Postcrossing Blog

It’s Bielefeld-time! Last weekend, the German city opened once again its doors to almost 50 postcrossers from several countries. The Little Mail Carriers were unable to attend this year, but instead sent their recently discovered cousin in their place! Below is his photo-diary of the long weekend in Germany.

Hello everyone! It was my first time on a big meetup, and boy was it exciting! I have a lot to tell you, so grab a cup of your favourite beverage and listen up!

Friday morning we visited a mail sorting center in the nearby town of Herford – I felt right at home! My colleagues at Deutsche Post showed everyone a presentation about the company and how mail is processed, and then guided the eager postcrossers through the mail sorting plant. Everybody ooh’ed and aaah’ed at all the envelopes speeding by! It was a real eye-opening experience, and I think that after the visit we all felt renewed respect for the diligent postal workers who labour the whole night for us to have our postcards in the morning.

On the afternoon, a group of postcrossers went on a Geocaching mission in the woods around the Einschlingen guesthouse, where we were all staying! The weather was unseasonably warm and the autumnal scenery was just stunning. We saw plenty of mushrooms and golden leaves, and after a few trials, found the cache we were looking for!

In the evening, MissMaple held a neat workshop where postcrossers got to experiment with old stamps as a decoration material for different objects. I found some great stamps on those piles, and saw the participants come up with very creative ways to decorate their bags and boxes!

Saturday was scavenger hunt day! sofa organised an exciting trip around Bielefeld, where postcrossers had to do all kinds of silly assignments, on a fact-finding mission in the city. It was a lot of fun – and we learned some intriguing facts! For instance, did you know that according to some theories, Bielefeld doesn’t actually exist?

On the evening, the traditional lottery was held. Every participant had brought something from their hometown, which they put in a big pile. Then, presents were pulled while names were called, and everyone got something new.
After that, a fantastic game of bingo was organized by dandilion! By the time it ended, it was almost bedtime, but we stuck around to wish a lucky postcrosser 'happy birthday’ at midnight! :)

Of course, everybody brought sweets from their hometown, to share with other postcrossers: there were delicious Schokokussen, Lübeck’s famous marzipan, Haribo’s gummy bears… I must have gained at least 20 grams from all those treats!! :D

Too soon Sunday came and it was time to say goodbye… I couldn’t believe how fast time flew! Throughout the weekend, the participants all signed hundreds of postcards which should now be on route to friends and other postcrossers. Fancy a guess at how many cards were signed? Reply in the forum for a chance to win some prizes!

All in all it was a wonderful weekend – the kind that leaves our cheeks hurting from so much smiling! :D A big thank you to Nordbaer for organising the meeting – and to everyone that took part and helped it become this outstanding event! I hope to see you all next year! :)

We’ve just received another photo-filled report from the Little Mail Carriers, all the way from frosty Siberia! Read on their adventures in Russia from their most recent host, Kelpie.

At the middle of February when the strongest frosts were over, we arrived at PO Box in Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia. Or, more properly, we arrived not in Novosibirsk itself, but in Akademgorodok, it’s a part of Novosibirsk, located 20 km south of the city’s center. It is the educational and scientific center of Siberia. It is located in the center of birch and pine forest on the shore of the Ob Sea. This winter had little snow, but despite that, we fell in the snow up to the waist!

There are a lot of scientific institutions in Akademgorodok, the largest of which is the Institue of Nuclear Physics. It conducts research on elementary particle physics, accelerators, plasma and associated with synchrotron radiation. INP has performed quite an impressive amount of work for the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. We coudn’t go inside due to strict access control. The clock at the entrance also shows the level of radiation, which does not exceed the norm.

And of course we visited the center of the city too. Novosibirsk is the third largest city of Russia (after Moscow and Saint Petersburg) and so called “the capital of Siberia” with population about 1.5 millions. It is also the youngest city which attained the population of a million citizens. On the main square called after Vladimir Lenin there are some high statues of labour and State Theater of Opera and Ballet (against the background). It is the largest theater in Russia and the symbol of the city. Its dome has aunique construction that supports itself without girders or columns. The ratio of its thickness to its radius is less than that of a chicken egg!

Near the theater another symbol of the city is located. The city’s legend says that the exact geographical center of former Soviet Union was marked by the Chapel of St. Nicholas, originally built in 1915 (on the left). Residents build an ice town on the Ob River in winter, where we gave ourself up to traditional Russian fun, sledge (on the upper right corner one can see line of wishing to slither).

Novosibirsk Metro bridge over Ob river is longer than 2 km and the longest one in the world!

We also visited souvenir shop with Matryoshkas and other national souvenirs and an unusual puppet show building.

