Finland - IIHF World Champion 2011

     Sport-themed postcards are usually pretty awesome. This one is no exception. Finland won the International Ice Hockey Federation World cup in 2011, defeating Sweden (Russia was 4th, it's funny that then in 2012 when Russia won, Finland was 4th - obviously both having something went wrong during Bronze medal game).

received from nediam_nori, Finland (direct swap)

     My colleague said, looking at those Finnish happy faces: 'I bet there are Russians on the team'. Hmm, let's look, had to check it on wikipedia page of IIHF Finnish team. Well, only one 'Russian' - Leo Komarov [we played 'Where's Leo?' game with this card - failed], born in Narva, Estonia, and he is technically a Karelian. He plays for Dinamo Moscow team at the moment. Actually more unexpectedly for me was to find out that about a half of players of National Finnish team play for local Russian clubs (and apparently coaches of that local Russian teams are Finnish too).

    Also I didn't know, that mascot of the championship in 2012 (hosted in Finland and Sweden) was Hockeybird (honourable kin of angrybirds) - Finland issued a thematic stamp with it too (that postcard wasn't an exception having it).

Drawing from little boy from Finland (FI-1491635)

     Yes, I know official postcrossing rules - it should be about postcards, and when i received an envelope which wasn't as firm as if there were a postcard inside i was a bit puzzled 'what is that?! where is my postcard?'. I get this drawing from the envelope, and on the other side there were a short story where boy told about his family and where he lives. And apparently he couldn't afford to buy a postcard suited to my wishlist, so he decided to create one. My colleague said: 'If you increase a contrast and wipe all spots out, it would be the coolest stylish child drawing postcard, kid deserves to have beautiful one on his wall', so i made it. And wrote all thank you's to sender. Actually now this postcard brings only smile to my face and i'm really glad i can sometimes receive that kind of things through postcrossing project.

FI-1491635, received from Aleksi1, Finland

P.S. Sadly, Aleksi doesn't participate postcrossing anymore, i hope he wasn't hurt by someone who couldn't have appreciated drawings or whatnot (well, maybe i could have been this person too, judging too fast), and i wish he will join again some day :)

Belarus' hedgehog maxicards

Two maxicards from joint Belarus-Kazakhstan issues of stamps in 2012

It seems that the southern white-breasted hedgehog is from Belarus side and the long-eared hedgehog - from Kazakhstan's. It would be funny to see the second one - it looks so cute ^^

received from Lamilla in her Special Group in Just Postcards RR (official postcrossing forum)

received from ja_zniczka (LJ ru-postcrossing community swap)

Alphabetical swap, part#3 (Ё-Ж-З)

     There were no absence of even of most 'abused' letters of Russian alphabet, like "Ё" ("Yo") is a hedgehog ("ёж", "ёжик"); "Ж" ("Zh") is a women day ("Женский день"); "З" ("Z") is a golden cockerel ("золотой петушок").

     Why I said the letter "Ё" ("Yo") is most abused in Russian alphabet? Because in all text it's not showed, replaced by "Е" ("E"), with small exception of children books and books for studying Russian, it's meant that any Russian-speaking adult knows how to pronounce it and where, and it saves some trouble to print with less letters. Interesting that it has same sound as "Йо" ("Yo"), which is written the same way in some foreign words like iodine or yogurt, so it can be said that having special letter for it is excessive.

all received from Robin_Goodfellow, Russia (direct swap)

     Second postcard is from the same set as letter 'В' was - '22 gyri' by Victor Bogorad, I bought the set for specific round robins and tags where you need to choose the card fitting the phrase or a word, and it works perfect for those [and alphabet swap too!] - Women's Day is 8th of March, when women get what they want for whole year of house chores [initially feministic holiday in quite patriarchal society as Russia it turned to a little bit of positive discrimination one, but flowers are guaranteed]. Last one is an illustration by Ivan Bilibin, famous for illustrating Russian fairy tales and Slavic folklore, for Alexander Pushkin's fairy tale in verse 'The Tale of the Golden Cockerel'. Ivan Bilibin's life was spent with lots of travel and misfortune - studying abroad, fleeing Russian Civil War [interesting that he had differences with Union of Russian artists in St. Petersburg in 1910s and left to Crimea before October Revolution, so he had to emigrate via Egypt when White Movement lost, then France - attending World Exhibition in Paris was a trigger to move back], returning back to Soviet Union, getting all the positions and respect he deserved, and dying during Siege of Leningrad in Second World War.

