Moomins from Finland

 

The Moomins are extremely popular in Finland. Born from Tove Jansson's fantasy in 1945, Moomins are a family of trolls, although they look more like hippopotamuses. Together with other characters, they appeared on books, comic stripes and TV. In Finland there is even a theme park dedicated to them called "Moomin World". Finnish Posti has issued several stamps to celebrate Moomins: there is an entire section on their website about 'Moomin products' where you can find the above stamp, which is part of a booklet of six stamps from 2007.

The Stone Forest from Bulgaria

 

'Pobitite Kamani' is the transliteration from Bulgarian 'побитите камъни', which is the stunning natural rock phenomenon depicted on this card with matching stamp. The Stone Forest is located in the province of Varna and it consists of limestone pillars up to 10 meters high and up to 3 meters thick. They have been standing there, still and quiet, for more than 50 million years. In 2010 BGPost as issued a minisheet to celebrate the North-eastern Bulgarian region with 4 different stamps. 'Pobitite Kamani' is one of the chosen subjects to represent this piece of land.

Nami (One Piece) from Japan

 

Nami is one of the characters of the Japanese manga "One Piece", written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda since 1997 and still up and running nowadays. "One Piece" is the most popular manga of all time in Japan, and it has broken many records and won many awards. Nami can manipulate the climate by using her powerful staff and she can draw sea charts. In 2011, JP Post has issued a full mini-sheet to celebrate the characters of this manga, and the stamp on this card is one of this series of 10.

The Equestrian Tournament 'Sa Sartiglia' from Italy

 

Sa Sartiglia is an equestrian tournament that is 500 years old, and possibly more. It is held in the town of Oristano, on the island of Sardinia, Italy. Nowadays, it is an entertaining show that attracts many tourists every year on Carnival Sunday. There are masked horsemen, like those on the postcard and on the stamp, engaging in acrobatics and spectacular figures on two or even three galloping horses at a time. To celebrate this peculiar example of Italian folklore, PosteItaliane has issued one stamp in 2010 as part of a series of two.

Volcanic Eruptions from Germany

 

Deutsch Post has celebrated the force of the four elements with four stamps. To identify the fire, they have chosen to depict a powerful volcanic eruption, while the card shows the activity of Stromboli by night, one of the three active volcanoes in Italy. Germany has volcanoes too, but none of them is active. German volcanoes are all sleeping tight and they are often cradles of beautiful lakes.

Taipei 101 Skyscraper from Taiwan

"Taipei 101" is the 101 floors skyscraper located in the Xinyi District of Taipei. It has been the tallest building of the world between 2004 and 2010. Its architecture is full of symbolism and regular patterns, so that we can safely say that the picture on the card was taken on a Thursday because the lights of the towers are green. The colours of the tower change on a daily basis: Monday is red, Tuesday is orange, Wednesday is yellow, Thursday is green, Friday is blue, Saturday is indigo and Sunday is purple, following the order of the spectrum, which reminds us of rainbows. 

The stamp shows Taipei 101 during the New Year's countdown celebration and its great firework display. It was issued by Taiwan Post in September 2011 as part of the Personal Greeting Stamps series.

Lamp and Pillar Mail Boxes from Ireland

 

There are only four countries in the world using green mail boxes: one of them is Ireland. On the front of the card there is a typical lamp letter box, still found on country roads with the Irish "P&T" (Post&Telegraphs) logo. At the beginning of each year, An Post issues a series of greetings stamps: the one on the back of the card is from 2009. The stamp on the right shows a typical green pillar box, as following Irish independence in 1922, existing red British pillar boxes were retained, and simply painted green. Also this card was so lucky to go through the cancellation machine two times.