struggle once more to keep everything up to date...its been the busiest period at work, so when am at work (i.e. at the pc) what i do most is trying to correspond with the Italians..!

I've received so many lovely cards lately that i refuse to miss posting any of them here - one of them is this great postcard showing Serbian monasteries, from Ana of course..! I love monasteries, and i really hope that i can visit an orthodox one some time soon. The one down left is the most famous Serbian monastery called Studenica, dating from the 12th century, and listed on the whs unesco list :) I've seen (online) an aerial view of the whole complex, its looks absolutely stunning! It is situated in central Serbia, 39 km from the town of Kraljevo. Its perhaps most renowned for the frescoes dating from the 13th and 14th centuries.

Hvala Ana, da znaš kako mi dođe da ih sve posjetin! A o markicama da i ne pričan, stvarno su prekrasne :)))

Aniva Lighthouse, Russia

 Series 'Lighthouses of Russia'

Lighthouse Aniva, Sakhalin, Sea of Okhotsk

This beautiful, dramatic picture is of the Aniva lighthouse, one of the abandoned Russian Polar Nuclear lighthouses built in the time of the USSR. These lighthouses had to be fully autonomous, so the Soviet engineers decided to implement atomic energy to power up those structures - which was done in a form of  special lightweight atomic reactors. These lighthouses were kind of robot-structures; they counted themselves the time of the year and the length of the daylight, turned the lights on when needed and sent radio signals to the nearby ships. How impressive! I love these history lessons :)

The card was in my favs until i hosted my group in vacation rr, and Elena sent me the card, with a new set of stamps showing cascades - thank you :)

Donkeys - Cyprus and Greece

Both donkeys are from Violeta - forever thankful for these additions to my collection! :=D

The 1st donkey is sent from a holiday in Cyprus, the 2nd is a Greek donkey sent from Romania.

Île de Ré Donkeys

This brilliant card which combines donkeys and a lighthouse came from private swap with Claudia :) She lives in the US but the donkeys are of Île de Ré, a French island off the western/atlantic coast, connected with a 2.9-km bridge to the town of La Rochelle.

The donkeys that live on Île de Ré are a rare race - their fur grows very long and then becomes dreadlock-like! If you look closely you can see on this photo that their fur is trimmed :) The cute pants were originally created to protect them from bugs as they used to work in the salt marshes of the island. I guess these days they are quite a tourist attraction, would love to see them one day! Thank you Claudia :)))

Donkeys From Round Robins

I have received these two donkey postcards some months ago - it is high time to post them here :) The 1st one might be a mule, but thats alright cos i love mules too! Thanks to Michigirl and Jacqueline :)

Milky Way Galaxy

 Heart Of The Milky Way

   

A never-before-seen view of the turbulent heart of our Milky Way galaxy provided by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and its companion Great Observatories (the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory) commemorated the 400 years since Galileo first turned his telescope to the heavens in 1609.

Need i say more? This text at the back of the card sez it all..:)

I am always sooo happy to get cosmos cards - this one is thanks to Jorg/jhbr and the CaCrr :))

Kjeragbolten, Norway

This amazing card was doomed to sitting around in my favourites - until i joined the Norway group in Vacation RR , and Svea brought a smile to my face :) I can only imagine she had a great holiday! Million thanks :)))

Kjerag is  Norwegian mountain in Lysefjorden, Forsand municipality. most visitors are attracted to the northern drop to the fjord, as that is the location of this cool rock called Kjeragbolten. The place is becoming more and more popular with BASE jumpers who dive off the high cliffs, and of course hiking and climbing are other popular activities. I really wish i was an out-doorsy type as places like this make me feel like i'm missing out on so much!!!

Ural Owl, Estonia

This beautiful bird is a Ural Owl, found in Europe and northern Asia. It usually occupies open woodland, prefers moist to dry areas and nests in hollow tree trunks. It can be aggressive and attack humans esp if the youngs are around! But the calling is soft and deep :)

Thanks to Eda/Pihlakas and animals offer tag :)