World Weightlifting Championship - Paris, France

So I wonder, why in the English language, almost everything related to 'wine' starts with the letter 'v' actually and not 'w' - so why it is not a wineyard but a vineyard (ok, this is more of a rhetorical question, because you grow vines there, not wines, but WHY? Cos you know, I had this cool cover regarding vineyards, so that's where my 'bother' stipulates from, realizing I actually cannot use it :D )

But then this cover from France comes to a rescue, a pretty good rescue actually.

From 5 - 13 November, the Disneyland Paris resort hosted the 79th edition of the World Weightlifting Championships and for the occasion, on 7 October 2011, the French Post issued a souvenir sheet consisting of two round stamps evoking the two weights of a weightlifting bar.

The € 0.89 stamp portrays a weightlifter's profile in the movement of the clean and jerk(it is a composite of two weightlifting movements, most often performed with a barbell: the clean and the jerk. During the clean, the lifter moves the barbell from the floor to a racked position across the deltoids, without resting fully on the clavicles. During the jerk the lifter raises the barbell to a stationary position above the head, finishing with straight arms and legs, and the feet in the same plane as the torso and barbell). The other stamp (€ 0.60) features the snatch movement where the man bears the colors of the French team. The 22nd edition of Women's World Championships also took place in Paris at the same time. (In order to respect the perspective, these stamps have two different diameters (43 and 49 mm)).


For more W-inspired words, you know where to go to - Sunday Stamps

St. Valentine's Day

Since the day kinda calls for it, let's post something related to St. Valentine's today...not because I am actually fond of it...on the whole contrary I hate it how commercialized this holiday has become and the whole fuss created around it (in general I absolutely dislike such days)..and then on the other hand, it is a Catholic holiday but people over here are like celebrating it too cos it makes them feel important (and Christmas is still celebrated on January 7th.....)
But despite my overall despise related to this day, the stamps issued to commemorate it are nice and I think they are worth posting....there is another Christian saint related to this day, St. Trifun, the protector of the viticulture and the horticulture and today is the day when the first vines are being pruned...but of course, no stamps related to it, so I have to stick to St. Valentines for that, despite my feelings towards it (Maybe I am being hypocritical here, I don't know =))

Anyways, I wanted to present you two different issues here...one coming from Finland (the FDC above), issued for St. Valentines on February 3rd 1998 (the sheet was designed by Marleena Ansio). To me it is just adorable! I love it!! And there are some words/phrases in Finnish, that I absolutely don't understand =)

The other issue comes from France, and it comes on a cover, sent by Eric. It was issued on January 23, 2015 and designed by  Jean-Charles de Castelbajac (and therefore here we have the Castelbajac heart). It should be noted that Castelbajac is actually a fashion designer, designer, author and costume designer  and from what I have read, a very famous one, but me has never heard of him until now :)

The set consists of two different stamps (on this FDC you can see one of them), where you can see two stylized faces in profile, touching their respective nose, reminding an Eskimo kiss, hence the French pun "exquis mots".

On the necks of the two characters, the sketched hands recall the wings of the "dove of peace" by Picasso.
Castelbajac has created these stamps using the flagship colors that symbolize his work and universe : blue, yellow and red.

If you take a look at the bottom left corner, you will see Castelbajac's signature, his initials JCC with a crown on top...pretty neat :)

I don't know how eligible my post is for today's Sunday Stamps since it is all about the colour red, but I'll give it a try...I hope I won't be kicked out =)

For more red stuff, click on the link below!

Sunday Stamps 

Bicycles on Stamps

It's been more than a while since I've participated in the Sunday Stamps...almost a year actually...yeah, I know, shame on me =/ but as you know i've barely participated in anything postcards/stamps related during the past year...

anyways, enough excuses...some time ago I read that one of the foreseen Sunday Stamps' theme would be cycles, and I immediately knew I would have to take part in this one...those who know me, know my passion/love/fascination when it comes to bicycles (places like Amsterdam or Copenhagen for example are like my ideal place for living just because of that cycling culture they have..)

