POSTCARD N.36 -  Russia

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 18th September; received on the 29th September
Postcar dimage: A stork
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Storks....some say they are responsible for delivering babies, all over the world. Well, I'm not so sure about it! I still remember the running to and fro the hospital both my daughters caused the days when their delivery was nearing and neither I nor mum remember seeing any stork in the delivery ward...

This time though, the stork, instead of delivering,was delivered. Thank you Mr. Postman for the delivery, and thank you so much Elena, for your nice card and stamps.

I like storks, Cegonhas, we call them, with their elegant silhouette darting across the skies, the same silhouette that adorned the side of the SPAD aircraft of World War I aces like Guynemer, Fonk, or Garros. A common sight here where I live, so common that it is not impossible to see more than ten nests - and in extraordinary cases, close to double that number - in high tension poles. Also it seems that Portugal is the only place where storks nest on rock cliffs, for the pleasure of birdwatchers and photographers, something that I believe only happens at Cabo Sardão, in the South coast, where I took this photograph.

Elena used two stamps to send the stork my way:

The 55 ruble stamp is a very recent issue - 18AUG2021- commemorating the 550th anniversary of  Afanasy Nikitin's journey to India.

Having no idea of who Afanasy Nitkin was, I, as usual, sought the help of Wikipedia, to learn that Afanasy was a Russian merchant from Tver that travelled to India between 1466 and 1469, returning to his homeland in 1472, only to die before arriving back at Tver. He was made famous by the fact that he chronicled his journey in a book called "A Journey Beyond the Three Seas".  

The image on the stamp is that of Nitkin's statue and monument in Tver, while on the background three landmarks from his journey are superimposed on a map of India. Of them I could only positively identify the one located further North on the map as the The great mosque at Gulbarga fort.

The self-adhesive 3 ruble stamp is part of the 7th definitive issue of the Russian Federation, started in 2019. It exhibits the State Postal Administration Emblem and was issued on 07AUG2019.

Unfortunatley, I cannot understand what I presume are names of localities in the very large and clear postmark.