Postcrossing Blog

Well well well… what have we here? Could it be… a music video featuring a ton of nostalgic postcards?! :D

We couldn’t resist sharing this catchy tune, which is the newest single from Sunderland’s band Frankie & The Heartstrings. Enjoy!

If you have tried to access Postcrossing in the last 2 days, you might have been surprised to see that the site was down. And not only for a brief moment, but for almost 30 hours! This was probably the longest time Postcrossing was unavailable (we hated it too!).

But the good news is… we are back!

Unfortunately, our hosting provider had a serious technical problem that not only affected us, but also many other large websites. While they are still finishing fixing the issue, the worse seems to be over for us.

But, more important now, is that no data was lost and everything is resuming to where it was just before this outage. We do apologize for this unexpected blackout and we will be looking into ways to better protect ourselves from similar technical problems in the future.

Happy Postcrossing, everyone!

PS: Have you noticed we have already passed the 7 million postcards mark?! :D

Kati (also known has Kilona) is in Postcrossing for 4 years now. She lives in Helsinki (Finland), a perfect place for someone who loves to participate in Postcrossing meetings like her. Here’s what she has to share with us today.

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

I met several other Finnish Postcrossers, in an EuroBillTracker meeting and I think it was Pooca who talked me into trying it. First I had to get a mailing address in Phuket Thailand where I was working as a Scuba-diving instructor and then the rest is history :).

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I Scuba-dive and I do Iyengar yoga, but I’m also dive instructor and taking part of Iyengar teacher training, so my most interesting hobbies are both passion and profession.

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

I adore the Havis Amanda postbox. It’s a special cancellation box, so the postcards always get the beautiful cancellation, which sadly doesn’t happen as regularly in normal postboxes.

I also got a picture of my mailman, when he was rushing to fill my letter box with beautiful postcards all around the world.

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

I love all underwater postcards and I would love to show you my first ever received diving card.

What are you passionate about?

I absolutely love Postcrossing meetings and I’m lucky in living in Helsinki, where we have several of them yearly. Postcrossing is a wonderful way to meet new and exiting people and when you also can meet them in person, it makes a whole new aspect to the postcard exchanges.

Have you met any other members in real life?

I have met many other Postcrossers here in Helsinki and around Finland in different meetings and in Australia. Soon I’m going to attend an International Postcrossing meeting in Köln which I’m waiting especially to meet my long time Postcrossing pal 9teen87. The fun isn’t ending there I’m also attending the notorious Bielefeld meeting to meet many many exciting Postcrossers.

Shinta (from Indonesia) has an interesting job: she works as a translator/editor of children books – something that many of us would love to do. She’s very keen on fridge magnets and has a quite respectable collection – here’s what she has shared with us.

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

In 2008 I was searching for any fridge magnet sites when I came across Postcrossing. At first I had no idea what Postcrossing was about. As I continued my search, this name kept appearing on the search results. I decided to join for the first time, made mistakes here and there for I didn’t quite understand how it worked. I was a total mess! But I learned fast and not long after it I found myself fell in love with postcards too.

What (or rather who) got me hooked was all the amazing, kind and friendly forum members who had sent me beautiful items/postcards including RAS. I hope we can continue this friendship. My sincere gratitute and deepest appreciation to you all!

When my magnets were too many to handle, I had to say enough to myself and only did a couple of swaps in a month. I’m still active in postcard collecting, both in official and in the forum. I withdraw myself from other magnet/postcard trading groups and stayed home at Postcrossing, simply because my heart belongs here.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Besides postcard and magnet collecting, my other hobby is reading. Ok, it’s not that interesting ;) I read anything, lovestories, biographies, inspirational stories like Chicken Soups, detective/suspense, history, sciencefiction, children books, literatures, you name it. My job in editing/translating department requires me to read more books, which I don’t mind at all :).

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

This is where I send my postcards:

This is the post office where I sent bigger packages / registered items and bought lots of phillatelic stamps:

I keep my “for trade” cards in these little drawers of my living room table, and stack the albums (my collection) on top of it, so anybody can enjoy them. Friends and relatives always ask about Postcrossing and I answer those questions with pleasure.

Some of my postcards collection:

Me and my magnets:

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

I have so many favorites that it’s not possible for me to pick one or two cards only.

What are you passionate about?

In 2009–2010 I took a part time job as a kindergarten teacher and my passion is to encourage my little students (age 4–6) to love to read by doing a lot of storytelling. I showed every postcards that I received and told one piece of the world to them. Their favorites are auroras, cartoons (Moomins, Hello Kitties, the Simpsons, Disneys, etc), wild flowers, Lali Riddles, and other colorful cards. In 2010 for a very sad reason I had to let go this job that I love very much…

Fernando (or Patagonia) is 31 and lives in Santiago (in Chile). He has a dream of living in the beautiful region of Patagonia, in the southernmost part of South America, hence his username choice.

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

I always liked photography and postcards. I bought postcards for each trip and also bought old postcards from other countries in different libraries. That motivated me to write to different people from other countries to swap. One of those people mentioned Postcrossing as a good place to swap. I think it is a magical virtual place to know other people, make friends, know other cultures. It’s magical because it can connect people from Siberia to Atacama, from Egypt to Cuba thanks to this great project… and thanks to technology, of course.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Yes, I love the nature. Actually I practice trekking, principally in the Andes Mountains. Where I live, Santiago de Chile, is very privileged for this discipline, because is near of the Andes and there are many mountains to practice this beautiful sport. I love reading poetry, listen classical rock and latino-american music and the most important I think, play with my 7 months son, Diego.

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

I have stored very well my postcards, so, I can show my Byōbu (wind wall) in the living-room of our apartment. It’s very special for me, because it decorates our home.

My son Diego also likes the postcards.

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

Maybe, it’s the hardest answer. I love all postcards, each country is very special for me. Postcards from Poland, Brazil, Romania, USA, Italy, etc. are beautiful.

I think my favorite postcard is from St. Petersburg, Russia, because was my first card received by Postcrossing and the russian postcards are all amazing (Siberia, Moscow Subway, etc.).

Is there anything that you are passionate about?

My family… is the most important for me. Also, today we are living so great changes in the world, people must live free and with fundamental rights, I love that people should reveal their oppressors (bad politicians, dictators, etc.). I believe that is the sense of Postcrossing, a free world, free thought without oppression.