Ok, the whole theme for today refers to all cycles (bi-, tri-, motor), but I'll stick to the bi- ones...


I hope the host wouldn't mind I'm posting the same issue....
This is a set of Russian stamps issued on 11 December 2008 representing the history of the bicycle (and these come from the collection of the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, which is one of the oldest Science Museums in the world.

There are four different stamps here (no, it is not eight as it may seem at first glance - each bike/stamp is presented twice)

- the bike at the top-left and bottom right corner - Bicycle ZiCh-1 - a three speed derailleur touring bike that was revered in the Soviet Union for its quality, finish and capability. It appeared in 1946 and was possibly only produced until 1948. It was a brand of bicycles produced in Novosibirsk by Aviation Factory no 153. This factory was named after Valery Chkalov, an iconic Russian test pilot and Soviet hero of the 1930s)

- the middle stamp, both at top and bottom, shows a Road female bicycle V-22. Features: Representatively reflects class of road bicycles with an open frame. The most widespread model of female bicycle in the country in 1950-1960. Produced by Kharkov bicycle factory n.a. G.I.Petrovskiy.

- the stamp at the top right and bottom left corner - a collapsible bicycle of the military sample of "Leytner". Russia. 1917. Manufacturer: A. Leytner’s Factory of bicycles and cars "Russia". Features: the bicycle was produced upon the order of the Russian army. The collapsible mechanism gives the chance to fit it up quickly in the car in any conditions. The small weight (16 kg) offered an opportunity for transferring it on the back - I dont know if this is a typo, but in which world 16kg is actually considered 'small weight'?????

- the last stamp, the one in the middle both on the left and the right side - Racing track bicycle GM-30, 1938. It has wooden rims and frame from thin-walled steel pipes. The back plug is deprived of free wheeling.




and I have another issue I wanted to show for today, this one coming from France...

Issued 17 June 2011, showing bicycles from the origins to the present day. Here you have 6 different bicycles on stamps, plus a few extra drawings on the sheet.

With my non-existent knowledge of French, thank God to Eric and his blog, so I could copy the info on these bike-stamps

 The first model (without any pedals or handlebars), the dandy horse, was created in 1817 by German Karl Drais.
It was only in 1861 that the first pedal bicycles were created, the "michaudines" designed by French Pierre Michaux. The front wheel of the velocipede then became larger than the rear wheel to reach its climax with the penny-farthing, quickly condemned for its lack of security...
By 1880, an English company revolutionized the velocipede with the first bicycle including a chain. It will then become more reliable and another invention in 1888, the bicycle tire, will allow it to become more and more popular worldwide, partly due to the creation of the Tour de France in 1903.
The last stamp features a city bike, a recent version of the velocipede including the latest innovations, perfect for commutings. (velocipede - an early form of bicycle propelled by working pedals on cranks fitted to the front axle.) Funny fact - the Macedonian word for bicycle is 'velosiped' :)

For more wheels, visit the Sunday Stamps and enjoy the ride :)

(I'll come back to comment on your cycling beauties a bit later - I just realized I am already late for a friend's gathering - all for the love of bicycles..and stamps :))

Capital Cities of Europe, France

I don't know if you know Eric from France...though if you are a stamp collector you probably do or have at least come across his great stamps' blog

Anyways, Eric among else collects covers with EUROPA stamps, so each year I try to send him one and he sends me back the current French issue "Capital Cities of Europe".
 This year however I sent him the cover just in December (I know, I was terrible last year when it come to mail), but at least I caught the last train...and thanks to that and to Eric now I have added this beautiful "Capital Cities of Europe" issue depicting Riga!
If you want to, you can check some of the other issues from this series in this post.

Speaking of Riga, it is a capital I haven't visited yet, but that's been on my agenda for a while now....whenever I look at the postcards I have from Riga, I sigh at how beautiful it is!