Also we celebrated “Maslenitsa”, Pancake week, a Russian religious and folk holiday. At this time, people begin to see off winter and welcome the Spring. It is celebrated during the last week before Great Lent. The most characteristic food of Maslenitsa is “bliny” (pancakes), popularly taken to symbolize the sun. The red teddy bear on the left is Kooky, the main character from Czech action comedy film “Kuky se vrací”.

Here you can see a local folk festival…

…and traditional Russian winter footwear made of wool felt, “valenki”:

On next photo you can see national rag dools. These dolls are made as a talisman without the use of scissors or needles. It was believed that in the production of ceremonial dolls, the use of piercing and cutting tools is unacceptable, because they are able to hurt people. Also, these dolls have no face, because faceless dolls do not allow evil forces to move into them.

At the end of celebrating woman of straw Winter is burn out in an impressive show!

On next photo you can see the PO Box from which you usually receive mail from Kelpie if you ever did, but sometime this box has its bottom open (it’s just one of the many reasons why Russian post might be lost) and she’s forced to carry mail to another one.

At the beginning of March presidential election was carried out, Little Mail Carriers made their choice too. As you might know already Vladimir Putin has won and it will be his 3rd official and 4th total governing.

And out last stopping in Russia this time was settlement called Sheregesh, previously a mining town and now a popular winter sports resort.

Thank you Kelpie for showing the Little Mail Carriers around Siberia! On they go…

The Little Mail Carriers have once again written home… from the far east! Turns out they’ve been enjoying the mild winter days of Okinawa! Read all about their adventures on this post from their host cbayha.

Greetings from sunny Okinawa, Japan! Did you know that there is a subtropical island that is part of Japan? Actually, the Prefecture of Okinawa is made up of hundreds of small islands, the largest of which is Okinawa Island. There are palm trees here, and they grow tropical fruits, like pineapple!

A long time ago, these islands were an independent nation, called the Ryukyu Kingdom. The kings and noblemen of the Ryukyu build many beautiful castles and because of this, 9 of the 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites for Japan are on Okinawa.

Our first outing was to the Katsuren Castle, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm! The castle sits way up on top of a hill, with a view of the ocean on either side. We were pretty tired after we hiked up to the top! Down at the visitor’s center they have built a model of the castle that was just the right size for us.

The people of Okinawa are very creative! They are famous for their pottery and hand blown glass. We took a trip to the southern end of Okinawa Island to visit the Ryukyu Glass Village. There we met this ferocious looking shisa. Don’t be scared – Shisa are Guardians. They protect buildings from typhoons, which threaten the island every year. Legend has it that a clay shisa, much like this one, once came to life and saved the island from a horrible storm. Now almost every building has at least one shisa (but usually a pair) guarding them and protecting them from the storms.

After watching the artisans at work, we admired the beautiful glass tile wall that is one of the main attractions. Okinawan glass is very colorful.

The glass is not the only thing that is colorful on Okinawa! The Okinawa sweet potato is bright purple on the inside! It is very nutritious and tasty and everyone’s favorite way to eat it is as cake! Sweet potato boats are the most popular present for tourists to take home with them from Okinawa. At the bakery we got to sample different varieties of sweet potato sweets, and watch how they are made.

We also met another shisa! This guy was very happy and relaxed. He was taking a break from his regular duties to eat a few sweet potato boats.

What a day we had today! Today we went on a road trip to the Northern end of the island to visit the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. This world-famous aquarium is a must-see for anyone who visits here. The aquarium has lots of hands-on exhibits for children, a sea turtle exhibit, a manatee house, a great dolphin show and one of the largest aquarium tanks in the world!

The Kuroshio sea aquarium has a capacity of 7,500 cubic meters and houses giant manta rays and whale sharks! We had lunch in the cafe along one side of the tank and watched all the big fish swim around.

After that we headed outside for the dolphin show. We were very happy, because it’s winter on Okinawa, so we didn’t think the dolphins would be out performing. But they put on a great show and we loved watching them leap in the air. If you look beyond the dolphins, across the bay, you can see an island. That is Ie Island. On Ie island they grow peanuts and flowers! They host an annual Lily Festival which is supposed to be amazing, but we are visiting at the wrong time of year.

Maybe we’ll come back some day to see all the flowers in bloom!

Hi! We’re the Little Mail Carriers, Little Paulo and Little Ana! In the last months, we’ve been busy cruising the world in the hands of postcrossers, but we’ve recently came back to the office for an impromptu visit… You see, we’ve heard rumours that there was going to be a huge Postcrossing meeting in Germany, and we didn’t want to miss out!