part#1 (A-Б-В), part#2 (Г-Д-Е), part#3 (Ё-Ж-З), part#4 (И-Й-К), part#5 (Л-М-Н), part#6 (О-П-Р), part#7 (С-Т-У), part#8 (Ф-Х-Ц), part#9 (Ч-Ш-Щ), part#10 (Ъ-Ы-Ь), part#11(Э-Ю-Я)

Alphabetical swap, part#2 (Г-Д-Е)

     Second part of alphabetical swap has three postcards again: "Г" ("G") is an mountains ("горы") - stamps were a gymnasts ("гимнасты"); "Д" ("D") is a dragon ("дракон") - stamps was a watermelon ("дыня"); "Е" ("E") is a food ("еда").

     First postcard shows Sayan Mountains, interesting that Sayan and Altai mountains photo postcards became very popular slightly later and there were countless sets and postcards issued [including ones within 'My Russia' sets and with Ergaki Nature Park], but the one here looks like earlier per-2010 print. Second dragon is an illustration by Daria Gerasimova [there are several artist by same name, so it's hard to find her], her works with people riding fairytale animals, lions, cats, horses etc., were very popular back then, and now it's almost impossible to find them - latest I bought from the children books publisher which issued books with her illustrations. Last one is not only food, but is the classic female choice in any restaurant - Caesar salad.

all received from Robin_Goodfellow, Russia (direct swap)

part#1 (A-Б-В), part#2 (Г-Д-Е), part#3 (Ё-Ж-З), part#4 (И-Й-К), part#5 (Л-М-Н), part#6 (О-П-Р), part#7 (С-Т-У), part#8 (Ф-Х-Ц), part#9 (Ч-Ш-Щ), part#10 (Ъ-Ы-Ь), part#11(Э-Ю-Я)

Adding text to the front side of the postcard

     Some postcrossers consider it blasphemy - for sure, it makes card less neat (that could be essential for deltiologists). I think adding some text on city views or maps or panoramic views makes postcard more personal, and for me it's main feature of postcards i get - that they were sent especially for me.

     For example, those Irish or Norwegian postcards are unique - nobody has them with legends added by my fellow swappers :D

both received from youngsammyg, Ireland (direct swap)

received from pefawm, Norway (direct swap)

Handmade: Collage from Integra, Russia

     Handmade and collage tags are for receiving amazing handmade gems. Backside - "I wish you a spring mood" - looks like a very cute and gentle letter from comics super villain :D

front and back - received from Integra, Russia (Handmade alphabetical tag, "X")

envelope (front and back) was awesome too

Touch note cards, part#2

     What did i do secondly the moment i realized the opportunity to send for free postcard with user defined image? Correct! Sent to myself couple of space postcards :D Well, actually we did it with my colleague, he sent to himself loads of those cards (currently they made a cute wall at our working place).

upper left - Soyuz Spacecraft in Orbit (source: Apollo - Soyuz Project); lower left - Discovery lifts off at the start of STS-120 (source: Space Shuttle); upper right - Cosmonaut Aleksey A. Leonov (left) and astronaut Thomas P. Stafford take part in Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) joint crew training at the Cosmonaut Training Center (Star City) near Moscow (source: Apollo - Soyuz Project); lower right - The Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan October 14, 2004 (source: Soyuz (rocket)) [all NASA's galleries]

My colleague postcard's wall at work [we have awfullest and cutest creative scientific chaos at work ^^]

Touchnote cards, part#1

     What did i do the moment i realized the opportunity to send for free postcard with user defined image? Correct! Sent to myself couple of F1 postcards :D

left - Kimi Räikkönen's pitstop, Gran-Prix, year - unspecified; right - Drinking champagne on Gran-Prix of Europe podium, Nürburgring, Germany, 2007

Alphabetical swap, part#1 (А-Б-В)

     As it is the first of these series of posts [eleven total - three letters per post], and Russian alphabet has 33 letters [and later ones are harder, some don't even have words starting on them] there are a need for prehistory here.

