Postcrossing Blog

Meet sevvie (aka Hanna), who lives in Helsinki, Finland. She likes films (and going to movie festivals) and practising the different writing styles when a member provides the address in their native alphabet or writing script! :)

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

I think it was a cold autumn day some 6–7 years ago when a friend of mine from school mentioned having Postcrossing as her hobby. She might have been on her way to post some cards or buy a few stamps and I might have asked what they were for, I can’t quite recall, but in any case I got rather curious about the whole thing. I have always loved snail mail and Postcrossing seemed like a great way to find people who thought the same, and not just within Finland but practically all over the world. I also thought it would be a rather inexpensive and not a very time-consuming pastime, but I’ve later had to revise that idea a bit. Also, cards can really take up space! But I don’t mind any of these things because all in all Postcrossing is a wonderful hobby.

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

As much as I love receiving cards, I have to admit that choosing a card to match each recipient is by far my favourite part. I enjoy writing small messages on the cards, preferably so that there is not much space left afterwards. It’s also great if someone requests a drawing, or if the recipient has included their address in their native language as well. It’s nice to get to practice different writing styles, and I expect it’s also easier for a postal worker to handle the card that way too. I especially like writing Cyrillic and Japanese/Chinese addresses. So far I haven’t seen that many Korean or Thai addresses, and I’d very much like to try Arabic as well. Although I’d probably be a bit nervous doing it. With unfamiliar alphabets there’s always the risk of writing gibberish instead of something understandable. But it is always great to try.

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

We finally got a new mailbox some months ago. It was not ours to buy, so we had to wait nearly a year for the new one. The neighbourhood we live in is known as “the rainiest place in Finland”, so having a leaky mailbox that suspiciously looked like someone had bumped against it several times with their car was not very pleasant. Often my cards would be if not soggy and a bit torn, then at least slightly damp, and they would curl oddly as they dried. So we were glad to get a new mailbox. Even though it doesn’t look that special, we like it a lot.

I store my received postcards in albums and keep my cards-to-send in old shoe-boxes. Or that’d be the ideal situation anyway! Often the cards are anywhere there is some free space until I have time to organise them, which can take a while. I also upload my received cards on Picasa for easy access, though obviously without all the wonderful messages, handwriting styles, stamps, postmarks and stickers.

I used to leave my cards in the Post Museum special cancellation box, but now that the museum has moved to Tampere I use the General Post Office’s special cancellation box. I also like to attend First Day events to send cards with special postmarks and brand new stamps.

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

I have received so many wonderful cards it feels strange to try to narrow them down to one favourite, or even several. I prefer art cards and cards related to books, films and television, but as long as a card is visually pleasing, I’ll love it. Here there are three official Postcrossing cards I have found especially lovely:

US-761954 from Karen-Campbell, DE-2024899 from Kaate, PL-643913 from krystyna (with an honourable mention to DE-1524632 from glaesmann). And below are three direct swap cards from Jodie05, Lucia28jp, and WY, respectively. All of them have made me even fonder of – and more fascinated with – the world we live in.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Well, I don’t know about interesting, but I really enjoy films. Surprising, I know. But I think watching films is actually rather similar to Postcrossing, in a way. You get to see small glimpses of other cultures, traditions and ways of thinking. I also love languages and music, so I’m always equally as eager to hear a film as I am to see it. It’s a wonderful thing that there are so many outstanding film festivals here in the Capital Region. Film festivals definitely do broaden the selection and you get to see films from all over the world. The newest additions are, I think, Helsinki Cine Aasia and Season Film Festival, held for the first time this March and April. I was glad to go and see three films at Helsinki Cine Aasia, two from China and one from Japan. I usually buy a festival voucher that allows you to see ten or eleven films during a festival. My favourite festivals are Espoo Ciné and Rakkautta & Anarkiaa (Love & Anarchy), the two major ones, but there are numerous smaller ones that I also like to attend.

Besides films, I love reading speculative fiction and tending to plants.

Is there anything that you are passionate about?

