The World Through the Eyes of the Youth

The three stamps along the top of this cover from Gdańsk, Poland are 2018 stamps from a series titled "The World Through the Eyes of the Youth". Stamps from left to right: "needed changes", "saving our planet" and "the battle with smog". On that last stamp, dragons are used to represent smog which is fitting, as the Polish word for dragon is "smok". Very similar to the Polish word for smog... which is also "smog". Thank You Roman for pointing that out to me.

At the bottom is a 2018 stamp commemorating the planned transnational highway between Klaipėda, Lithuania and Thessaloniki, Greece, crossing seven countries between the Baltic and Mediterranean. It is scheduled to open in 2025.

Katowice, Poland

A pair of recent stamps from Poland. On the left is a stamp promoting tourism featuring the market square and city hall in the city of Zamość. And on the right is a stamp from a set titled "Polish Madonnas". This stamp depicts a fresco known as "Our Lady of Dzierżoniów". The crown was added recently.

Henryk Arctowski and International Lighthouse Day

The stamp on the right commemorates the 150th anniversary of the birth of Polish scientist and explorer Henryk Arctowski. The postmark commemorates International Lighthouse Day. On the postmark is an image of the Arctowski Lighthouse on King George Island which sits off the coast of the tip of the Antarctic peninsula. There are several research bases on the island, including Poland's Henryk Arctowski Station.

Moon Landing 50th Anniversary, Poland

The yellow ink on this sheet from Poland is fluorescent.

Lębork, Poland

Some beetles found in Poland. On the left is Cucujus cinnaberinus: a flat bark beetle. And on the right is Oryctes nasicornis polonicus: the European rhinoceros beetle.

Kock, Poland

From the town of Kock in eastern Poland. The bird stamp on the right is the 2019 Europa stamp from Poland featuring a common chaffinch (fringilla coelebs).

Polish Polar Station Hornsund

This recently came back to me from Svalbard. The Polish Academy of Science has been operating an Arctic research station on Spitsbergen island since 1957. The base is situated on the north side of the Hornsund fjord, about 136 km south of Longyearbyen.

This isn't the envelope I sent up there, but those are the stamps I used. The original cover must have been damaged somehow (wouldn't be the first time) so someone salvaged the postage and sent me this instead. No postmark and only the "41st Polar Expedition" stamp marked on the front but there were some extras inside, including a couple of pages with various hand-stamps on them.

Owls from Poland

From a sheet of four. This is a snowy owl. It's printed on fluorescent paper so the whole stamp glows under UV light and the eyes are slightly embossed.

Gdańsk, Poland

More mineral stamps from Poland: agate, gypsum and malachite with azurite. Thank you Roman.

Katowice, Poland

The Witcher is a hack and slash style video game series for the PC, developed by Polish video game publisher CD Project RED. The games are based on a series of novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The stamp on the miniture sheet features the game's protagonist Geralt of Rivia.

Cieszyn, Poland

Cieszyn is a Polish city on the Olza River, which runs along the border between Poland and the Czech Republic. In 1920 the town was divided when the border was established. The larger part of the town became part of Poland.

Mushrooms from Katowice, Poland

Gdansk, Poland

This cover from Gdansk, Poland has a pair of mineral stamps on it: gypsum and chrysoprase. Very nice.