Participants registered in our contest

We met today via zoom (as promised) and we saw the winners! :) Congratulations for winners and Thank you all participants! It was fun and interesting to read so many stories!

And... The Jury vote !

Story Number	First Name	Country	Total Ranking	Winning Prize
22	Agapi	Greece	659	50 euro voucher
61	Ray Choo	Singapore	573	30 euro voucher
8	Valeria	Russia	548	20 euro voucher

 

We met today via zoom (as promised) and we saw the winners! :) Congratulations for winners and Thank you all participants! It was fun and interesting to read so many stories!

 

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91. Yulia Palacios     Spain / Basque Country

original from Moldova Republic

"Once upon a time...

 

How does it feel to be someone's Secret Santa, especially if you live in Europe, but the recipient of surprise resides in Russia?

Тhe long read. True story:

"I am very sorry that you had to face our customs service (now for some reason there are some new rules).

And I need to fill out a full customs declaration to receive gifts. I really need a screenshot of an app or website where the order history will be indicated (only for all my gifts) and Amazon links to all the pages of the gifts themselves (so that customs officers can contact the sellers). I am very sorry that I cause you discomfort, I myself am in shock (but without this, unfortunately, I will not receive your gifts. I know that you wanted to make a surprise, but unfortunately, Russian legislation is against any manifestation of joy :))""

Yet a sense of humor is exactly what saves people in difficult situations.

That's the postal story of the 2020 year in brief: Human hopes await the courier - Santa Claus! In 2021, Santa Claus will get a job as a courier!

Thank you! 2020 was not an easy year, and it's great that we all have our own little joys that support us. I'm glad that postal postcards are among these small pleasures.

Live with joy!

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90. RASMI  India   

 "I am a postcrosser and am very proud to say this. I have collected many postcards.

We had 4 months complete lock  period.

During those period the life was very tough for all.The post offices were closed.

I got a chance and time to look around my received postcards.

It was wonderful more than at the time of receiving every day .

I got more time to look around the cards and to know about the countries  from where they sent .I even refer World Atlas with Cards. It's a wonderful learning during this Lockdown period of 2020 ( March - July)."

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89. Ruxandra Canada

Hi everyone! I'm gonna tell you how difficult it was for me, in the summer of 2020, to learn ZOOM teaching. I'm an English teacher in Laval (Quebec) and, due to covid pandemic, I had to learn how to give classes online. Believe me, it was a nightmare. You know I'm not young anymore and it took time, headaches, insomnia, heartburns, moments of discouragement and tears until I finally learnt how to do it. I belong to a less technological generation (born in the '50s) and I can't compare myself to the young generation who finds it so easy and comfortable to deal with online activities. I'm proudly telling you that now ZOOM doesn't have any secrets for me!!!!

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88. Barbie   USA   

    "My name is Barbie, short for Barbara. It's Italian. I was named after my grandmother. I'd love to share a story with you, but I believe it is the backstory that makes this story.

Several decades ago, my grandparents immigrated from Italy to the USA. My father was born and raised here, but he grew up in an area known as ""Little Italy."" His family didn't have much at all. My father worked hard all his life. In his early twenties, he was employed by the United State Postal Service where he worked until he retired.

He met my mother, who lived in the Pacific Islands, through a correspondence club (back before there was internet and social media). They wrote love letters to each other for three years--their letters being delivered by global postal systems. They eventually married and moved to the USA--which is where I come in.

Sometimes, my father would let me go to the sorting facility he worked at. This is where my affinity for stamps developed. With a love for stamps comes a love for writing letters and postcards.

Fast forward to 2020: Here I am -- a biracial, independent, liberated American woman who doesn't have much but has enough. In American culture, it is common to inherit stamp and postcard collections. It is family history. Since my family has recently immigrated here, I have no postcards to inherit. In July 2020, I found myself in the middle of a pandemic with a little more time to do things that I have always wanted to do. So here I am, building a stamp and postcard collection to pass on. It has been a wonderful way to embrace the present and to look forward to the future while looking at the past