     When I started to participate tags and round robins on official forum I encounter that some of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian postcrossers put something like "Fellow nationals, don't tag me!" in their signature. Sometimes it can be expressed a bit meaner or much nicer, but the meaning is still the same. Then I started to see in some signatures more nice and optimistic texts [which wouldn't have appeared of course without "don't's"]: "I'm happy to have postcards from everywhere", "Tag me whoever wants it, I like all postcards", "Brothers and sisters, which are my fellow nationals! Please tag me if you want, I'm not a collector, I just like to send and receive cards" etc. And when I saw every one of those signatures, I wrote to those people and suggested swap, no surprise I got agreement every time :D

     That's how I met Robin_Goodfellow ^^ We swapped regular cards [one of my soviet space posters is from her] and then decided to do that kind of project - swap postcard, each pair will have something referring to the certain letter in Russian alphabet [there are similar tags on official forum]. Natalia usually sticks stamps also having something on the corresponding letter [and I'm not being that thorough :\]. So one of my most interesting series swap started!

"А" is an angel; "B" is bread (actually it is "Б" and "булочка" - "backed rolls", "баранка" - "bagel", "бублик" - "bublik" and other baking); "В" ("V") is vampires ("вампиры").

all received from Robin_Goodfellow, Russia (direct swap)

     First postcard is an illustration by Elisabeth Boehm, Alphabet series, very popular children book and postcard illustrator from the last quarter of 19th century [more of her postcards appeared in New Year post, I translated her last name as Bem there, according to Russian writing], her sister Lyubov Endaurova also was an illustrator and her cards also exist. The illustrations have very specific style and not only because they are from 19th century - Elisabeth Boehm was inspired by older illustration styles from 17-18th century, so they were looking vintage already at her time. And of course due to that fact postcards of hers are either loved or hated [I'm more of the latter xD]. Second one is from very popular series of multiple objects on postcards, from Russian shop, but they were inspired by series of one of European publishers - now similar series are still popular, but illustrated like Lou Paper [there were more received and sent cards of those - with apples, planes, and Russian symbols]. Last one is one of illustration set '22 gyri' by Victor Bogorad, famous for his dark humour caricatures. The set was issued in 2010 by publishing house Kontakt-kultura, and wasn't very popular - I bought it myself in 2020s, it was still available.

part#1 (A-Б-В), part#2 (Г-Д-Е), part#3 (Ё-Ж-З), part#4 (И-Й-К), part#5 (Л-М-Н), part#6 (О-П-Р), part#7 (С-Т-У), part#8 (Ф-Х-Ц), part#9 (Ч-Ш-Щ), part#10 (Ъ-Ы-Ь), part#11(Э-Ю-Я)

Amsterdam Centraal

     Postcard of Amsterdam Centraal from a guy who actually works there. Looks like quite pretty railway station to me, doesn't it? Well, still i like Antwerp's central station more - with all its multiple levels and upper level clock ^^

left - received from ismaelvanwijk, Netherlands (direct swap); right - Amsterdam Centraal railway station (as from wikipedia.org)

Handmade: Collage from creativetempo, USA

     That one is an iconic collage handmade postcard. Like i should be inventive here - cutting out pieces from magazines, lurking for stickers in kids shops, and there you can buy a set of details ready to be combined on a postcard. The bike's handlebar was damaged while traveling (too thin i guess) but got glued to just some other place on the postcard so i didn't notice it at first.

received from creativetempo, USA (Handmade postcard tag)

Weird card: A robot eye from Germany

     That postcard reminds me -- well, obviously -- 2001: Space Odyssey. The HAL 9000 - evil artificial intelligence which controlled Discovery One spacecraft in the movie and in Arthur Clark's novels. There are a lot of references and homages to HAL in popular culture (i can recall just now at least one episode in 'Futurama' and one in 'The Simpsons').

received from LinaLoveslive, Germany (Weird/odd/strange/makes-no-sense RR, #126)

HAL parodies: left - from Futurama [source], right - from - The Simpsons [source]

