Postcrossing Blog

Hi guys! While Paulo and Ana (the big ones) are busy setting up their new home, we’re here to tell you all about the adventures we had in Canada last fall!

Calgary is a large city of 1.2 million people, in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. It is a beautiful city in Southern Alberta and we came at the perfect time — the splashes of color can be spectacular this time of the year!

The first thing we noticed was this big pile or rocks on CDNLib's front yard. She explained to us that they were called Inuksuks, and were possibly used as symbols of direction, navigation or to mark a food cache by the Inuit of Canada’s North. In recent years they have become an international symbol of Canada — and were even featured on the logo of the 2010 Winter Olympics, which took place in Vancouver!

A trip to Canada had to include some French-Canadian poutine—hot french fries topped with fresh cheese curd and hot gravy… so yummy! And we also had some amazingly fresh-made truffles from a local chocolatier… the pumpkin one was especially scrumptious and perfect for autumn.

And naturally, we had to try a “Double Double” (coffee, or in this case steeped tea, with two cream and two sugar) from world famous Tim Hortons!

We were lucky enough to be in Calgary for the first ever Postcrossing meet-up and we attended with CDNLib. While we were there we chatted with other postcrossers, exchanged some postcards, admired cards that others had received, heard some great Postcrossing stories, signed and wrote out some cards…

… and then posed for a group photo with everyone! Here is the whole group: die-dusche, Stormarela, CDNLib, herchelle, Angelamermaid, ButtonsandTins, salamadzer and Fracula. The meeting went so well, there are plans to do again in 6 months! Check out the meetups posts in the forum and join us if you are in the area!

Below is Calgary’s Public Library — with 18 locations across the city, it is a wonderful place to get together with friends, find some books and be entertained and informed. We were lucky enough to be there during a very special event.

The event is called “A Taste of Cultures” and participants celebrate the different cultures of the world, dressing up and performing in their traditional costumes and serving ethnic food.

It was great! We met these lovely ladies from Pakistan, Mexico and Cameroon.

CDNLib works at a school and one of the best parts of her job is reading stories to the children. The children LOVE to come to their school library and hear the stories and we were invited to listen to a few of them. What a great way to spend the day…visiting with children and hearing stories all day long!

As Halloween was fast approaching pumpkins and Jack-o-lanterns were popping up all over the place.

CDNLib even made us costumes so that we could participate in the celebrations and have some more fun with the children! :)

But while we were in Canada, the country suffered two tragedies, as two Canadian soldiers were killed on home soil. The first was killed in a hit-and-run incident in Montreal, Quebec and the second was a reservist who was killed while acting as a Ceremonial Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, Ontario. The entire country mourned these two men and you could see the signs of the emotion and loss everywhere.

On Remembrance Day, poppies were worn on people’s lapels. Calgary has its own Field of Crosses Memorial Project that serves as a tribute to those who have served and died for our country from Southern Alberta, dating back to WWI. To date there are over 3000 crosses.

This year they included crosses for the two soldiers killed on Canadian soil in the previous weeks.

The day before we were going to leave, we were out enjoying the sunshine, with some clouds and a temperature of 17°C (62°F), when, within minutes, a change occurred and we could see the storm coming in from the Rocky Mountains—the wind picked up and the temperature dropped more than ten degrees…

… and the next morning, there was snow! Wow! Temperatures can surely change quickly in Southern Alberta!

Ok — time we get back inside our cozy envelope and fly to our next adventure!

Thanks for the great visit, CDNLib — that was a lot of fun!

Well… it might be a bit late for this, but… HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! We hope you had a nice holiday season, and are ready for a year filled with postcards! We spent this period dragging our boxes of postcards across Europe, and are now firmly set in the southern tip of the continent, where the sun is warm and the oranges are sweetest. :)

Meanwhile, the Little Mail Carriers, have been doing some traveling of their own… to the other side of the globe! Here they are to tell you all about their adventures in the antipodes with their host Vicki (aka madvix):

Hi everyone! We were excited to be invited to Stewart Island to get away from it all! Stewart island is New Zealand's third biggest island. Captain Cook originally thought it was part of the South Island and so it was named in honour of first officer Stewart on a sealing expedition from Sydney in 1809. He determined that it was actually an island!! It is also known as Rakiura, which translates from the Maori as “Land of the glowing skies”, in honour of the beautiful sunsets and sunrises.