This issue depicts four buildings in Riga, namely, The Nativity of Christ Cathedral (top left corner), St. Peter's Church (top right corner), The House of the Blackheads (bottom left corner) and the National Opera (bottom right corner).


- The House of the Blackheads - The original building was erected during the first third of the 14th century for the Brotherhood of Blackheads, a guild for unmarried German merchants in Riga. Major works were done in the years 1580 and 1886, adding most of the ornamentations. The structure was bombed to a ruin by the Germans June 28, 1941 and the remains demolished by the Soviets in 1948. The current reconstruction was erected from 1995 to 1999.

- The Latvian National Opera House is home to both the Latvian National Opera and the Latvian National Ballet. It was constructed in 1863 by the St. Petersburg architect Ludwig Bohnstedt, for the then German-speaking City Theatre, and has been refurbished several times.

- St. Peter's Church is a Lutheran church in Riga, dedicate to St. Peter (well, of course it is), first mentioned in records dating to 1209. It has three periods of construction and two of reconstruction

- The Nativity of Christ Cathedral was built in a Neo-Byzantine style between 1876 and 1883, during the period when the country was part of the Russian Empire. It is the largest Orthodox cathedral in the Baltic provinces built with the blessing of the Russian Tsar Alexander.
During the First World War German troops occupied Riga and turned its largest Russian Orthodox cathedral into a Lutheran church. In independent Latvia, the Nativity of Christ Cathedral once again became an Orthodox cathedral in 1921.

n.b -  The Freedom Monument, representing a woman raising three gold stars, is featured in the margin of the sheet to the right. Inaugurated in 1935, this memorial was erected in honor of soldiers killed during the Latvian War of Independence (1918-1920).

I have read that the 2016 issue is going to depict Amsterdam! Wohooo! Can hardly wait for that one :D
Thanks a bunch to Eric for this issue and, hopefully Amsterdam will be the next one on the list!! :D

issued: 03 April 2015
mini sheet size: 143 x 135mm

European Capitals on Stamps!

Good morning all! It is a nice Sunday morning and it is time for Sunday Stamps!
I feel like Im gonna have a lazy day in general, and spend it mainly on cards, stamps and blogging on the same topics...yeah, I've been allowing myself a lot of lazy days lately, but come on, it's summer, so why not :P

Theme of today...faraway (exotic, romantic) places....hmmm, at first I thought this should only be about some places far far away, and I had the association of  'rare' countries in my head as well, don't know why....but then I saw Viridian's post, and I realized I could probably show these beauties, and I've been wanting to for a long while. After all, a faraway place is a rather relative thing, depending where on Earth you actually are...and same goes for romantic/exotic...it is an individual perception (and you'll see a clear example of this somewhere below).

So ladies and gentleman, fasten your seat-belts, and get ready for a short European tour through these awesome sheets of stamps issued by the French postal service! Each year, they portray a European capital. So far they've covered around ten I think...I do not have all the issues yet, but I hope to acquire them over time :)

And first comes Budapest, Hungary's capital, issued in 2011!

Beautiful city, that I had the chance to visit back in 2001, but I'd like to visit it again one day since I don't think I was able to absorb enough of it back then, neither enjoy the small cosy moments of just sitting at a cafe and doing nothing but relaxing and observing people.
On the sheet you can see the Parliament (which I believe is like on almost every Budapest postcard), the Great Synagogue, the famous Chain Bridge (one of the many bridges over the Danube), the Royal Palace (which I actually do not remember seeing), the Széchenyi thermal bath (haven't seen it either), the Matthias Church, the Heroes' Square, and that round thing in the middle that at first glance looked like a coin to me, actually represents St. Stephen's Basilica (or as it is in French, Basilique Saint-Étienne).





