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.

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.

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.

Tuula in Tampere, Finland sends this beautiful reproduction of a vintage Estonian card, showing the Tarvastu Bridge, near the city of Viljandi. I suspect that the border around the picture was embossed on the original, but this modern reproduction is not.

This scene is very reminiscent of scenes near my own home; there are a great many places over Lake Lanier where the only sign of man’s presence is a bridge like this one. Ironically, Lake Lanier is itself man-made.

Anneli was kind enough to send this reproduction of a turn of the (20th) century divided-back card from Finland; it is the first card of this type I’ve seen that’s not in the English language.

She translates the poem as: “I would love to make a band of beautiful flowers for you, my friend, friend whose picture is in my heart.”

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.

I hate to admit it, but the first thought that popped into my head upon seeing this image of a bear and a rabbit was the old joke about whether or not feces sticks to their fur, which is rated PG. But these two are clearly friends. The bear is either copping a feel, or he’s shielding her from all those flying apples. Either way, it’s clear that they’re close.

This card comes from Tun, a young Chinese girl who would like to remind you that “everyday is a sunshine day!”

Eva sends greetings from the Czech Republic with this card from Stříbro, a town about 20 km from her home. She tells me that the name of the town comes from the Czech word for “silver”; the town was settled as a mining town in the 13th Century.

At first I had some trouble learning more about the town, not realizing that the town’s name morphed into Stříbra on the front of the card, being the object of the sentence. But ultimately I was able to find out that, outside of the Czech Republic, the town was historically referred to by its German name of Mies, after the river which runs through it. It’s also in the Pilsen region, from whence comes Pilsener beer. You can check out their municipal website, seemingly designed by a 12-year-old, or jump straight to their live webcam, which I have thoughtfully run through a translator.

That word hezký on the front of the card seems to be one of those catch-all words, like güzel in Turkish or nice in English. (There’s also another Czech word, pěkný, which seems to do the same thing.) A hezký den is a nice day, while a hezký muž is a handsome man.

This card was produced by Karel Thomayer, publishers of postcards and other non-periodicals.

The Language Police managed to let this one get all the way to production with the phrase “you know your from Texas” uncorrected. Oh well, what can you do? As Christ said, if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out — but instead I think I’ll just let this one pass.

I can’t help but notice that these qualifications aren’t unique to Texans; I’ve met a number of people here in Georgia named Bubba. Some of them even hold public office.

Hi! This little guy might be skating on the Great Lakes, where right now there are blizzard conditions and forecasts for more snow. Good luck, folks, and stay warm.

The description on this postcard (in Finnish) says that it is a reprint of a 1920 photo by Lauri Marjanen of Puijontie (“street of Puijo”) in Kuopio, Finland. Today, Puijo Hill is a major tourist attraction. In addition to one of Finland’s first nature preserves, an area of about two square kilometers (which doesn’t sound like much, but that works out to nearly 500 acres), Puijo is home to a winter sports center and frequently hosts Nordic Ski Jumping World Cup events.

At the peak of the 150-meter (~500 foot) hill is a 75-meter tall observation tower, complete with souvenir shop and rotating restaurant. Jenni, who sent this card along from Kuopio, says that, in 1920, there was a 24-meter observation tower at the top of the hill, presumably not as fancy. The old tower was demolished in 1963 to make way for the new one.

Tampere, Finland has a similar observation tower, called Näsinneula (see a postcard of Näsinneula here); they borrowed the idea of a rotating restaurant from Puijo Hill.

I have yet to see a postcard from Thailand that is anything less than stunning, but this one from Bangkok is in a class by itself. In fact, according to the card, this photo by Phisit Senanansakun is the winner of the second “Amazing Thailand Through the Lens” Contest. I don’t know what that is, but this photo certainly deserves honors.

Almost as remarkable as the photo is the 9-baht stamp used on this postcard, which depicts a royal barge (on the same river, no less) and is nearly as long as the postcard itself!

The smaller stamp depicts someone called “Theng”, the Jester, and inexplicably celebrates International Letter Writing Week 2008. Perhaps Theng used his off-hours to write to his penpals and complain about the daily grind. Maybe you should use your off-hours to check out the other blogs celebrating Postcard Friendship Friday today!

