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?