Childhood memories, adulthood inspiration

marja2006 | Finland | Feb. 2008

Once upon a time, there was a little girl whose father encouraged her to read The Little Prince. When I started reading the book, the first thing that called my attention was the beautiful drawings and the fact that the author had drawn them himself. Second thing: how Antoine de Saint-Exupéry explains why he decided to dedicate the book to Leon Werth. If you read it, you'll understand why I felt that the author was actually talking to me. And suddenly I was under the impression that he should have been a very wise man.

"To Leon Werth. I ask the indulgence of the children who may read this book for dedicating it to a grown-up. I have a serious reason: he is the best friend I have in the world. I have another reason: this grown-up understands everything, even books about children. I have a third reason: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs cheering up. If all these reasons are not enough, I will dedicate the book to the child from whom this grown-up grew. All grown-ups were once children -although few of them remember it. And so I correct my dedication: to Leon Werth, when he was a little boy".

Of course I was going to grow up and become an adult myself, but I promised that I would never forget Saint-Exupéry's message. So many years later, receiving a postcard with that message was a kind of blessing. When someone asks me about my favorite card, I know there are too many that I love, but this postcard is always the first answer that comes to my mind.

Is there any card in your collection that you find particularly inspiring?

Greetings from the past

Brazil

If you think this card looks old, you are right, but there's a story behind it that I would like to share with you all. It was 1980 when my parents got married and decided to spend their honeymoon in Brazil. They went to the marvelous Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, and to the beautiful city of Salvador. Once there, they sent this postcard: it was written by my mother and addressed to my father's parents.

Almost two years later... I was born. Many years went by, I started collecting postcards, and during Mother's Day celebration in 2011 (we celebrate it in October), my grandmother showed up with this card saying I should have it.

The view is not that great, but this is definitely the most special card I have. Even my parents were thrilled when my grandmother took the card out of her bag. Totally unexpected, absolutely awesome.

Have you ever received a very special old card?

Happy autumn!

Lucas C. | Argentina | May 2012

Summer is, unfortunately, over. Well... at least here in the southern hemisphere. But as much as I would like to live in an endless sunny season, autumn does have its own beautiful views. To welcome it, I decided to share this Argentine postcard that I received around a year ago. Mendoza was the land of my grandfather and it's one of my favorite holiday destinations within Argentina. The Andes (which can be seen on the card) offers amazing and different views along the year, and it is the western border of my country. On the other side: Chile.

The Andes is the longest continental mountain range in the world, and is the world's highest mountain range outside of Asia. If you ever fly from Argentina to Chile (or the other way around), please don't forget to look down. Pretty impressive, I must say.

Do you miss summer / winter? How are you welcoming autumn / spring?

"I live somewhere here"

renegade_Cavalcade | Canada | Mar. 2008

There was a time when I used to read that a lot of people wanted "map cards", but I didn't know what they meant. Eventually I got to know what map cards are, but I wasn't very fond of them. I don't like the ones I can get in my country, and I thought all of them were more or less of the same type. Fortunately, I received a card that made me change my mind (thank you renegade_Cavalcade!). Now I'm a huge map card lover, and I found out that cartoon style maps are my favorites. Another great thing about this Canadian card is that the sender included a small transparent post-it saying "I live somewhere here" (if you look carefully, you'll see it at the bottom, between Manitoba and Ontario). It's really awesome that it survived the long journey, and it was definitely a nice touch!

Have you ever received a postcard that made you change your mind about a certain type of cards?

A penny for your thoughts

I've read that these words are written on the front of New York's post office and I loved that. They do sound kind of romantic, don't they? There's a certain rhythm in them that makes me read them out loud over and over again. Herodotus lived hundreds of years ago (c. 484 – 425 BC), and circumstances may have changed. However, mail carriers still continue to complete their appointed rounds no matter what.

Have you ever seen a postcard showing this inscription in New York? I definitely would like to get one!

Tile art!

miceu | Portugal | Apr. 2010

I picked this card from miceu's trade album for a private swap, and I remember my happiness when I finally received it. She explained that tile art begun around the XV and XVI century in Portugal, and that many walls of Portuguese churches are covered in tiles. This postcard is absolutely beautiful. Maybe it's because tile art reminds me of my childhood (old houses here used to be decorated with them), of my family (my great grandparents came from Spain, where tile art is very popular too), and of a story by Manuel Mujica Láinez which I used to read a lot in my high school days. The story is called "El hombrecito del azulejo" ("The little man of the tile") and it's a tall tale about a little man drawn on a tile that wants to help his dying friend, a young boy. Sounds sad, I know, but the story is worth reading.

I would really like to have this kind of art at home. Although unfortunately it doesn't match with the rest of the decoration. Is tile art to be found anywhere in your city?

Looks like magic

marzze | Finland | Ago. 2009

A few days ago I was watching the Discovery Science channel, and I wasn't paying much attention, until I heard they were talking about auroras Borealis (which I find fascinating). I remembered I had once received a card showing one, and how impressive that view looked. I always imagined that seeing one must be an amazing thing to experience. To be honest, I hadn't heard of them before joining the Postcrossing forum, but it's something that you have to see to believe. Those colors? Wow...

As I'm far from being an astronomy expert, I'll just share what Wikipedia has to say about this phenomenon:

"... is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude (Artic and Antarctic) regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere".

Had you ever heard about auroras Borealis?

Remember that November

 


DE-118030
Sender: piafenten
From: Germany
Arrived: Nov. 30th 2007
Distance: 11.662 km
Traveled: 9 days
 

I joined the postcrossing adventure after a Spanish friend of mine told me about the site and her beautiful collection. That was back in 2007, and once my first sent card was registered, I was really looking forward to finding a card in my mailbox. At that time, I thought postcards were all about single views, plain stamps, and "greetings from..." messages. Imagine my surprise when I got this card: unwritten, no stamps, inside an envelope, but there was a letter... written in German.

The letter was so long and sweet that I didn't even mind all the rest. It gave me not only the opportunity to practice my German skills, but a good insight of piafenten's life in Germany. Over 5 years later, I'm still wondering why someone would choose such a card (the letter just said it was one of her favorites, with no additional comments) and how should I categorize it. But something I learned over these years is that when it comes to postcards, there's no accounting for taste. All in all, not what I was expecting, but I was very happy anyway.

Was your first received card what you were expecting?

Hello world... once again

Wow... it's been over a year since my first and last post here. That wasn't what I had in mind for this space, but life got in the middle and kept me too busy to start sharing all the great cards I have received. If you are wondering why I'm back, that's just because a good friend of mine has recently spent his holidays in Europe and decided to bring me a lovely pile of postcards! I was so thrilled that my postcrossing love arose once again together with my will to share my collection in this blog. As a sign of goodwill, and just to get started, here's one of my official sent cards, which seems to be very popular among other postcrossers around the world.

Did anyone ever get this card?