Passionate is a rather strong word and perhaps not something I’d easily describe myself with; I just try to live my life the best way I can and enjoy it to the fullest. I suppose that is something I am quite eager to realise, in a way, though it’s a rather difficult goal to be sure. Obviously there is much that I view as very important, such as my family and friends, the state of the environment, and so on, and things I really enjoy doing, like reading and cooking. Overall I think I’m also a bit of a do-gooder, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I believe I’d be quite unhappy if I weren’t vegetarian, hated recycling or never bought clothes and furniture second hand, and so on.

And if I think about all the wonderful things I’d miss terribly if they’d suddenly be gone, the list would be at least as long as the number of kilometres our postcards have travelled. Stories and dreams, dancing, music, songs and singing, everything in nature, solving a puzzle, baking a cake, the feeling of joy I get whenever one of my postcards gets registered… Even the tiniest thing can really make a difference. I could say that I’m quite keen to make myself appreciate these things, big and small, as they deserve to be appreciated.

Saying that I’m actually passionate about life feels a bit trite, but I guess that’s exactly what it is at the end of the day.

Happy postcrossing and joyful summer!

Meet las424 (aka Lila), who lives in the United Arab Emirates. She’s a self-proclaimed stationery addict, and likes to take trips to discover the places featured on the postcards that she receives… isn’t that an excellent idea?!

Here is what she had to say:

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

I’ve been exchanging letters with my best friend from high school for over a decade now. Three years ago, she sent me an article about how there are still people out there, like us, who are keeping letter writing alive. The article also mentioned Postcrossing, and the huge number of postcards sent by postcrossers. I was intrigued, so I visited the site. Five minutes later, I signed myself up! I was skeptical at first as I couldn’t imagine actually receiving postcards from random strangers, but a few weeks after sending out my first 5 cards, lovely postcards started trickling in – a nice end to busy workdays!

I’ve been writing letters since I was little, so sending out postcards seemed like a natural extension of a hobby – how could I not get hooked?! I love how a small rectangular piece of paper can bridge the huge gap between me and a complete stranger living a very different life in a very different part of the world. We postcrossers are ambassadors of our individual countries, mailing out postcards to make the world a smaller, more peaceful place.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Traveling is a big hobby of mine – I try to go on a few short trips a year to explore different places. Postcrossing has inspired me to visit places which I wouldn’t ever have considered before such as Tallinn, Estonia. There’s something magical about seeing something on a postcard then seeing it in real life. It’s also nice to get advice from postcrossers on what to do in their country – it’s like having 400,000+ expert travel advisers to consult.

On the left are postcards I’ve received, and on the right are photos I’ve taken of the same places.

I received EE-100335 from user HelleVee – such an enchanting view of Tallinn’s Old Town! The Grand Place card came from users cdnstar and Cindy79 when they were in Brussels. User Gogge1 sent DK-12918, a nice view of Nyhavn.

I am a bit of a stationery addict – I’ve got enough letter sets, cards, stickers and pens to last me a decade or two! But every time I enter a stationery store, inevitably, I’ll walk out with something.

Lately, photography has started to interest me – I’m a complete amateur, armed only with my iPhone, but it’s nice to try to take photos similar to those on viewcards :)

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

Clockwise from the top left, you can see 1) where I mail my letters, 2) PO boxes, 3) a close-up of the mailbox, and 4) the inside of the box in which all my stamps are stored.

In the UAE, we don’t get mail delivered to our homes. Instead, we can either get a private PO box, or get mail delivered to our workplace. Every day, on my way home, I make a trip to my PO box to see if anything has come in, and to drop off any letters or postcards. If it weren’t for Postcrossing, I certainly wouldn’t check my mailbox more than once a week!

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

What a difficult decision! There are so many cards which have made an impression on me – either for the picture on the card or the message, or both. One of my favorite types of cards are those which depict the four seasons. There are times when I long for autumn and spring – here, we have ‘winter’ which is nice and cool, around 12 to 25 degrees Celsius, and summer which is very hot, around 30–45 degrees so I do like to see cards showing the differences in seasons. I’ve received a few gorgeous ones:

AT-63204

DE-934658

NL-744880

Have you inspired anyone else to join Postcrossing or start collections of their own?