We arrived on the island by plane, which is how all the mail comes. They’re quite small planes, carrying a maximum of nine people but the pilot did a brilliant job and the seats have warm and comfy sheepskin covers! We even got to travel up front next to the pilot!

A van came to the airstrip to pick us up and take us down into Halfmoon Bay or Oban, which is where everyone on the island lives. Although Stewart Island is three times the size of Singapore there are only 381 people living full time here! The first views of the island are lots of native bush and you can hear the birds all through the trees.

The Post Office is also the Flight Centre so Vicki was there to pick us up when we landed in her mailbox! There are no posties on Stewart Island, everyone comes down to the Post Office to collect their mail and have a gossip! That means we are officially the first Mail Carriers (little or otherwise) here ever!

We got to sort the mail; up until a couple of months ago all the mail was hand-franked and sent on it’s way. Unfortunately the new-fangled computers can’t read these stamps so that’s not allowed anymore, but you can get a stamp in your passport or on your envelope as long as it’s not near the postage stamps.

We also met Councillor Ford in the Post Office. He is the Island’s MP and also lived next door to us. He approved our Stewart Island passports and they were duly stamped; we belong!

The Post Office is right on the beach, like most places in Stewart Island, and we could watch all the fishermen coming and going. There aren’t as many now as in earlier years, but fishing is still a very important part of the community. Vicki works in the Fishermen’s Co-operative so we went to work with her for a couple of days. It happened to be crayfish (Spiny Rock Lobster) season while we were there, so we sorted the crayfish into different sizes and put them into holding tanks where they sit for a day before they have to fly to China. What a journey for them! We got to ride on a couple and Ana even got to sit on a beautiful purple/lilac coloured one which is quite rare apparently.

The next day we went down to the fish shed where there was a haul of Blue Cod to be filleted. The cod here is a different species from the endangered cod in the Northern hemisphere, so we didn’t feel bad about seeing them. They were huge! Another Postcrosser, Jojogypsy, owns the cafe on the wharf and she cooked us up some tasty battered and deep fried cod and chips.

We had a bit of a scare meeting some of the local bird life. Stewart Island is a great place to see a Kiwi but we were always tucked up in bed nice and early and didn’t see any of those. What we did see though was a lot of the native parrots called Kakas. They’re very cheeky and inquisitive and have learnt that humans mean food. We didn’t feed them though as human food can upset them and make them sick, but I think that might have upset them anyway as one took off with Ana in his beak! Thankfully he put her down not too far away and she was fine although a little shaky!

Anyone who goes to Stewart Island has to go to the South Sea Hotel. It is the only bar on the island and also has accommodation and a restaurant. It is the hub of the community and if you need to find anyone, you can get an answer there! We bumped into the Island’s third Postcrosser while we were there; farfarfaraway works in the restaurant! We also went into the bar for a coke and got invited into a quiz team for the famous Sunday Night Quiz. And our team, No Eye Deer won!

Lots of people when they visit New Zealand pick up paua shell souvenirs and jewelry to take home, but I bet they haven’t seen the creature that lives inside the shell! They are a species of abalone and the beautiful bluey green shells (haliotis iris) can only be found in New Zealand. Unfortunately they are quite hard to find in a lot of places in New Zealand due to people taking too many but they are quite well protected down on the Island (as the local’s call it!). It does make you wonder who thought of eating them first because they don’t look very appetizing!!

Although we flew on and off the Island the other way to reach it is by ferry. The journey takes an hour from Bluff and can be very rough sometimes as Fouveaux Strait is very shallow but the catamarans are very stable and the crew all very experienced. We were allowed to sit at the wheel, but not touch anything!

The biggest surprise to us was when the monthly Stewart Island News came out and there was a photo of us in it! And they want to hear about our adventures too!

We’ve definitely had a lot of rest and relaxation while we’ve been here; it’s like a different way of life with only one supermarket and a handful of shops and cafes, but we’re ready to go on our next adventure back to the bright city lights!

Wow! Way to start the year, guys! :) And thank you Vicki for taking such good care of the littles ones. On they go…

Hello everybody, olá! You’ll never believe where we are!

Oh, well… the title kind of gave that one away, didn’t it? Anyway, that’s right – we’re in Brazil, the country that hosted the very exciting World Cup this summer! People here sure love football, but there’s so much more to this country, and we were really eager to explore it all with our host Felipe (aka felipeduarte).

