Here is Sibylle from Austria. She has been collecting postcards for a long time, loves to travel and visits her favourite friends in the zoo frequently.
- How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?
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About 5 years ago I had a surprise pen pal from the USA. Our penfriendship was short-lived, but she sent me the link to Postcrossing, which was, back then, only 1 month old. I got terribly excited, thought about it, got some opinions, then registered and my first 3 cards went to Hawaii, Italy and Germany. And after absolute impatience I received my first card from Germany after a while.
I have been collecting cards and stamps ever since childhood, because my dear granny was an avid traveller and sent us cards from everywhere she went! She usually collected them afterwards, cut the stamps off to add them to our collection, but eventually I didn’t give those cards away anymore, so as to keep them whole and as much as I love stamps, I love cards more and ideally with beautiful stamps on them! I still have those old cards that miss a corner!
I love sending cards to people, trying to make them happy! I make an effort with every card I send, recently almost all have gone out with first-day postmarks as an extra and I agonize over every card I send. However, no matter how much I try sometimes it is really hard to find the right card. Sometimes the sending seems more important to me than the receiving. I like to spread joy.
One of my dreams is to have a written, stamped and postmarked postcard from every country in the world, but I tell myself “dream on”, I am not putting enough effort into that, I am afraid. Still, it is a nice dream.
The fact that I now get mail almost every single day got me hooked. And many cards are really outstandingly beautiful and some are real works of art where everything is perfect: view, stamp, deco, the words, …
Thank you so much to everyone who made me happy and who will do so in future.
- Do you have any other interesting hobbies?
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I love to read and write (but cards are all I write these days), I am what I call an “indoor astronomer”, meaning I do more reading books and magazines and searching the internet about astronomy, than actually going out to look through a telescope (which is a fantastic thing to do though!), I collect elongated coins and I love to travel, like so many postcrossers do.
In comparison to many others I have not been to all that many countries, but maybe I can expand that list in the future, except that I find it hard to find a travel companion. Those dear to me love the British Isles above all other places, which I do too (Scotland is my absolutely favourite country!), but I would love to see other places too, and going to the British Isles always makes me sad as I know I’ll have to leave again!
So far I have been to: Albania; Belgium; the former Czechoslovakia; the Czech Republic; Denmark; Eire; England; France; Germany; Gibraltar; Greece; Guernsey; Herm; Hungary; Italy; Jersey; Liechtenstein; Luxembourg; the Netherlands; Northern Ireland; Portugal (Madeira); San Marino; Sark; Scotland; Slovakia; Slovenia; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Turkey; the USA; the Vatican; the former Yugoslavia and Wales.
The countries I would most love to see are: Chile, Iceland, Andorra; Armenia; Azerbaijan and Georgia as well as Romania. Alderney and the Isle of Man would be super to visit also, I am sure!
My main hobby equally as important to me as Postcrossing is visiting Vienna’s zoo, Schönbrunn, which is the oldest in the world! I have many furry friends there – and I mean FRIENDS. Animals that know me and come up to me, when they see me, like tiger girls Ina and Kyra, tomcat Jerry and Orang utan Sol. I love them dearly.
- Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!
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That is my postie hiding inside a mailbox from my advances… haha. Seriously, this is outside Wien’s main post office, where I drop off most of my mail for first day postmarks. The mailbox with legs is from a fantastic advertising campaign by Austrian mail, where this mailbox roams Austria.
- Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.
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My favourite postcards are those my family (mother, father, brother and until she died my granny) have sent me, because they absolutely hate to write so they are real signs of love, catering for my addiction.
Other than that my favourite kind of cards are stunningly beautiful landscapes (named nature only!) and (Russian) orthodox churches as well as tigers, that I love soooo much!
43 comments so far
Hallo, Sibylle! Great article! I have received beautiful postcards from you to my accounts.
Waiting you here in Romania to visit the whole country and admire the Orthodox churches!
Kisses from Romania!
Anca
It is nice to know you a little better :) Best wishes from Nancy in France !
Hi Sibylle. How nice see you here in the "Spotlight". We have exchanged many postcards in the past and it's nice to get to know you a little bit better this way ^_^
Dear Sibylle! Great to see you in interview. See you in Vienna one day again :) It is always pleasure to receive card from you and specially to meet you :)
Love that mailbox ;) Great to see you here!!
Good to hear you like our zoo so much. It is my workplace, so I also know all those animals mentioned really well! :D
Yeah, Austria in the spotlight again :) I love visitng Schönbrunn, too- Europe's best zoo!
What a great article :). It's a funny coincidence - I received a card from you only a few days ago! I really loved the stamps with matching postmark, it adds a very nice touch.
