Going On a Philatelic Holiday through the Coastal Countries of Eastern Europe

Whether  you enjoy taking a holiday indoors or outdoors in the summer or winter, alone in solitary reflection or with family and friends, we here at Hungaria Stamp Exchange are sure you will delight in enjoying the colorful engaging stamps of the Coastal Countries of Eastern Europe as we embark on our Philatelic Holiday.

Which are the Coastal Countries of Eastern Europe?

While some of us may associate Eastern Europe with landlocked countries, the majority of countries in Eastern Europe have a coastal border. In the north, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland as well as the Russian city of Kaliningrad have a border on the coast of the Baltic Sea. In the West, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, and Albania each have a coastal border on the Adriatic Sea. In the South, Greece has a coast on and many islands in the Aegean Sea while Turkey has a coast on the Aegean Sea as well as on the Black Sea. On the East, in addition to Turkey, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia and Russia have coasts on the Black Sea.

It sounds like we have lots of Eastern Europe Coastal countries for enjoying our philatelic holiday! Now we can decide on our holiday venue, whether the mountains and streams of a national park, the splendor of a world heritage site, or beaches.

Europa

Some of these delightful stamps we have selected for our Coastal Eastern European Philatelic holiday are Europa stamp issuances. Europa are special stamp issues offered by European Postal administrations to promote cooperation across postal domains and philately. These stamps help build awareness of common culture, roots and history of Europe. Each year Europa stamps are issued by European postal administrations and enterprises and bear the official EUROPA logo, Europe being the central theme with a specific topic selected annually.

Lithuania 2012 Europa Visit… Tete Beche

The Romania set includes a Crane in Danube Delta and Castle and mountains while the Ukraine offering is a mini-souvenir sheet and the Lithuania issuance is a delightful Tete-Beche depicting hills, trees and rivers and buildings.

Holiday Venues

Of course now we need to decide whether to fish, hike, sunbathe, take in the magnificent species of the marine life of the sea, or just enjoy the gastronomic experience of these amazing countries.

The dramatic Romania sheet features a Seahorse, Dolphin, Loggerhead Turtle and Tub Gunard. The colorful Albania souvenir sheet issuance features a Loggerhead Sea Turtle, Dolphin, Blue shark, Torpedo fish and Octopus.

The Black Sea Marine Life Joint stamp issues of Bulgaria and Ukraine depict dolphins and barnacles while the souvenir sheet of Ukraine Black Sea Marine life features sea horse, dolphins and birds.

Bosnia (Serb) Europa 2004 Holiday

For the outdoor enthusiast, who can resist hiking in Greece represented by stamps Greece – 2012 Nature Tourism stamp set or hiking in the Carpathian Garden of Romania depicted in the Romania set – Carpathian Garden, unless it is to kayak in Slovenia in the Mine Beneath Mount Peca.

Gastronomy

Naturally, there can not be a complete holiday unless it includes a gastronomic experience and the stamp issuances of the Coastal Eastern Europe countries certainly will not disappoint.

Traditional Gastronomy in the Mediterranean, set issued by Greece  includes Spanakopita (Spinach pie) Octopus, Lamb, and  Moussaka. Croatia issuance Protected Foods set includes Croatia issued Traditional Mediterranean Gastronomy, The Rab Cake is so much more than a dessert made of meticulously chosen local ingredients: almonds, aromatic lemons, and tart cherry liqueur, with a touch of the sun. It tells the history of the town and the island where every stone house remembers dozens of generations. Of course we should complete our Slovenia Philatelic Gastronomy experience with this 2005 Europa Issuance of a glass of wine!

Who can possibly resist the the delightful Bulgaria stamp issuance which includes Man Diving Through Flaming Heart, Baby Emerging From Chalice, Grapevine, bird, wine coming from vat, Waiter carrying tray with glass and bottle of wine.

Tourism

Our philatelic holiday is filled with many opportunities for Tourism in the Coastal Countries of Albania, Montenegro and Croatia.

Croatia presided over the European Union in 2020 and designated the European Capital of Culture as Rijeka! Nested within northern coastal Croatia’s stunning landscapes, Rijeka is a place beaming with life and a bastion of free-spirited, peaceful coexistence and progressive thinking. Having developed under no less than seven different countries within the last hundred years, Rijeka and its residents offer a plethora of cultural and historical heritage sites. This joint issuances with Ireland celebrating their coastal city of Galway is truly a spirit of coastal cooperation.