Felipe lives in the state of Pará, in the Amazon region. He showed us his postcard collection and we could see all Brazil in postcards and get an appetizer of what our time here would look like!

The capital of Pará is Belém, also known as “Metropolis of the Amazon”. It is a very interesting city, where over 1.500.000 people live. Being so close to the Equator, the city has a tropical rainforest climate, with temperatures averaging 25°C (77°F) year round!

We visited one of the most beautiful churches in Belém, the Basilica of Our Lady of Nazareth. The interiors, decorated with marble and gold, were just incredible!

Every October since 1793, a huge procession in celebration Mary takes place in Belém – it is named Círio de Nazaré and gathers more than two million people, the biggest catholic event in Brazil! Here are some photos that Felipe showed us:

Really impressive! After that, we went to the great República Square, where one of the most relevant landmarks in Belém is located: Paz Theatre. Voted as one of the wonders of Brazil, this large theatre was built in 1878, during the Amazon rubber boom. During those days (and up until 1912), Belém was called “Paris in America” due to its richnesses and prosperity.

By lunch time, we headed over to Ver-o-peso (literally, “see-the-weight”) market, the most representative landmark in Pará. It is the biggest outdoors market in Latin America! You can see it on one of Felipe’s postcards:

Fresh fish is sold on the Iron Market (the blue one, with towers) and there are also lots of tents, where you can find anything, from food to clothes, herbs and essences, regional or international. It’s a very culturally rich place!

Well… all this native fruit is making us hungry, it’s time to try the Brazilian cuisine! The base of day-to-day food is rice and beans, and of course meat and chicken, with some regional variations. The people from Pará really appreciate a native fruit named açaí berry, which is now widely used by athletes as an energy drink. It is a purple seed that is drank as a dense liquid. And of course, we had to try a brigadeiro, a very typical chocolate bonbon. So, so good — and just the perfect size!

After getting to know a little about the city, we decided to explore one of the nature parks in the area, the Mangal das Garças (Herons’ Mangal).

It’s a really incredible place to see nature and observe several species of animals and plants. The red bird is named guará (or scarlet ibis) and the white ones are garças (herons). They roam around freely in the park.

This tower is the Belém Lighthouse, which is 47 metres tall and has quite an unusual architecture for a lighthouse, don’t you think? We went up to the observation platform… the view from up there is breathtaking!

It’s said that it rains everyday in there. And look at those dark clouds… it must be coming! Quick, let’s step indoors and learn something about the region’s culture and handicrafts.

The indigenous marajoara pottery and natural rubber animal figures were quite intriguing. We also learnt that Belém was founded in 1616 and is now eagerly waiting to celebrate its fourth centenary! We visited the place where the city started: a citadel named Feliz Lusitânia.

On top in left, an old canon in Forte do Castelo, a portuguese fortress. On the right side, the Metropolitan Cathedral.

Finally, we went to the Belém Central Post office to send a postcard home.

We saw there the machines used by the Post in the past: Morse code devices, scales and writing machines, but we loved the postboxes the best!

On the left, the old Brazilian ones, used in the early 1900s and on the right, the current ones, that have a very unusual shape.

And that’s it for this amazing trip! Off we go into our padded envelope again…

… but not without first heartily recommending this lovely country to everyone! Our experience in Brazil was fantastic, what an amazing country. And of course — a big thank you to our host Felipe for his hospitality! :)

See you soon everyone!

Last year, the Little Mail Carriers went on a trip to a very special place: Tabriz, in Iran! This is where Ingrid (aka ipuenktchen) lives. She was the first person in Iran to ever sign up to Postcrossing over 9 years ago — and remains one of the most active members in the country, so we were thrilled that she hosted the little guys! :)

Here’s what they wrote back after their time there:

Hi everyone! We’re so excited to be in Tabriz, the capital of the East-Azerbaijan province, in Iran's northwest. It’s an industrial city, with around 2 million inhabitants – including Ingrid, who is originally from Germany but has been living here for 38 years! Can you spot it on a map?

Ingrid regularly hosts Toy Voyagers in her home, so we were warmly greeted by her own Playmobil toys Possy & Crossy (nice names!), who poured us a welcome drink! Mr. F.M. Baer was also visiting from the Baltic Coast, so we got to meet him as well.

We took a walk around to the nearby Shahgoli park with our new friends. The park has a big lake in the middle, and walkways all around it, really nice for a stroll or a bike ride! Aaaah… feels good to stretch our legs a little!

