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Stockholm

June 18th, 2009 by ilyani | 1 Comment | Filed in Sweden

Stockholm in Sweden is one of the capital cities in Europe that I fell in love at the first sight (I am talking about seeing the images on postcards, of course as I have not yet been Europe, which is sad -__-). This city particularly strikes me with alot of water of the Lake Mälaren and Baltic Sea all around it, I have mentioned this several times before that I have a thing on waterfront cities, and Stockholm is located on 14 small islands in the edge of the Scandanavian peninsula.

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Sent by Skrallan, 2006, via Another country tag.

Here it is what I am talking about! It does look like a floating city, doesn’t it?? :D And it’s so exciting that you have to cross many bridges to reach a place, yet the roadways don’t look very busy! (read: bridges in Malaysian cities are the most congested places! Yikes). And really, I love how well this city is structured, with awesome buildings, modern and old.

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Sent by MerJade, 2009.

View above is how you see from the top of the City Hall Tower. And picture below shows the Stockholm Palace, the official residence of the Swedish Monarch. There used to be a fortress in this site and they reconstructed it to be a palace in 1697-1760.

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Sent by MerJade, 2009

Here’s the City Hall and its tower! It was built in 1911-1923 and is home to the Municipal Council for the Stockholm city, and also the venue of the Nobel Prize banquet!

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Sent by MerJade, 2009.

Oh yeah suddenly I have been blessed with many beautiful postcards from Sweden, if you must know ;) and this is among my favorite – as it shows a city tram! I have come to learn that trams are among the earliest public transportation in Europe which is really appealing to me. This Stockholm old tram goes to Djurgården island with many museums, zoo, and amusement park.

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Budapest revisited

June 18th, 2009 by ilyani | 1 Comment | Filed in Hungary

I have previously featured some Budapest cards, especially in the Danube river area, with the Chain Bridge and the Parliament House, but let’s make a trip again to this capital of Hungary, with some more postcards :P Why? Because Haris was there recently!

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Photo by Szirmaik

This awesome-looking building is the Great Market Hall, it’s a famous spot in Budapest! And I have actually got a card from there!

This is a really huge indoor market! I mean, it looks like the market consists of many rows of stalls inside, and these kinds of covered stalls are usually built outdoors in Malaysia, which we call Pasar Tani (dont know how it translates to English.. Agro market, maybe?). There are various of things you can find here, from fruits and vegetables, milk, meat, bread to folk embroidery and souvenirs. Garlics, peppers, and paprika are among Hungarian traditional spices. Hungarians also like plums, watermelons and apples!

Another Budapest card that I did not put previously, this is the interior of the Matthias Church. The current building was constructed in the 14th century, and was the second largest church in medieval Buda.

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München – Munich

June 18th, 2009 by ilyani | 1 Comment | Filed in Germany

Munich is the second batch of Germany postcards I featured here according to city after Berlin, I guess. Or I might have lost count either, so nevermind. Munich was believed to be founded by the monks of the Benedictine, and “Mönche” is Old German for Monks, hence the name.

Sent by AKS

Sent by AKS

“Weltstadt mit Herz” or the metropolitan city with heart, is the Munich city’s motto. This view shows the New Town Hall and Marienplatz, a large open square. If you look closer at the tower there’s the Rathaus-Glockenspiel dates from 1908. Glockenspiels are exciting features in Germany, they are kind of the equivalent of huge music boxes built into the buildings and town squares, but with real bells and ancient mannequin dancers. And this particular Glockenspiel has 43 bells and 32 dancers, and it chimes everyday at 11am. I really want to see (and listen) this Glockenspiel live! :D

Sent by Miriam

Sent by Miriam

Here is the pedestrian street in the old part of Munich, the arch in the middle dates from 1315 and was part of the surrounding wall. Hmm, I have come across many old cities in Europe are walled, which is interesting. And see the tulips! :) They actually change the flowers here according to seasons, and you can see tulips in Spring.

Sent by empty_mailbox

Sent by empty_mailbox

Some views of the grocery market in Munich, though I am so curious if the existance of these statutes have anything to do with the place being a market. And it does look like an exotic market!

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