Neidong waterfall, Taiwan

Postcard ID: TW-1295418
Country: Taiwan

Here is a postcard with so nice colours. I'd like to be a passenger of cableway :)

Neidong waterfall is an impressive 3 tier waterfall south of Wulai. In addition to the waterfalls Neidong is a known birding spot for photographers. The upper tier is an impressive broad waterfall with a nice viewing platform. The middle tier is taller and falls 20 meters into a nice pool. 

Some stamps from these postcard are:

Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf, Taipei, Taiwan

Postcard ID: TW-1299484
Country: Taiwan

This picture was taken by the sender this year. I think that is a good example of self-made postcard. I like night views full of the lights :)

Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf is a very scenic spot at the western tip of Tamsui District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Its predecessor was the "Tamsui Second Fishing Port" on the right bank of the Tamsui river estuary, an important fishing harbor in the early history of north Taiwan.

The Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf is well known by its beautiful sunset and fresh seafood. While having sightseeing and leisure facilities, it still holds its functionality as a harbor for fishing boats.

Rock carvings of Fennoscandia

Postcard ID: RU-2710388
Country: Russia

Such an interesting card I received from Russia. To be honest I didn't heard about Petroglyph and Fennoscandia before. yes, I' ve known about rock carvings, but the work Petroglyph I saw first time on this card :)

Petroglyphs are pictogram and logogram images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images. Petroglyphs are found world-wide, and are often associated with prehistoric peoples. The word comes from the Greek words petro-, theme of the word "petra" meaning "stone", and glyphein meaning "to carve", and was originally coined in French as pétroglyphe.

Fennoscandia or Fenno-Scandinavia is the region comprising the Scandinavian Peninsula, Finland, Karelia, and the Kola Peninsula.

Also I found a site of artist that created a picture for the card. You can check other works here.

Here are some stamps with deers:

Monarch butterfly

Postcard ID: RU-2858710
Country: Russia

Here is so wonderful butterfly from Russia. We watch "Under the Dome" series from time to time, so there are Monarch butterflies have great role :)

The monarch butterfly is a milkweed butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It may be the most familiar North American butterfly. Its wings feature an easily recognizable orange and black pattern, with a wingspan of 8.9–10.2 cm.

The eastern North American monarch population is notable for its southward late summer/autumn migration from the United States and southern Canada to Mexico, covering thousands of miles. The western North American population of monarchs west of the Rocky Mountains most often migrate to sites in California but have been found in overwintering Mexico sites. 

The name 'monarch' may be in honor of King William III of England. The monarch was originally described by Linnaeus in his Systema Naturae of 1758 and it was placed in the genus Papilio. In 1780, Jan Krzysztof Kluk used the monarch as the type species for a new genus

The monarch is the state insect of Alabama, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, Texas, Vermont, and West Virginia. It was nominated in 1990 as the national insect of the United States of America. but the legislation did not pass.

A goat

Postcard ID: IE-75303
Country: Ireland

This is one from the strangest card I've received through Postcrossing. When I took it from my mailbox, I didn't understand how to look at it right. It looks like a goat, but I don't know the reason why it looks so weird. Like through a dirty glass or like made from dirty snow.

A stamp from Ireland:

A dragonfly

Postcard ID: NL-2564874
Country: Netherlands

A dragonfly is an insect belonging to the order Odonata, the suborder Epiprocta or, in the strict sense, the infraorder Anisoptera. It is characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body. Dragonflies possess six legs (like any other insect), but most of them cannot walk well. Dragonflies are among the fastest flying insects in the world. Dragonflies can fly backwards, change direction in mid-air and hover for up to a minute.

Dragonflies are major predators that eat mosquitoes, and other small insects like flies, bees, ants, wasps, and very rarely butterflies. They are usually found around marshes, lakes, ponds, streams, and wetlands because their larvae, known as "nymphs", are aquatic.

Though dragonflies are predators, they themselves are subject to being preyed upon by birds, lizards, frogs, spiders, fish, water bugs, and even other large dragonflies.

Here are Netherlands stamps:

Tasty macarons

Postcard ID: DE-3324996
Country: Germany

Here are tasty macarons that came to me from Germany. Small pieces of personal happiness :) I knew about them a couple of year ago. Beautiful pictures with macarons appeared in the Internet. Finally I decided to taste them in when I was in Chisinau. It's really tasty, but they're so small! :)

A macaron is a sweet meringue-based confection made with eggs, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder or ground almond, and food colouring. The macaron is commonly filled with ganache, buttercream or jam filling sandwiched between two biscuits. The name is derived from the Italian word macarone, maccarone or maccherone, the Italian meringue.