Before the friend who unintentionally introduced me to Postcrossing got married, I created an account to collect postcards wishing her and her fiancé well. A year later, right before her wedding, I sent her a box of these postcards. She was so touched by all the warm wishes of people from all over the world. In addition to the postcards being displayed at her wedding, she presented all her guests with blank postcards to jot down their thoughts and wishes for the bride and groom.

A few years ago, my mother brought back some gotochi cards from Japan. They were so cheerful and fun that I began collecting them. In the process, I’ve managed to turn most of my relatives as well as a few friends in Japan into gotochi card collectors.

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

For the most part, I love getting sending out cards. From the thrill of requesting an address, to going through someone’s profile to gauge what the person is like, to finding a suitable card for that person, to picking out the perfect stamp combination, then finally writing out a message! When I first joined, I barely had any postcards, but three years on, I’ve become quite the expert in touristy cards from Dubai, and have accumulated quite a collection, so many that one of my new year’s resolutions was that I wouldn’t buy a single postcard this year except when on vacation. We’ll see how long that lasts! I also enjoy introducing Dubai to postcrossers, and giving them a flavor of what the city is like.

The Postcrossing Forum is also fun as it’s a great place to exchange postcards with other postcrossers, and find people who share many of my interests, from people who like long messages on their postcards, to trying out teas from different countries! The Round Robins are VERY addictive.

Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?

My second postcard was from Finland – I was so surprised as I knew so very little about the country, it seemed so exotic and far away to me at the time! I visited Helsinki for the first time in October, and loved it! Naturally, I visited the central post office there and marveled at the huge selection of postcards in the post office store, and how pretty the stamps were! Is it just me or do all postcrossers feel that post offices in foreign countries are a tourist attraction?

Meet egni (aka Inge) who lives near Lake Zurich, in Switzerland! Over the years, she has amassed a very impressive collection of cat-themed postcards – especially on the Puss in Boots theme, for which she has a special soft spot!

Here is what she had to say:

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

I really don’t know exactly. But I think I found a magazine while travelling by train and read about Postcrossing. It sounded interesting, so I took the paper home and left it on my desk. Later I drew up some courage and signed up.

I was curious if I could multiply my cat and Puss in Boots postcard collection (which I’ve had for many years) through Postcrossing… I always look at the recent postcards page and indeed – many cat cards are sent through Postcrossing!

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I enjoy buying and selling on flea markets.

I collect all about Puss in Boots: Books, figures, stamps, drawings, ExLibris … and additionally, I have a collection of cat figures made of various materials from small to large. Unfortunately I had to stop buying new parts – there is no more place in our home!

Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?

Yes! Guernsey and Alderney and Saint Pierre & Miquelon are places I heard about first when I got the addresses to write to the users. And when I received a postcard from the Fiji Islands I was very surprised, plus it was a cat card!

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

All these pretty cards arrived at the same day. My postwoman Anke has as much fun as I.

I save my cards in an old commode from my father-in-law. My cat Beauty is controlling my work.

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

That’s very hard to do. There are lots of pretty, interesting or curious cards I received. To introduce them to more people, every week one this cards is choosen as 'card of the week’ and shown on the first site of my little homepage www.sammelchatz.ch. From this site, there are many links to my collections presented in different Picasa albums.

Have you inspired anyone else to join Postcrossing or start collections of their own?

Oh yes! At first my brother was infected and later a friend of mine, who collects hedgehogs and Santa Claus. After our Regional Daily, Zürichsee Zeitung, published a story about me and Postcrossing, some more people signed up.

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

In short: Anything!

It’s fascinating asking for a new address and then study the profile. Great joy to find a suitable card, and then writing more or less in detail to a strange person. And the best part of this process is to read in the Hurray-Mail, that my card pleased the recipient or made his day. And if cards are favorited by other users, it’s a great satisfaction as well.

At last – the thrill of opening the mailbox every day and finding pretty cards from all around the world!