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87. Sandra  Portugal        

       "Postcards have always been part of my life. My 1st one was bought during a Study Trip in Primary School (and that was quite long ago, I assure you... :) ). Now, almost 42 years gone by, I have around 100,000 postcards and checking my mailbox everyday is still (and most times) the most exciting moment of the day. Many people can't think of Life without Internet; I myself can't imagine my Life without Postcards... I have always had penpals with whom I learned a lot about the traditions of each culture, and whenever possible I swapped postcards with them. As it is normal in life, some of those foreigner friends get lost through the time; however, curiously, some have come back again after years and years of no contact. It happened to me twice, and one of those friends was a Brazilian girl (now woman) whose letter with a Christmas card arrived in my mailbox this January! I was totally puzzled to receive her news at my grandparent's house in the countryside where I lived for many years. Last time we had written was in 1988; a lifetime has gone by and here she is again, after having found a card from me at the bottom of a drawer! It's so nice to get back to our Youth through postcards, and rewarding to find again friends from the past and keep many others that we met thorugh this amazing hobby for decades, always present in our lives and hearts!

Just to finish, let me show you my last postcard of 2020, received this morning from a dear friend in France who I also met through Postcrossing and personally 2 years ago here in Lisbon. I find this card so cute and appropriate!!! HAPPY 2021 dear Postcrossers all over the world! May postcards overwhelm you in 2021with amazing moments!"

 

 

 

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86. Dewi Ridwan      Indonesia    

     "2020 is the most difficult time for me, my family and everyone in the world. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, everyone felt the impact in all fields, not only badly for health but also impacting on the economy, politics and daily life. Most unexpectedly, the impact on mail delivery systems around the world.

Me, who did not know that Post Indonesia was unable to send regular mail to all countries in early March 2020 (only a few countries could accept registered mail only), still continued to exchange postcards with friends in the US, Europe or Asia.

Every day I can only hope that the postcards I send to my friends will arrive safely. And the understanding from friends abroad is extraordinary, they all understand the state of sending letters that is disrupted by the Covid pandemic.

Thankfully, at the end of 2020, I got good news from friends abroad, they one by one gave news that the postcards I sent they had received. This is a sad story about sending postcards during the Covid pandemic.

And the happy story is that I can still receive postcards sent by my friends. Even though it took a struggle to get my letters from the PO Box. Because the roads I take to get to the post office are often closed when the area enters the red zone. Sending and receiving Postcards during a pandemic is a comfort to my heart and fills my heart with happiness"

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85. Xu China

I always travel around Asia and send postcards to my friend; 2020 covid time stop us travelling and hope 2021 we can stop covid virus. happy new year and good luck 2021

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84. Waltraud  Germany

It’s so very great here. Greetings from Germany 🇩🇪

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83. Karin  Netherlands

I joined Postcrossing since 2012 and enjoy it a lot. Nowadays I am more on the Facebook groups trying to complete several of my collections :-) I have met so many people around the globe and have such nice contacts. Postcrossing brought a lot of joy and fun and happiness into my life. Due COVID19 I swapped less cards and had a rough personal period. But I try to keep positive and enjoy the beautiful things and people I encounter! Be careful al of you and stay safe.

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82. Swonild Italy

When I was a young girl, my family had no money to travel abroad. I was so curious to know new countries and I loved so much receiving postcards from all over the world that I used to go to the airport and gently ask people who were travelling abroad to send me a card from their holiday! I had my address written on coloured post it paper. Many people sent me a card, it was a great joy for me. That's how I started my card collection :)

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81. Marni    Australia    

          "During the long arduous lockdown in late March 2020 I restarted my trusty hobby of Postcrossing, Lucky lottery postcard groups and sending out FOTW for Australian Territories.

My life with 3 teenagers home schooling and a hectic nursing job, can be draining emotionally.

I enjoy this hobby as it allows me to connect with happy, positive people and gain understanding about the wider world.

No matter what life throws at us in 2020 writing postcards brings me lots of joy and keeps me smiling. "

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80. Rubens Brazil  

   Postcrossing is more than exchanging postcards ... it is certainly an inexplicable passion .... it is magnificent to find our mailbox full of beautiful postcards ... and with the help of the website POSTCARDMARKET this experience has become fantastic.  I would never expect to receive a postcard from South Georgia, for example.  So I just have to thank the whole team for making beautiful postcards and making our dream come true.  this year, even with this pandemic, on 10.10.2020 we organized the first meeting of Postcrossing in my city and it was really cool to infect more and motw people with this 'virus" of collecting postcards.  we hope people get closer and exchange a lot of postcards ... hugs and great 2021 to everyone

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79. Simone Luxemburg      

   "Luxembourg went into Lockdown March 16.

