Wild Postcards

My first card from Bosnia and Herzegovina comes from Sonja, a travel agent living in Banja Luka, and who was kind enough to tell me all about the different views on this card. At the top left can be seen a monument from World War II, and in the top center is the city’s Orthodox church. The large view at the bottom is the River Vrbas, which seems to be missing some vowels.

My first card from Bosnia and Herzegovina comes from Sonja, a travel agent there. Think she’s just trying to sell us a vacation package?

This very clear view of Westminster Abbey (with Big Ben in the background) comes from Aimee Dars, a prolific swapper extraordinaire. This card was sold in England but produced by a company in Barcelona. Next to the stamp box, it has the phrase “the friendship post card” in ten languages.

A clear view of Westminster, with Big Ben in the background. Sent in by one extremely prolific postcard swapstress.

Omran sent me several nice cards from Tripoli last month; while I was able to blog about his postcard of a Libyan woman at Girls Go Postal!, I haven’t had a chance to post any of the others. But Evelyn’s A Festival of Postcards, 7th Edition provides a great opportunity to post two well-lit landmarks.

Pictured above is Saraya al-Hamra, the “Red Castle”, a fortress built into Tripoli’s ancient city wall and dates from at least the 16th Century. In 1988, it was renovated and reopened as the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Museum, a place where one can find Libyan cultural artifacts throughout history.

This second postcard shows Myadan al-Jazair Mosque, also in Tripoli. “Al Jazair” is Arabic for “the islands” and is also the Arabic name for the city of Algiers.

Omran sent me several nice cards from Tripoli last month; while I was able to blog about his postcard of a Libyan woman at Girls Go Postal!, I haven’t had a chance to post any of the others. But Evelyn’s A Festival of Postcards, 7th Edition provides a great opportunity to post two well-lit landmarks. Pictured above [...]

Linkenel in Bangkok, Thailand was kind enough to share with me this image of a reclining Buddha, which is in stark contrast to the standard image of a fat, jovial Buddha usually seen in American culture. According to the card, the existing temple was built on the site of an older monastery.

Like Buddha, it looks as though the postman has been lying down on the job, too; the card isn’t postmarked, but she dated it 24 September 2009, and it arrived on 12 February 2010. She sent this card about 20 days after I last sent a card to her – which she had already received by the time she sent this, as she references my card in her message.

Linkenel in Bangkok, Thailand was kind enough to share with me this image of a reclining Buddha, which is in stark contrast to the standard image of a fat, jovial Buddha usually seen in American culture. According to the card, the existing temple was built on the site of an older monastery. Like Buddha, it [...]