Speaking of views, check out some other fine views this week at Theme Thursday.

This postcard was Sherwin’s second attempt to reach my mailbox; I am glad that he was ultimately successful. The card is oversized (13 cm x 17 cm), and he sent it inside a clear postcard sleeve — which leads me to believe that he sent his first postcard that way, and that the sleeve got caught up in the machinery, and that the postcard was probably devoured. The sleeve on this postcard was lucky to have made it through.

Surrounding the map on this postcard are a number of images of beautiful destinations throughout the islands. Rather than enumerate all of them, I will tell you that I especially like the second image at the top (“Colorful Ati-atihan Festival, Kalibo”) and the third image in the right-hand column (“Beautiful lagoon of El Nido, Palawan”). Wish there was a single view postcard available of that one. Sherwin is from the Bicol Region, famous for the perfect cone of the Mayon Volcano, depicted in the third image in the top row.

This card was produced by PhilippinesPostcards.com, which has some terrific Philippines e-cards available to send for free, and of course actual Philippines postcards to buy.

Nondas sent me this interesting reproduction of a post-war (that is, World War I) card, showing the town of Thessaloniki from the air. He’s also fond of these other, modern views of his town from the air.

There’s nothing like a nice cup of tea when playing one’s dutar in the sunshine. This official Postcrossing card has one of the highly-prized low numbers (TM-38) and comes to me from Zulfina in Ashkabat. It arrived in an envelope with the Turkish/Turkmen words kimden and kime (“from whom” and “to whom”) pre-printed in the appropriate areas, so imagine my surprise when I found a message inside in Russian! Turns out Russian is the language used for “inter-ethnic communication” — that is, communication with Russians who call Turkmenistan home, thanks to its previous history as the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic.

“Ethiopians aren’t in the habit of sending postcards,” writes Sean McLachlan in his recent Harar travel series on Gadling, “and the fledgling tourism industry hasn’t printed many.” Nevertheless, he found this one at the Harari Cultural Museum; it shows a typical living room. In case you’re as confused about the floor plan as I was, it turns out that this photo has been ‘shopped to be able to show three sides of the room.

Also included in the package were two one-birr banknotes, worth about six cents U.S. each. One is fresh from the bank, according to Sean; the other is what one normally sees in circulation. Thanks, Sean, for these souvenirs of your journey!

From Polona in Radomlje, Slovenia comes these terrific views of her country — not to mention a plethora of postage stamps. Based on these views, front and back, I’d have to say that Slovenia looks like a beautiful, interesting — and potentially dangerous — place.  Is that snake poisonous?

If you’re interested in stamps, check out the Sunday Stamps meme at Viridian’s Postcard Blog. This week’s theme: anything goes!

In my mailbox today were two — and only two — postcards, coincidentally both from Indonesia, and from different senders who got my address from different sources. This card, from Shinta, shows three side-by-side volcanoes in East Java. All told, Indonesia has about 150 active volcanoes, but it looks like only one of the volcanoes in this picture was feeling fiery that day.

Shinta was very generous with the variety of stamps! There are postage stamps celebrating wildlife, traditional food and clothing, the Year of the Rabbit, and… what’s that blue one? Molecular biology? Human cloning? Aspartame?

Check out Girls Go Postal! to see today’s other Indonesian postcard which, in yet another coincidence, also features three smokin’ hotties.

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.

As you can see, this beautiful view comes all the way from… West Virginia, after Julie decided to start a swap of postcards of places that you aren’t. I have a number of Singapore postcards very similar to this one, but this particular one is new to me, and gorgeous.

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 view of the Meridianas, moored in Klaipėda, Lithuania. She was constructed in 1948 and was used to train sailors. Today, she is primarily a tourist attraction and restaurant. You can see additional views of Meridianas at Wikimapia.

Here are a couple of postcards from the 1960s, extolling the virtues of stopping by Frankenmuth, Michigan, for dinner. First, Frankenmuth’s Bavarian Inn: “In Frankenmuth, where the population is only 1700, 600,000 special dinners are served annually. Here the gemuetlichkeit of Old Bavaria blends with the hospitality of New America. World famous for Frankenmuth family style chicken and other dinners.”

New America? Well, I guess it was a little newer when this postcard was produced. But the Bavarian Inn folks make you the fine print on the back of this postcard to hear about delicious chicken. Zehnder’s, on the other hand, gets straight to the point:

Call me what you want, just don’t call me late for chicken dinners. And a Happy Birthday to my friend Nicole, who is quite the Frankenmuth fan.