We were forced to stay at home, hardly go out or see others.

I am a person, that really likes staying at home and not be bothered, I knew that thru postcards I still will see nice pictures and read friendly messages. I had the feeling that during the pandemic more people put in effort to write a friendly word or two.

But not seeing anyone was hard on many.

Looking back I feel a huge gratitude twards my mailman. I feel those people often are left out in the praise. They still deliver every day our mail, even if we can´t go out they still bring a piece of outside into our mailbox. I am quite lucky, as my mailman also picks up my mail from my mailbox, not many do. If a bad in on my mailbox, he will take the inside with him, no complain, no refusal. Even if he never will read this text, I still think to me he deserves the praise and gratitude.

So I can´t pick a propper date, as he really gave his all all day he worked."

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78. Arfan     Hong Kong       

   My sister is a postcrosser. She receives postcards all the time. I really like the postcards that she gets. Every time she gets a Postcard, I wish to be mine.One day in January 2020, I told her that I wanted to get postcards too.Then my sister told the person who send the postcards to write my name along with her card. When I receive them, I feel really happy. I really like the beautiful picture behind the postcards. I am really thankful to my sister . When I grow up I want to be a postcrosser like my sister.

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77. REHAN  India     

"My dad is a post-crosser and he receives many cards often .Postman delivers to us with my Daddy's name only even without address. My dad is so popular as a philatelist.

During School days , I used to go early and I never receive cards as the Postman comes little late.

But in this year 2020 , the schools were closed from March 2020.

Initially the postal system were not functioning.After some months, they were restarted functioning.

I was the one who collect postcards from the Post man.

The postcards were so Colorful and also with beautiful stamps .

It made my mind to be a postcrosser when I grow up.

All these happened during this year 2020 as we have no schools yet."

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76. Postcrossing Bulgaria      Bulgaria 

              

 

Aa

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75. Shabarish            India  

    On mid of March 2020, Covid-19 has become as an Major Talk around the world, gradually every country started implementing of Lockdown & other restrictions and here in Tamilnadu,India,The first Phase of Lockdown started in 25 March,2020.As i came to know About this Announcement i planned to do a kind of Experiment of postswap in this Lockdown, in this first phase Lockdown there were no Restriction of Postal service in India, so i sent the postcard to Luxemburg,Europe on 27-March-2020 and the Next phases of Lockdowns were severe and the postal services were also Closed all over the world,So i thought that my card would be lost/Not delivered,then later after some months there was a Slight Relation of Lockdown then on 8-Sep-2020 (176 days) the postcard which i send got sucessfully delivered in Europe,i was so excited about this and this postcard of mine is the successful highest travelled card in my postswap experience :)

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74. Asfia      Hong Kong       

 

   I was introduced to this great and wonderful hobby in this year Feb 2020.It is postcrossing . Being a postcrosser is amazing. Postcrossing is a beautiful hobby. Receiving and sending postcards is really fun.Every time I get a postcard,I feel relaxed and joyful. But due to COVID-19 there was a delay in receiving postcards . I waited expecting postcards. Then one day I received a postcard I was shocked and glad . I happily placed it in my collection. I keep on getting postcards. Whenever I feel relaxed and less stressful. Postcrossing is a hobby I'll never forget which was introduced in this year 2020.

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73. Grandhi Ashok Kumar    India

      "Life has taken an U turn after covid-19. Now that I can say BC(before corona) and AC (after corona). First safe guard yourself first and then others. Be healthy. Sleep on time.... exercise daily.....be positive.....be strong.......

 

All the above things have saved me from covid-19..."

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72. Arnold  USA   

 

    Every night when I go home from my work, my dog Bruno is waiting for me so we could play "catch." Because of Postcrossing, I sometimes look at my postcards that have arrived and try to organize them before playing with him. At first, Bruno would wait patiently wait even after an hour, but lately he has done this to my fotw postcard album. Do you think he is preventing me from playing or did I convert him to a canine postcrosser?