Dear Sibylle, you sent me the best postcard to my collection, 'The Kiss" by Klimt, thank you again! It's great to meet you here once more :)
Haha that postbox is great fun! It made me do a double-take! Great to 'meet' you Sibylle :-)
Liebe Sibylle, es ist schön, Dich nun hier zu sehen. Du bist eine der nettesten Postcrosser, die ich kenne - bitte bleib so! Dein Interview ist wirklich super geworden. Ich freue mich schon auf unser nächstes Treffen. Bis bald :)
Yeah Sibylle super Dich hier zu sehen :)
Hi Sibylle! Schön dich im Spotlight zu sehen! :)
hi Sibylee, good luck with you collection. Keep smiling.
Danke Ihr Lieben, thank you very much my dears. You make me smile! :-)
Today I seem to have quite a lucky day: I got a 20c coin from Cyprus (yeah), the Netherlands football team is on telly (Maarten Stekelenburg - swoon!) and I'm featured here. Wow! :-)))
Oh, and I also received 6 postcards and 9 elongated coins! :-D
Hello Sibylle!
Coincidentally, my Grandmother started my postcard addiction when I was a small child too. I still have all the cards that she sent from her travels 30 years ago!
Grannies are great!!
Jodie
Hello Sibylle, It is nice to meet you. I've not seen you before. I enjoyed reading about you. Keep Smiling. Yvonne
My daughter and I have both received postcards from Sybille & it is true - she goes to a lot of trouble! On my postcard the stamp and postmark were an exact match - I was so surprised and amazed. Have a great day Sybille!
Great article! I like this so so much :)
I really love the zoo part :)
boah, sibyllchen, was eine ueberraschung, dich hier zu sehen!! und so ein klasse foto, total witzig und du wie aus dem leben!!!!!!!! freut mich fuer dich! der artikel ist auch so lebendig geschrieben, dass man dich eh gleich vor augen hat!! nur deine tiger-liebe ist etwas zu kurz gekommen *lach&smile* es ist schoen zu sehen, wer aus der allerersten postcrossing-zeit noch hier ist!!! suechtig fuer's ganze leben - ich zaehle mich auch dazu.. WEITER SO!!
Hi, Sybille! Poland is also beautiful country :) We wait for your visit here. Have a nice day.Halina
Hallo Sybille.
What a pleasure to find you again here.
It was nice to read the long message you sent me after receiving my card.
You've got a great picture here!
Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Riccardo
What fun to see you again ! Keep thinking about our tiny meet-up in Vienna last year. Hugs :)
Hi Sibylle,
Great to see an Austrian bing introduced to all the postcrossing community. You're so busy with writing postcards. Keep on writing and enjoying postcrossing!
Monika
Wow!
It was fun reading your spotlight yesterday, and today I jumped for joy when I received an official card from you.
Awesome timing, I love coincidences like that!
It was nice reading about you (love that travelling mailbox!) and even nicer getting mail from you!
Greetings!!!
I received a postcard from you in 2009...IT'S GOOD TO SEE YOU HERE
Best wishes
JP
Hi!I've got some lovely cards from you,Thank you!Hope to see you someday!
Cheers!
Danke! Thank you everybody! :-)))
We share a love for tigers. All the best to you, Sybille!
Hello from South Texas. I have visited Schonbrunn, and other European tiergartens, as well as many here in the USA. So, now it is your turn to visit us if you have not. In Texas, Dallas, Waco, San Antonio, Houston and Brownsville all have nice zoos. Our town has a very small zoo that, at one time, was home to only native Texas animals. (Now, we have tigers, too). I enjoyed reading about you. Betslets
Warm wishes to you Sybille!
Thank you everybody, your lovely messages make me really happy! :-)
Love from Sibylle
I am new to postcrossing, but loved to read about you and your life. : ) I was especially touched to read about your postcards from your granny, as the ones I have in my collection from my own grandmother are the most dear.
Like others--- love the postbox!!
Looking forward to meeting you on your visit to Ireland on Friday 25th February.
aww Sibylle dear!! So cool to see you here my friend :D
Hello Sibylle, nice to see you again! Thank you so much for your effort, your cards really make people happy:)
Dear Sibylle, It was very interesting to learn more about you today! It is always a great pleasure to receive a card from you :)
Warm wishes,
Tatiana
:-) :-) :-)
Hi Sibylle :) Nice reading! I'm sorry that there haven't been any cards from me lately, but there will in the future :D Have fun!!
Dear Sibylle ....and i almost forgot to say THANK YOU .... as it was you who brought me to postcrossing ... I still remember you talking about postcards when Silvia and I met you in Vienna 2006. Thank you being a great friend !
Hallo Sibylle!
Habe gerade ganz zufällig dein Interview gefunden. Das Foto mit dem Briefkasten ist super! ;) Hoffe dich mal mit Anita (honeybee) treffen zu können..bis jetzt hat e sja leider nicht geklappt :(( Liebe Grüße
Martina aka tinstamp/tinilu
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