Oh! Today is Ingrid’s turn to host her weekly “ladies’ gameboard gathering”. The ladies come together to play all kind of games: memory games (their favorites), card games, Mikado, Halli Galli… or whatever the host proposes to play! They decided to teach us Halli Galli, which is quite fun and fast! We learnt that it is common for the host to offer some snacks, so we helped serve the food:

We had the great opportunity to see the Potters’ house of Tabriz, a live museum. There is also a permanent exhibition of pottery of East-Azerbaijan as well as many classes for pottery and decoration.

On this particular day, it was the anniversary of the Potters’ house and there was a great gathering, with traditional Iranian music, too! The mansion itself was an ancient traditional house of Qajar dinasty.

Then night fell, and it was so nice that we decided to have a stroll. We ended up walking through some of Tabriz’s most famous sightseeing points, like the pilgrimage site Seyed Hamze, next to which there is a large modern mausoleum, called the Poets Tomb. It is very impressive at night, with all the lights turned on! This is where famous personalities such as scholars are laid to rest.

After that, we headed over to Khaqani park, which is named after a poet from Tabriz. It’s just beside the Blue Mosque, but sadly it was closed, because it was quite late already…

One week later, Ingrid had guests over from the Caspian seaside and they went together to Marand, 70 km far from Tabriz, for a mourning gathering. On our way back home we had a break at an ancient caravansary! These are places along the road where travelers can stop to rest and have some water – a bit like a rest area along the highway, but a 1000 times nicer looking! About 500 years ago, a Shah had 999 Caravanserais built all over Iran to make traveling easier. It was a brilliant idea!

The next day, Ingrid showed the Bazaar of Tabriz to her guests and us. It is by far the largest roofed bazar in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2010.

It was really buzzing with activity, and the smells and sounds were so enticing… everything was new and different, and we showered Ingrid with a thousand questions!

But it was almost time for us to leave… before hopping on our envelope once again, Ingrid took us to an old public bath, Nobar Hammam, where her husband used to go with his dad, back when he was a little child!

Aaah… much more relaxed and ready for the trip through the mail! Goodbye Ingrid and lovely friends – we loved Iran!

That was lovely! Thank you so much Ingrid for hosting the little guys and showing them around! :)

A week ago, Paulo and I were in Prague for a special Postcrossing meetup, and we took the Little Mail Carriers with us, so they could tell you all about it! Here they are:

Ahoj from Prague! It’s sunny and lovely – perfect for adventures!

Ever since we saw a picture of Prague’s main post office on this post from February, we’ve been demanding to be taken there, so that we could see it for ourselves. And what do you know – six months later, the perfect opportunity presented itself: we were invited to attend the yearly Sběratel/Collector’s fair! :)

The fair, which takes place in Prague, welcomes collectors from all over Europe, who come to peruse the stands and enrich their collections. But this year, the fair had a special event taking place: a Postcrossing meetup!

The organizers invited us to come and meet the local postcrossers – we were honored and very happy to do so! Lots of people turned up and we got to meet many new postcrossers, shake their hands, answer many questions and sign a ton of postcards too. A computer and volunteers were at hand to explain Postcrossing to newcomers, and guide them through the signup process. There was even a special postcard and cancellation mark, designed just for the occasion!

We oversaw the stamping process and made sure everything was shipshape!

Meanwhile, the exhibition hall was buzzing with excitement. There were many people walking between the stands, perusing and scanning boxes and folders — it felt like a huge treasure hunt!

Afterwards, we came back to the city center, to finally visit Prague’s gorgeous post office! Ladies and gentlemen, look at that:

The walls are exquisitely painted with themes related to communications and post: in a corner, a young lady seems to be reading a love letter, on another, people call each other on the telephone, while postmen do their rounds. It’s just stunning!

Mr. Kostka from the Czech Post told us the building used to be an old monastery — the central hall is now where the old inner courtyard used to be. This is why there are so many vines and natural elements surrounding the figures on the walls.

Just before leaving, we still had time to meet some very old Czech postmen and peek at the overflowing philatelic counter.

It might well be one of the nicest post offices we’ve ever seen! Plus, it’s open every single day, from 2am to midnight! Wow… can you believe that?!

We really enjoyed our short stay in Prague, but soon it was time to go back to our envelopes and start the journey towards another exciting location… Goodbye Prague and see you soon everyone! :)