Two from the USA

I took a break from Postcrossing for awhile, and didn't send or receive  postcards for about 5 months, so my next cards both arrived in May 2010.  The first one arrived on the 3rd from Oklahoma:

The second arrived on May 7 from Oregon:

This is Sahalie Falls in Oregon.  We used to live in Washington State, and visited Oregon many times.  I cannot remember whether we ever saw Sahalie Falls or not.  They look beautiful, though!  

A Yummy Card from Finland

On November 11, 2009 another "treat" arrived.  This looks yummy ~ 

This card is advertising the "Turku Food Exhibition" in October 2010.  It will be happening along with the "Turku Book Exhibition", and the sender of this card will be visiting. Turku sounds familiar, doesn't it?  That's because I received a fabulous castle postcard from Turku (from a different sender) about a month before I received this one. Here's a link to that card's post: acollectionofpostcards.blogspot.com/2010/06/turku-castle-turku-finland.html.

I love sweet peas!  This stamp is a braille stamp.

A Treat from Iceland!

Some countries have very few participants in Postcrossing.  Iceland is one of these countries, with only 160 (by comparison, the USA has 31,357 participants!), so I felt privileged to receive a postcard from this island country on November 8, 2009.  It is entitled "Dreamlike shorescape in Alftafjorour ~ Swans' Fjord ~ in southeast Iceland":

What a treat!  I'm also a horse lover, so it's a double treat.  Here's an interesting fact about Icelandic horses:  there is little disease among native horses in Iceland because the law doesn't allow horse to be imported into the country.  If horses are exported out of the country, those animals are not allowed to return.*  

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_horse

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland

Antique Hairpin from China

This is another of my favorites. The sender of the card says "the object in the picture is a kind of hair decoration which was used in ancient China and now we are not able to see it often".  

It arrived from China sometime in early November 2009.  I can't remember exactly because I forgot to register it when it arrived!  

Another thing she says is "I'm glad to meet you through such a special way ~ though I don't know much about you but at least we all like post-cards".  That is the simple joy of postcrossing.com, bringing people from all over the world together through the simple act of exchanging postcards!  

Greetings from Wisconsin

...by way of California!  This card arrived on October 17, 2009.  Perhaps the sender is originally from Wisconsin, or visited Wisconsin, or just likes Wisconsin?  I don't know, but here is the card he sent me from California:

Rotorua, New Zealand

This church is located in the Ohinemutu Maori Village in Rotorua, New Zealand.  It is called St. Faith's Anglican Church.  Lake Rotorua and Mokoia Island are in the background. 

http://www.stfaiths.co.nz/index.html

This card arrived on October 20, 2009.

Groeten uit Noord-Holland

"Greetings from North Holland".  Not the 'north of Holland', but the province of North Holland.  The Netherlands has twelve provinces, and North Holland is one of the twelve (yes, there is also a South Holland).  'Holland' is incorrectly used as the name for the entire country; it is only in the name of these two provinces.  I did recently hear a cyclist from the Netherlands refer to his country as Holland, but I wonder if it is because he is on an American cycling team and they refer to it as Holland. Who knows? I know that the Netherlands is famous for tulips, cheese and windmills, but I didn't realize sunbathing was very popular! 

Turku Castle ~ Turku, Finland

This is my first castle postcard, and one of my very favorites and arrived on October 13, 2009.  This is one of the cards that I have sitting on a shelf near my computer.  I never grow tired of looking at it.  See the people and their dog at the bottom near the rock wall?  It is a very large structure!    

The sender of this postcard says that Turku is the largest surviving medieval building in Finland, and one of the largest surviving medieval castles in Scandinavia.  

Construction was begun in 1280, and the building has been through various fires, destruction in many wars, reconstruction, etc.  It was completely restored in 1993.   It has a very fascinating history, which can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turku_Castle

This stamp is one of those that changes as you move it so that the skier looks like he/she is actually whooshing down the slope!  Unfortunately you cannot see that here.

 

See You at Sea World!

This happy critter arrived on October 9, 2009 from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This is a postcard from Sea World.

Manukan Island, Malaysia

"Kopisanangan - Greetings from Sabah, Malaysia" are the first words on the postcard I received on October 8, 2009.  My sender has been to this park many times.  She has two small children, and they must have a lot of fun here.  She tells me this is one of the tourism hot spots in Malaysia.

http://www.sabahtourism.com/sabah-malaysian-borneo/en/destination/83-tunku-abdul-rahman-park/


See the blue and white heart at the left side near the postmark?  That's a 3D sticker and there were three of those on the postcard.  Perhaps the children's idea?  I liked them!

