Postcrossing Blog

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

We spotted a question on the Questions & Answers tag in the forum a while ago which made us curious, so now we’re opening it up as this month’s reading prompt! Ann-Kathrin (Annkaba) asked this: “What is your favourite word in your language?”

I know that I spend a lot of time reading, and thus everyone expects me to have a favourite word right on the tip of my tongue—after all, I must love so many words! But I don’t really seem to think about it that way, and I’m much more interested (usually) in the story being told…

All the same, I do have particular sounds in words that I love to say (and because I love to say them, I’ll confess I often whisper to myself as I’m reading—to the annoyance of my family!). They just make the most satisfying mouth-shapes somehow: stepped, swept, crept, leapt, crypt, tipped… All those “-pt” and “-pped” sounds are pretty delicious somehow.

There are lots of words that mean important things, of course, and that I’m a fan of for the meaning they hold. But I’d be lying if I said they were favourites: the humble “stepped” takes away the prize.

What about you? You can share your favourite word (or words!) in the comments, or use this as a prompt to inspire your Postcrossing messages this month.

Recently, Paulo and I spent some time in Taiwan, and like any postcrossers out there, our first order of business was to locate nice postcards and stamps. 😍 Who better to recommend these than the local postcrossers? So, I asked on the forum and received quite a few tips from the locals — more than I could visit! One of them came from Ying-Han (aka henna168) who recommended Chu Entry Time, a postcard café! I was intrigued by the idea, so of course we needed to go check it out!

The fun starts outside, even before you get in, because the menu is all displayed in illustrated postcards! One picks the cards featuring the food or drinks you’d like to have, and then take them to the staff inside. The postcards are for you to keep, which is a really nice touch.

One special thing about Chu Entry Time is that you can mail postcards to someone in the future: you write, address and stamp your postcards, pay the fee and then put them on the box of the week you want them to be mailed. And then the staff will mail these for you when the time comes! So in theory, you can pre-send all your friend’s birthday cards for the whole year, or even a few years in advance.

It’s not the first time we hear of something like this, but it was the first time we saw a “postcard café” in real life, which was pretty cool. While we were waiting for our drinks, Paulo was browsing some magazines from a shelf and randomly stumbled on one that mentioned Postcrossing. What are the odds, eh?! 😊

There was also a really nice selection of illustrated postcards and other handmade crafts that you could buy, a table with rubberstamps for anyone to just use, and a few friendly cats that came to you for cuddles. It was just lovely all around, and I wish there were more of these in the world!

For more pictures, you can check out their Instagram account.

Do you know of other postcard-themed cafés out there? Tell us all about them! 😍

Every year around this time, we write about the EUROPA stamps and the competition to pick the most beautiful one for that year. This year though, the traditional competition isn’t taking place because all stamps share a common design! This is not new, and has happened multiple times in the history of EUROPA stamps, including in the very first issue back in 1956.

Below is 2023's design as seen on the Finnish stamp. The theme of the year is “Peace — the highest value of humanity”:

Every country is using the same design this year, arranged in slightly different ways to match the shape or aesthetics of other stamps in the country. In order to arrive at this design, a contest was run by PostEurop in which the different postal services submitted their interpretations on the topic, and then one was chosen to represent it. The winning entry was created by Linda Bos and Runa Egilsdottir of “A Designer’s Collective”, for POST Luxembourg. About the design, they wrote:

“The world needs a new Peace symbol, uniting all nations. Cultural differences perchance a barrier for a state of Peace. If only mankind could respect each other’s differences by understanding their significance and responding to them with consideration, the world would be a better place. This design shows a visual metaphor for a peacefully integrated, cooperative society in which people embrace each other’s culture. It was inspired by the Celtic Love Knot symbol, with interlocking hearts. The colour palette illustrates all the nations in the world. By adding hands with intertwined fingers, it conveys the message of mutual respect.”

Many other postal services also decided to design a second stamp to pair with this one, and you can see some of those on this forum topic.

While on one hand we’re a little sad that we don’t get to see the usual diversity of designs and interpretations, on the other hand, it’s also heartwarming to see a joint issue. This is how EUROPA stamps started: with a shared design as a symbol of cooperation between European countries. The topic also hails back to the beginning of these stamps, as the designs for the second and third years of the EUROPA series featured peace symbols.

So… what do you think? Do you like the design that was chosen, or would you have preferred if every country had its own unique entry? Aaaaaand, on a different but somewhat related topic, which song do you think will win Eurovision tonight this weekend? 🤔

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

Sometimes it’s fascinating to get a little peek into someone else’s everyday life: the really little details like shopping lists and what they have for breakfast. It can vary so much between people, even within the same country or the same family, so it’s always interesting to get a look inside someone else’s fridge—or we think so, anyway!

In my flat, the fridge almost always contains either halloumi or chorizo (along with the usual staples like milk and butter). Sometimes both! Two of my favourite meals are based around chorizo, and I’ll eat pretty much anything with halloumi (we usually fry it, but use it in a few different dishes). When talking about this prompt with Ana, I couldn’t help but evangelise for my current favourite chorizo dish: baked cheesy rice with chorizo and courgette (except that we usually substitute peppers in for the courgettes, as they keep their consistency a little better after being cooked).

Other than halloumi and chorizo, though, we tend to vary our meals each week, since my wife prefers to change things up. I suppose the other most consistent thing in our fridge isn’t actually for us: we have loads of veg for the rabbits, like chicory and coriander. For several years running, our supermarket’s app told us every year that we were the #1 buyers of parsley and coriander at the main store we went to—I’m not surprised, because all three of the buns love some parsley and coriander…

What about you? Do you have anything you try to always keep in your fridge? Feel free to share here in the comments, but also on your postcards this month! Especially if you have any tasty recipes (double especially if you have any good recipes involving chorizo)…

Today is Earth Day, and we thought a good way to celebrate the day would be to tell you about an event held some time ago, where postcrossers came together to help plant a pine forest in central Portugal. Enjoy this sunny report!

After a hiatus of two years due to the pandemic, it was time to get together again to expand Postcrossing’s tiny forest! So in early February this year, a group of postcrossers gathered once more to plant trees and reforest a part of the old Pinhal de Leiria, an historical forest from the 13th century which was mostly destroyed in a disastrous fire some years ago. It will take years and years for the forest to regain its previous splendor… but you know what they say: “the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now.”

This time, the plot we replanted was in the dunes nearer the Atlantic ocean, which gave it nice views over the sea. (I like to think of all the tiny pine trees growing with a sea view!) All of us moved along the previously plowed rows, taking care not to damage any trees that were already growing on their own. All morning we made holes, put little trees in them and covered them up so that they were protected from the fierce Atlantic winds. Here are some pictures:

We planted around 700 tiny maritime pine trees, also known as “Pinus pinaster”. Maritime pine is a relatively fast grower, and native to the Mediterranean, so it likes our hot summers and rainy winters. It’s also a great tree to hold onto the dunes and help stabilize coastal regions. Talking to the organizers of the reforestation initiative, they told us the seeds that sprouted these baby pines had been sent from the forest that existed here to France before the fire, and were now returning home to be planted here again. Hurray for seed banks!

After a picnic and some coffee, it was time to go back home, with the feeling of a job well done. Maybe something to consider, for a future meeting in your country? We invite you to roll up your sleeves and go for it! 🌲 And if that’s not possible but you’d still like some ideas of things you can do to make this hobby greener, check our Towards a greener planet page! 🌲

PS: All the pictures in this post are by Tetyana (aka tatytrofamets), who did an excellent job reporting on this fantastic day!