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71. Kerstin  United Kingdom     

 

          "In the past I always used the main post office in our town centre. But then I heard that a small sub-post office in our neighbourhood was threatened with closure. I thought it would be a good thing to support it, and began to use it instead, even though it required a small detour to go there.

I had just started Postcrossing, and was soon sending more and more cards. I turned up for every release date of new special stamps and bought lots of those; also I asked for hand cancellations. The staff began to notice me. They clearly appreciated my custom, because they never refused to cancel my postcards and nice stamps by hand (even during busy times) - at the main post office they had always refused, claiming that only parcels were allowed to be cancelled by hand. Clearly ""my"" branch had different rules!

Nowadays, I know the names of the people there and they probably know mine - I saw more than once that they were looking at the pictures of the handfuls of cards I handed over for cancelling, showed them to each other, and I shouldn't be surprised if they checked out my signature too. I don't mind at all. They're like good acquaintances now. And I hope that post office branch will never get closed down after all."

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70. HASNA India 

     "I was introduced to the post crossing Last year. My theme of collecting is Meetup cards. I collected many in the last year.

What was special to me in 2020 is very different. I collected virtual-online Meetup card in this year 2020 as because of covid-19 .

Though covid-19 made the world in a critical situation but the online Meetup concept emerged as a new theme for the post-crossers because of the pandemic issue.

I have collected some of these postcards and it is decorating my album."

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69. Rafan    India    

  "My Father is a Postcrosser and he loves sending and receiving Postcards. He keeps on visiting post offices often. He buys commemorative stamps from Philatelic Bureau from nearby town and he keeps in a box. Those stamps are very colorful. It made my mind to collect stamps and to become a philatelist.

He also swap with my name .So i receive those postcards and keep them.This year 2020 is special for me. we don't have schools and my father stayed at home for months. we collected all his postcards in cupboards and organised well in the albums.

He has now 4 big albums of postcards organised by themes and countries.

I wish this hobby should remain for years as this makes all our mind stress-free."

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68. Cheryll  Suriname   

        "2020 is almost over.

This year was, i guess, a sad year for everyone. But of course pleasent things happened too!

My first ZOOM experience was with the facebook postcrossers. Another pleasent event was the first World Postcard Day. I contacted Postcrossing to ask permission for using the WPD logo on a self created postcard. Ana Campos gave permission and also promised to post their WPD postcard with special postmark. The card arrived last weekend, amazing to finally received a card from the Postcrossing headquaters.

I am also happy that the postal disturbance with Europe was not too long, therefore i was able to expand my Tausendschön collection.

Have a Happy and Healthy 2021 everyone! 💝"

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67. Abdul    India

      "I have introduced my Brothers Daughter(Age:10) into Postcrossing on Feb 2020.She lives in abroad and she loves receiving Postcards. she has bought an album to organise them. I started her sending postcards and she collected and organised.

But the lockdown stopped me to send her. When the Postal system started again,she was so happy. i always love to send her and i keep on sending till my life."

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66. Sharifah               Brunei Darussalam    

      "Having our very first local postcrossing meetup ever on the 8th November 2020

Receiving mails in the challenging pandemic time. I have few postings in my blog www.chepah249.blogspot.com

Made few youtube videos for the first (-:

 

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65. Ali           Kosovo

 

 

Hi! Im Ali Kryeziu, now im 29 years old and i come from a small county called Kosovo! Kosovo now is an independent country. First time that i had an experience with postcard was after the war (conflict) between Kosovo and Serbia. In our primary school they brought boxes with gifts inside, they come from USA, and in most of the gifts they had a postcards or photo of the sender, with one address on it. i was very very happy. After couple of days one of my cousin come to us to write a postcard in English to send to the sender of my box. We went to post office to post it. I will never forget with moment, how happy i was, i was 8 years old. After some years (in 2017) i was part of one FB group that members collect postcards, and i sent around 1.000 postcards only for 1 year, most of them for free and without swapping. Every time when i go to post office to post postcards or other items i change my mood and I imagine a little Ali making people happy like i was in 1999.