Meet drakrana (aka Amit) from India! He’s a doctor in a remote city in the Himalayas, who discovered Postcrossing only a little over a year ago… but embraced with exceptional passion! :)

Here is what he had to say:

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

One day was video-chatting with my friend Olya from Russia when she told me “Hey! See I got postcards!” and I was amazed to have a look at them… I fell in love with the image of a child smiling back to me from that postcard and then I came to know of this wonderful world of Postcrossing..

Despite having the second largest population of world, Postcrossing is relatively unknown in India, having just under 2000 postcrossers. I inquired in my town and Postcrossing was unheard of. I was the only postcrosser in town for 6 months as told by the postmaster… this really pushed me more and more as to why we are not so much aware of this wonderful thing when the rest of the world seems to be looking to find out more about our culture… this is just the perfect platform to do so!

Initially the wait was painfully long as mail is slow here, but my Postcrossing India group which I came across in Facebook kept my morale high, sharing stories how postcrossing has WIDENED their perspective about this world, interesting cards and stories about wonderful people they came across. And once the cards and beautiful words started pouring in, there was no looking back! :) I really can vouch that Postcrossing has been the most amazing experience, just second to saving the life of a dying patient in my life.

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

My field work is in a hilly area where mail services are not very good in terms of speed/surity of delivery so when I started getting mail first, the postman was quite confused… he even stopped by just to ask me why was getting THESE THINGS and where from. I explained to him and he was so surprised! He said this is something great to do, as I will know what most don;t know of in terms of people and places. He also told me that, in a way, I am helping him by contributing to his salary (again something which stuck me deeper in Postcrossing when I realised that it affects so many people in its own way).

This postbox just outside my house, and I use it for posting cards.

I store my postcards in my drawer at work as I can’t wait to see them! Whenever I’m pressed with work and tense they give me freshness of thoughts and the chance to smile when I am surrounded by the sorrow and pain of my patients :)

I have a postcard walll hanging in my room opposite to me at work where I keep some cards which make me feel good and I keep changing them as I keep getting more . official postcrossing has opened door to swapped cards as well so I have a lot of cards now.

Now my next aim is to get such a wall for every wall of my house. its much better than paint! :) It makes concrete walls come to life and talk to you, when we come back from a harsh day of work.

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

My favourite postcards, well each postcard has a story… some are fav coz of pictures, some coz of words and some coz they come from places or have something which affect us deep down. I too have such share of cards.

On the left, a self-made card from Telenn in the Netherlands, a user who later gradually turned into a wonderful friend and now I am visiting Europe first time in my life and would meet her as well, and visit a lot of europe as now europe doesnt feel far and unknown now. thanks to wonderful people who I met through postcrossing

And on the right is a card from SimilliMom who favourited a lot of my sent cards (and later became a friend) sent this to tell me that a doctor is too occupied with work and so should have some moments of happiness. And it reached me at one such time!

On the left, the card that made me realize that I am in love with wild cat family and I now collect them a lot. And I also fell in love with trains. This card, I got in an exchange, as a thank you card for sending an official postcard.

Card from a Milena- who I came across when I favourited her cards, and she sent me this card telling me a lot about her country and its people.

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

The moment I hit the “Request address” button, and the small pause before the address pops up… is THE most addicting part of Postcrossing! Who will get a part of my life? Who in the other part of world will soon know that “a Amit Rana” exists, someone who was non-existent for me just a moment before… that moment of surprise is what makes this project such a wonderful experience.

And then the “Congratulations, Your postcard IN-xxxxx arrived” moment… the heart goes for a spin and we just can’t stop ourselves from looking and finding out what the receiver felt about the card! :)

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I am a photographer by hobby, someone who just tries to find meaning in everything, animals inanimate objects, the beauty of nature and just anything which can express feelings.

I’m also a trekker, just going for nature walks and lucky too as I live amidst the beautiful Himalayas. Being in a busy profession, I seldom get the chance to go out and travel, but Postcrossing has made up for that deficiency: it takes me to the other end of world in a moment. As getting postcards isn’t so easy in India and I sometimes get strange looks when I inquire for cards… I decided to print the pictures I captured as cards. Soon enough, the people at the Indian Postcrossing group were asking me if they could use some of my images to print as postcards as well – that was a great moment, because I felt that my photography hobby was of use to my felllow countrymen!

Is there anything that you are passionate about?

I am passionate about the spirit of One World… the spirit of realizing that even if there are differences in customs, lifestyles, values, we all have the same feelings. We are all curious as to who the people are in other parts of world unknown to us, unseen and unheard of… its the same spirit which makes us happy when we get a card from an exotic location, which keeps someone already having over 6000 cards in his account write to me “Hey, I am so glad to write to you, never been to India but want to see Taj Mahal once before I die” This… SPIRIT is what I love and it keeps me going.

I am passionate about spreading happiness and positivity. As a doctor, we are taught to fight disease, but in my years of practice I have realised that we are just supporters. Everyone fights from inside and so believing that we’ll be ok makes us heal a lot faster than any medicine in world can do.

And if a piece of paper has the courage to survive hundreds of hands, travelling thousand of miles in different modes, escaping rain, storms, traffic jams and who knows what… Shouldn’t we be re-assured that we’ll endure everything in our way and deliver the messages we have within us… aren’t we postcards as well, spreading happiness and changing lives? :)

Meet dotdotPC (aka Liisa) from Helsinki, Finland. She loves reading, gardening… and studying new subjects!
Here is her Spotlight interview:

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

I’m a Bookcrosser and I found links to Postcrossing site from fellow Bookcrossers’ profiles. Once I followed the link and here I am. I’ve always liked postcards, sending them and just handling them. I work at an archive. In last ten years my job description has changed and administration and digital archives take more and more of my time. I don’t get in touch with paper as much as I used to. I think handling paper in form of pretty postcards comforts me. It reminds me of my childhood and of the years of my early career when my duties were less complicated and I could focus on old paper documents and history.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I already mentioned Bookcrossing. Earlier I was very active participating and organizing local meetings and events but other things take more of my time these days. I’m still quite active, but only via the Internet. My profile is here.

During almost all of my Postcrossing years, I’ve been studying after hours. Years after getting my last diploma, I realized that I know nothing of pedagogy and applied for a year’s course at the University. Now I’m studying after hours again. I have also realized that studying is one of my hobbies. I used to be active in some associations earlier, but I don’t have time for them anymore. Last summer I took a course in genealogy. It’s very interesting, but I have time only to assist my sister in her research.

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

For years I used the Helsinki General Post Office. Architecturally, it represents functionalism of 1930s, my favorite style. Unfortunately it’s not open to public anymore, but you can see a photo of it by Joonas Antikainen here.

Now I use another post office, that represents functionalism, only four years younger and not so grand as the old General Post office. Postoffice 00510 Helsinki is close to both my home and my office, so it’s very practical.

I live in the fourth floor of a small block of flats, with no elevator. So far our mailmen and mailwomen have always been very friendly, whenever they have rang our doorbell for oversized letters (usually Bookcrossing books).

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

I don’t feel good about choosing favorites, as I’ve received so many fantastic and lovely postcards. I decided to show a great card about 1920s Roly Polys. I like the picture, it’s a museum postcard and it’s the very first card to arrive in our new (that is present) home in 2008. It made a new flat to feel more like a home, even if we hadn’t even moved in when it arrived.

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

I like whole process. Sending and receiving postcards gives me similar joy now as they did when I started this hobby and I received less cards per week. Many postcrossers send really great cards and write kind and interesting messages.

Receiving postcards is lovely, but yet my favourite part of the process is getting new addresses and choosing cards for others. I’d like to send an individual card to every person, but it’s getting more and more difficult. So many people wish for city views and landscapes, that I must send similar cards to different postcrossers. I also like making my own collage postcards for those who wish for handmade cards.

Is there anything that you are passionate about?

I’m passionate about my work. As a former public servant I’m passionate about the principle of publicity in administration. I like to encourage and advise people to use their right to get information about public affairs. There are other things, too, more connected to my spare time. Gardens are one. I’m not a skilled gardener, but I’m very eager to learn, I usually assist my sister in my mom’s lovely garden. Graveyards are another. Where ever we travel, my husband and I try to visit local graveyard, especialy in our own country.