Lithuania

Received from: Lithuania
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: July 2012
Distance: 461 km
Time of travelling: 11 days

Taiwan

Received from: Taiwan
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: July 2012
Distance: 8503 km
Time of travelling: 11 days

The Taiwan Lantern Festival is an annual event hosted by the Tourism Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taiwan to celebrate the Lantern Festival.
During the Taiwan Lantern Festival, thousands of sky lanterns light over Pingxi District in Taiwan. In Yanshui District, the firecrackers ceremony of Wumiao Temple is also one of the important activities. The Tainan Yanshui Fireworks Display ("beehive of fireworks") was originally celebrated to ward of evil and disease from the town. The Taipei Pingshi Sky Lanterns were released originally to let others know that the town was safe. These lanterns are decorated with wishes and images relating to the owner. These two events are known together as "Fireworks in the South, Sky Lanterns in the North."

Tyumen

Received from: Russia
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: July 2012
Distance: 2865 km
Time of travelling: 19 days

During the initial stages of World War II, when there was a possibility that Moscow would fall to the advancing German Army, Tyumen also became a refuge for the body of the deceased Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin. Lenin's body was secretly moved from Lenin's mausoleum in Moscow to a hidden tomb located in what is now the Tyumen State Agriculture Academy (former Tyumen Agriculture Institute).

Cavalaire

Received from: France
Category: from a friend
Date: July 2012


Cavalaire-sur-Mer is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.

Das Weiltal

Received from: Germany
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: July 2012
Distance: 903 km
Time of travelling: 17 days

Florence

From: Italy
Category: My collection
Date: July 2012
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area.

Odessa

Received from: Ukraine
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: July 2012
Distance: 953 km
Time of travelling: 9 days

Odessa is a warm water port. The city of Odessa hosts two important ports: Odessa itself and Yuzhne (also an internationally important oil terminal), situated in the city's suburbs. Another important port, Illichivs'k, is located in the same oblast, to the south-west of Odessa. Together they represent a major transport hub integrating with railways. Odessa's oil and chemical processing facilities are connected to Russia's and EU's respective networks by strategic pipelines.

Norway

Received from: Norway
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: July 2012
Distance: 1814 km
Time of travelling: 4 days

Venice

From: Italy
Category: My collection
Date: July 2012
Venice is a city in northeast Italy sited on a group of 118 small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges. It is located in the marshy Venetian Lagoon which stretches along the shoreline between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Venice is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. The city in its entirety is listed as World Heritage Site, along with its lagoon.

Florence

Received from: Italy
Category: private
Date: July 2012

Florence is famous for its history. A centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time, Florence is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1870 the city was also the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy.

Karkonosze

Received from: Poland
Category: from family
Date: July 2012

Krkonoše is a mountain range located in the north of the Czech Republic and the south-west of Poland, part of the Sudetes mountain system (part of the Bohemian Massif). The Czech-Polish border, which divides the historic regions of Bohemia and Silesia, runs along the main ridge. The highest peak, Sněžka (Polish: Śnieżka, German: Schneekoppe), is the Czech Republic's highest point with an elevation of 1,602 metres (5,256 ft).

Venice

From: Italy
Category: My collection
Date: July 2012

San Giorgio Maggiore is one of the islands of Venice, northern Italy, lying east of the Giudecca and south of the main island group. The isle is surrounded by Canale della Grazia, Canale della Giudecca, Saint Mark Basin, Canale di San Marco and the southern lagoon. It forms part of the San Marco sestiere.

Belo Horizonte

Received from: Brazil
Category: City you live in tag
Date: July 2012

Belo Horizonte (Beautiful Horizon) is the capital and largest city in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, located in the southeastern region of the country. It is the third largest metropolitan area in the country. Belo Horizonte (short names: "Belô", "Beagá", or "BH") has a population of 2,475,440 inhabitants (2010) in the city and 5,497,922 people in the official Metropolitan Area (2010).

Florence

From: Italy
Category: My collection
Date: July 2012
The Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge") is a Medieval stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge over the Arno River, in Florence, Italy, noted for still having shops built along it, as was once common. Butchers initially occupied the shops; the present tenants are jewellers, art dealers and souvenir sellers. The Ponte Vecchio's two neighbouring bridges are the Ponte Santa Trinita and the Ponte alle Grazie.

Bologna

From: Italy
Category: My collection
Date: July 2012

Bologna is the principal city (capital) of the Emilia-Romagna Region in Northern Italy. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history, art, cuisine, music, and culture. It is the seventh largest city in terms of population in Italy and it is the heart of a metropolitan area (officially recognized by the Italian government as a metropolitan city) of about 1,000,000 inhabitants. The urban sprawl of Bologna, including nearby Modena, whose metropolises are adjoining, is continuously expanding.