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64. Christine Germany   

 

          2020- What a year! It started with a new hobby: postcrossing. A perfect hobby for an empathic person who is not extremely sociable...The first card i got was written on 01.01.2020 and it said ...May this year be a good year... and it drew two hearts...and a year of the heart it was..I felt the sadness of Australians during the severe bush fires, i hoped to be able to visit Bali someday, I have dreamt of the Moon and of lazy cats in the sun, I enjoyed pictures of sheep around cliffs in Ireland, images of art, coffee, books...foreign people wishing me to stay safe and healthy...it wasn't a bad year for me despite this crazy virus. I could keep on daydreaming sometimes..and the last card that came in today made my 10year old shine....mama, mama you have a card from the land of Tokio...I told her that is a city...it was to be Taiwan...and I want to give the wish to all of you reading...May your every little dream come true...

 

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63. Veronica              Romania 

 

         A short story: I saw children dying from malaria and malnutrition. I saw Kidumbulu almost die. I could not endure it. I built a hospital in Africa. Kidumbulu survived.

https://helponechildthrive.files.wordpress.com/

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62. Mina      Serbia  

 

This year was full of challenges. Postcrossing helped us to continue with our hobby and postcards. My vacation plans were canceled so I used to send more postcards via Postcrossing and direct swaps. So I used to travel imaginary through incoming postcards. Sad thing is that there are restrictions and we cant be in touch with other countries, hope it will end soon.

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61. Ray Choo             Singapore    

 

        "This 2020 never been easy for everybody, many countries many companies many families suffered...I am glad that 2020 going to end soon and a better 2021 is waiting for us.

When I have 5 mins I will draw something together with my kids. I am not professional artist but compared with my son, I am slightly better than him. One day my son's classmate birthday and he is wearing Captain American costume. While I am waiting my son at school then I draw a Captain American postcard for this Little Captain. He running around with the postcard (with a used postage stamp at the back of postcard) Since that day, another little boy ask the teacher to draw a Spiderman postcard for him. The day after, all the classmate come over and request ""Uncle, can you draw me a Batman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman...some like Unicorn, for me as long as the kids happy I am happy too.

I saw few kids been looking at me but shy to ask for a postcard, then I walk toward them and ask them which Superhero they like.

At the back of the card, I usually thank you them for being my son's friend and also put a note to the parent about Postcrossing website, hope they can be Postcrosser one day. Some kids requested the second postcard from me, I will ask them to draw something for me to exchange. The main purpose is to encourage them to draw as well (and they can draw very well too) Again my drawings are not good as the professional, some postcards I even draw while I am standing waiting my son. My son ask me why I don't sit down and draw, and I told him, if one day we going to other countries backpacking, we both don't have table and chair, we need to stand and draw postcard to earn money to buy bread...haha

I am Superhero (obviously) I don't know how to make vaccine. But I draw a Superhero for a kid to put a smile on his face. I think is meaningful and this make me happy too. During this pandemic, everybody not happy and stressful...but at least make the kids happy, let them have a Happy 2020."

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60. Aarthy  India 

     "Amabie and COVID-19: Message through postcards

Ever since this pandemic started, the whole world has come to a standstill and during the early days of the pandemic, it was very difficult for us to understand our day to day lies. We were largely restricted to our homes and the world was slowly getting adjusted to this virus. The 1914 pandemic days were read and recollected that little did we realise that the history is repeating itself after a century during our lifetime. As a public health researcher, I have been regularly following the scientific development about COVID-19 in various medical journals. One day, I read in JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) about a mermaid like creature called “Amabie” (pronounced a-ma-bee-ay). The article talked about its existence since 1846 when she first appeared in front of an unnamed officer who asked him to draw and show it to people during pandemics to bring luck and prosperity. Since then it has been linked to folklore in Japan and gained importance lately in January 2020. This character is used by the Japanese government to encourage people to stay indoors and also to be featured as memorabilia in various forms. This interested me much and helped me to develop this idea into a postcard. The idea was to spread positivity and hope which Amabie stands for. One of my Postcrosser friend quickly made this into postcards and since then I have sent close to 100 cards to date. I have sent this card to my friends who are frontline workers and also to my school friends, relatives and friends. All my friends who have received it shared that they were excited to read about it. Some read about it in Google just like I did. The old Japanese script in the card (which is not in existence now) also intrigued few of my friends. This experience was very new to me and I am still waiting to send the next card to the author who about Amabie in JAMA

(Link to the article: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2768645 )

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59. Aarthy  India    

  "R AND HER CARDS: SECRET AND MYSTERIOUS!!

