Postcrossing Blog

Morten (aka bokmorten) comes from Norway and has been using Postcrossing since 2014. We learned about his work as a librarian and children’s books expert, and got curious about how he found us and how his Postcrossing journey has been going.

How did you get started sending postcards? What is your earliest memory of them?

When I was 8, my father introduced me to stamp collecting. That was a link to sending and receiving post as well. Later, in my teens, I had pen pals home and abroad. I have always been curious about other people, their lives and customs.

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

I read about Postcrossing in the newsletter of Foroya Post (Faroese Post). Tried it right away, and I’m still here.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

As you might see, we live in a small village/suburb with rural surroundings.

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

I am not a collector per se, so there are only a few cards I’ve kept, using them as decorations or book marks. Among those, I’ve been enjoying some “Gesamtkunstwerk” where stamp and card share the same theme. Like the Gaston from France:

Or this Austrian card and stamp with Ukraine flag theme and some of the Moomin cards from Finland with related stamps.

I must also mention the very nice Hungarian postcrosser who sent me a Hungarian translated version of a famous Norwegian children’s book. She’s still a Facebook friend.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies or collections?

I’m a frequent contributor to Norwegian Wikipedia, awarded “Wikipedian Of The Year 2013” in Norway. I also write and edit other non fiction writing in local history, children’s literature history and in the Norwegian academic encyclopedia Store Norske Leksikon.

Is there anything else that you are passionate about?

Through my work, I am the proud and eager editor and publisher of children’s books in the threatened minority language Southern Saami, and into other Saami languages as well. This work has awarded us two national awards, among them 'Library of the Year 2019', and two times nominations to the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the world’s largest children’s literature prize. Read more about our work in English, or Scandinavian (for Scandinavian readers and those putting their trust in web translations).

Thank you for answering our questions, Morten!

Good news! We’ve just received another adventure-filled missive from the Little Mail Carriers… all the way from Ålesund, a coastal town in Norway! Their host Cathrine (aka Norway_girl) showed them all the best sights in town, including the wonderful aquarium, where they got to meet the cuddle-loving wolffishes!

Hello everyone! Earlier this year, we were in Ålesund, Norway. It is called the The Art Nouveau City, as the city was built up in Art Nouveau style after a fire on January 23, 1904.

On our first day, we were taken for a walk at Sunnmøre Museum. Everyone can walk around among the old buildings for free. It was so interesting to see those old wooden houses with grass on the roof!

The original settlement in the area was built 12000 years ago and lasted until the Viking age, about 1000 years ago. In the main building, there were many interesting exhibitions about things like how yarn was colored in the old days, folk costumes, old rooms, tools for typical crafts… It was fascinating!

We did also find a perfect place to watch the mountains. Being close to the sea and see the snow covered mountain tops at the same time is very nice!

While walking in the forest, we meet a man who was cycling there, so we had to try that ourselves too…but it was harder to bicycle on the forest path than on a road! So we decided to just relax on the the view point, where we could sit on a bench and look at the city and the surrounding islands.

A high point of our stay was the visit to Atlanterhavsparken, one of Northern Europe’s largest salt water aquariums, where we got to see many of the creatures that are found in the North Atlantic Ocean! In addition to that, we did also see some tropical fishes, included clown fishes, turtles and really cute Humboldt penguins, which were being hand-fed at the time of our visit! You can see them running for their grub in this cool video that our host filmed! :)

There’s a huge tank in Atlanterhavsparken, called The Atlantic Tank…

… which contains 4 million liters of water and several hundred big fishes of 11 species that live in the North Atlantic Ocean (for instance cod, saithe and wolffish). Every day, a scuba diver hand feeds the fishes in the Atlantic Tank. That was so cool to watch! We were told that the wolffishes are the kindest fishes in the tank… they like to be cuddled! :D

We did also get time to write some postcards, and walked through the city town in search for a mailbox… Oh, here they are! A yellow one for mail to nearby places, and a red one for the rest of the mail!

Then we visited Jugendstilsenteret (The Art Nouveau Style Centre), which tells about the Ålesund fire and the rebuilding of the city. There’s even a time machine there, where we could travel back in time to 1904, to see what the city looked like before the devastating fire.

During our stay, we learned that Norwegians love to be outside, in the nature – so we decided to do like them, and go for a walk at the city mountain Aksla. What a view we got of the city and the surrounding islands!

And what about Norwegian food? Well, we discovered that Norwegians love their bread!. They eat so much bread… for breakfast, lunch and evening meal! And if you’re ever in Norway, remember not to put a second slice of bread on top of the first one – that’s a big no-no!

Here in Norway, they’ve got a brown cheese, a sweet cheese, and they’ve even got a weird device for slicing it! We also got to taste kjøttkaker (meatballs, on the left) and lefse (a soft flatbread, on the right). They were delicious! :D

“Shall we grab some more of that yummy cheese before we leave, Little Paulo?”
“Oh yes please! I never say no to cheese! :D”

Now I’m hungry too! Thank you so much Norway_girl, for this lovely report! The adventure continues…