Warszawa- Polish capital

All my life I've been hearing that Warsaw sucks... Finally I went there and guess what? Warsaw is quite interesting :) I was there in May when all the tulips were blooming and everything looked beautiful. The city center was totally destroyed during the II WW and rebuilted and as far as I remember it's on UNESCO WTS - I don't feel like checking it right now. The only things that I didn't like there was the Main Square-not really renovated, small and empty which comparing with my hometown Main Square is really disappointing. The other thing was lack of rivers... Of course there is Wisła flowing through the city but it's not really that noticable like Odra in Wrocław. Except for that I liked the city :D 

And the card was sent by my friend who moved there few years ago ;)

The Sunshine State

I really don't like multiviews, not even a bit...unless they are as charming as this one :D Beautiful postcard recieved through facebook group. This is my first postcard from Australia! 

Queensland is often reffered as the Sunshine State due to the climate. Capricorn Coast's name comes from it's location on the Tropic of Capricorn. Not all of the coast is accessable- part of it is taken by Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area. The largest town on the Capricorn Coast is Rockhampton, the area’s cattle farming centre.  Rockhampton has got some  historical buildings from the times of gold rushes.

 It looks wonderful, doesn't it?

Birds of New Zealand

New Zealand as a country located on an archipelago is very isolated and thanks to that 75% of the species are endemic. The most famous bird from New Zealand is Kiwi but it's obviously not the only one. 

My favourite is Little Blue Penguin which is the smallest species of penguins in the world and it lives only in New Zealand and Australia (they were also spoted in Chile and South Africa but there were only few cases). It has few different names-Fairy Penguin, Little Penguin, Blue Penguin, Kororā. I have a thing for those birds- I remember spending over an hour just looking at penguins in Zoo in Prague ;) The Little Blue one is only 30-33 cm tall and weights1,5 kg. I'm not the only one who likes those birds- Linus Torvalds had a "fixation for flightless, fat waterfowl" and claims to have contracted "penguinitis" after being gently nibbled by a penguin: "Penguinitis makes you stay awake at nights just thinking about penguins and feeling great love towards them." Torvalds' supposed illness is a joke, but he really was bitten by a Little Penguin on a visit to the National Zoo & Aquarium, Australia.Torvalds was looking for something fun and sympathetic to associate with Linux, and a slightly fat penguin sitting down after having had a great meal perfectly fit the bill. 

Aloha!

Hawai'i is the newest of the United States located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, about 4 000 km away from the main land. Capital of the state is Honolulu. Archipelago contains 137 islands but only 8 of them are inhabitated.  Hawai'i means homeland in Hawaiian language which has only by 2000 native speakers . The language is connected with Maori and Samoan- I wish I couls speak Maori one day :)

Hawaii is the only state of the United States that:

• is not geographically located in North America
• grows coffee
• is completely surrounded by water
• is entirely an archipelago
• has a royal palace
• does not have a straight line in its state boundary (found on Wikipedia)

The U.S. project combo

private swap from Jean-Claude

Arkansas is bounded on the north by Missouri; on the east by the Mississippi River, which separates it from Mississippi and Tennessee; on the south by Louisiana; and on the west by the plains of Oklahoma and Texas. In size, it stands 27th among the states, with an area of 53,187 square miles. Of these, over 600,000 acres are lakes with 9,740 miles of streams.   The term Arkansas means south wind and is derived from a name used by some Native Americans to describe the Quapaws, an early tribe in the area. The French Jesuits pronounced the tribe name Oo-gaq-pa, which the Algonquins pronounced Oo-ka-na-sa, and Marquette wrote Arkansoa; LaSalle wrote Arkensa; DeTonti, Arkancas; and LaHarpe, Arkansas. When the state was admitted to the Union in 1836, it was spelled Arkansas. The legislature of 1881 appointed a committee to ascertain the rightful pronunciation of the last syllable, and the result was a resolution declaring the pronunciation to be Ark-an-saw.

private swap from Jean-Claude

North Carolina is the country's largest furniture, tobacco, brick and textile producer. Another important industries are metalworking, chemicals and paper. The agriculture is based on tobacco, corn, cotton, hay, peanuts and vegetable crops. For tourists the most interesting are Great Smoky Mountains, Blue Ridge Parkway, Cape Hatteras Nationa Seashores, National Military Parks...

Postcrossing official US-1112669

Michigan- Great Lakes Region. Even the name of the state means large water -mishigamaa in Ojibwe- the indigenous language. The state has 64,980 inland lakes and ponds. It is also the only state consisting entirely of two peninsulas. No wonder there is a fisherman on the postcard. By the way- this is my first official postcrossing postcard :)

Postcard from my friend Ulbert 

Welcome to the mountain west! Arizona is the 48th state and last of the contiguous states admitted to the Union, achieving statehood on February 14, 1912. Arizona is noted for its desert climate, exceptionally hot summers, and mild winters. In addition to the Grand Canyon, many other national forests, parks, and monuments are located in the state, while more than a quarter of its territory is Federal Trust Land which serves as the home of the Navajo Nation, the Hopi tribe, the Tohono O'odham and Apache people and various Yuman tribes, such as the Yavapai, Quechan and Hualapai.

Sent by Dustin

The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State or OSU, is a public research university located in Columbus. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States. Ohio State currently has over 425,000 living alumni located around the world. Ohio State alumni include Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, and Medal of Honor recipients, ambassadors, as well as Fortune 500 CEOs and members of the Forbes 400 list of the world's wealthiest individuals.