Transportation

Deciding how to get to our holiday location gives us many  Eastern European philatelic choices whether it be planes or trains, boats and ships or car. Eastern European Coastal Countries give us a wide variety of boat and ship choices: from a fishing dinghy to sailing ships to Viking ships,  but we should definitely avoid the war ships. How exciting would a trip on the Orient Express be?

How exciting would a trip on the Orient Express be?

Romania

Carnivals and Festivals

Let’s not forget those of us that might be traveling with children, grandchildren or nieces and nephews, who can resist carnivals, festivals and the circus or even stamp collecting with the next generation!

We hope you enjoyed “Going On a Philatelic Holiday through the Coastal Countries of Eastern Europe” with us here at HSE and will spend some time browsing through these many exciting stamp offerings in our online store.

The Bauer Family

Hungaria Stamp Exchange

Eastern European Philatelic Potpourri of New Issues

It’s finally 2021 and  time for Hungaria Stamp Exchange to share our philatelic celebration of the potpourri of new issues from Eastern Europe. We at HSE hope our philatelic friends both Country and Topical collectors alike will delight in some of the exciting new issues of 2020. 

Our Country collectors will find full 2020 Year Sets available for Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Croatia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Belarus with a special HSE welcome this year to Armenia.

Topical collectors can find Cats (including “The Terror”), music (from Beethoven to Rock), Covid-19 and first responder philatelic issuances. Not to mention that many of us are delighted to find the continuation of some of our favorite series such as Europa with Ancient Postal Routes, Gastronomy and Viticulture, Saints and Blesseds and Social Action: Climate Change and Children’s World Stop Bullying.

An extremely important offering we can all enjoy this year is the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations from Slovakia. While the adventurer inside all of us can enjoy newly issued Crypto stamps from Croatia, the humorist will enjoy the cartoon stamp from Armenia.

Continue reading “Eastern European Philatelic Potpourri of New Issues”

Riding in the Pan-Mass Challenge 2017!

Alan will be riding in the Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC) for his 15th year!

The PMC is an annual charity cycling event held to raise money for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Dana Farber is a a world-leading cancer research and treatment center in Boston, MA. 100% of every rider-raised dollar goes directly towards research, in the form of an unrestricted grant.

? A portion of online orders at HSE will be donated to the PMC from today, July 25th to Sunday, August 13th.

Below is a link to donate directly and support Alan’s ride. The rides take place on August 4th & 5th but you can donate until late October

http://profile.pmc.org/AB0109 Continue reading “Riding in the Pan-Mass Challenge 2017!”

Budapest Travels 2017

Heading off to Budapest

The sun is sliding down the horizon at Logan airport, Boston USA, as we, Alan and Diane, wait for the Lufthansa plane which we will board to start our journey. We will travel  to Frankfurt, Germany and then on to Budapest, Hungary.

We look forward to an invigorating ten days spending time catching up with friends, colleagues, and family members. Alan will present his research paper in person at the MAFITT (Hungarian Society for Philatelic Research) meeting in Budapest on Saturday and then he plans to spend time browsing local stamp shops. We are very pleased to be meeting with representatives of Magyar Posta regarding our expanding business relationship and the artist stamp proposal. We also plan to meet with both an internationally recognized art historian and an art curator. Between all that, we look forward to enjoying tasty meals at local bistros and cafes, doing some sightseeing, and visiting with family and friends.

Continue reading “Budapest Travels 2017”

HSE Winter 2017 Newsletter : Honoring Heroes

Dear Friends, Family, Colleagues and Customers,

Greetings from wintry New England!

All of us at Hungaria Stamp Exchange want to thank you for helping us have a terrific year! We appreciate your wonderful support and enthusiasm for the advancement of Eastern European philately. This past year we enjoyed chatting, emailing and even meeting in person at the World Stamp Show in New York last spring and look forward to continuing the dialogue during 2017. If you happened to miss the previous blog posts from the World Stamp Show 2016, we invite you to sort through the blog archive and check out those exciting postings. In this issue we will be sharing a summary of our Stamp Collector Survey with plans for new collector development as well as highlights of Alan’s anticipated presentation to Mafitt to support his membership nomination. And of course, we will be spotlighting the New Issues of Hungary, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Czech Republic.

Continue reading “HSE Winter 2017 Newsletter : Honoring Heroes”

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