The confection is characterised by smooth, squared top, ruffled circumference. It is mildly moist and easily melts in the mouth. Macarons can be found in a wide variety of flavors that range from the traditional (raspberry, chocolate) to the new (foie gras, matcha).

A stamp from the envelope is related to Oktoberfest:

An early morning scene at Market Place, Thailand

Postcard ID: TH-172477
Country: Thailand

I like postcards with market's view. They are usually colourful, bright and shows typical people at certain country. Once I'll visit any from Asian country, I'll definitely go to any market place :) 

Markets of Thailand are legendary, not simply because they are places to find cheap gifts for people back home, but because they are also a slice of the real Thailand. Markets are not just there for the tourists, they are focal points for the various communities that make up the kingdom. You will see the ‘real deal’ in a market – real people going about their daily lives rather than some contrived scene created for the tourists! If you enjoy pottering around markets and hunting bargains, Thailand's markets are ideal for you. 

Here is a Thai post stamp:

Donkeys from Greece

Postcard ID: GR-40220
Country: Greece

This cute donkey came to me from hot Greece. A sender wrote that in Greece donkeys are used as a transportation way (only in graphic islands) and this is the meaning of this card :)

Actually, donkey is a domesticated member of the horse family, Equidae. The donkey has been used as a working animal for at least 5000 years. There are more than 40 million donkeys in the world, mostly in underdeveloped countries, where they are used principally as draught or pack animals. Working donkeys are often associated with those living at or below subsistence levels. Small numbers of donkeys are kept for breeding or as pets in developed countries.

Here is an amazing Greek stamp (without donkeys):

NTU Campus map, Taiwan

Postcard ID: TW-1278871
Country: Taiwan

I do not have in my profile words like "Please no handmade cards". As some of them are really nice and unique. For example, like this one. It's a self-made card from one of the club in a college where a sender has studied. That card is a brief map of her school. I like it!

National Taiwan University is a national co-educational research university located in Taipei, Taiwan. Its 1,086,167 m2 main campus is located in Taipei's Da'an District. In addition, the university has 6 other campuses in Taipei and elsewhere, with a total area of 345,830,000 m2. The University consists of 11 colleges, 54 departments, 103 graduate institutes and 4 research centers. In 2010, the student body consisted of 17,514 undergraduate students and 15,824 graduate students.

The university was founded in 1928 by the Japanese administration during the Japanese colonial era and was then known as the Taihoku (Taipei) Imperial University. After World War II, the government of the Republic of China resumed the administration of Taihoku University and reorganized and renamed it National Taiwan University on November 15, 1945.

NTU is often considered to be among the most prestigious universities in Taiwan. It has strong ties with the Academia Sinica.

Here are beautiful Taiwanese stamps:

Dragon Boat Festival

Postcard ID: TW-1298399
Country: Taiwan

As sender wrote this is a card about this year Dragon Boat Festival. It's one of the most important festivals in Chinese culture. I know really not enough information about this festival, so it was interesting to find more information.

The Dragon Boat is a traditional and statutory holiday originating in China.

The festival now occurs on the 5th day of the 5th month of the traditional lunar calendar, the source of its alternative name, the Double Fifth Festival. The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, so the date varies from year to year on the Gregorian calendar. In 2014, it occurred on June 2. The focus of most celebrations involves eating zongzi (sticky rice treats wrapped in bamboo leaves), drinking realgar wine, and racing dragon boats.

The sun is considered to be at its strongest around the time of summer solstice, as the daylight in the northern hemisphere is the longest. The sun, like the Chinese dragon, traditionally represents masculine energy, whereas the moon, like the phoenix, traditionally represents feminine energy. The summer solstice is considered the annual peak of male energy while the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, represents the annual peak of feminine energy. The masculine image of the dragon was thus naturally associated with Dragon.

Also on the card I found super special cancellation (?) stamp:

A ladybug

Postcard ID: DE-3271553
Country: Germany

Here is a wonderful green card with a ladybug. I like so bright summer colours! Here in Belarus we call them lady cows :)

The Ladybugs are a family of small beetles, ranging from 0.8 to 18 mm. They are commonly yellow, orange, or scarlet with small black spots on their wing covers, with black legs, heads and antennae. Ladybugs  are found worldwide, with over 5,000 species described, more than 450 native to North America alone.

