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| Budapest was a very postal-friendly city. Lots of charming post offices and mail boxes to look at, at well as a Postal Museum and a Stamp Museum (another post on those). And a fabulous flea market. Want to come and check things out with me? |
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| POSTA Post Office and Post Box No photos inside - no fun. But the outside looks good. And I did get my hands on free postal forms. |
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| The Mail Boxes have legs! |
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| Budapest Flea Market -- my husband always takes me to really cool, really off-the-beaten track flea markets. And then the poor guy has to wait around - forever - while I fondle everything postal. What a guy! |
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| And, this one had a lot of postal ephemera...loads of old stamps, first day covers, stamp books, old letters....just the sort of things that make me go crazy. Forget department stores. |
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| Give me the old paper...old photos... |
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| Just look at those little packs of stamps. And they were cheap. Why don't I ever find things like this here in California? |
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| Oh yes....this is where I found many of my treasures. No one spoke English but writing numbers on paper works fine... |
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| Some nibs for a fountain pen lover.. |
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| How could I possibly resist? Right. I couldn't. Now that I look at this photo I am wondering why I didn't get more postal stuff. (It may have been the 50 pound limit on my suitcase) |
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| After all that excitement at the flea market I needed to sit down and have some calming coffee and cake at the very beautiful New York Cafe. (Why New York? I don't know. I haven't seen anything like it in NYC) |
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| OOps, I did it again. Another day, another beautiful cafe. This one is the Bookstore Cafe. Now you know, if you are going to Budapest, you can visit lots of nice post offices, the flea market and eat cake. What more do you need? (Maybe the Stamp Museum and Postal Museum? I'll show you those soon) UPCOMING -- Interview with MISS RED LETTER DAY herself. Co-author of GOOD MAIL DAY and organizer of the Ex Postal Facto mail art event coming up here in San Francisco in February. Anything you want to ask Jennie? This is your big chance. I'll show you a little of her studio and she'll tell you about Ex Postal Facto. Stay Tuned. Are the holidays over yet? I'm ready for "normal", whatever that may be. Vintage paper fair here in SF next weekend. Maybe not as great at the Budapest Flea Market but it's one of my favorite local paper ephemera events. See you there? |
oh! my! word!! those little bundles of stamps made me SWOON! i got a bunch of old ones over holiday...you'll be seeing some of them....
ReplyDeleteMe too.....miss polly...me too......
DeleteLovely!
ReplyDeleteThanks, B. Lee! Happy 2014 and thanks for stopping by the blog
DeleteAbout the NY Palace:
ReplyDeleteThe New York Life Insurance Company assigned architect Alajos Hauszmann, to plan the company's hall building in Budapest. Hauszmann, with Flóris Korb and Kálmán Giergl planned a four story eclectic palace, with a café on its ground floor. The building and the café opened on October 23, 1894. The statues and other ornaments on the front side of the building, as well as the ground floor café's 16 imposing devilish fauns, each one beside the café's sixteen windows, are the works of Károly Senyey.
The building was nationalized during the communist era. After the collapse of socialism, the palace was bought by Italian Boscolo Hotels in February 2001. The building was totally renovated, and reopened on May 5, 2006 as a 107 room luxury hotel, with the Café, also totally renovated, on its ground floor.
thanks so much for the info, Monika....it was such a fabulous place to stop for an afternoon treat...absolutely nothing like that here in SF....you are so lucky.
DeleteAnd I found a picture of the NY Café too from outside: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/01New-York_palota_Budapest.JPG/800px-01New-York_palota_Budapest.JPG
ReplyDeleteTheir mail boxes look like bot people. Love it and the color yellow on that post office building. Cake, yum, well only flour less for me now....but still looks good. I am a frosting girl, skip the cake. Happy New Year, eat some wonderful food for me. xox
ReplyDeleteCorrine, yes, they do look like bot people, don't they? Funny. You know I will be eating some lovely food in 2014...that's the way I roll...xoxo Happy New Year!
DeleteSo many wonderful photos! Thanks for letting us come along on the trip with you :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cindy -- thanks for coming along! And thank you for all the lovely blog comments over the year. I really appreciate it.
DeleteLusting over all that wonderful flea market stuff!! Will miss you this weekend -- have fun for both of us! And Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteWill do, Connie! They have the VPF twice a year so maybe someday you'll make it. I will make a full report on my blog and keep an eye out for something for you. Happy New Year!
DeleteAi! All that great stuff. *lust* What a marvelous trip!
ReplyDeleteLeslie--it was a marvelous trip. But--keep an eye on your mailbox. I sent you a little surprise! Happy 2014!
DeleteOhhhh Pamela, I should say I'm envious, but I'm JEALOUS!!!! I love everything here...AGAIN. Ohhh, fountain pens, don't get me started...mmmm, and those piles of stamps and ephemera, I love it all, including, possibly.....your husband!!!!???? Ha ha ha!
ReplyDeleteBut really, your blog is something I really look forward to, my dear!! Happy 2014!!xxx
vizma--oh--you always make me laugh! Just keep your hands off my husband. LOL. Thanks so much for the kind words about my blog. Sometimes it is hard to tell myself to keep it going but comments like yours really encourage me. You know Aries need encouragement....Happy New Year to my Aussie Aries pal.
DeleteHappy New Year.
ReplyDeleteI hope, you'll like :)
From Türkiye;
http://bulutgolgesi.blogspot.com/2013/12/muze-geziyoruz-ptt-pul-muzesi.html
tulin (sorry, I can't make the accent marks on here) -- Happy New Year wishes to you too. So lovely to hear from you all the way in Turkey.
DeleteOh!!! tulin -- I just checked out that link and thank you! What a beautiful Turkish Postal Museum! How did I ever miss that? Is it in Istanbul? I hope not because if I was in Istanbul and missed that I will be so sad.
DeletePostal Museum in Ankara Pamela. Opened three months ago. I hope you can visit.
DeleteI follow you'r blog with pleasure.
Happy New Year anad greetings from Anatolia!
I love that first photo...what a sweet little post office exterior! The flea market looks absolutely amazing...I wish I could teleport over for an afternoon and get my hands on some of those little stamp packet and those fantastic old photos.
ReplyDeleteAndria - I would like to go back there with you - let's teleport!
DeleteWaw, nice, good words and pictures from Budapest! I'm glad about him. The old mailboxis wanted to replaced some years ego, but the people protested, they remained so.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from Budapest
Cauli
Thanks so much, Cauli -- so nice to hear from you. We really enjoyed our time in Budapest. What an interesting story about the post boxes. I am very happy they did not replace them.
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