I eagerly joined the WhatsApp Post Crossing Society of India (PSOI) group in March 2020. With sudden lockdown announced in India in late March, the group decided to conduct an online zoom meeting in June. As a newbie to Postcrossing in December 2019, it was a new experience for me to virtually meet and interact young and old postcard lovers from India. My 6-year-old daughter also joined the call as it was all new and exciting to her just like her mother. Though the call had many Indians, we were introduced to an interesting lady (would like to call her R to maintain anonymity) from a European country. Ms R interacted with my daughter and noticed that she loves owls. Ms R immediately asked for my daughter’s name and noted down the address details. She surprised me with her beautiful cards and requested me to keep it as a secret from my daughter till she receives in hand. The cards were posted in June 2020.

As the lockdown relaxations came from August 2020, I was eager to receive the cards which was posted generously by Ms R who has just interacted once with my daughter. It was September, October and I was still waiting for those cards. We interacted over WhatsApp and she was very concerned and disappointed. But she would never give up. She mentioned that she is posting another set of cards and I was excited again. By then, I took her address and started posting cards to her. Its been a few months since she posted beautiful cards twice to my daughter. While I receive many postcards to my address, I have still not received her cards. To add another twist to the story, I even provided her a new address to understand why her cards never reach me, as we used our detective brains to investigate. And to date, I have not received her cards even to my recent address. While she has been receiving my cards off late, we are still in a mystery.

I am still waiting for those cards every day. I just keep waiting just like the lover who waits for her man. It may take months, years or never even reach. I also wish this still remains as a mystery and I never receive it. If not for this mystery, I would have never interacted with Ms R (who is 7106 kms from me) and cherish her friendship. She taught me that friendship can cross physical presence, borders and language through a humble postcard sent with love.

SOME MYSTERIES NEED NOT BE SOLVED, BUT JUST BE UNDERSTOOD!!

 

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58. Katerina               Moldova       

 

      "I spent all my 2020 in my apartment because of work from home, self isolation, etc., like most of us. When our postal service came back to normal in June is was a possibility to connect with old friends by sending cards and meeting new friends, too.

I personally met our 2 post ladies who bring my mails and feel happy when give me a bunch of postcards asking who are those people who send them)

One day I found some postcards in my mailbox. But one of them was not for me. It was a red horse postcard addressed to the girl living in a neighboring house sent from Russia from official PC website. I know most postcrossers from my city and was surprised to meet her so near to me. Of course, I brought it there and put it in her mailbox with a message)

I also have a friend living in those house, I asked him about her, and it turned out that he knows her.

Once, they met at the entrance, were discussing different things, including the case with the card. As a result, he introduced us and now I have a neighbor friend with a common interest!

 

Wish you a happy 2021!"

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57. Aloy       Costa Rica   

       "Story 1 - This December we went to the Main Post Office located in our Capital: San José to buy some new stamps. In our City there the same stamps always (that is not good). We (my bother and I) enjoy to paste nice stamps in every postcard, and sending the perfect card is a challenge many times: some people have preferences impossible to find here. Well, we were wearing a scary/funny mask, and i think the postal clerk (a lady) was very scared, she could not avoid looking at us. We told her Feliz Navidad and finally she changed her mood. That day we were so lucky because it was issued the Christmas minisheet (4 different stamps) this year about Fountains ""very pretty stamps"" and is mandatory to paste 1 Christmas stamp in every mail to help children: what a wonderful idea. Unfortunately we can use them just this month. However we are going to paste them as bonus stamps next year.

The year is ending and today we are going to send our last 2 cards in 2020. We are happy because they dont have preferences about cards. What a relief.

Story 2 - The most embarrasing moment in my life thanks to a bird postcard: I started to send cards in 2017, my grandfather was helping me to write letters. A lady from Germany asked me a bird card to her husband, i decided to surprise her and i sent to her as many cards as i could in an envelope 100 grams, she was very happy. That is the goal, make people happy.

Now the embarrasing moment: they came to Costa Rica because she has some friends in my City, my grandfather never told me about it... and one December night they came to my home, it was terrible because i was wearing my iron man pijamas. oh nooooo, she took some photos, and every December she reminds me that pijamas.

