Postcrossing Blog

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:

When the Postcrossing project was launched 4 years ago, no one would guess that it could ever reach one million postcards. But it did, and, we have just reached 3 times that! What a milestone! Three million postcards! Three million connections! Three million smiles! We couldn’t be prouder of being part of this project.

And, this couldn’t be reached without every single member of Postcrossing, so a big thank you to you all for making it happen!

But, we know many of you are anxiously waiting to know who were the lucky members that exchanged this special postcard. So without further delays:

The postcard 3 million travelled from arjakos in Finland, to klemko in Slovenia! Congratulations to both for being part of such an important milestone in Postcrossing!

And, finally, congratulations Sara-Gandalf (from Slovenia!) – you are the lucky winner of our contest by being the first to guess correctly the countries involved on this unique postcard.

The winner of the contest, the sender and receiver of the postcard 3 million will receive aerogrammes packs kindly offered by the folks behind Int’l Girl Aerogrammes. If you aren’t one of the the lucky ones, be sure to check their website – their aerogrammes are designed with love, come in different languages and are printed in recyclable paper. Each aerogramme is a little piece of art that takes your message directly to those you love. Can you tell how much we love them?

Shall we start the countdown to the postcard 4 million? :)