Slovenia

Happy weekend everyone!

Sorry for the lack of posts, I have been keeping busy this weekend.

Today, I share a postcard I got from Slovenia. It is my first card from there and I was lucky enough to get it through an official postcrossing swap.

It is always a pleasant surprise when the senders write to me in Spanish or German, and in this case the sender, Sali, wrote to me in Spanish. She writes that she likes her country a lot, because she is surrounded by beautiful landscapes; Lake Bled (pictured above) is one of her favorite places to visit. 

First 3D card from China

Happy Friday everyone!

TGIF indeed! My mailbox has been happy all this week, so I am grateful for that! Today I received a card from China thanks to a friend in Singapore. He had someone send it to me with beautiful stamps, and it was well worth the wait. This card commemorates 90 years since the founding of the Communist  Party of China, which is still the ruling political party. Thanks, Du!

The Nightmare Before Christmas postcards

Good morning!

Yesterday I got a pleasant surprise in the mail. I set up a trade on the postcrossing forum for 2 Nightmare Before Christmas postcards. They are very expensive to get in the US since they were issued so long ago, so the remaining ones are almost 20 years old. I finally got them 12 days after the sender got my cards in Japan. I am just glad they made it to me safely!

Mysterious Postcard

Hello!

Last Saturday (March 22) I received a message through the official postcrossing site from someone in Wisconsin. She asked for my address and I told her about my life in Wisconsin. She is actually near Appleton/Green Bay, so I am familiar with the area. I received this card from her yesterday (March 25) in the mail:

I don't know how she found me, and I don't know what made her send me a card without providing me an address to send her one as well, but it is great that people around the world can take 5 minutes of their time and think of just you. 

Too much mail!

Hello again!

I am going to make it my goal to write a blog post of at least one card a day. I actually received 4 mailings (one of them had 3 cards!) yesterday, and I finally received my Nightmare Before Christmas cards from Japan today, 12 days after the sender told me they had received my cards! It is nuts how the mail system works somedays.

In yesterday's loot, I received a 3D card from Dubai, United Arab Emirates but it was actually sent from India. This time, he received my 3D card one day before I did...which makes sense date wise.

The caption in the back says "A before and after photograph of a camel visiting Dubai." The picture reverts back to a serious camel.

I actually don't mind at all that it wasn't actually sent from Dubai, I have a dear friend that is currently on a work assignment there, and I plan on visiting them in the future. It's a city that's the definition of being built on oil money, and they are making themselves well known among other high list cities like London, Paris, NYC, etc. I hear from my friend of how modern the city is, that I want to visit it enough, that it doesn't matter that it's in the desert. This is actually the second card I have received from India, I do have some that were sent long ago. The sender also writes that he dreams of traveling to many places throughout his life. Here's to future travels!

Today's goodies!

My only favorite part of the weekend ending is that I get to check my mailbox on Monday for new cards! Any day with postcards or letters is a great day.

This is a wonderful 3D card sent from my friend Chelle in The Netherlands. She adopted a friend of mine, Katie, in the US and they actually met through postcrossing! Since I met Katie through postcrossing, I also met Chelle when she came to visit about a year ago. This is from a national park near her home in Tilburg. She heard I liked these types of cards, so she sent me one for my collection.

 I also got a card from a swap I did in the postcrossing forum. Her name is Mik and seems like an interesting gal. She was looking for pre-columbian cats, so I sent her one from a postcard book I bought at a local shop called Texas Art Asylum.

Where the east meets the west: Turkey

Hello again!

One country I have seen pop up more and more often is Turkey. To me, Turkey is an exotic land, host to all kinds of people. One thing I do miss from Germany is the Döner, a quick and filling fast food brought by the Turkish immigrants. It's everywhere, from Poland to Spain, it's a common and loved fast food. Word has it that a few business students from UT-Austin are opening up their chains soon in Austin and Houston. I await them eagerly!

Anyway, back on track, my friend Sandra has visited Turkey a few times and has happily sent me a few cards while she was there. The first card is actually a 3D card that made it in one piece! It was the first 3D card I ever received. I am currently swapping for more, so we will see what turns up! The second card was indeed sent to Germany while I still lived there. I have other cards from Turkey, but I think these deserved their own post because they were so beautifully decorated.

Iceland

A few years ago, I got a pleasant surprise in the mail, a postcard from Iceland. While not a super rare country, it is still very difficult to receive cards from there, let alone official ones from a postcrossing official swap! Avery beautiful and small country, but winters can get quite frigid. It's definitely on my list to travel to, maybe during the summer when Houston is unbearable.

