Peterhof

Received from: Canada
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: February 2012
Distance: 8252 km
Time of travelling: 21 days

Peterhof, known as Petrodvorets (Петродворец) from 1944 to 1997, is a municipal town in Petrodvortsovy District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, located on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland. The town hosts one of two campuses of Saint Petersburg State University and the Petrodvorets Watch Factory, one of the leading Russian watch manufactures. A series of palaces and gardens, laid out on the orders of Peter the Great, and sometimes called the "Russian Versailles", is also situated there. The palace-ensemble along with the city center is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Taiwan

Received from: Taiwan
Category: private swap
Date: February 2012

The Flag of the Republic of China is red with a navy blue canton bearing a white sun with 12 triangular rays. In Chinese, the flag is commonly described as Blue Sky, White Sun, and a Wholly Red Earth to reflect its attributes.

It was first used in mainland China by the Kuomintang (KMT, the Chinese Nationalist Party) in 1917 and was made the official flag of the ROC in 1928. It was enshrined in the 6th article of the Constitution of the Republic of China when it was promulgated in 1947. Since 1949, the flag is mostly used within Taiwan where the Republic of China relocated after having lost the Chinese Civil War to the Communists.

Russia

Received from: Russia
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: February 2012
Distance: 1030 km
Time of travelling: 9 days

The flag of Russia is a tricolour flag of three equal horizontal fields, white on the top, blue in the middle and red on the bottom. The flag was first used as an ensign for Russian merchant and war ships and only became official in 1896. The flag continued to be used by the Russian Provisional Government after the Tsar was toppled in the February Revolution and was not replaced until the October Revolution which established a Bolshevik government. From that time period, a red flag charged with communist symbols was favoured over the tricolour. It was not until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 that the tricolour was brought back as the official flag of the new Russian Federation. The modern era flag underwent a slight change in 1993 and has been official since 2000.

Australia

Received from: Australia
Category: private swap
Date: February 2012

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent as well as the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north; the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east.

Singapore

Received from: Singapore
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: February 2012
Distance: 9405 km
Time of travelling: 6 days

Marina Bay Sands (traditional Chinese: 濱海灣金沙; simplified Chinese: 滨海湾金沙) is an integrated resort fronting Marina Bay in Singapore. Developed by Las Vegas Sands, it is billed as the world's most expensive standalone casino property at S$8 billion, including cost of the prime land.

Malaga

Received from: Spain
Category: private swap
Date: February 2012

Málaga is a city and a municipality in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. With a population of 568,507 in 2010, it is the second most populous city of Andalusia and the sixth largest in Spain. This is the southernmost large city in Europe. It lies on the Costa del Sol (Coast of the Sun) of the Mediterranean Sea, about 100 km (62.14 mi) east of the Strait of Gibraltar and about 130 km (80.78 mi) north of Africa.

Bali

Received from: Indonesia
Category: private swap
Date: February 2012

Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is one of the country's 33 provinces with the provincial capital at Denpasar towards the south of the island (strictly speaking, the province covers a few small neighbouring islands as well as the isle of Bali).

Rio de Janeiro

Received from: Brazil
Category: private swap
Date: February 2012

The Theatro Municipal (Municipal Theatre) of Rio de Janeiro is located in Cinelândia (Praça Marechal Floriano) in the city center of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Built in the beginning of the twentieth century, it is one of the most beautiful and important theatres in the country. The building is designed in an eclectic style, inspired by the Paris Opéra of Charles Garnier. The outside walls are inscribed with the names of classic Eurocentric & Brazilian artists. It is located near the National Library and the National Fine Arts Museum, overlooking the spacious Cinelândia Square.

Missouri

Received from: the USA
Category: private swap
Date: January 2012

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Missouri is the 21st most extensive and the 18th most populous of the 50 United States. Missouri comprises 114 counties and the independent city of St. Louis. The four largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia. Missouri's capital is Jefferson City. The land that is now Missouri was acquired from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase and became known as the Missouri Territory. Part of the Territory was admitted into the union as the 24th state on August 10, 1821.

Kyoto

Received from: Japan
Category: private swap
Date: January 2012

The Heian Shrine (平安神宮 Heian jingū?) is a Shinto shrine located in Kyoto, Japan. The torii before the main gate is one of the largest in Japan. The architecture of the main building mirrors the style and features of the Kyoto Imperial Palace. The Heian jingū was built in 1895 for the 1,100th anniversary of the establishment of Heiankyō (the old name of Kyoto).

Russia

Received from: Russia
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: January 2012
Distance: 2314 km
Time of travelling: 55 days

Finland

Received from: Finland
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: January 2012
Distance: 1000 km
Time of travelling: 3 days

An aurora is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere (thermosphere). The charged particles originate in the magnetosphere and solar wind and, on Earth, are directed by the Earth's magnetic field into the atmosphere. Aurora is classified as diffuse or discrete aurora. Most aurorae occur in a band known as the auroral zone which is typically 3° to 6° in latitudinal extent and at all local times or longitudes. The auroral zone is typically 10° to 20° from the magnetic pole defined by the axis of the Earth's magnetic dipole. During a geomagnetic storm, the auroral zone will expand to lower latitudes. The diffuse aurora is a featureless glow in the sky which may not be visible to the naked eye even on a dark night and defines the extent of the auroral zone. The discrete aurora are sharply defined features within the diffuse aurora which vary in brightness from just barely visible to the naked eye to bright enough to read a newspaper at night. Discrete aurorae are usually observed only in the night sky because they are not as bright as the sunlit sky. Aurorae occur occasionally poleward of the auroral zone as diffuse patches or arcs which are generally invisible to the naked eye.

Taipei

Received from: Taiwan
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: January 2012
Distance: 8519 km
Time of travelling: 8 days

The Presidential Office Building houses the Office of the President of the Republic of China. The building, located in the Zhongzheng District in the national capital of Taipei, Republic of China, was designed by architect Uheiji Nagano during the period of Japanese rule of Taiwan (1895–1945). The structure originally housed the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan. Damaged in Allied bombing during World War II, the building was restored after the war by Chen Yi, the Governor-General of the Taiwan province. It became the Presidential Office in 1950 after the Republic of China lost control of mainland China and relocated the nation's capital to Taipei City at the end of the Chinese Civil War.

Pittsburgh

Received from: the USA
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: January 2012
Distance: 7208 km
Time of travelling: 13 days

While the city is historically known for its steel industry, today its economy is largely based on healthcare, education, technology, robotics, and financial services. The downturn of the steel industry left no steel mills within the City of Pittsburgh and only two remaining mills in the county, though more than 300 steel-related businesses remain in the area. By contrast, the region supports 1,600 technology companies, ranging from a Google campus to small startups. The city has redeveloped abandoned industrial sites with new housing, shopping and offices, such as SouthSide Works and Bakery Square.

Cologne

Received from: Germany
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: January 2012
Distance: 669 km
Time of travelling: 8 days

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city (after Berlin, Hamburg and Munich), and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants. Cologne is located on both sides of the Rhine River. The city's famous Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom) is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Cologne. The University of Cologne (Universität zu Köln) is one of Europe's oldest and largest universities.