The tea ceremony

Postcard ID: CN-1328494
Country: China

This card shows a small part of tea ceremony. I've found that such ceremonies can be found in Minsk and I'd like to visit one of them with my husband. As a fan of tea I should do it! :)

A tea ceremony is a ritualized form of making tea practiced in the East Asian cultural sphere by the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese and Vietnamese tea ceremony. The tea ceremony, also called the Way of Tea, is a cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of tea. The manner in which it is performed, or the art of its performance, is called Tea ceremony. One can also refer to the whole set of rituals, tools, gestures, etc. used in such ceremonies as tea culture. All of these tea ceremonies and rituals contain "an adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday life", as well as refinement, an inner spiritual content, humility, restraint and simplicity "as all arts that partake the extraordinary, an artistic artificiality, abstractness, symbolism and formalism" to one degree or another.

At a very basic level, tea ceremonies are a formalized way of making tea, in a process which has been refined to yield the best taste. 

Here is a funne chicken stamp from the card:

Amaretto truffles

Postcard ID: DE-3298609
Country: Germany

This card looks really great and tasty :) I'd like to say that German postcrossers have pleasantly surprised me last month. Anika also added the recipe of amaretto truffles!

Also this card has gorgeous stamps:

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Sweet muffin

Postcard ID: PL-846561
Country: Poland

Here are a sweet muffins from Poland to me. I think that this is a sign to me to make such cakes for our family :)

It's strange, but I don't see a postal stamp on this postcard. Information technologies is on the postal side, probably.

A Bald Eagle is the USA national bird

Postcard ID: US-2865853
Country: USA

Here is a wonderful card with feeling of freedom that came to me from USA last week.

Bald eagles are large predatory birds that have a wingspan up to 8 feet. They are dark brown with a white head, neck and tail. Eagles mate for life and generally have two offspring at a time. Eagle offspring stay with their parents for three years.

Bald eagles feed mainly on dead fish.

A cute dog

Postcard ID: CZ-478139
Country: Czech Republic

Do you know a breed of this dog? I don't know  It seems like labrador to me, however I'm not sure. Dog with flower is really nice gift for me on my B-day. Yes, I received this card on Saturday :)

A Czech stamp is:

Still life

Postcard ID: CN-1332251
Country: China

Here is one more piece of art in my blog. As I don't know Chinese (except some primitive hieroglyphs), I don't understand anything on this postcard. 

However the sender really surprised me. Firstly, he studied in Minsk, but not in the same university like me :)

Secondary, he added to a postcard some checks, souvenir banknotes and other different papers with  hieroglyphs (I have no idea what is that :)). 

As usual here are Chinese stamps (it seems that Chinese post issues more stamps for postcrosser that other countries:)):

A butterfly on a flower

Postcard ID: DE-3297571
Country: Germany

Here is an amazing colourful butterfly that flew to me from Germany. It was sent to me by Tanya that have lived in Germany for last 19 year. So many people now change the country where they were born to new countries due to different reasons. Who knows where I'll live in future =)

Fly like a butterfly, from flower to flower.. )

Berlin Victory Column

Postcard ID: DE-2219421
Country: Germany

Many cities have own Victory column or Victory Arch. This one is located in Berlin.

The Victory Column is a monument in Berlin, Germany. Designed by Heinrich Strack, after 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War, by the time it was inaugurated on 2 September 1873, Prussia had also defeated Austria in the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and France in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), giving the statue a new purpose. Different from the original plans, these later victories in the so-called unification wars inspired the addition of the bronze sculpture of Victoria, 8.3 metres high and weighing 35 tonnes, designed by Friedrich Drake. Berliners have given the statue the nickname Goldelse, meaning something like "Golden Lizzy".

The Victory Column is a major tourist attraction in the city of Berlin.

