Answers on a postcard

I love sending postcards. The aim was to send a postcard to our parents from every city or place we visited as well as sending to friends and extended family along the way. Thank you all to those who gave their address, I hope the postcard(s) reached you! In the end we sent nearly 150 cards. Well, we lost count early on but we definitely sent over 140. It was easy to find postcards in Europe, most cities in Russia, Vietnam, the USA and Canada. It was harder in China, South Korea and Japan. In these countries when we did find them, we tended to buy a pack or many in one go because it was hit and miss whether we’d find any or not. Perhaps it’s simply not as popular as it is elsewhere. A bonus in finding interesting postcards is that the international stamps are usually interesting too.

They also made great souvenirs to take home while we were travelling. Being light and easy to pack, they didn’t take up too much space in our limited bags. The postcards sent to friends and family were at times more traditional (photos of the place) or funny (the pavement in Harbin or Donald Trump as US president) but in choosing for ourselves, we tended to go for more arty or stylised pictures. Here’s a few of our favourites, and there’s just something about Elvis Presley with his face full of food at his parents serious dinner table.

I enjoy receiving postcards too. (Hint hint, let me send you my address!) A couchsurfer we met in Tucson Arizona recommended the website postcrossing to me and I signed up and sent my first five postcards today. The idea is to bring together two random people from anywhere in the world. People have a short bio to inspire your message to them or you can simply write about your day or something interesting about yourself. Some people request a certain style of postcard or are happy to receive anything. These cards have gone to Germany, Russia, Taiwan, South Korea and the USA, a lot of Harry Potter fans out there it turns out! Aren’t they lucky I struggle to throw things away.

Postcards

This is our collection of postcards we kept as souvenirs and those which made it home to our family and friends. Feel free to send us a photo of the ones that made it to you from us, I’d love to add them to this collection!

Stamps