Postcrossing Blog

How do you mend a broken heart? In the midst of all the sadness and sorrow, some people turn to gloomy songs that seem to sing to the tune of a broken heart… others to ice-cream, chocolate or cheesy romantic comedies.

Some people turn to literature though, to the great romances and classical couples — and of these, Romeo and Juliet are the epitome of the star-crossed lovers. If anyone could understand them, surely it would be Juliet. If only one could write to her…

Actually you can — and many people do, sending thousands of letters every year simply addressed to “Juliet, Verona, Italy”. The missives are delivered to Il Club di Giulietta (Juliet’s Club), a group of volunteers in Verona who take the time to read and reply to all the letters, by hand. They explain:

“The story of the Juliet Letters starts in the 1930’s when Ettore Solimani, the guardian of Juliet’s Tomb, began gathering the first letters people left at the grave and, moved by this phenomenon, he started replying, thus becoming the first “Juliet’s secretary”. Today this special task is taken by the Juliet Club: each letter is read, translated, answered by the ”Juliet’s secretaries" who keep a one-of-a-kind archive that contains thousands of love stories and countless words of love."

Last month, a group of Italian postcrossers visited the club’s office, where they were treated to a guided tour by Manuela Uber, one of Juliet’s secretaries. They listened to the story of the club, looked through some letters and took a lot of nice photos to share the experience!

Afterwards, they all sat down in a pizzeria to eat… and write some postcards, naturally! :)

Thank you Kinucci for telling us about this lovely meetup, and Saintursula, Antonella-, uncoiled_tiger and Jeraldine for letting us show your photos.

PS – If you’re in the mood for a cheesy romantic comedy, there’s also a movie about Il Club di Giulietta, called Letters to Juliet! 😀

Happy New Year, everyone!

We’ve met Katriina (aka cicus) a few times now, in different Postcrossing meetings around Europe. She likes languages and traveling… and sometimes even takes ideas for upcoming trips from the postcards she receives! Here are her replies to our interview questions:

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

I saw a little article in a magazine, and got interested. I started shortly after that when my sister recommended Postcrossing to me, and explained how it works. I’ve just always liked receiving snail mail. I used to have a few penpals, but all had disappeared, or I had, and this was and still is a perfect substitute!

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Currently I enjoy a burlesque class once a week. I like learning languages but am not participating in any classes at the moment. I used to take Russian lessons, and now I use Postcrossing as a way to practice.

I travel quite a bit, too. Last year I’ve been to Estonia, UK, France, Slovakia, Russia and Denmark.

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

I keep my unsent postcards in a purple box in the bookshelf. I haven’t counted them, but I’m assuming there could be a few hundred. The box is also the limit: I don’t want more clutter around so I can’t keep buying more postcards than what fits in the box.

My received postcards are in an Ikea box which also stays in the bookshelf. I also have a file *somewhere* and I found a small shoebox full of postcards in the walk-in closet. So clearly my collection is not very carefully organized… But it’s full of memories and nice surprises.

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

This is my first received postcard in Postcrossing. I couldn’t take my eyes off it — what a nice looking, atmospheric place. About a year later I had a chance to travel to Porto, so I did, and it was just as amazing as it had seemed on the picture. When I started Postcrossing I didn’t really expect such big impact like travelling to see a place on a postcard:)

Another special received card (among many, of course!). I think it’s hilarious that pets participate, and there had just been discussion about a very, um, “self-respecting” cat called Gordon on the forum. Then I received a card from him — a self-portrait of course!

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

What isn’t? :) But maybe the moment when I draw a new address and get to read the profile. Especially when they have some unique wishes that I’m able to fulfil.

Have you met any other members in real life?

Maaaaany, even hosted some in my home and been hosted. I have attended meetups in Finland, UK and Germany. Later this month, me and mr. cicus will visit another postcrosser in Denmark.

With love from Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang is the name of the most recent exhibition at the Singapore Philatelic Museum. The characters of the comic strip are often portrayed writing letters, so with the new Peanuts movie launch, it seems like a fitting and fun exhibition! They have Snoopy-themed stamps, comic strips and other collectibles on display from all over the world, but they’re still missing one thing… your postcards! :)

Keeping on with the tradition, the museum invites all postcrossers to send in their Peanuts’ themed postcards to:

The exhibition is already on display, so this activity is closed.

Include your favourite quote from a Peanuts character or your thoughts on the comic strip, if you’d like! :)

The exhibition closes at the end of April, and the museum promises to send an exclusive museum Peanuts postcard to anyone who includes their address on the postcard.

Remember the Typographic Postcards’ Kickstarter project we mentioned back in June? The project was a big success and Harald ended up printing and shipping tons of postcards! We received our backer’s reward last week, and can confirm that the postcards are gorgeous, printed on high-quality paper with a very smooth finishing. The words on them are simple yet so versatile… there really seems to be a card for every occasion!

Harald kindly included a few extra packs on our reward, which we’re struggling happy to give away to 2 lucky postcrossers! :)

For a chance to win one of two packs of 26 postcards, leave a comment below and let us know of a word or very short sentence you think would be a good fit for these cards! Here are some that have already been printed:

Good luck everyone! Don’t forget to check back on this post around this time week to know whether your name was picked by Paulo’s random number generator.

PS – For fans of Harald’s work, he’s currently crowdfunding the 5th edition of his typographic wall calendar, which is entirely made of the same keyboard keys as these postcards… perfect present for a designer friend? :)

December is just around the corner, which means it’s time to dress Postcrossing up for the holidays, and to launch our yearly campaign with Deutsche Post to make your postcards count for a good cause! By now you know the drill, so without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, we’re proud to announce that…

So if you’re in Germany, all you have to do is keep sending postcards! If your December postcards are registered before the end of February 2016, you’ll be contributing to this cause.

And though only postcards sent from Germany count, there’s always a receiver in every postcard exchange — so each time a card from Germany is registered, the recipient will be indirectly contributing to this donation as well!

To make things even more interesting, there will also be some nice prizes for the participants:

• Two 50€ vouchers for www.allyouneed.com.
• Three 40€ vouchers for Marke Individuell.
• Two high quality pen sets, from Pelikan.
• Ten custom-designed Postcrossing stamp sheets (international).

The winners will be picked up by Paulo's random number generator in early March 2016, at which point we will also announce the value raised by the German postcrossers to Stiftung Lesen here on the blog. Last year, we broke our 2014 record and raised a very impressive total of €8,382.40… can we do even better this year? 😀

Stiftung Lesen is a German non-profit organization, working to increase literacy – especially among children and adolescents. They promote reading through several different activities, such as the “My first letter” contest.

So… what are you waiting for? If you’re in Germany, grab a pen and your stack of postcards and stamps, and start writing some postcards! The more cards you send, the more you’ll contribute to this cause – and the more chances you’ll have of winning a nice prize! :)

P.S. – As always, we respect your private information and will not share it with any company without your express permission. The full details of this campaign can be read here (German only).