Postcrossing Blog

Pirjo is 29 years old and lives in the lovely city of Tallinn, capital of Estonia. She got hooked on Postcrossing when her baby was born and now, she collects stamps and postcards of her favorite farm animal (cows), and chats with other Postcrossers on a daily basis.

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

In the end of 2006 I read in a newspaper a small text about Postcrossing. I like to collect everything so I was right away very interested about it. I registrated myself and took one address, but I must sadly say I didn’t send this postcard, I didn’t have much time then.

In April 2007 my son was born and I stayed at home and rediscovered Postcrossing and started to send postcards out and I loved it. Soon I went to Postcrossing Forum where I met a lot of great postcrossers and started to swap and tagging :) That was lots of fun! And I must say that I made some great friends with whom I talk everyday at MSN messenger and by e-mail.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

During Summer I go rollerskating everyday and I love it.

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

My postoffice and where I keep my cards.

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

That’s a very hard question :) My all time favorite postcards are with cows and here is my collection.

When I was 7 years old my first working place was at a farm. My grandmother had a very big farm, I was herdsman and had to wash cows. Before, when I was 2 years old, all my lunch naps where at the farm :). So, I’ve been around cows a lot :).

Meet the two users from Northern Mariana Islands, USA. Jude, living in Tinian, and a Public Library project. There’s more to do in a tropical island than just watch the views!

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

Jude: A home-schooling friend mentioned it on her blog. Always a lover of mail, especially postcards, I joined immediately and love it.

TPL: Jude suggested it as an activity for our Summer Reading Program and it’s now an ongoing year-round project. One of the elementary school teachers who got involved during our Summer Program plans to use postcrossing with her students when school begins in September. That’ll make 3 of us!

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Jude: Like with everything I get into, I’m pretty gung-ho about Postcrossing so it’s my main passion at the moment. But, yes, I’ve always had many hobbies. Besides beachcombing and snorkelling most recent interests include genealogy, taking photos, writing, hiking, and now making postcards for both myself and the Library to send. The few postcards available on Tinian are expensive and since postage alone strains both our budgets, homemade is the only option.

TPL: For us it’s more a question of activities than hobbies but yes, we like to offer activities that are both fun and educative for children. This is a small island and the Library is a crucial community service. Children are the most frequent Library patrons all year.

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

Post Office on Tinian

Children practice before writing postcards

Students studying postcrossing cards and map

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

TPL: I love so many it’s hard to say but I think the aurora borealis and rainbows share the top of the list with lighthouses, windmills, culture dress, traditions, dancing and scenes like terraced rice farming! Actually we’re easy to please – glimpses of the world are colorful mailbox jewels.

Jude: Well, since we are new and considered exotic it seems like everyone wants a card from us. In self defense we have to require that you send first with your address on your card . We WILL send you a card as soon as yours arrives! I always try to read profiles before responding. I’ve gotten as many as 18 cards in one day. That takes a lot of time – so I like to limit the emails to your “it’s arrived.” messages.

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!