In 2010, it was Paris. And here comes the clash of romantic vs non-romantic for me. Yeah, I know Paris is considered as one of the most romantic and beautiful cities and all...but how do I put this...Paris has been one of the greatest disappointments in my life, and to me it is just way too overrated! Sorry guys, nothing personal and no offence, but Paris doesn't give me thrills no chills...and that's why at the beginning I said that 'a romantic place' is also a rather relative and subjective thing :)

However, out of all the stamps issued for the European Capital series, I do believe the one portraying Paris is the most beautiful one. Well, ok, it is issued by the French postal service after all, maybe they were biased :P
My favourite part of the sheet is the cafe atmosphere shown at the very left, plus I love the detail of part of the building being shown.
Other than that, you have the Triumphal Arc (we have one here as well I must say), Notre-Damme, the Eiffel Tower (how does it feel to climb on the Eiffel and all you see below is fog fog fog? terrible! =/), the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur, Palais Garnier (a famous Opera House in Paris), a Champs-Élysées street plate...and at the very top, something that is called "Under the roofs of Paris".

If out of nowhere someone French stops talking to me/unfriends me or so, I'll blame it on this post :)





The latest issue from the series (issued this year, that is) is the beautiful beautiful Vienna! ❤

Visited it the same year as Paris, but was left with two very different impressions (so I dont know, maybe someone could tell me here something about my personality, something I am unconscious of, based on the places I like and dislike :))

Vienna is portrayed with the Secession Building (or also known as the Secession Pavilion), the Belvedere Palace, the Karlskirche, and the Hofburg Palace.
What I can't possibly understand here is how come they excluded the Schönbrunn Palace...

Well, Vienna is a place I fell in love with at first sight...a place where I felt at home, due to its lovely atmosphere and the overall high percentage of Serbian/Croatian languages I could hear spoken in the streets...for someone having grown up in Yugoslavia, yeah, that makes you feel like home...and it was simply my all time favourite place that I've been to...that is, until I visited Prague last year...




and yes, here comes Prague, issued in 2008! ❤❤❤

Another city that is probably spoken about and praised too much..but here, things clicked from the starters...I'll never forget the early morning when the bus arrived to Prague...and I just looked outside the window...and was in love! It is one of those places that captivated me IMMEDIATELY! I didn't even have to walk around...the very first view from the bus was just enough...spending a few days there just cemented our relationship...and it was then when Prague took over the pedestal from Vienna and has been there ever since...I wonder if there will be a place that will dethrone Prague..and I really wonder which place that's gonna be :)

Starting with the Charles's Bridge..then the Powder Tower, St. Nicholas's church in the Lesser Town, the famous Astronomical Clock, which is beautiful, but to me the performance is just plain boring and not worth the fuss (same goes with the one in Münich)...then you can see here the Church of Our Lady before Týn, the Castle, the nice and charming Golden Street....and a candelabra at the Hradčany, or the Castle District.
Ahhh, Prague......




Next comes the capital featured on the 2013 stamps...and another place due to which people may mysteriously stop talking to me...Madrid.

Well ok, I like it more than Paris..but however, this is another place I have not been impressed with...and couldn't find that bond...the city is nice and all and there are some great places to see, but personally just wasn't my type...I don't know if the fact we didn't bond was also due to the fact that during the time I was there, there were protests and I didn't really feel at ease...but however, I left Madrid rather disappointed...probably the best thing about it were the churros! Oh boy, those churros....a heavenly delight! I tried churros in Mexico too, but they didn't even come close to the ones in Madrid. I didn't try churros anywhere else in Spain, and Madrid has the Chocolateria San Gines, recommended on all travelling websites about 'places to see and do in Madrid'..so I guess if I ever wanna go back to Madrid, it would be to indulge into those churros again...and oh yeah, go to Madird Atocha, since I didn't get to do that last time (that is the Railway Station in Madrid :))
A quick go-through the places shown: Plaza Mayor, the Almudena Cathedral, the Plaza de Cibeles and the Royal Palace...where we wasted two hours waiting in a row, on what was supposed to be a free entry in the afternoon, just to find out that the 'free' entry was not valid for countries outside the EU...or unless you are from a Latin-American country...yeah, just to add to the annoying Madrid experience :))
Btw, I believe those 'artistic' pictures come from the Prado Museum..





