Antwerp

From: Belgium
Category: My collection
Date: November 2011
Antwerp is a city and municipality in Belgium and the capital of the Antwerp province of Flanders. Antwerp's total population is 472,071 (as of 1 January 2008), making it the largest municipality in both Flanders and Belgium in terms of its population. Its total area is 204.51 km2 (78.96 sq mi), giving a population density of 2,308 inhabitants per km². The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of 1,449 km2 (559 sq mi) with a total of 1,190,769 inhabitants as of 1 January 2008. The nickname of inhabitants of Antwerp is Sinjoren, after the Spanish word señor, which means 'mister' or 'gent'. It refers to the leading Spanish noblemen who ruled the city during the 17th century.

St Petersburg

Received from: Russia
Category: Thank You Card
Date: December 2011

**********************************************************************

Beautiful card sent together with a small metro-scheme (amazing :) ) in an envelope with beautiful stamps. Card presents the Palace Square with the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, Russia. Additionally it was completely written, a very long, such a nice message. Definitely this Thank You Card made my day! :)
It was sent as an answer to this card - what's more - it was first hand made
card I had ever done, so it was even nicer to know it was appreciated :D.

**********************************************************************

Palace Square, connecting Nevsky Prospekt with Palace Bridge leading to Vasilievsky Island, is the central city square of St Petersburg and of the former Russian Empire. It was the setting of many events of worldwide significance, including the Bloody Sunday (1905) and the October Revolution of 1917.

Chi-chia-wan River

Received from: Taiwan
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: December 2011
Distance: 8537 km
Time of travelling: 23 days

Chi-chia-wan River, Wuling, Taichung

Taichung County was a county in central Taiwan, the Republic of China, that surrounded but did not include Taichung City. The name Taichung means "central Taiwan". On December 25, 2010, the county and city merged to form a single special municipality.

Slovenia

Received from: Slovenia
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: December 2011
Distance: 878 km
Time of travelling: 4 days

Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of coastline along the Adriatic Sea. It covers an area of 20,273 square kilometres (7,827 sq mi) and has a population of 2.05 million. The capital and largest city is Ljubljana.

Moscow

Received from: Russia
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: December 2011
Distance: 1174 km
Time of travelling: 14 days

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent. Moscow is the northernmost city on Earth to have a population above 10,000,000, the most populous city in Europe, and the sixth largest city proper in the world. Its population, according to the preliminary results of the 2010 census, is 11,514,330. Based on Forbes 2011, Moscow had 79 billionaires, displacing New York as the city with the greatest number of billionaires.

Zamość

Received from: Poland
Category: 6-miesięczny RR
Date: December 2011

In the view of UNESCO, "Zamość is a unique example of a Renaissance town in Central Europe, consistently designed and built in accordance with the Italian theories of the "ideal town," on the basis of a plan which was the result of perfect cooperation between the open-minded founder, Jan Zamoyski, and the outstanding architect, Bernardo Morando. Zamość is an outstanding example of an innovative approach to town planning, combining the functions of an urban ensemble, a residence, and a fortress in accordance with a consistently implemented Renaissance concept. The result of this is a stylistically homogeneous urban composition with a high level of architectural and landscape values. A real asset of this great construction was its creative enhancement with local artistic architectural achievements. Zamość is spoken of as a Renaissance town."

Itsukushima

Received from: Japan
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: December 2011
Distance: 8416 km
Time of travelling: 7 days

Itsukushima Shrine (Japanese: 厳島神社 Itsukushima-jinja) is a Shinto shrine on the island of Itsukushima (popularly known as Miyajima) in the city of Hatsukaichi in Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. The shrine complex is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the Japanese government has designated several buildings and possessions as National Treasures.

Holland

Received from: the Netherlands
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: December 2011
Distance: 1115 km
Time of travelling: 7 days

and my first Postcrossing stamp! :)

Istanbul

Received from: Turkey
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: December 2011
Distance: 1389 km
Time of travelling: 10 days

Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. From the date of its dedication in 360 until 1453, it served as the Greek Patriarchal cathedral of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Patriarch of Constantinople of the Western Crusader established Latin Empire. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931, when it was secularized. It was opened as a museum on 1 February 1935.

France

Received from: France
Category: private swap
Date: December 2011

Metropolitan France is situated mostly between latitudes 41° and 51° N (Dunkirk is just north of 51°), and longitudes 6° W and 10° E, on the western edge of Europe, and thus lies within the northern temperate zone. While Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe, France also has a number of territories in North America, the Caribbean, South America, the southern Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and Antarctica.These territories have varying forms of government ranging from overseas department to overseas collectivity. France's overseas departments and collectivities share land borders with Brazil, and Suriname (bordering French Guiana), and Sint Maarten (bordering Saint-Martin). The Exclusive Economic Zone of France extends over 11,000,000 km2 (4,200,000 sq mi) of ocean across the world. Metropolitan France covers 547,030 square kilometres (211,209 sq mi), having the largest area among European Union members. France possesses a wide variety of landscapes, from coastal plains in the north and west to mountain ranges of the Alps in the south-east, the Massif Central in the south-central and Pyrenees in the south-west.

Brick Well

Received from: China
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: December 2011
Distance: 8261 km
Time of travelling: 26 days

With an inner diameter of 1,98m and a remaining depth of 5,54m, the casing of the well is built with bricks which are laid vertically and horizontally in alternate order in different layers. There are square footholds on the wall by which people can climb down to clean the well regularly.

Espinho

Received from: Portugal
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: December 2011
Distance: 2566 km
Time of travelling: 10 days

Espinho is a city in Espinho Municipality in Portugal. It is a reputed beach resort and a zone of legal gambling with a casino - Casino Solverde. Its fair - Feira de Espinho, having been first organised in 1894, is well known in Portugal. The city is home to CINANIMA - Festival Internacional de Cinema de Animação, an international animation festival. Espinho is about 15 km from Oporto (Porto) and approximately 50 km from Aveiro. It is serviced by trains to Porto, Gaia, Ovar, Aveiro, Coimbra, Lisbon (Linha do Norte) and S.M.da Feira, S.J.da Madeira, O.Azemeis, Águeda and Aveiro via linha do Vouga. Espinho became a city in 1973. It is located in the famous Costa Verde; it has several beaches and a golf course.

Kraków

Received from: Poland
Category: 6-miesięczny RR
Date: November 2011

Lithuania

Received from: Lithuania
Category: Postcrossing - official card
Date: November 2011
Distance: 329 km
Time of travelling: 15 days

Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark. It shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and a Russian exclave (Kaliningrad Oblast) to the southwest. Lithuania has an estimated population of 3.2 million as of 2011, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. The Lithuanians are a Baltic people, and the official language, Lithuanian, is one of only two living languages (together with Latvian) in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family.

Kraków

Received from: Poland
Category: 6-miesięczny RR
Date: November 2011

Tadeusz Pankiewicz was a Polish Roman Catholic pharmacist, operating in the Kraków Ghetto during the Nazi German occupation of Poland. He was recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem on February 10, 1983, for rescuing countless Jews from the Holocaust. Pankiewicz studied at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. In 1933, he took over the proprietorship of the "Under the Eagle" pharmacy (Apteka Pod Orłem) founded in 1910 by his father Jozef. The pharmacy was situated on Plac Zgody (formerly Mały Rynek square) in Kraków's Podgórze district. Its prewar clientele included both Gentile Poles and Jews.