Gdańsk, Poland & Flowers

Quite unexpectedly I received a postcard from

Country: Poland
City: Gdańsk
Year: 2016
From: Pen-pal exchange

The old town hall and Długa Street (Long Street)

Gdansk is a city in northern Poland, situated by the Baltic Bay/ Baltic Sea.
The city was founded in the seventh century - at first it was just a small village which was home to fishermen and various craftsmen. It was granted the city rights in 1263.

The Neptune Fountain

The old town - part of it you can see in the above picture - is a place famous for its beautiful architecture. That is why it is popular with tourists and the people who live in the area as well.

We used to quite often meet there  with my great friend Krystyna. We enjoyed walks along Dluga Street (and in some other places). Among others, we also sometimes visited a great ice cream cafe which is situated there.

By The Motlawa River

 Gdańsk and its old market is very much worth visiting at any time of the year.

Stamps

Theme: Nature / flowers

Country: Poland

The Rose & The Sunflower

Design: M. Dąbrowska

Year: 2015

Spain & Football

Theme: Country/Spain
Year: 2015

This stamp reminds me of EURO 2012 (European Football) Championships. Poland and Ukraine were co-hosts of the events (from June 8 till July 1) and I still lived in Poland then.

All the time of the tournament was quite amazing - mostly everybody got crazy about it. Almost each city of our region had their football fan zones, where people gathered to watch the matches and had fun together. You could also feel the cheerful spirit of the Championships and buy/see items with the logo of EURO 2012 everywhere. Fans from different European countries and supporters of various teams celebrated the sport competitions in a jolly and friendly way - one big family of football lovers. Groups of merry guys dressed in their state team colors (Ireland, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Greece and Poland) filled the streets of Gdansk (my area of Poland). The atmosphere of the football holiday lasted through the entire time of Euro 2012. I followed it all on TV as well. Especially when the Polish team played a match. How nervous and excited I got in front of our TV then! How stressful watching the games was!

The opening match: Poland vs Greece

PGE Arena: stadium in Gdańsk

Spain won EURO 2012 and it was their third champions title. The best player of the championships was Spanish player Andres Iniesta.

Spanish team - winners of EURO 2012

At that time I bought two EURO keepsakes for my husband - a glass stein and a jersey of the Polish team (which I posted to Texas of course).

The flowers in the pattern symbolize the Championships stadiums - notice the golden PGE Arena of Gdansk

Soon, the EURO 2016 will take place, but it will not be the same as my EURO 2012. I think you can only truly experience the event if you are where it is being held.

EURO 2012 photos:
1. By Pawel Nurkowski (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
2. (PGE Arena) By Piotr Drabik (Flickr: DSCF7913) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
3. Football.ua [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons