You've got mail

Manchester, UK

Did you see the photos used in last Friday's post? Not my usual standard to be sure, but they were taken with my phone of postcards I have recently sent. I promised you a while ago I would tell you all about a new old hobby of mine, so here I finally go.

Empress Sissi from Austria

Back in 2006 I joined Postcrossing. A site that promised contact with the world and the only thing you needed to do was send postcards. Easy. And for a couple of years that was what I did: I sent out postcards to strangers all over the world. Australia, Canada, Egypt, Romania, Germany, Norway, even the Netherlands. In return I would get postcards back from strangers from all over the world. 

Lithuania

I preferred to get cards that showed me famous people (living/dead/fictional) of the country or region they were in, but was just as pleased with flowers, animals or city scapes. It was an expensive hobby (the stamps alone cost a small fortune), but it was great fun.

Finland

But then I stopped. Not sure when or why exactly, but I stopped sending cards. And when you don't send cards, you don't get cards. The hobby ended.

United States

Fast forward to earlier this year and I was feeling a bit sorry for myself. My sister had left again and I was on my own. The only mail that was arriving was junk mail and uninteresting official stuff. Then I remembered Postcrossing. I didn't know what my old login details were, but it was easy to create a new profile. Late January I sent out my first five cards to Germany, Japan, USA, Russia and Singapore. 

The Frysian language one from the Netherlands

As soon as one of my cards had arrived (Germany was fastest), I started to receive cards as well. So far I have sent 47 cards (of which 36 have arrived) and received 39. I received a Japanese figure skater, a Russian kosmonaut, a French church, a Taiwanese temple and bees from Manchester. People have written to me in English, German, Dutch and even Frysian (which I don't speak, but can read). They have written about their jobs, their hobbies, their towns. 

Maltese buses

Of course the stamps still cost a fortune and the postcards themselves aren't cheap either. If you can find them to start with! Back in the day it was fairly easy to find postcards, but people don't send them that much anymore, so they have started disappearing. And they have become more expensive as well. Paying over a euro for a single postcard is more norm than exception. 

Canadian Mountie

One day however, I found myself in a second hand shop and their was a whole basket with postcards. Costing only 10 cents each as well, so I went through them and came out with 17 new cards. Since then I have been hitting second hand stores to try and find cards. The biggest haul so far was just last week when I paid one and a half euro for a stack of postcards. After counting them once I got home it turned out I had 65 postcards. 

All cards so far

I use my doors to display the cards received and I am nearly one door (one side) down. Eight more to go before running out of space. Let's see whether I can fill them all. As long as I send, I will receive!