We’ve been to a few meetings before, but nothing compared to this one! There were almost 60 people in attendance from a dozen different countries (including Australia!), all staying in the same house… we knew it was going to be a blast! :)

Let us show you what we did there:

On Friday, we took a day trip to Münster, the “bicycle capital of Germany”. We did the tourist tour through all the main sites with a big group of postcrossers and visited a few Christmas markets. We loved the gingerbread hearts, and the giant nutcracker!

Postcard shopping was, of course, an important part of the trip. This little shop was crowded with all the postcrossers ooh’ing and aaaah’ing over the cute postcards!

While we were waiting for everyone to finish their postcard shopping, we spotted a postman on his bike! We asked him if we could take a ride, which he graciously allowed!

Back at the Einschlingen Guest house, there was much to be done! Have you ever received a postcard from a meetup? They’re usually filled with signatures from all the participants. In a meeting this big, it takes a long time to sign all the cards… We chose a few, and made sure that Paulo didn’t miss a card. Then, we gave it a go as well!

All the postcrossers seemed to have brought something sweet from their country, and the tables were piled up with deliciousness!

And oh! There was a huge pile of presents for the Christmas lottery! Everyone’s names were entered on a bowl, and norbaer helped people draw out names and presents! In the end, all postcrossers had received something cute or funny :)

On Saturday morning, there was an article on the local newspaper about the meeting! We didn’t understand all the words, but it sure looked good.

On Saturday, we also wandered on the streets of Bielefeld. We visited a famous postcard shop, met a few local postcrossers, saw the Christmas market … and a crepes stand which had soooo much Nutella! :)

We were almost the last ones to leave on Sunday afternoon, and we were quite sad to go… We loved meeting so many people that share in common a passion for postcards and Postcrossing. Old and new, from near or far… we had a lot of fun in the days we spent together! Perhaps we’ll see you there next year?

PS – Can you guess how many postcards were signed on this meetup? Answer on the forum in this thread for a chance to win some prizes! :)

The Little Mail Carriers have written home again! Turns out they’ve been enjoying a relaxed time in Tianjin, China! Read all about their adventures on this post from their host fitziane.

Ni hao, everyone, hello from China! We have spent a couple of lovely months in Tianjin, a dynamic city about an hour and a half away from Beijing. Our host family’s mom and dad work at an international school in China. She’s the elementary librarian and he heads the PE department. We spent our time living the expat life and enjoying family life.

Our very first weekend we went camping. Our host family, the Fitzgeralds, love the outdoors and we went camping twice during our stay. The first trip was to Yunmengshan.

This is a beautiful forest in the mountains north of Beijing. There are quiet mountain paths and lots and lots of trees and plenty of wonderful fresh air. (Although we can’t complain of the city air. October is the best month for air quality in Tianjin and we had many beautiful clear days. Still, there’s no beating fresh mountain air.) Camping was a lot of fun, although a bit of work, especially for people our size.

After setting up camp, we went exploring. The stream that ran past our camping site provided endless opportunities for splashing and wading. We didn’t get too wet, which was a good thing, because there was definitely a chill in the air in the shadows of the forest. Little Paulo, of course, had to swing from the trees like Tarzan and he kept looking at the water as if to calculate the size of the white water raft he’d need.

Going back to the city was good. We were happy to spend time with our librarian friend at her school. So many eager students come into the library every day. Libraries are wonderful!

During our month in the city, we did the usual tourist stuff. We went to Ancient Culture Street in Tianjin, among other places. This is a market that has grown around a Buddhist temple. About 5 years ago, the whole market was torn down and refurbished to give market vendors modern facilities, but the ancient character was kept. The market itself is very much a tourist site, with people come from all over the countryside surrounding Tianjin to visit. The temple was very busy, with many people lighting incense at the different altars.

The best part of our trip, though, was camping at the foot of the Great Wall of China. The first week of October is a national holiday in China, as the country celebrates its founding anniversary. We took advantage of the holiday to go for a long weekend with 6 families and camp at Jingshanlin.

The Great Wall was built by China’s first emperor to protect China from the Mongols in the north. The aim of the emperor was to have a wall stretching from Lop Lake in the west to Shanghaiguan in the east. It was to be 6 horses wide at the top and 8 horses wide at the bottom (or something like that. We read a book about it in the school library.)

There were to be watchtowers every 100 meters. The emperor sent a million people to build it. Many died and are buried in the wall. The conditions must have been brutal. It took 10 years to build, but subsequent emperors built different parts of it. The part we were on, Jingshanlin, was built during the Ming dynasty, only 500 years ago.

Click here for more photos of the Great Wall from our host.

We’ve had a great time in China and although we’re sad to go, we’re eager to continue with our adventures. We wish you all great happiness and good fortune.

Thank you fitziane for this lovely report! Now we wonder where the little ones will show up next…