Postcrossing Blog

Some time ago, the Little Mail Carriers got wind that Andry (aka Andry1961) and Maret (aka Cerres) were preparing for a very exciting trip to the Pacific. As dedicated travel mode enthusiasts, they jumped at the opportunity to join them on their journey!

Hi everyone! The goal of the trip was to visit Pacific islands belonging to various countries where Postcrossing was not yet well-known. The journey took off from Tallinn Airport, and of course, there are no direct flights to these desired islands, so our route also included other major country post offices along the way.

The first stop was Istanbul, Turkey. The Turkish Post (or PTT) has a presence at Istanbul Airport. Most postcards sent from the country are shipped to other nations via their national airline, Turkish Airlines. We also took the longer flights on the same airline during this trip.

The plane landed in Singapore, but it’s easy to travel from the airport to the neighboring country of Malaysia via public transportation… so that’s exactly what we did on our layover! Across the border in Johor Bahru, a friendly postal worker lady Farah helped us stamp our postcards at the local post office. While the stamping was done at the post office, the postcards themselves had to be deposited in an external mailbox, from where they were sent to the sorting center.

Back in Singapore, there are post offices with varying opening hours all over the city, but to ensure we made it to the next flight on time, we decided to mail the postcards from the airport post office. By the time we arrived, it was already closed, so we dropped the cards in the mailbox before jumping on our next flight.

After 10.5 hours in the air, we were approaching our main destination. What motivated people to sail on their small vessels to unknown waters thousands of years ago is still a topic of debate among scientists. We support the idea that curiosity and the desire to explore foreign lands drove us, just as it did for those early explorers.

Our first stop in the South Pacific was Grande Terre, the largest island of New Caledonia. New Caledonia is a French overseas territory (technically, a sui generis collectivity) situated in the Pacific Ocean. It encompasses over 300 islands and islets and is located between Australia and Fiji. The native population is the Kanak people, but there are also many inhabitants of French origin and their descendants living on the island.

British explorer James Cook became the first European to visit New Caledonia on September 4, 1774. In the mid-19th century, it transformed into a French colony, and by 1946, it became a French overseas territory.

Nouméa welcomed us on the morning of September 26 with cheerful and windy 20-degree Celsius weather. However, since it was a Saturday, we had to rush to the post office. Only some post offices are open for half a day on Saturdays, and they are all closed on Sundays.

Apart from us, there were many other visitors at the post office. The official name of the postal operator in New Caledonia is the Office des Postes et Télécommunications, which manages mail, phone, and internet services, as well as banking services. We were the only ones on that morning sending postcards.

We were graciously assisted by the lovely lady Melatia. Postcards sent from here are routed to Europe through France, while direct connections are available to the USA and Australia. To our delight, we discovered that New Caledonia, despite being a French overseas territory, has its own unique postage stamps… so it was a nice opportunity to see these distinctive stamps!

Nevertheless, the visit to the post office was not the sole item on our agenda. We also joined in to support our travel companion Cerres, who participated in the 7th Marathon International Mobil of New Caledonia 10 km run, where she achieved a personal record. YAY! 🎉

To close the trip, we checked out the Great South Lagoon of New Caledonia, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2008. We also had the opportunity to explore one of the many exquisite national parks on this remarkable island — Blue River Park! It was amazing to see the river meander through the backdrop of red earth and the ancient kaori trees, some of which are more than 1,000 years old!

This was just the first leg of our Pacific adventure though, and our hosts Andry and Maret tell us there’s still a lot more to come… so if you’re curious about small islands and their post offices, stay tuned to see where we’ll land next! 😊

They say “good things come in threes”… so after Luxembourg and Germany, here we are again to present you with the third Postcrossing-themed stamp of 2022, a lovely specimen from Estonia!

We like it a lot! 😍 A big happy postcard front and center, being carried around by birds! It’s a fun and quirky design, that I think radiates the joy one feels when sending or receiving a postcard.

