Sunday Stamps | Y Is for Youth

The European Youth Capital is a title awarded by the European Youth Forum to a European city annually, designed to empower young people, boost youth participation and strengthen European identity through projects focused on youth-related cultural, social, political and economic life and development. The European Youth Capital is an initiative by the European Youth Forum and is awarded for a period of one year.  

In 2014, Thessaloniki (Greece) was the chosen city. The current capital for the 2026 calendar year is Tromsø, Norway.

This is my Y-post for A-Z Sunday Stamps. Y is always a difficult letter!

Sunday Stamps | Scientific Names

I do not know very much about birds, so I am happy when they include the scientific names on the stamps...

Aegolius funereus
Lithuania, 2020

Ardea herodias
Canada, 2010

Branta canadensis
Canada, 2018

Carduelis cannabina
Greece, 2014

Clangula hyenalis
Finland, 2017

Limosa limosa
The Netherlands, 2011

Luscinia calliope
Taiwan, 2007

Numenius arquata
Netherlands, 2020

Podiceps cristatus
Netherlands, 2015

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, this week's theme being Birds.

Summer 2021: Vacation Postcards

The Devil's Punchbowl
Between Depoe Bay and Newport, Central Oregon Coast
The USA

Spinalonga, Crete
Greece

... With matching stamp!

Otters & Dolphins
Scotland

Also with perfectly matching stamps!

Wash Day (in Scotland)
From a watercolour by Alisdair Wiseman

(More stamps from the same series.)

One Stamp: Responses

On this post I asked the readers of the blog, and the Twitter folks, to answer the following question: 

Where did you like to be right now if they could chose any place in the world. Say it with one stamp. Only one!

Again, the responses where very different:

Guillaume Pelletier / @gpelletierQC

"I’d like to visit the Mont-St-Michel, France."

StampsWorldwide / @stampsworldwid

"I’d like to visit Luxor, Egypt!"

FinnBadger

"Anywhere cold!"

violet s / See it on a postcard

"If I could be anywhere in the world right now? 

New Zealand comes to mind, for so many reasons.

Gardens are such restorative places, and NZ has many."

Laura

(These arrived on the form of postcards.)

Ireland's coast

Atlantis Books, Oia, Santorini (Grece)

Challenge: One Stamp

If you could be anywhere else right now ... Where? Say it with a stamp. Only one!

I would choose a non-crowded Greek museum, for instance.
 

Sunday Stamps | Motorless

I have chosen some motorless boats to illustrate today's Sunday Stamps's theme: Watercraft.

Issued on 18 July 1991, this stamp belongs to the Small Craft, Pleasure Craft series.

The verchère rowboat first appeared on the St. Lawrence River in Quebec in the mid-1800's. Two families originally built this 14 to 24 foot flat-bottomed boat, which was, at first, pointed at both ends. Louis St-Pierre, a resident of Bouchard Island across from the town of Verchères, has been attributed with the design concept for this stable rowboat. (More information here)

13 March 1987, Brûlé nears Lake Superior. This Canadian stamp belongs to the Exploration of Canada series:

Born in France about 1592, Brûlé arrived at Quebec in 1608. In 1610 Samuel de Champlain sent him to live with the Huron and to learn their language. The adventurous Brûlé was more than an interpreter, though. He became the first European to shoot the Lachine rapids and to set eyes on Lakes Huron, Ontario, Superior and Erie. (Taken from here.)

Canoe Slalom. One of the stamps issued by Royal Mail for the 2012 London Summer Olympics.

18 April 2011, Triakontoros 15th to 4th Century BC. From the 2011 Greek series Sailing Ships.

And a very simple paper boat from the 2010 Greek Islands series. Among my favourite stamps ever!

Not sure if these are really motorless... Dutch stamp issued on 11 November 1987, designed by Charlotte Mutsaers.

Did You Say Slow Mail?

On 23 August 2017, I put 15 postcards in this Greek mailbox, addressed to different countries. For some premonitory reason, I asked to my partner to take a picture.

Any of the postcards arrived. I thought it was my fault, because, as you can see, the picking hours were not written on the mailbox. But let me say that it happens often in small villages in Greece (also in Spain), and the mail usually arrive.

I wrote to Elta Post some months later, and they replied that they could not assure anything about non-registered mail. I even sent a postcard to the postal workers of the village. Nothing happened.

Then, two days ago, one of my friends received the postcard. She was confused at first, and asked me if I had recently travelled to Greece. Then, she looked at the date: the postcard has taken exactly 13 months and one day to reach its destination. I wonder if the rest of the postcards will arrive/have arrived too.

So, please:

1. If you get a Greek postcard from me, dated in 2017, let me know.
2. Never give up, concerning to sent mail!

Sunday Stamps | W(indmills)

Being windmills a favourite theme, it is not strange that I have chosen this word for W on Sunday Stamps-II...

These are the latest windmills I have got by snail mail: Achtkante Molen (Groot-Ammers), Oude Doornse Molen (Almkerk) and Broekzijse Molen (Abcoude), in the Netherlands. 

Heleen integrated the stamps on a beautiful mail art envelope, as you can see...

Front of the envelope

Back of the envelope

And a Mediterranean windmill arrived from the island of Paros in Greece...

I Want to Visit This Museum

Bronze statue of Poseidon found in the sea to the east of Livadostra Bay, Boeotia, dated around 480 BC. The eyes were inlaid in a different material. Poseidon, as master of the seas, was primarily worshipped at seaside locations. To the left, the name of the god is written in Linear B script, as it appears on the clay tablets from the Mycenaean palace of Pylos, dated around 1200 BC. 

This is one of the 6-stamps set that Hellenic Post dedicates to the 150 years of the National Archaeological Museum, the oldest museum in the country, the largest archaeological museum of Greek territory and one of the most important in the world.

The blue and the golden of the stamp are far better in person. I would like to see the rest, and also the museum itself. So I chose it for today's Sunday Stamps - II's theme: A place or building you want to see.

A mail adventure as a bonus: I received it by snail mail, but not directly from Greece (via the USA).

-----
Update Aug. 2017: Visited!!

Greek Postcards

This week's theme in Postcards for the Weekend is: from a country you would want to live in if you have the chance/choice. I am currently living abroad, and the next country I will live in is... mine (from 2018 on, or that is the plan).

If I had to choose another country, it would be (probably) Greece. It is funny that I have sent more postcards from Greece (see here, or here...) than I have got! Actually, I have received only four postcards from that country in my whole life: two of them through the Postcrossing site, and two of them are a similar view, but with different light.

But it was looooong time ago. So, if you are reading this from any place in Greece... Would you like to swap a postcard?

Lesbos (Λέσβος)
Sent by Angela

Daily life in an Ionian island (Western Greece)
Sent by Dmitris

Athens
Sent by Wahiba

Athens
Sent by Ana

My Friend's Trips: Around Europe

And still more of those retro status updates to inform me that my friends have travelled a lot this summer. Around Europe...

Athens (Greece)

Edinburgh, Scotland (UK)

UNESCO WHS "Royal House of Savoy"
Venaria (Italy)

Grote Markt, Grote Kerk
Breda (The Netherlands)

Kasteel, Vismarktstraat, Chassé Theater, CSM
Breda (The Netherlands)

Burgos (Spain)

Exeter (UK)

Íd.

Lacs de: Chalain, l'Abbaye, Clairvaux-les-Lacs, Vouglans,
des Rousses (France)

't Harde (the Netherlands)

Bratislava (Slovakia)
But sent from Hungary