I wont show that photos never. Fortunately she speaks Spanish very well. Her husband is very big, and he doesnt speak Spanish at all.

Finally we had a great night. She told me that she has been sending cards for many years and no one sent to her a surprise like I did. Sending cards is very funny.

Something is happening and we cant upload 2 photos."

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56. Burak    Turkey 

I love history, and postcards are a great way to learn and improve my knowledge about history. I have some favorite themes to collect on postcards, and one of these themes is the Holocaust. I have been studying the Holocaust for many years, and I love collecting postcards about it. To me, this is a way to keep this memory alive. In the summer of 2020, I met the editor of a Yiddish newspaper in New York. We talked about my interest about it and my postcard collection. She was interested in my story, and wanted to publish my story. I wrote my history about my interest in the Holocaust and postcards, and my story was published there. I was really so happy to see my story published.

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55. Katrin    Deutschland   

    Mihnea convinced me to take part even though my story might not be that spectacular. My plans for 2020 included my first visit to Bulgaria to attend an international Postcrossing meetup in Sofia. But then Corona/Covid arrived and the flights, accommodation and the meetup were cancelled. Luckily Mihnea had the idea to organize an online meetup. It was my first online meetup ever and the best one. Irina showed us photos of the sights of Sofia and explained them. In the time between the sights a few Postcrossers introduced themselves. It was a great online sightseeing tour and it was great to meet 27 Postcrossers from Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Moldova and Hungary. It took about 4 hours. A real meetup is of course much better but it was great to meet old and new Postcrossing friends online, too. On 2nd May another online meetup took place and we even were 53 Postcrossers from 28 countries. It was the first time I met Postcrossers from far away (for ex. Deo, Rubens, Vinay G., Dini, Mustari and many many more). I look forward to joining real meetups but I also don't mind to join an online meetup again. And of course it is always a pleasure to swap with you all. ❤

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54. Raquel  Belgium     

  

         No special story. As most of us say it was (still is) a strange here, but the most important is that we survived. According to me 2019 (question of health) was worse than 2020. Being in quarentine this year was not so difficult, comparing my surgery in 2019. This year i had more time for postcards, met some new friends via Zoom meetings. Zoom meetings are not the same as a normal meeting, but without them i never had the chance to meet these new friends. Conclusion: COVID brought us a different life and for sure next one will be better! BE POSITE! ALWAYS!

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53. Swaminathan    India 

     "I am as a post crosser faced good as well bad during this crises year 2020. I am doing collection of stamps and other philately materials like FDC, Maxim cards etc., My post card collection was very small before joining in Post crossing. During these years i was able to collect more than 3000 and hoped to cross 4000 this year. Till March 2020 every thing was ok , but when most of the Air traffic closed and even post office worked on alternative day basis all my hopes was gone.

Even during this March to September i was able to send some cards and received the cards posted during March- April received in July, Aug makes my life going on without stopping. Thanks to Our Indian Postal authorities Later many city/ Area post offices started special cancellations on covid-19 , makes me to collect a new item !.

Online Exhibition are arranged, in my life first time i started participating in Exhibition and Competitions and i won some Bronze medals also. I received cards with tracking codes for the first time. Even our India post accepted only Registered and Speed posts service only for some time till Nov 2020.i received some special cancellation cards from all over world and a cork card also during this period.

Finally on 23.12.2020 my 4000th card from Finland was delivered by our postman Mr. Rosario Prasanna made me so happy that i have achieved something inthis year 2020!.

In all even though we had tough time ,skeleton functioning of postal system for some 6 month over all it made my year happy and made my free time useful even though i have not travelled outside !! Also learned a lot about safety, local medicines and other life lessons."

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52. Dini        Indonesia  

          "Well, about this philately and postcrossing hobby, its all about love & happiness to see the world, people, culture with our point of view and yes we use cards, stamps and website as media to support this hobby..

While you cant travel, this postcrossers friends help you to connect, isnt amazing? I also meet some of them offline when we visit each other and wow its seems we know each other for so long, every where I go I always contact some of postcrosser friends, visit post office and of course take pic with postal box as my signature picture, love that..OMG writing this makes me missing postcrossing meet up and travelling. Hope pandemic is over soon please so we can do more and more about this oldschool amazing hobby! shout out to all postcrosser all the world, YOU ROCKS!!!!"

