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Croatian coastline towns

June 2nd, 2009 by ilyani | 2 Comments | Filed in Croatia

My first Croatia entry.. though my postcards from there are from different scattered places, they are actually located along the coastline of the Adriatic sea. The Adriatic sea is part of the Mediterranean sea that separates the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula.

From Dorilys. I love this old fortress and buildings! I am amazed with the fact that they’re standing juse a few inches from the water… I can’t help thinking if it’s safe?? Because here the sea water is never at the same level, it can go down in daytime and at night part of the beach will be flooded. It’s never a good idea to make a building or house very near to the beach.. even there’s been a proverb saying more or less, “Dont build a house near the beach if you don’t expect a danger”… well maybe it doesn’t apply in Croatia at least, since this Dubrovnik city has been standing since the Middle ages, being the centre of the development back in the 15th and 16th centuries and home to many great artists, scientists and other scholars  in Croatian language and literature. Between its golden ages in the 14th century and 1808, Dubrovnik was a free state Republic and only became part of Croatia during the WWI. Needless to say, Dubrovnik old city has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979.

From AJDonkey. Now comes Murter, a Croatian island and this view shows the old parts where you can see typical fisherman villages like this.

HR-138 from Mijo. This is actually the first postcard I received from Croatia.. back in 2006. And it’s funny that I only knew Hrvatska as Croatian name for the country just after I got this card! I mean.. I was a bit puzzled with the ID saying HR.. and thanks goodness the stamps helped me from being ignorant for too long :P (well the same way I felt dumb realizing Switzerland as Helvetica yet having CH as the ID code) anyways Makarska is another coastline town.. it’s a tourist center with beaches and hotels, yet also an old town from the middle ages. It used to be conquered by the Republic of Venice in the 13th century. (Oh yeah? Venice was a republic too!)

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Київ – Kiev

June 2nd, 2009 by ilyani | 1 Comment | Filed in Ukraine

Whoa, suddenly I received many Ukraine postcards lately.. especially from the capital Kiev. I said suddenly because, I got the first Kiev postcard back in 2006, knowing that it’s one of the rare countries in Postcrossing it wouldn’t be surprising not to receive many cards from there.. but after a long break, I received at least 3 Ukraine cards this year!

From Katjafin. This fairytale castle-like monastery is the Kiev Pechersk Lavra (Kiev Monastery of the Caves), built in 1015.. and together with the Saint-Sophia Cathedral, it’s listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The word “lavra” is used to describe high-ranking monasteries for (male) monks of the Eastern Orthodox Church. This monastery is also one of The Seven Wonders of Ukraine.. wow, I wonder if there exists such a list as Seven Wonders of Malaysia :P I will investigate on it soon…

From Meleu. Another view from another side of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.. I can’t really put the two images together.. each gives a different color and atmosphere but at least you can guess this is one of the towers with the golden domes :)

From Anna. This is also part of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra… the Great Lavra Belltower!! This belltower measures 96.5 m tall and was the highest during its construction in 1731–1745.

From Orange_dreamer. More views of Kiev. Small pics from left: 1) Princess Olga monument. 2) Kiev cable railway 3) the Bohdan Khmelnytsky monument. And picture below shows the Mychael’s square.

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Opetellaan Suomea!

June 1st, 2009 by ilyani | No Comments | Filed in Finland

It’s time for another linguistic post! What we have now? Finnish! :D I love cards with text of some foreign language written on it.. can be poems, quotes, songs.. but I don’t have any in Malay here (Notice: Malaysia is BORING when it comes to postcards selection..). I’d better move to Finland!

From Mingshu. (Thanks Essi for translation)

“Tips for lonely men
To a singing class,and quick
A guitar or a horn in the hand,
or any kind of fluit
something that beeps even a little
A player boy with red cheeks
is welcomed
even though he just drove all the other men out of the door”

FI-53938  from Jaana.

“Nightless night colours the surface of the lake
Night and morning go side by side
Don`t let the moment slip away,
treasure it,carefully save it in your mind”

From Wilma.

“You don’t always have to be excellent,
if you just have a little bit of luck”

From Ultzi.

“To a bokworm
your walls don’t seem to need wallpaper
You could cover them with books.
Though noticed I have,
you could turn your mailing address to the library.
But I would, if I was a writer
weite a bestseller of our friendship.”

From Mingshu.

“The most important thing in life is not where we are but where we are heading.”

From Kuaka.

“Good moments are even better when you share them.”

FI-14619 from Niko.

“Summer without be summer without strawberries,
without wisps of clouds and daisies.”

From St-Angel.

“Water seeks strand, bird seeks branch, human seeks friend” :)

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