Lake Moondarra

Lake Moondarra is a man-made lake located in Mt. Isa, Queensland, Australia.  It is in the middle of Australia's Outback.  It was constructed to provide water for the mining town of Mt. Isa.  The lake also provides a place for watersports such as swimming and boating, picnicking and birdwatching.  This card also arrived on October 2, 2009.

http://www.mountisa.biz/history/moondarra.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Isa,_Queensland

The Great Wall of China

This postcard sender asks me, "Have you been to Great Wall? It's really amazing."  No, I haven't been to the Great Wall, but it does look amazing!  It looks pretty cool lit up at night, doesn't it?  This card arrived in my mailbox on October 2, 2009.

Even lit up, it cannot been seen from space. Looking at the Great Wall from the moon would be like looking at a human hair from two miles away!  For more on the Great Wall, see the article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China

Settling Down...

On September 27, 2009 a nice card arrived from Missouri entitled "Green Acres".

A peaceful scene of dairy cows grazing by a stream.  

Greetings from Singapore!

"An independent island nation, Singapore sits astride sealanes linking East and West".  The sender says "we have great food, shopping and in interesting, diverse culture".

This card arrived on September 25, 2009.

http://www.yoursingapore.com/content/traveller/en/experience.html

Wow, Singapore is a very exciting place!

Toce Falls ~ Formazza Valley, Italy

"The most beautiful of Europe" is how these fall are described on the back of this card.  My sender says she lives near this wonderful waterfall in Italy, very close to Switzerland and says it is incredible.  The height of the falls is 143 meters (about 469 feet).

This area appears to offer an abundance of activities such as hiking, skiing, museums, etc.  http://www.formazzaski.com/en_US/home/formazza.  A very pretty part of the world!

I received this postcard on September 21, 2009.

Loups et Rapaces a Provins

Provins is a town in north-central France.  My sender tells me that the animals on this postcard are the animals known in this town.  The online translator says "Provins has Wolves and Raptors".  I received this card on September 17, 2009.

A Card from Wroclaw, Poland

I was excited to receive this postcard from Wroclaw, Poland on September 15, 2009. Wroclaw is the 4th largest city in Poland and is over 1,000 years old!

The sender tells me this is the town hall, the "most known" building in his city.  He tells me it was built from the 13th to the 16th centuries.  In front of the building is the pillory, which is now a popular meeting place!

A Very Pretty Card from Taiwan

On September 12, 2009 I received a lovely postcard from Taipei, Taiwan.  It is my third card received, and even now that I have received about 30 cards, it remains the most unusual card in my collection.  The top of the card says "Taiwan Aboriginal Tribes".

Of course it is much nicer to see in person.  It is actually quite heavy to hold, and has red stitching in it as you can see.  This is one of my very favorite cards and the stamp is very pretty, too:

A Handmade Postcard from The Netherlands

My second postcard arrived on September 11, 2009 and made me quite happy:

This one is from a woman in the Netherlands and is handmade.  She took these photos while out cycling.  I think it is charming because this shows me the area where she lives. The message on the back is very nice and personable, telling me about her daily life, her cats and that she had purchased flowers that day!  It is a favorite because it is so personable, and she took the time to make it herself.  

Introduction & My First Card

My collection of postcards is small, at least for now.  Currently I have around 30, but hope to have a much larger collection one day. Some of my postcards make me very curious about the place they originate, so I may include links to websites that I've discovered.  Other places may not pique that curiosity, or the card may just be very simple and doesn't need any explanation.  

I joined Postcrossing - http://www.postcrossing.com/ - in August of 2009. Postcrossing is a postcard crossing project (it is simple - you send a postcard, you receive a postcard). It's fun to send a postcard to someone else in the world.  It's even more fun to receive them in the mail!  I've received cards from other postcrossers all over - right here in the USA from Florida to Oregon, California to New Hampshire, and from all over the world.  I've received handmade cards, and beautiful view cards, and I've learned some about places I've never even heard of before!  I hope to continue to share postcards and meet new people for many, many years to come!

This is also a fun way for me to "travel".  I am not much of a real traveler, so in a way exchanging postcards is like having a little bit of the world come to me.  :)


My first postcard came from Ohio here in the USA, and arrived on September 9, 2009.

I was hoping for a card with scenery or history or something interesting, but you take what you get.  Now that I have received more postcards, I like this one more.  I think that if I had received it as something other than the first card, I would not have been disappointed, but might have thought it rather fun. Perhaps I should see if the movie is rentable and then maybe I'll like this card more!  I do like movies from this era!