Moomin, Finland

Postcard ID: FI-1775326
Country: Finland

I think I'll always happy to receive postcard with Moomin characters :)

All of my Moomin-postcards can be found by tag moomins. Maybe once I will make an exhibition of Moomin postcards in my room :) 

Also I see on this card an amazing Moomin stamp:

Bijou

Postcard ID: UA-640670
Country: Ukraine

This is absolutely summer time postcard. I like all these beads and bracelets. I'm a fan of bracelets, like to receive is as a gift and to buy in different countries as a souvenir. Bracelets are better than magnets! :)

I don't know why this card doesn't have any likes yet. If I saw this card at gallery of another person I'd like it to add it to favourites :)

Also this card contains beautiful unusual stamps:

Drinks and desserts

Postcard ID: CN-942837
Country: China

Today I show a type of postcards that were not present in these blog before. Here are Nouvelles Images postcards. I hadn't known about them before starting postcrossing activity. As usual, I saw these cards in postcrossing galleries of other peope and would like to have it in my own collection. Than I tried to find the name of these cards. And finally, I added this point to my preferences. And started waiting. Long-long waiting.. 

I was insanely happy when I received such card at the first time :)

Here a Chinese stamp:

Kiss you!

Postcard ID: RU-1733384
Country: Russia

I receive vintage&retro postcards quite rarely. Meanwhile I like postcards of these themes. A couple of weeks ago me and my husband look trough the family album with b&w photos. It was strange time, but now it's so interesting to have a chance to see at least photos from that time. When I was a child and my parents were yang... People (men and women) have nice hairstyles, children had the same clothes :))

As we say now, grass was greener in childhood :)

Baikal, Russia

Postcard ID: RU-2810574
Country: Russia

Here is amazing Baikal Lake. I really like Russian or Belarusian landscapes and believe that we have really beautiful nature. On the left site we see a pole with ribbons. it's a place of strengths, ribbons are to make spirits kinder.

Lake Baikal is a rift lake in the south of the Russian region of Siberia, between the Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast.

Lake Baikal is the freshwater lake with greatest volume in the world, containing roughly 20% of the world's unfrozen surface fresh water, and at 1,642 m (5,387 ft), the deepest. It is also among the clearest of all lakes, and thought to be the world's oldest lake at 25 million years. It is the seventh-largest lake in the world by surface area.

Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two-thirds of which can be found nowhere else in the world and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. 

Cute kitten

Postcard ID: DE-3284026
Country: Germany

Oh... my scanner again made a postcard worse that it is. However everyone could still see that kitten on the postcard is really cute (as all animal's children). Would like to have our own cat and post its photo to Instagram, huh :)

Here is a stamp from the card:

Wisconsin, USA

Postcard ID: US-2830678
Country: USA

Hurray! Here is one more US map to my collection. From this card I know that:

State bird is Robin

State flower is Violet

The Capital is Madison (Here is in Minsk we have a casino with such name :)).

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States, in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin is the 23rd state by total area and the 20th most populous. The state capital is Madison, and its largest city is Milwaukee, which is located on the western shore of Lake Michigan. The state comprises 72 counties.

Wisconsin is known as "America's Dairyland" because it is one of the nation's leading dairy producers, particularly famous for cheese. Manufacturing and tourism are also major contributors to the state's economy.

By the way I created a list of United States where all US states maps, that I have, marked with the link to the posts in this blog.

Seattle, USA

Postcard ID: US-2831647
Country: USA

Today I've known more information about USA city - Seattle. Of course, I've heard about this city earlier. For example, I saw the film "Sleepless in Seattle". Great film, btw. When I've received this enigmatic postcard, I read about this city more carefully.

Seattle is a coastal seaport city and the seat of King County, in the U.S. state of Washington. With an estimated 652,405 residents as of 2013, Seattle is the largest city in the Pacific Northwest region of North America and the fastest-growing major city in the United States.

The Seattle area had been inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers. Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived at Alki Point on November 13, 1851. The settlement was moved to its current site and named "Seattle" in 1853, after Chief Si'ahl of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes.

The city developed as a technology center in the 1980s, with companies like Amazon.com, Microsoft and T-Mobile US based in the area. The stream of new software, biotechnology, and Internet companies led to an economic revival, which increased the city's population by almost 50,000 between 1990 and 2000. Since then, Seattle has become a hub for green industry and a model for sustainable development.

Seattle has a noteworthy musical history. From 1918 to 1951, there were nearly two dozen jazz nightclubs along Jackson Street from the current Chinatown/International District to the Central District. The jazz scene developed the early careers of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Ernestine Anderson and others. Seattle is also the birthplace of rock legend Jimi Hendrix and the alternative rock style grunge.

Also this card brought to me a new USA Global stamp: