Postcrossing Blog

Remember our little mail carriers? The last time we checked on them, little Paulo and Ana were in Taiwan… but no more! Come discover what they’ve been up to recently, in this lively report by their latest host, icitaiwan!

Hello from Valencia in Spain. It has been quite a while since you’ve heard something from us, but we’ve been very busy with traveling all over the world.

Our journey started in November when our sweet host shui sent us to the northern part of Taiwan where our new host, icitaiwan, was living. Yes, you’re reading it well…she’s not living there anymore. We arrived at a place, full of boxes and to be honest, it was messy, too ;). We explored Nankan where we were staying and took the bus to Taipei for a short trip. Our first stop was the Taipei 101. The “101” was the tallest skyscraper in the world until 2010 and we can tell you that it’s tall, 509 meters!

We ate a local snack and on the way back we really had a laugh when we read this sign in the bus on our way back home: “Please fasten your seatbelt. For landing please ring the bell. Please do not leave the seat when the vehicle is not all arranged yet”.

We also wanted to visit the Taipei International Flower Exposition, but unfortunately we didn’t get a chance, because the weather was so bad on the day that we intended to go and my host had to leave Taiwan soon. Instead of visiting the Expo we went to the Taipei Zoo where we saw pandas and many other animals.

At the end of December we were put in a little box and when our host opened it again we felt so cold. We had taken an airplane to the Netherlands where our host was staying for the holidays. Everything was covered with snow and we really regretted it not to have brought our scarves with us. We had a great time during the holidays, ate lots of food and gained some weight.

In the beginning of January we were put in the same little box again (oh no….!) and we saw daylight again in Valencia, Spain. We have traveled all the way to Spain, because our host decided to leave Taiwan for Europe for good.

We have had a great time in Valencia. The weather was sunny, warm and we saw beautiful blue skies. We enjoyed our free-time by wandering through the streets downtown. We started our trip on “Plaza de la Reina” where you can see the “Catedral de Valencia”. After that we walked to the “Mercado Central”. It’s a colorful market in a very old building. This sight-seeing trip made us hungry, so we ended up on one of the many terraces to have something to eat. What else could we buy than paella valenciana? This is Spanish rice with chicken and rabbit. The wine tasted pretty good, too…cheers!

After our siesta we decided to go to “La Lonja de la Seda”. It’s a late Valencian Gothic style civil building, built between 1482 and 1548, and one of the principal tourist attractions in the city. The UNESCO considered it as a World Heritage Site in 1996. “La Lonja” was used as silk exchange.

Another day we planned a trip to the "Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencas”. This is a cultural and architectural complex and it’s the most important modern tourist destination in Valencia.

The City of the Arts and the Sciences (Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias) is situated at the end of the old riverbed Turia. Turia became a garden in 1980, after the bypass of the river by the great flood of Valencia in 1957. The complex was designed by Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela and the whole project was completed in 1998. It’s made up of 7 buildings. It is an amazing place to visit and it’s so beautiful on sunny days when the sun reflects onto the water and the buildings.

Time flies when you’re having fun and our last trip was to Malverossa Beach in Valencia. It’s a nice place to go to on the weekends. People are strolling along the beach, playing soccer and beach volleyball, or they are having a drink on one of the many terraces along the beach. We played on the beach and even tried to go for a swim, but the water was still too cold.

OK….this was an update from the two of us. Check out this site again soon for more adventures. We are on our way to a very special place now…..adios……..!

Desiree from The Netherlands. She read about Postrcrossing in a magazine and found it was exactly what she liked. She owns an entertainment called Alles Kids. Read more about her now!

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

A little bit more than a year ago I read an article in the dutch Magazine Flow. It described what I had done since I was 12 or so, writing cards, little tokens of friendship. But not only to friends now, this was worldwide! I loved how you can throw confetti of friendliness all over the globe!!

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I collect – too much ! Almost everything … like: holy waterfonts, old Mother Mary statues (I’m not religious at all, but spiritual …yes!) fairy tale cards, vintage stuff, Medici Society cards, cards and cards … and CARDS! Also I am drawing Mandalas, and I’m always busy creating something out of nothing!

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

Dees mailing her cards.

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?

Yes very much so! At one point on the forum I had told that I was becoming Grandma. I was totally overwhelmed by the cards and even packages I received for my grandchild! I opened a thread then and it ended up in the “Welcome Baby Emma – album” In the end I had more then 100 babycards from all over the world! Emma’s parents were flabbergasted and overwhelmed by so much human warmth!

Have you met any other members in real life?

Yes!! The Dutch are very communicative … I have attended to 5 meetings last year. Real friendships have developped. I’m pretty active in the meet-ups myself! I organized the last meeting in Alkmaar. We went to the Dutch Headoffice of Art Unlimited. It was a super day, with almost 40 people attending the biggest meeting I think!!

Jetske (in The Netherlands) kindly volunteered to introduce postman Paulo and postwoman Ana to Dutch delights. They were really happy to have such warm introduction to the country of tulips, clogs and vla, and wrote back to tell us their adventure! :)

Here we are, arriving in Jetske’s mailbox after traveling across Europe.
So this is where Jetske picks up her Postcrossing postcards and now she finds us here as well. How exciting!

Of course, since we are mail carriers we are curious to see what a Dutch mailbox looks like. We’ve learned there are red mailboxes and orange mailboxes. The red mailboxes are older. When the Dutch postal service changed to TNT Post, some years ago, they changed most of the mailboxes to new orange coloured ones. Don’t fall in the mailbox Paulo!

Today is a big day! We are going to our first Postcrossing meeting. The meeting is in Rotterdam, which is a drive of about 100 km to the North.
Here we are, in the car, on the Zeeland Bridge, which is the longest bridge in The Netherlands.

We arrived in Rotterdam and met in a cafe with Dandilion and JokeJacket where we enjoyed a delicious apple pie.

After coffee and apple pie we went to the best postcard shop of the country, De Egel. Here we also met the rest of the Postcrossers.
The woman in pink is a Postcrosser too. She had no idea there was a meeting that day and just came to the shop to buy postcards. When she saw us she asked if we were Postcrossers too and we all said yes! :D We invited her to stay with us for the rest of the day, and she did.

There are many cards here! We want to put them all in our little yellow basket!

Two hours later and with many new postcards, we travelled by tram to a restaurant called Bazar for postcard writing and lunch. Here we also met some other little travellers.

Time to go home but before we left we sent the postcards we wrote in the restaurant. Here they go, into a red mailbox:

Back to exploring mail services.
Here we are at the counter of a TNT Post office. The office is rather small and located inside a bookshop. Bigger post offices are closing down and now there are several smaller TNT Post counters in other shops instead.

In the Post office there’s a mailbag for bigger parcels that don’t fit in the mailbox. Luckily we are small and light, checking our weight on the scales, so we don’t need to travel in this bag!
On the picture in the bottom righ, you can see the “Boekenweekpostzegel”: a stamp in the shape of a small, real book, with real pages. The stamp was issued for a special event regarding books.

It’s our last day in The Netherlands already! But before we leave we enjoy this dish Jetske prepared for us. Poffertjes, they look like small and thick pancakes covered with lots of powdered sugar but they taste a bit different, nicer!

Bye! See you soon on our next destination!

Paul (pbesoo) is 32, lives in the Netherlands and he likes to explore the world through Postcrossing. Learn a bit more about someone who confesses himself as addicted to Postcrossing.

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

I read an article about a Dutch Postcrosser in the local newspaper. I saved the article, after a few months I activated my profile and since I’m addicted. I like the idea of exploring the world through Postcrossing and “meeting” people from other nationalities.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Cycling, mountain biking and swimming.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

My mailman run away, so I like to show you a picture of the mailbox where I post my mail. All the mailboxes in Holland look like this.

Show & tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

All the cards I receive are special in their own way. The senders do a lot of effort to send a nice view often with a personal touch. I just picked out this recently received colorful card to show you: