Category: Countries

List of countries I received postcards from.

The Baths, BVI

The Baths are a beach area on the island of Virgin Gorda among the British Virgin Islands. The Baths is an area of unique geologic formations and one of the BVI’s major tourist destinations. At The Baths we see granite that eroded into piles of boulders on the beach. Granite forms from the slow cooling of magma at depth nowhere close to surface volcanoes. The granite only appears at the surface after geologic ages have eroded away all the overburden covering it. Once exposed, erosion continued to isolate the granite into large boulders and round their surfaces. The boulders form natural tidal pools, tunnels, arches, and scenic grottoes that are open to the sea.

British Virgin Islands postcard

British Virgin Islands stamps

Varna, Bulgaria

Varna is a port city and seaside resort on Bulgaria‘s Black Sea, adjacent to the coastal resorts of Golden Sands, St. Konstantin and Albena. It’s famous for the “Gold of Varna,” 6,000-year-old Thracian jewelry discovered in a necropolis. The jewelry’s displayed inside the Archaeological Museum, along with Greek, Roman and Ottoman antiquities. A bar-lined waterfront promenade fronts 19th-century Primorski Park.

Bulgaria postcard

Bulgaria stamps

National Historical Museum, Brazil

The National Historical Museum, created in 1922, is one of the most important museums in Brazil, consisting of over 348.515 items, among which the largest numismatic collection of Latin America. The architectonic complex that houses the Museum had is beginning with the construction of the Santiago Fort, at the Calaboose Point, one of the strategic places for the defense of the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil postcard

Brazil stamps

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sarajevo is a slavicized word based on “saray”, the Turkish word for palace. In 1885, Sarajevo was the first city in Europe and the second city in the world to have a full-time electric tram network running through the city, following San Francisco. In 1914, it was the site of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria that sparked World War I. In 1984 it hosted Winter Olympics. Sarajevo is the only major European city to have a mosque, Catholic church, Orthodox church and synagogue within the same neighborhood.

Sarajevo postcard

Sarajevo stamp

Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Travnik, a town and municipality in central Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a picturesque city with the charisma of a visibly eventful past. The town is located in the river valley Lasva between Vlasic mountain on the north and Vilenica on the south. Travnik fort is the most impressive castles in Bosnia and Herzegovina, all the time, which still exists and is the best preserved of all. It was built in the 11th century, from which period and generated name Travnikrom.

This postcard came in an envelope.

Bosnia Herzegovina Travnik postcard

Bolivia

Bolivia is a country located in western-central South America. Before Spanish colonization, the Andean region of Bolivia was part of the Inca Empire, while the northern and eastern lowlands were inhabited by independent tribes. Spanish conquistadors took control of the region in the 16th century. Spain built its empire in great part upon the silver that was extracted from Bolivia’s mines. Bolivia is named after Simón Bolívar, a leader in the Spanish American wars of independence.

Interesting fact: only about 5% of all the roads in Bolivia are paved, and in mountainous regions traffic sometimes switches sides of the road to ensure the driver has a better view of the dangerous drops.

Bolivia postcard

Bolivia stamps

Bermuda

Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. The first person known to have reached Bermuda was the Spanish sea captain Juan de Bermúdez in 1503, after whom the islands are named. Bermuda’s economy is based on offshore insurance and reinsurance, and tourism. Bermuda had one of the world’s highest GDP per capita for most of the 20th century and several years beyond. Bermuda is the northernmost point of the Bermuda Triangle, a region of sea in which, according to legend, a number of aircraft and surface vessels have disappeared under supposedly unexplained or mysterious circumstances.

Bermuda postcard

Bermuda stamps

Benin

Benin, formerly known as Dahomey, is a country in West Africa, and is one of Africa’s most stable democracies. The majority of its population lives on the small southern coastline of the Bight of Benin. Benin’s shore includes what used to be known as the Slave Coast, the departure point for captives to be shipped across the Atlantic. Elements of the culture and religion brought by slaves from the area are still present in the Americas, including voodoo – which has made a comeback in Benin and is even celebrated at the country’s annual Voodoo Day.

I received this postcard in envelope, and still looking for written and stamped postcard from this interesting country.

Benin postcard

Benin postmark

Belize

Belize, formerly British Honduras and independent since 1981, is a country on the eastern coast of Central America, located between Mexico and Guatemala. Like the neighboring countries, Belize was settled for thousands of years by the Maya people. They are still there, an important part of Belize’s people and culture.

Belize postcard

Belize stamps