And last comes the only place out of these that I haven't had the chance to visit, but that I'd really love to one day...there is something just so inviting about Lisbon!

Since I cannot give my personal insight here, I'll just name the places shown (and I'm familiar with most of them thanks to the postcards I have :))

So you have the Jerónimos Monastery, the Santa Justa elevator, the National Tile Musuem, the Belém Tower, the Bairro Alto District, St. George's Castle and the Monument to the Discoveries (Padrão dos Descobrimentos).


Well, a bit of a longish post, though I tried not to get into details about each of the place shown on the stamps.

And I have to give a thank-you note here to Eric, thanks to whom I have these beauties in my collection!

If you wanna check out some more faraway/exotic/romantic places, click on the button below...and have a great Sunday!

Stamp Day, France

well, after quite some time, here i am with a post for Viridian's Sunday Stamps.

the theme today is Cartoons and Cartoon-like drawings...well, here is a very nice cartoon cover - couldnt get any more cartoonesque I think :)

On 28 February and 1 March 2009, 116 cities in France (in 92 departments) hosted the 10th edition of the "Fête du Timbre" ("Stamp Fair").

and as it has been the case since 1999, the French Post has chosen for this Stamp Day some comic book and children's literature heroes as topic in order to attract more young people towards the collection of stamps.
So here you have the Looney Tunes characters, that im sure most of you are familiar with :)

Im happy to be an owner of this cover with the three stamps that were issued (€ 0.56 each), where you can see Bugs Bunny and Duffy Duck, then on the next stamp are Wile E. Coyotte and the Roadrunner, and on the final stamp you have Tweety and Sylvester.

above the stamp you can also see the souvenir sheet, consisting of one € 1.00 stamp, where apart from the above mentioned characters, you can also see Taz (the Tasmanian Devil), Marvin the Martian and Yosemite Sam.

I loved watching these cartoons when I was little (and not so little). And out of all these, Sylvester is probably my favourite...probably coz of being a cat...and his clumsiness...though Sylvester Jr. was even cuter :) And I just cant stay indifferent to that lisping-talk :)

thanks a lot to Eric for sending me this cover (from whom I also stole some of the information regarding the stamps :))

well, wishing you a good Sunday and great week ahead. For more cartoon-like stuff, click on the button below

Purebred dogs, France

Just yesterday I realized that I have not yet posted something French here, despite having a number of stamps and covers from there....i should really reconsider the whole concept and how come i so much put forward some countries and sequentially totally neglect others....so to start repairing that, here comes something extra beautiful coming from France! Im just in love with this sheet! (btw, yesterday the discussion has opened up again...what's the difference btw a mini and a souvenir sheet...and in which category this one belongs to....I would put it in the mini-sheet, but then again, it may be a souvenir sheet too...arghhhh...HELP!)

this beauty was sent by Eric, from whom I also stole some of the info regarding it.
He says that these stamps were probably issued to remember that French households have nearly 10 million pet dogs. 1,650,000 souvenir sheets (composed of 4 stamps) and 4.7 million of the "Labrador" stamps were for this occasion.
The four stamps on this sheet are depicting some breeds of dogs belonging to 4 of the 10 distinct groups, identified in the LOF and defined by the World Canine Organisation ("Fédération Cynologique Internationale" or FCI in French) : the Yorkshire (€ 0.95) for the group of Terriers, the Labrador Retriever (€ 0.58) for the group of retrievers, flushing and water dogs, the German Shepherd (€ 0.58) for the group of sheep dogs and the Poodle (€ 0.75) for the group of companion and toy dogs. The other breeds appearing in the margins of this sheet : Dalmatian, Golden retriever, Jack Russell and Bull Terrier.

the size of the Yorkshire and the German Shepherd is 30mm x 40mm, while of the Labrador and the Poodle, 40mm x 30mm, The perforation of all is 13x13.

Merci Beaucoup Eric!