Back After Two and a Half Years of Silence

So, it's been quite a while since my last post in January 2013. So much has happened in my life, although not much has changed. Since then, I have been to a number of places, a number of which have, as the cliché expression goes, taken my breath away. I have also been to a number of countries from which receiving a modern cover of good quality is not so common.

One of my travel rituals, as you may have already guessed, is sending myself covers. I always try my best to frank them with stamps with my topics or, if that's not possible, with the most visually appealing stamps I find available at the particular post office I happened to stumble into. These covers chronicle my travels in a way the brings together two of my main interests, travel and philately, in a very personal way.

Starting with this post, I will be sharing scans of some of the covers I have been sending personally during my travels. I will be starting with my most recent trip, which was to the Western Balkans this summer.

I am quite satisfied (perhaps proud might even be the better word) of the outcome of most of these covers. I have managed to frank most of the covers myself, asking the postal clerks in the nicest way possible to hand over their stampers. It was often a silly affair, me having to pantomime stamping the envelope since sometimes they didn't speak English and I didn't speak the local language!

On this trip, I managed to send covers from Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. I also went to Greece and Austria on this trip, but felt these countries were not to uncommon, so I did not send from there.

Notice how mercilessly the German postal authorities slapped their tracking labels onto the registered letters, sometimes even directly on the stamps! In some cases, where it was still possible or perhaps implorable to do so. Thanks, Deutsche Post! (smirks)

Shqipëria

Here is a cover from the Republic of Albania, one of the lesser known countries in Southeastern Europe, directly north of Greece and south of Montenegro and Kosovo.

I like this cover because its sender thoughtfully included two of my favorite themes: archaeology (which is actually a very rare theme to find on stamps) and the Olympics.

The two archeology stamps are part of a 3v set issued in 2008.

The 50 leke stamps shows the ruins at Oricum, an Ancient Greek city in the northern part of Epirus (modern south Albania). The city, said to have been founded by Euboeans , was originally on an island, but already in ancient times it became connected to the mainland; it covered an area of 5 hectares, but archeological remains are scarce. The 10 leke stamps shows the ruins of Butrint, an ancient Greek city and an archeological site in Sarandë District, Albania, close to the Greek border. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992. An interesting thing to note is that, had the communists not fallen in 1992, this site would probably have been demolished and replaced by a submarine base or an airport since the communists did not care much for its historical value. I think we should be thankful that the communists were dispelled before this connection with the past was destroyed forever! The third stamp in the series shows Antigonia, the chief inland city of ancient Chaonia. The Olympics stamps is part of a set of 4 issued in 2008, of course, to commemorate the Beijing Olympics. Thanks to S. Nushi for this cover!

Shqipërisë