The designer Triin Heimann is a familiar name in Estonian philately, having designed quite a few popular stamps on a variety of styles. Most notable, she is responsible for the Estonian Lunar New Year series, which has been published for over 10 years! Maybe we’re a little biased, but we think this Postcrossing stamp might be one of her most lively works yet.

The postage on this stamp is for international mail, and Omniva picked October 1st as their stamp launch date, which makes us extra happy as it is also World Postcard Day! And there will also be a cancellation mark and special First Day Postcard available on the day.

If you’re in or around Tallinn on that date, there will be a Postcrossing stamp launch event and meetup taking place at the conference room of the Original Sokos Hotel Viru, in the afternoon — including a mini-postcard fair, with illustrators, designers and publishers selling their postcards! Check out this topic for more details.

We’re excited to see all these happy new stamps making their way across the world… and also to think of them in the albums of philatelic collectors, standing out a little bit from all the other stamps around them.

Andry (aka Andry1961) from Estonia is a special postcrosser: over the past 7 years, he has mailed postcards from over 30 different countries! Before the Travel Mode came along, this was not a very easy task… but his diligence and determination to get those countries on the map were part of the inspiration behind the new feature.

For years, we’ve been fascinated by Andry’s many travels around the world, so this spotlight interview was long overdue — come meet a globetrotting member of the community! :)

How did you discover Postcrossing, and what made you stay?

I have always spent a lot of time in post offices sending postcards to my acquaintances. One day, my girlfriend sent me a link about Postcrossing and told that this might be something that interests me. That was true! It was very interesting to meet other people who shared the same interest to send postcards, to receive them, to choose them, to explore the stamps from different countries and of course the label “par avion”.

When and how did your traveling adventures around the world start?

I have been interested in collectibles since the early days of my teenage years. As the collectors gatherings happened all over the USSR, it led me to travel alone to Riga (Latvia) in 1974 when I was just 13 years old, then to Leningrad (now St Petersburg) in Russia, after that to Chisinau (now part of Moldova) etc. Since those days, I have already visited 115 countries of the 193 member states of the United Nations.

Andry mailing some postcards in East Timor.

What are your favorite countries so far (if you can choose) and why?

Countries where I want to go back again and again are Australia and USA. To rent a car there and to just drive and stop in places which are really famous or maybe places that I have never heard before. In Estonia, where I live, you can drive 3 hours maximum and then you meet the state border.

One of the most valued travels were to Antarctica (I went there in 2009 with research ship Akademik Ioffe), to Ushuaia (southernmost part of Argentina) and I especially value a travel to Iraq.

We traveled to Iraq in November 2012 with a small group of 13 people from Estonia, going to Bagdad, Samarra, old Mesopotamia, Karbala, Najaf and Basra. We did not come across any other tourists there, but there was a lot to see! The locals asked us to pass on a message: “It is safe here, we are waiting for tourists!”… but just half a year later it was impossible to travel there. I also sent some postcards to postcrossers from there. I was supposed to send one postcard to Israel, a country that you couldn’t even mention in Iraq, much less send a postcard to. I wrote the address as it was, but instead of Israel wrote Ireland as the country name. I guess they figured it out in the post office in Ireland, as some time later the postcard reached its Israeli recipient. Great thanks to them!

The visiting of Iraq post office was also a very special. Although they assured us it was safe, they did not allow us to go anywhere alone without an escort. So, they organized a visit to the post office for the whole group because of my passion, with an escort of 12 soldiers and two local guides. :)

What’s your favourite part about visiting a new country? Is there anything that you do in all the countries you visit?

Visit a post office (and I’ve been doing this since the age of 13), go to a market and if possible, use some form of local public transportation.

Outside a post office in South Georgia island.

What countries are next on your list?

This year I have plans to visit Andorra, San Marino, Saudi Arabia (If I get the tourist visa) and Columbia. In the first half of the next year I plan to visit 7 African countries located along the gulf of Guinea. And of course, the neighboring countries of Estonia, including attending some meetups nearby.

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 :).