Postcrossing Blog

It’s the World Post Day, did you know? It’s celebrated every year, on the 9th of October and it commemorates the founding of the UPU (Universal Postal Union) in 1874 in Bern, Switzerland Capital.

So today, across the world, post offices are celebrating this special day in many different ways. This includes: special philatelic exhibitions, free entrance in postal museums, introducing new products and services, special cancellation marks, seminars, workshops and more!

Actually, in some countries you can even get free goodies (like free postage!) so be sure to check the website for the post offices of your country (hint: if you don’t know the link you can find it in your country page in Postcrossing). Let us know your findings in the comments of this post!

So, go out, buy some postcards or some nice letter paper and write to all your friends and family; remind them that the post is a very important part of our lives.

Happy World Post Day!

Norbert, 53, Düsseldorf, Germany. Better known as “Baer” in the Forum. He is more than a polar bear friend…

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

My fiancè (which is also active on postcrossing) has been penpalling for more than 25 years. One of her penpals, the Turkish postcrosser nihan, sent her the link to this postcard paradise. I tried it first and was infected by the postcrossing virus in the same second… :-)))

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Rubberstamping, playing table tennis. In former times fantasy roleplaying, boardgames, painting tin miniatures, watercolour painting, motorbiking.

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

My mailman doesn’t like me, I won’t photograph him and show him here. Unfortunately, the friendly people at my postoffice didn’t give me their permission to show their photos here, so I just show the space, mailbox where I sent my postcards from and my mailbox!

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

My most special card – the very first card I received by Postcrossing…

Here is another photo of one of my favorite cards, sent by the user EvansCrew:

Do you display your postcards in your wall? I mean, on your REAL wall?

We know some of you do. But Andy in the U.K. decided to go extra an mile with the wall concept and created the 'My REAL wall' project. Here’s what he has to say about it:

I am a teacher based in London, uk and love photography, travelling and writing.

A few months ago I closed my facebook account and since then I have decided only to receive REAL post, instead of letting people post on a virtual wall.

Whenever I receive REAL post I stick it up on my REAL wall and take a photograph of it, which I then upload to my website, www.myrealwall.com.

And he has photos of many different walls too! So go check it out!

Today we want to share with you a touching talk about something that is particularly interesting for many Postcrossers: the lost art of letter-writing.

The speaker is Lakshmi Pratury and she shares her view on the importance of (hand-)writing in an age of technology; how writing has created a special bond between her and her father that no technology would be able to.

We felt really inspired after watching it and we hope you will to.

For a high quality version or for subtitles in many languages, visit this page.

Paul (pbesoo) is 32, lives in the Netherlands and he likes to explore the world through Postcrossing. Learn a bit more about someone who confesses himself as addicted to Postcrossing.

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

I read an article about a Dutch Postcrosser in the local newspaper. I saved the article, after a few months I activated my profile and since I’m addicted. I like the idea of exploring the world through Postcrossing and “meeting” people from other nationalities.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Cycling, mountain biking and swimming.

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

My mailman run away, so I like to show you a picture of the mailbox where I post my mail. All the mailboxes in Holland look like this.

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

All the cards I receive are special in their own way. The senders do a lot of effort to send a nice view often with a personal touch. I just picked out this recently received colorful card to show you: