Postcrossing Blog

Is this year going by especially fast? I feel like I blinked and next thing I know it’s already April… whoa! The worst of winter is (hopefully) behind us in the Northern hemisphere and days keep stretching ahead, promising and enticing.

It’s a good thing we shook off our winter slumber now, because April is Write_On month! If you’ve never heard about it, here’s a little video to bring you up to speed:

Doesn’t that sound nice? The Indiegogo campaign they put together earlier this year went really well, and they used the funds to make and send thousands of writing kits (with stationery, pens and a zine) to everyone who signed up for them. Slowly, Write_On has shifted from a personal challenge to a cultural movement that is picking momentum, challenging people to develop better letter-writing habits. We’re all for more reasons to send mail and make people happy, so naturally, this sounds like a wonderful idea!

And because the people behind Write_On want everyone to write more, they offering to equip one lucky postcrosser with a mighty impressive set of stationery supplies, sure to delight the recipients of your correspondence! Have a look at the swag:

There’s postcards from Egg Press, pens from Sakura of America, boxed card sets from Chronicle Books, an assortment of cards from the Write_On sponsors, and a pin as well! 😀

To participate, leave a comment below sharing a reason for writing someone a postcard or letter. It could be something like “Thanking someone for being a great role model” or “Sending someone a list of places you’d like to go with them someday”… anything goes, as long as it’s a good excuse to write!

Good luck everyone, and remember to check back on this post around this time next week, to know whether your name was picked by Paulo’s random number generator. Thank you to the Write_On organisers, for putting together such a neat spread for this giveaway!

Earlier this week, RTÉ (Ireland’s national broadcaster) aired part two of a six-part documentary about the Dublin’s General Post Office. The series, told in weekly episodes, revolves around the iconic building and includes stories from many of the people who use it on a daily basis. Here’s the synopsis:

“Best known as the headquarters of the 1916 Rising, the GPO has been at the heart of Irish life for 200 years. Inside the GPO goes behind the scenes at Ireland’s busiest post office; home to 950 staff, a microcosm of Irish society, and caretaker of letters, parcels, hopes and stories.”

Well… postcrossers do visit post offices rather often, so it’s only natural that a group of enthusiastic Irish postcrossers were picked to be featured on the documentary!

Sitting down in a café with their stamps and postcards, Nora (aka ned44440), John (aka jr11577), Claudia (aka chrissybaby) and Kodzos (aka kodzos) braved the cameras and did an excellent job representing the Irish Postcrossing community. Well done guys!

You can see the segment (until April 21st) at http://www.rte.ie/player/is/show/inside-the-gpo-30003923/10549881. This is the second part of this series — the first one can be seen here.
If you like it so far, do follow RTÉ's website for the next episodes!

It’s been a while since we’ve had a giveaway on the blog… so when our friend Addis (aka sumares) found this cute stamp-themed puzzle and offered to send it to a lucky postcrosser, we immediately jumped at the offer! Little Paulo showcases it below:

Isn’t it cute? It’s a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle, featuring the “Wonders of America: Land of Superlatives” commemorative stamps! Here’s an introductory video highlighting the concept and artwork of the stamps, which were released almost ten years ago, in May 2006.

Stamps and puzzles and mailboxes… so many our favourite things put together in this charming package! Little Ana is ready to write a name on the mailbox…

If you’d like a chance to win it, all you need to do is leave a comment below. Oh, and if you have seen or played with other fun toys that promote postcard collecting or letter writing, do share!

Don’t forget to check back on this post around this time next week, to know whether your name was picked by Paulo’s random number generator. And a huuuuge thank you to Addis, who generously sponsored this giveaway!

Remember the Little Mail Carrier’s cousin? It’s been a while since he was last on the blog… Earlier this year, he threw a huge tantrum and demanded to be sent on new adventures — so we sent him off to Romania, where an exciting meeting was about to take place! Here’s their report, as told by the participants in this unique meeting.

Once upon a very special day, on February 29th of 2016, the Romanian Postcrossing Community organized the first Postcrossing train meetup in the world, a round-trip journey between Bucharest and Ploiești. The day started with the arrival of the Little Mail Carriers’ cousin in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. As every tourist would have done, he first went on a sightseeing tour through the wonders of Bucharest.

Naturally, he took some selfies and because he is so small, a special “magnifier tool” was used to be sure everything is in focus!

He started with the Palace of the Parliament which is the heaviest building in the world. It is also the second largest administrative building in the world (after the Pentagon in the USA) housing the Romanian Senate and Parliament and the National Museum of Contemporary Art.

He continued his tour to two of the most prestigious buildings in Bucharest: the House of Economies (CEC) and the National Museum of Music (Cantacuzino Palace).




In front of the Romanian Athenaeum he got really excited, because inside is the longest circular fresco in the world! It was done by Costin Petrescu, and is a stunning piece depicting 25 different scenes of Romanian history over 70 meters of canvas… wow!

The final stop before the meetup was at the Revolution Square, admiring the National Museum of Art (The Royal Palace), the statue of King Carol I of Romania (1866–1914) and the Central University Library.

Finally he arrived at Gara de Nord (train station). The little couriers’ cousin met with members of the Romanian Postcrossing Community and quickly jumped on the train to grab some seats.

We had lots of fun activities during our trip from Bucharest to Ploiești (60 km), such as: signing postcards, organizing lotteries, tasting cupcakes and of course taking photos with our small guest, who even received a nickname for the day: Max!

With this special occasion, we printed a limited edition meetup postcard, showing the Royal train of Romania (Photo by Mihai Raitaru). Everybody signed it — even the train inspectors, who were quite impressed by it!




Once arrived in Ploiești, we gathered for a nice group photo and went on sightseeing, having a few hours available before the train back to Bucharest.


We first visited the Clocks Museum – the biggest clocks collection in South-Eastern Europe.

The Art Museum was next on our list, where we took more photos and signed some more postcards in the lobby. Max got a special surprise from one of our colleagues, who played the piano for him.

Before heading back, one last stop was made at the Postal Office to send our “train traveling meetup” postcards to fellow Postcrossers around the world and to say goodbye to little Max, who continued his journey back to Portugal. At the end of this full and fun day we all went back to our homes with many wonderful memories.

We also found out that this was the first train traveling meetup in the world and all this was possible because Postcrossing exists! Thank you Postcrossing team for bringing us together, thank you for building bridges among people and nations! Happy Postcrossing, everyone!

Train meetup participants (who came from a bit all over Romania):
Anca, bardamu1964, cristinaS, corneljipa, dienuca, DrAmpie, eumihai2003, lamelemon, MaraMilu, MihneaR, modranhoria, mpalade, Nazareanu, NoarVladimir, Schumi99, spiderpc and susanica.

Concept: Mihnea (MihneaR)

Organizers: Mihnea (MihneaR), George (Nazareanu), Eugen (eumihai2003)

Photos: Eugen (eumihai2003) and George (Nazareanu)
 — you can see lots more here!
Article: George (Nazareanu) with the help of Beatrice ( boopilina), Diana (dienuca), Anca (Annajo) and Mihnea (MihneaR)

Thank you guys, that was brilliant! And what do you think… it’s time the Little Mail Carriers’ cousin had a name — should we stick to “Postman Max”? :)

Hoera! Following the success of the first stamp ever dedicated to Postcrossing, PostNL is issuing a second sheet of stamps to honor the project this year!

The new sheet of 10 different stamps features an eclectic mix of popular Dutch highlights, connected through postcards. There are national parks and picturesque villages, fields of tulips and marvels of engineering… and everything in between! Without further ado, here they are:

Do you recognise all the sights?

From the top left corner (left to right, and top-down), they are: Delta Works, Frisian Islands, Hoge Veluwe, Binnenhof, Alkmaar’s cheese market, Bollenvelden, Giethoorn, Marken, Zaanse Schans… and our personal favourite, a character from Rembrandt’s most famous painting The Night Watch, wishing us all a “Happy Postcrossing”!

Keeping in mind that Postcrossing postcards travel mostly to foreign destinations, PostNL created a set of stamps that double as tiny tourism ambassadors, helping draw attention to the country’s most interesting and attractive sites. The resulting design (by Reinier Hamel from Sin agency) is a bright sheet of stamps, which promises to bring a conversation topic (and burst of colour!) to many future postcards.

The new stamp sheet will be available on all Bruna shops from March 29th, and you can also pre-order it online (along with a neat First Day Cover) from March 22nd on CollectClub.nl.

To celebrate the stamp launch, Dutch postcrossers are organising a meetup in Rotterdam on March 29th, and planning to send lots of postcards with the shiny new stamps. Do join them, if you can!

If you’re not in the Netherlands, keep an eye on your mailbox — your next Dutch postcards might feature their new Postcrossing stamps! 😀