Vienna, Austria

Vienna is the capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. It’s metropolitan area population is about 2.6 million, nearly one third of Austria’s population! It is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union.

Vienna is being regarded as the City of Music: musical luminaries including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Robert Stolz, and Arnold Schoenberg have worked there. Vienna is also said to be “The City of Dreams” because it was home to the world’s first psycho-analyst – Sigmund Freud.

I briefly visited Vienna in 2015 — it’s a stunning city!

Austria postcard

Austria stamp

Banjo Paterson, an Australian bush poet

Andrew Barton “Banjo” Paterson was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas. Paterson’s more notable poems include “Waltzing Matilda”, “The Man from Snowy River” and “Clancy of the Overflow”.

This, so far, my only maximum card received via mail.

Australia maximum postcard

The Perito Moreno Glacier – Patagonia, Argentina

The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the most important tourist attractions in the Argentinian Patagonia. This 250 km2, 30 km (19 mi) in length, ice formation is the world’s third largest reserve of fresh water. The glacier is unusual in that it is advancing, while most glaciers worldwide are retreating.

Pressures from the weight of the ice slowly pushes the glacier over the southern arm (“Brazo Rico”) of Argentino Lake, damming the section and separating it from the rest of the lake. With no outlet, the water level on the “Brazo Rico” side of the lake can rise by as much as 30 meters above the level of the main body of Argentino Lake. Intermittently, the pressure produced by the height of the dammed water breaks through the ice barrier causing a spectacular rupture, sending a massive outpouring of water from the Brazo Rico section to the main body of Lake Argentino. As the water exits Brazo Rico, the scored shoreline is exposed, showing evidence of the height of the water build-up. This dam–ice-bridge–rupture cycle recurs naturally between once a year to less than once a decade.

Such rapture phenomenon is captured on this awesome postcard.

Patagonia Postcard

Argentina Stamps

QSL Card from Argentina

I received this cool QSL card from amateur radio enthusiast in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Not your typical touristic postcard, yet has Argentinian tango going, I assume, on the streets of Argentina 🙂 Awesome!

And here are the stamps that were on the envelope it came in. I really like that couple of communication stamps were used to match card’s theme.

Argentina Stamps

Gentoo penguins of Argentina

Argentina is home to four species of penguin: Rockhopper, Macaroni, Magellanic and Gentoo penguins. The long-tailed gentoo penguins, pictured on this postcard, have recently established two very small breeding colonies in Argentina. These are situated on Staten Island (30 pairs) and Hammer Island (5 pairs). Hammer Island is easy to reach from Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego — the southernmost city in the world, where you can find several tour operators offering day cruises to view penguins and other marine life.

Antartica – USA Antarctic Territory

My first, and so far the only postcard from Antarctica is from USA Antarctic Territory, from McMurdo Station.

The McMurdo Station is a United States Antarctic research center on the south tip of Ross Island. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program. The station is the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,258 residents, and serves as one of three United States Antarctic science facilities.

It is actually not very difficult to receive a postcard from Antarctica! The National Science Foundation has a procedure to support philately at a level not to interfere with the science mission. Here is what you need to do, to receive a postcard with McMurdo Station postmark:

  1. Get a hold of mint US stamp, that’s good for sending a postcard to wherever you are: domestic stamp if you’re in USA or one of US territories, or international for all other countries.
  2. Get an appropriate postcard, address it to yourself, and put the US stamp(s) you got in the first step.
  3. Place it in an envelope, and sent it to the following address:

Philatelic Mail Clerk
McMurdo Station,Antarctica
PSC 769
APO AP 96599-1035
Philatelic Mail Clerk
USA

Wait for your postcard to arrive, now with McMurdo Station postmark. They will not add any text to it, so feel free to sign it as well 🙂

Travel times: I sent it from New York mid-September, and received it stamped in Russia mid-November.

Andorra

Principality of Andorra is a sovereign landlocked microstate in Europe, located between Spain and France. It is a monarchy headed by two Co-Princes – the Roman Catholic Bishop of Urgell in Spain, and the President of France. Andorra is the sixth-smallest nation in Europe, with a population of approximately 85,000. Its capital Andorra la Vella is the highest capital city in Europe, at an elevation of 1,023 metres. The official language is Catalan, it is not a member of the European Union, but the euro is the official currency. In 2013, the people of Andorra had the highest life expectancy in the world at 81 years.

Very interesting country 🙂 Here’s the only postcard from Andorra I have so far:

Postcard from Andorra