Swedish tram [first and only yet card from Sweden]

     Trams as far as i know (and sender knows, and brief google search shows) are quite special for Stockholm. Can't wait to see them with my own eyes ^^

left - received from lellykate, Sweden (Stamps you like RR, #64); right - line 2, Stockholm trams (as from wikipedia.org)

Handmade: Rubber stamps from tcdrtw, USA

     Maybe it looks plain, but it is very sincere and sweet indeed. Not only how it's made - maybe rubber or even potato stamps. The message on the other side was very nice - sender was a cancer researcher who gave up her scientific/research carrier to be a good mother to her kids and good wife to her husband - it made me think about 'big' life and 'little' life, choices we made and that there're no good or bad choice until you had the choice in the beginning. Remember that movie with Julia Roberts - Mona Lisa Smile - in which feminist teacher goes to a perspective student of hers who chose married life over University and carrier and that young girl says that it's her choice and it's nothing bad in living a 'traditional role' as long as you love it and between other choices you made yours.

received from tcdrtw, USA (Handmade tag)

Content of one envelope [mar-mazetka, Ukraine]

     Swap from very talented mar-mazetka! Everybody who cares about decorating their postcards, well, should take some tips from her: how to decorate a postcard and whole handmade tag. Firstly, wonderful cards (she chose the pictures to print and they are probably can categorized as self-print, but they are well too nice for it).

received from mar-mazetka, Ukraine (direct swap)

Weird card: Rider from USA

     Roger Dean's 'Paladin' (1944, printed in 1972). Dean has his unique fantasy style and did lots of album's and video game's covers [his artworks can be found on his personal site]. Kristen wrote that she got this card in large miscellaneous pack (and it's certainly not a horse postcard which people usually request).

received from Glisten, USA (Weird/odd/strange/makes-no-sense RR, #126)

yet another random [and amazing] picture from Roger Dean's gallery [check: Roger Dean's paintings]

Weird card: Lifetime test from Turkey

     Sometimes i think that every young adult receives such kind of check-list after graduate, that's why when you meet someone you haven't seen for a while, he/she starts to list achievements: 'work, apartment, car, wife, kid/kids/planning-to-have-a-kid...'. Sometimes i want to add '...cat, warm toilet seat, sitting in bar with boring friends every friday' or look in their eyes and ask soulfully: 'Are you happy?'

received from kinkyfunkydinky, Turkey (Weird/odd/strange/makes-no-sense RR, #126)

Content of one envelope [Elina_M, Russia]

<This post was one of the first in this blog and now is returned from the Drafts and i leave it as is (the layout and the words) as from the date of receiving of the envelope>

This swap is like a miracle:

Firstly, envelope with stamps, all connected with my professional specialty - telecommunications

(not one or two, all of them!!!)

Secondly, three covers from A Ladybird Book of Postcards and Vanity Fair

(all with my favorite themes - antennas and vehicles)

Thirdly, one of my favorite Russian postcards with Komi-Zyrian people

(nice to have this one written and stamped)

As a last but not the least, anonymous photo with Jean Cocteau and Jean Marais, Lovely!

Thank you, Elina!

Queen Mary II in the bay of Ålesund, Norway

     I don't know why this is special. Maybe Norway for me is mysterious country with fiords, rocks, and polar nights; maybe Queen Mary II looks so much as Titanic (being much bigger and gorgeous in the same time); maybe i like the plot here - just a fleeting moment of visit on its transatlantic way with many other bays and light cities, most of which are more fabulous than this small Norway city, but as for journey it seems starting exactly in the small bay of Ålesund.

received from Norway_girl, Norway (direct swap)

Czech republic's beautiful postcards

     Czech Republic is a country in the very heart of Europe and one of main things i know about it is that it's the least religious country of all (59% of Czech people don't assign themselves to any of religions). It was funny in light of this fact to receive a orthodox icon postcard as my first Czech postcard (CZ-149434). Also I'm quite lucky with multiview Czech postcards (i don't like multiview because usually they are too small, but those are way larger than regular size 10x15 cm postcards).

CZ-196856, received from Margitka, Czech Republic

CZ-233495, received from Lenielka, Czech Republic