Year of the Horse postcard from Taiwan

I got a pleasant surprise in my mail! One of the first facebook swaps I set up just arrived today. It's a postcard from Taiwan commemorating the Asian lunar new year, this year being the year of the horse. It's an absolutely lovely card, thank you Laio Man Jun!

Squeaky cards

I've been collecting postcards for a while now, it didn't officially start until I was an adult. The good thing about being a working adult is that you can buy any cards you like! 

I came across this card at a post card show here in Houston. There were hundreds and even thousands of cards, but my friend Katie and I only went through a small portion of them. Towards the end of out visit, I was looking at an album of cat cards, when all of the sudden I hear a squeak. I thought it was the binder, but it was actually an antique postcard that squeaked! It was the best $4 I've spent. 

On to rare countries: Nicaragua

One of the reasons I started this blog was to keep tabs on the rare countries I have collected over the years. On the facebook postcrossing group, there seems to be this unspoken want and need, almost a competition to get as many countries as you can. Well, it has bit me, but not as hard as others I've seen on the page. Sometimes, I've been lucky to received official postcrossing cards from rare countries.

One of these times has been a card from Nicaragua. An Austrian native lived there at the time, but has since moved back. I was very surprised, but very glad this card made its way to me. It is card number 118 (NI-118) to officially be traded on postcrossing.

If you want it badly enough, sometimes you have to do it yourself!

Hello folks! 

I am on a posting roll, so I will continue blogging until I get tired of it today :) It is rare I find free time, let alone be productive during this free time!

When I studied abroad in Germany in the summer of 2012, I took a mini euro trip to finally cross off countries off my list while I still had the time. One of the countries I visited was Italy. I was in Pisa and Rome. When in Rome, I also went to the Vatican!

The Vatican, located in the Holy See or Vatican City.


Wikipedia says:


Vatican City i/ˈvætɨkən ˈsɪti/, officially Vatican City State (Italian: Stato della Città del Vaticano; pronounced [ˈstaːto della t͡ʃitˈta (d)del vatiˈkaːno]), is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of approximately 44 hectares (110 acres), and a population of around 840.[1] This makes Vatican City the smallest internationally recognized independent state in the world by both area and population.


source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City

I unfortunately didn't get to visit a lot while there, since I had 3 countries to visit in 8 days, but it was still a memorable experience to see St. Peter's basilica. I can also say I've walked across a country! I did sent a postcard only to my mom at the time. Sorry other Postcrossing friends! Why? Because it cost 1,60€ to send a postcard!

I didn't send any other cards while on that trip, and I wish I had, but at the time I budgeted myself to spend only what I needed to. Hopefully there will be a next time soon.

One of my most favorite cards

One thing most of us struggle with is writing our profile so we get the amount of cards that we like. I have to admit, mine is usually edited after I get an "ok" card. There is no card I hate, but I would rather get more cards that are my taste than cards that I don't like. 

That being said, I will leave out any criticism of cards I don't like, and try to be positive about the whole postcrossing experience. 

Here is one of my most favorite and cherished cards. It was sent to me from St. Petersburg, Russia from a nice girl named Valeria, who is sadly no longer active on the site. She writes that this type of cat is a common stray cat in St. Petersburg, and the bottle of vodka he is clutching is also a typical brand of St. Petersburg. I have a devilish orange cat as well, he can be a brat but he's also very sweet. And so, my mission continues to collect more cat postcards!

First Card I ever received through the official site

Hello everyone!

I have decided to start a blog, since I've been inspired to start one after seeing so many creative ones from all around the world. I will keep this as a virtual record-keeping for myself, as well as for your enjoyment! 

I started Postcrossing +/- 2 days 4 years ago! A dear friend of mine, Kelson, actually linked me to the site and thought it was up my alley. Four years later...he is right on the money! The funny thing is that he is not a member, he somehow ran across it and thought of me. 

At first, I didn't know how things worked...so it took me a little while to send my first card. At the time, the US was around 500,000 cards sent out, so it was still fairly early. Now, it is around 2 million sent cards and counting!

When I got my first card, I was very confused. It was sent in an envelope from Italy. If you're familiar with my name, absolutmeliss, it's because I like the Absolut Vodka ads. I found them in an art magazine when I was little, and I've been intrigued since. 

Since then, I knew I would be hooked. The sender offered to send me more in return for US ads, but I have not found any. He is still on postcrossing, so hopefully I can touch base with him later on and finally swap again. 

I don't think I'll upload every single card I get...but I will try to post as many as I can. I do have a backlog of about 4 years, so bear with me. I have also started trading in the unofficial postcrossing group on Facebook, so I've traded for cards I'm interested in, or hunt for rare countries. Stay tuned for more postcards!