This postcard was supposed to have gone out on 9 September as part of a swap on Swap-bot honoring the date 09-09-09. But, since Karen sent me such an awesome card, I guess I can forgive her. Karen is working on planning a trip to London and is doing it in a unique way: she’s asking that denizens of London send her postcards and tell her the places she should be sure to visit while she’s there. You can read more about it on her Facebook group page Experimental Travel in London: Postcards Treasure Hunting.

Next, a Postcrossing card, postmarked 13 September; it features a lot of neon, and an electric tram:

“For nearly 100 years electric trams have provided reliable public transport along the north of Hong Kong Island. At night they trundle through a blaze of electric signage.” Trundle? This one appears to be approaching the speed of light.

Both of these cards have an identical HK$3 stamp, and at first I was appalled: three bucks for an international postcard? Then I did the math and realized that it works out to about 38 cents American. That’s a bargain!

“Wind surfing on the Great Lakes is an ever increasingly popular sport enjoyed by young and old.” I don’t imagine that there’s too many days left this year for this activity, at least not on the Great Lakes; that water gets cold. This 1970s-era Plastichrome postcard arrived in my mailbox a few days ago; it’s 3.5″ x 5.5″, rather than the usual 4 x 6 inch cards that are popular today.

Sure, it’s gorgeous, and I’d be happy to keep a plant in it, but is it art? This item is referred to as Plant Stand rather than a plant stand, so I guess I’m supposed to think that it is. It was created by Charles Rohlfs (1853-1936) in 1903; he is credited with originating Mission-style furniture. According to the postcard, this piece is part of someone’s private — ahem — art collection. Probably with geraniums.

Vicky sent me this amazing postcard from Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the postcard is completely in Chinese and Vicky’s message (at right), while adorable, did nothing to elucidate me regarding this view.

This building almost seems to be built into the rock. Am I looking at it right? What could this building be? It looks like there’s neon in the window so it may be a shop of some kind, or perhaps a teahouse. For that matter, it wouldn’t look too out of place in Diagon Alley.

“View of harpooner ironing a Sperm Whale. From The Capture a lithograph made in 1862 by Endicott & R. S. Gifford, corrected by Benjamin Russell.” What sort of corrections could have been required? Did the Giffords read Moby Dick and think all whales were white? Did they draw Captain Ahab’s leg in there somewhere?

This Plastichrome postcard, probably produced in the late 1970s or early ’80s, describes itself as “Classic Whaling Series #1″. I can’t help but wonder if there was ever a second card in the series. What’s neat about this postcard is that it came to me just the other day from a Postcrosser, who found it in an old bookstore.

Another tidbit from the card says that it was produced from the lithograph owned by The Book and Tackle Shop, and was in fact distributed by them as well. The Book and Tackle Shop was established in 1953, and still conducts business from Watch Hill, Rhode Island.

And all this time I thought everything in Kansas was in black and white. “Unlike the small native sunflower which grows wild in Kansas, these large sunflowers are grown by farmers as a crop. Large fields of the golden flowers are visible in the summer and early fall.”  You think that’s weird? In my hometown, they grow dandelions as a food crop.

This postcard (with matching stamp, no less) arrived recently from Emi in Shimane Prefecture, Japan.  Naturally, she is very proud of this local landmark, Matsue Castle, one of the few remaining medieval castles in Japan, and the only one to retain its original wood form.  (The rest of the castles have been preserved by casting their form in concrete, apparently.)

The castle was built between 1607 and 1611 and was a large complex, with multiple buildings. Except for this building, the castle keep, all of the buildings were destroyed in 1875 to make room for modernization.  Fortunately, there were preservationists around at the time who pressured to keep at least this one building standing.  From 1950 to 1955, the keep and the grounds underwent a complete renovation.

Be sure to check out the other blogs celebrating Postcard Friendship Friday today!

As much as I’m tempted to say that this card originated from somewhere in the Ozarks, it actually came from Olga, a Russian woman living in Norway.  Even before I saw Olga’s name on the card, I could tell that her handwriting was distinctly Russian, especially from the way she writes her lower case “b” and “g”.

This card of very recent vintage was published in Norway by Normanns Kunstforlag (Normann Art Publishers).