A Three Card Day

As the title implies I have 3 cards to showcase today. They come from South Africa, South Korea and Greece.The South Korea card is the only Postcrossing card this time. So let's do South Africa first.
The front of the card shows a number of scenes of Kruger National Park, one of just a few places magnificent wildlife can be seen in its natural habitat. Located in the east of South Africa, the park covers 18,989 square kilometres. The park is home to 1,982 species of plants, 517 species of birds and many animals including zebras, cheetahs, giraffes, hippos, hyenas, impalas , and 3000 crocodiles. The Big Five game animals of lions, elephants, cape buffaloes, leopards and rhinoceros are also very well represented. Kruger is truly the flagship of South African national parks.
Bruce, a reader of this blog, sent this card along. He used a new 2010 stamp Airmail postcard rate stamp, showing Zulu neckpieces. Bruce, if you are reading this, I would love to accept your offer of the set of stamps issued for the 75th anniversary of SAA. These show tail logos and if you go to http://www.postcrossing.com/user/zachary you can see that I used a tail logo from my first airline employer as my avatar for my membership in Postcrossing. So, those stamps would be a welcome addition to my collection of airlines on stamps. Thanks Bruce, I appreciate your offer. Now , as an after thought in regard to the Big Five I mentioned above, I noticed that South Africa Post issued this year a booklet of stamps showing The Big Five. And, here it is.

Card # 2 is from South Korea. It shows shoppers in the Outdoor Market at the Korean Folk Village. The Korean Folk Village is home to numerous collections of Korean cultural artifacts, providing an opportunity for Korean children to experience and learn the culture of their ancestors firsthand. The site provides a venue to promote traditional Korean culture to both domestic and international visitors, and provides an open-air learning place for succeeding generations. The village has been developed to convey the wisdom and the spirits of ancestors to both domestic and international tourists. Yunjeong Yang used 2 stamps plus a Christmas or Easter seal. The bug stamp was issued in 2000 while the World Heritage stamp on the right was issued in a set of 2 in 2005. The seal is on the left with the figure skater.

My last card is from Greece and is another one from my brother Dale , who travelled in the area. The card is a map card of Chios island. Chios is the 5th largest of the Greek island. It is located in the Aegean Sea, 7 km from Turkey. The 11th century monastery of Nea Moni , a UNESCO World Heritage Site , is located on the island. A few interesting facts about Chios include these.

• The town of Vrontados is home to a unique Easter celebration, where competing teams of locals gather at the town's two (rival) churches to fire tens of thousands of homemade rockets at the other church's bell tower while the Easter service is going on inside the churches, in what has become known as rouketopolemos ("the Easter church war").
• There is reportedly a "small country church" on Chios that has a family memorial which lists 14 generations of a family, starting at the fifth century BC and going back to the tenth century BC, before there were any written records in Greece.

Dale used a new 2010 stamp issued for 2500th anniversary of The Battle of Marathon.

That is the update for this time. Thanks to all for their cards. And as we postcards collectors say, keep those cards coming and we'll always have something to blog about.
One more thing, congrats to Ana , who writes My World of Postcards at http://thewholeworldatyourhands.blogspot.com for receiving not 1 but 4 written, stamped and posted cards from Tristan da Cunha. I bet some of you will have to look that one up. A card sent from Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, Tristan da Cunha is like The Holy Grail of postcards. Believe me, they are hard to get, much like cards from Nauru, St. Helena, Pitcairn Islands and Wallis and Futuna. I have been trying for Nauru and Wallis and Futuna for 4 years now and can't seem to get to first base with either.
Oh well, that's what keeps me going. Take care.