Gemert

Received from: the Netherlands
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: July 2012
Distance: 1086 km
Time of travelling: 10 days

Gemert is a town in the Dutch province of North Brabant. It is located in the municipality of Gemert-Bakel. On January 1, 2009 there were 15.268 inhabitants in Gemert. Gemert was a separate municipality until 1997, when it merged with Bakel.
The construction of the castle began in 1391. Till 1794 the castle was used by the German Order. In 1916 the castle was used as a mission monastic. The castle has a Castle Park in English style. In the park there is also the liberation monument from World War II.

Pisa

From: Italy
Category: My collection
Date: July 2012

Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower (the bell tower of the city's cathedral), the city of over 88,332 residents (around 200,000 with the metropolitan area) contains more than 20 other historic churches, several palaces and various bridges across the River Arno.

Vladivostok

Received from: Russia
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: July 2012
Distance: 7534 km
Time of travelling: 30 days

Vladivostok is a city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia, situated at the head of the Golden Horn Bay, not far from Russia's borders with China and North Korea. The population of the city, according to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, is 592,069, down from 594,701 recorded in the 2002 Census.

Lithuania

Received from: Lithuania
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: July 2012
Distance: 384 km
Time of travelling: 7 days

Bologna

From: Italy
Category: My collection
Date: July 2012

The Fountain of Neptune (Fontana di Nettuno) is a monumental civic fountain located in the eponymous square, Piazza Nettuno, next to Piazza Maggiore, in Bologna, Italy. Its bronze figure of Neptune, extending his reach in a lordly gesture of stilling and controlling the waters, is an early work of Giambologna's maturity, completed about 1567.

Laguna de la Cocha

Received from: Colombia
Category: private
Date: July 2012

The Laguna de la Cocha, also called Lake Guamuez, consists of a large natural reservoir of glacial origin, situated in the village The Encano, the municipality of Pasto, Nariño, south west of Colombia.

Ipiales

Received from: Colombia
Category: private
Date: July 2012
Ipiales is a city in Nariño Department, Colombia, near the border with Ecuador. Ipiales is known as "la ciudad de las nubes verdes" (the city of the green clouds) because some times, especially in the afternoon, green clouds appear over the city. One of the area's favorite foods is the guinea pig or cavy (Cavia porcellus), called "cuy", said to "look like a mouse and taste like a rabbit".

Las Lajas

Received from: Colombia
Category: private
Date: July 2012Las Lajas Sanctuary (in Spanish Santuario de Las Lajas) is a minor basilica church located in the southern Colombian Department of Nariño, municipality of Ipiales and built inside the canyon of the Guáitara River. The present church was built in Gothic Revival style in 1949. The name Laja comes from the name of a type of flat sedimentary rock similar to shale.

Colombia

Received from: Colombia
Category: private
Date: July 2012

Blacks and Whites' Carnival (Spanish: Carnaval de Negros y Blancos), is the largest and most important celebration in southern Colombia, its geographical indication belongs to the city of Pasto. It's celebrated from 2 to 7 January of each year and attracts a considerable number of Colombian and foreign tourists. In 30 September 2009, this Carnival was proclaimed by UNESCO, as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Colombia

Received from: Colombia
Category: private
Date: July 2012

A guagua de pan (bread baby) is a type of sweet roll shaped and decorated in the form of a small child or infant. They are generally made of wheat and sometimes contain a sweet filling. They are made and eaten as part of ancestral rites in Andean regions of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, the south of Colombia, and the north of Argentina, mainly on the Day of the Dead, but also as part of agricultural festivals, carnivals, and Christmas.

Umeå

From: Sweden
Category: My collection
Date: July 2012

Umeå is a center of education, technical and medical research in Sweden, with two universities and over 30,000 students. The city is elected European Capital of Culture of 2014.

Umeå

From: Sweden
Category: My collection
Date: July 2012
Umeå is a university town in northern Sweden. It is the seat of Umeå Municipality and the capital of Västerbotten County. The city is located at the Ume River. Umeå is the biggest city in Norrland and the twelfth biggest in Sweden, with 79,594 inhabitants in 2010. The municipality has 115,229 inhabitants as of 2010. When the university was established in 1965, growth sped up, and the number of housing has doubled in the last 30 years. As of 2011, 700 to 800 new apartments are constructed each year.

Rochester

Received from: The USA
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: July 2012
Distance: 6879 km
Time of travelling: 7 days

Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City. It is the county seat for Monroe County.

Vancouver

Received from: Canada
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: July 2012
Distance: 8248 km
Time of travelling: 19 days

Vancouver has ranked highly in worldwide "liveable city" rankings for more than a decade according to business magazine assessments and it was also acknowledged by Economist Intelligence Unit as the first city to rank among the top-ten of the world's most liveable cities for five straight years.It has hosted many international conferences and events, including the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, Expo 86, and the World Police and Fire Games in 1989 and 2009. The 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics were held in Vancouver and nearby Whistler, a resort community 125 km (78 mi) north of the city.