A Number of Postcards

I am finally back to this blog after been away from it for quite awhile. I have few excuses other than working in my garden and going away for the long Victoria Day weekend here in Canada. I visited my wife's family in Saskatchewan. But now I'm back. In the interim I did receive a number of postcards, a few of which I want to show today. First up is another card , her second, from Megan , traveling in Laos. This time her card is from the capital Vientiane. The card shows a scene from The That Luang Festival. This religious festival is held in and around That Luang stupa, the national symbol of Laos, where hundreds of monks gather to accept alms and floral votives from the people; the festival includes a grand fireworks display at night, and a trade fair, showcasing Lao products, that takes place during the day.The festival is held from Oct 26th-31st. Megan used two really nice stamps on the card, but I was not able to find any information about either.


The second card is from a Postcrosser in Lahti, Finland. She wrote on the card that she hopes summer is coming soon, as it was just 10 degrees C when she filled out the card. Lahti is a city of about 90 thousand people and borders Vesijarvi Lake. It is a city that endeavours for great achievements in sports such ski jumping, skiing, soccer, ice hockey and track and field. An interesting bit of trivia about Lahti. The asteroid 1498 Lahti was named after the city by its discoverer, Finnish astronomer Yrjo Vaisala. The stamp , issued in 2007, shows a very young boy ski jumping. Better him than me I guess.


Another of the cards I received is from Bari, Italy. It was sent by postcrosser Kabbara Rami. Bari is a city of around 328,000 people and has the unwelcome distinction of being the only European city to experience chemical warefare in the course of the second World War. Mustard gas , that was stored on the dock and on a US warship in the harbour was released during an attack by German planes on the night of December 2, 1943. The incident was covered up by Allied leaders and was not known until 1959 and still remained quite obscure until 1967. A more positive note about Bari is that it is also the city of Saint Nicholas of Bari, commonly known as Santa Claus.


My last card for today is from Skopje, Macedonia. It was sent by Ana, the result of a private swap. Ana used 2 nice stamps , one featuring archeology items , issued 1998 and another stamp from 2007, about which I known little.


My thanks to Megan, Tarja, Kabbara and Ana for these cards.

More tomorrow.