“Mysterious Postcard Collector” sent this very nice photo through the mail, as a postcard, of an original photo of the Loveland Ski Area — along with a request to send him or her a million postcards. Well, not all from me; this individual has somehow gotten the idea into his (let’s stick with the generic pronoun, shall we?) head of amassing one million postcards. Naturally, I obliged. It’s a challenge for me to store my own collection (somewhere between one and two thousand, I think) and, necessity being a mother, I am hoping that he’ll come up with some good ideas for the rest of us.

Since the goal seems to be quantity, not quality, I say let’s oblige him. If you’ve got an old advertising postcard, unwanted card, or just plain ugly card, why not pop it in the mail?

Yana sends this beautiful and atypical view of Red Square in Moscow. There’s also supposed to be a letter coming, according to the postcard; Yana says that she posted both a letter and this postcard at the same time, and is curious as to which would arrive first.  I shall have to write to her once I receive her letter and give her the results. (Oops, guess I should have waited to post this!)

The postcard was mailed on 15 February and arrived yesterday, without stamps. From the postmark, it is clear that there were two stamps (or more) attached to the card; I can still see and feel a trace of the glue. I don’t think they could have been swiped so cleanly; they must have slipped off in transit. What are the Russians making their stamp glue out of? Potatoes?

Don’t forget to check out the other blogs celebrating Postcard Friendship Friday today; they’ll stick to you!

“Located in the heart of Wisconsin on the Wisconsin River, Stevens Point is a thriving and beautiful city showing rapid industrial development and the Stevens Point State University is located there.” Minus two points for the run-on sentence on this postcard, published by the Wyman Post Card Co., 722 Eau Claire Blvd., Wausau, Wis., probably in the mid-1960s.

Stevens Point State U isn’t the only thing located there; check out those names shown in their heyday: Woolworth’s, Fox Theater, Rexall Drug Stores, Household Finance Company.

This card comes from Walt, who was desperate to get a Georgia map postcard, and surprised me by sending this card plus three others in exchange. Thanks Walt!

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.

“Between 1935 and 1943 the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project printed over two million posters in 35,000 different designs to stir the public’s imagination for education, theater, health, safety, and travel. Due to their fragile nature only two thousand posters have survived. This contemporary design illustrates many of the WPA-era posters, including those of our National Parks.” And so, alas, it’s not a reproduction of an authentic WPA poster, but it did fool me. This brilliant re-creation is by Doug Leen and Brian Maebius.

This card comes from Marsha, who bought this card in Hawaii in January, and mailed it to me from Wisconsin in February.

Want to visit some other exotic places from times past? Check out today’s Postcard Friendship Friday.

It’s a good thing Anita was on vacation here at lovely Swartswood Lake, New Jersey; she clearly needed one. I have two copies of this postcard, both sent by Anita; both were sent to her cousin, Miss Rose La Rocca of Brooklyn, New York; both were sent at the same time on the same day. Rose must have been scratching her head when these two card fell through the slot in her door.

Postcard the first: “To Rose, Having a wonderful time. It’s real lovely out here. I miss you all. Give regards to all home. I’ll be seeing you soon. Your cousin, Anita.”

Postcard the second: “Hello Rose, Having a wonderful time. How are your brothers, aunt, uncle, Grandma and you. I’ll be seeing you soon. Love, your cousin, Anita.”

Sure, she sounds nice, but Anita is obviously off her nut. I have a few theories:

Theory 1: Anita is being overworked back in Brooklyn, and ran out to the Garden State for some desperately-needed R&R. She wrote a dozen postcards home and just didn’t realize that she wrote to Rose twice.

Theory 2: This “Lake House” is a sanitarium, and the phrase “I’ll be seeing you soon” carries with it an implied threat of the Michael Myers variety. Note that she enumerates the entire houseful of relatives against whom she has a grudge.

Theory 3: In reality, Anita sent only one postcard. The second card is from one of those alternate universes, like in the last Star Trek movie.

I will be happy to entertain any other theories; please leave a comment. And once you’ve helped me figure out what went on here, be sure to check out the other blogs celebrating Postcard Friendship Friday today. Speaking of vacations — TGIF!

Shirin sends along these vintage views of Singapore and reminds me that the Hotel Raffles, pictured at the top, is the birthplace of the Singapore Sling — meaning folks were sippin’ on gin and juice long before Snoop Dogg had something to say about it.

Also pictured are a Chinese junk, a snake charmer, and the Golden Sultan mosque. All of these things can still be seen in Singapore today — even a snake charmer, if you look hard enough.