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51. Olga       France 

"The most memorable story of the outgoing year is the international meeting of postcrossers St. Petersburg - Paris in Russia, organized by me, despite the fact that I live in France.

I am glad not only for the postcards received and sent, but also for meetings in real life with the same lovers.

It took place in the city of St. Petersburg. There were many guests sponsors, together we signed and sent a huge number of postcards around the world."

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50. Mia        Indonesia     

       "it just happen today !

i can't believe when i receive this official card, it was badly damaged, torn on the top side, no stamps, my address blurred (i can't even read it), but it safely arrived !

it was covered in a plastic with the sentence :

""Regrettably the item was damaged and has therefore been provided with a plastic cover by Deutsche Post""

i told my friends and they're as surprised as me too, for it's quite rare to happen and it become a precious postal history.

thankfully the postcard ID and the sender name are still visible, it is BE Belgium, but that card was sent from Hannover, Germany, it's also a meeting card. so the sender chose my two preferences : Tintin & meeting card, i'm so grateful..

the journey made that card more special !

when i registered it, i know it was sent in August, traveled for 145 days, wow !

and the sender name rings a bell, suddenly i remember someone that i met in one of the international meeting online i participated, and my prediction is correct !

I will keep this great survivor card !"

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49. Henk     Belgium      

          "The date that changed my life totally was over 7 years ago , 28th Oct., 2013 the day when I became a member of Postcrossing . Till than I bought 2 or 3 postcards during my vacations to send to my relatives . I never imagined that one day postcard shopping would be my greatest hobby :) ....and to stick to the main question in this contest ... one of the highlights of this Covid year 2020 was the arrival of 2 amazing Postcards . One from Indonesia , where I met online by Postcrossing the sweetest and most faithful postcard-swappers ( now FB friends ) of the country !! ..... and one official Postcrossing postcard from the United States showing my favorite personality Elvis Presley as an addition to my people of our world collection . In the 7 years of official and unofficial Postcrossing I made some friends that I really care about around the world .... and also started a private Facebook Rainbow group for LGBTQ Postcrossers and I am proud to say that we are already over 100 International members . Concerning postcards I must say that my online shopping at Postcardmarket.com helped me a lot to get finest additions to my collections despite I am not a collector of series myself . As pictures to this participation i would like to show you the two 2020 postcards that I was referring to and one at a mailbox in windy Slovakia .

At last I wish all of you an amazing , healthy year 2021 ."

 

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48. Alena    Belarus

"I love traveling and while doing it I love attending postcrossing meet ups and just meeting with people with same interests. So it was February 2020 when I planned my trip to Berlin, Germany and of cause I remembered that I have a very good friend Holger there. So why not to meet. At the same time I posted in my facebook account info about my sooner visit to Berlin and one more member from Poland/Denmark/Germany Genek wanted to meet. So we made it a small but very cozy meeting with exchange of postcards and writing cards to beloved postcrossers. What a surprise it was for me in some days after I returned from Germany to Belarus that all boarders started to close because of unknown virus and it was my last international (but not local) postcrossing meeting of the year. But we opened for us Zoom meetings and I finally saw familiar postcrossing names and now can match them with faces :-)

Happy New year 2021 to all of you, lovely people! Keep hope and stay safe at your places!!!"

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47. Valery   The Russian Federation

- Same story as 46 

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46. Valery   The Russian Federation

Hello, dear friends! I thank 2020 for giving me postcrossing and you! Your friendship, your beautiful smiles, stories, postcards! The magical world of postal wonders burst into my life. Now I have friends in Finland, England, Norway, Romania, USA, Bulgaria, Latvia, Germany, Gambia, Netherlands, Aland Islands and Australia. It became my hobby. Within my country, I organized 11 teleconferences, participated in 2 international meetings, where I met amazing people. I am a teacher, so I introduce the world of postcrossing to my students . In autumn, together with other teachers, I organized an educational project that brought together 11 regions of Russia. Children wrote about their cities, villages, forests, and fields, hobbies, customs and unique traditions of their cities. This inspired us so much that in 2021 we plan to expand our project to other regions. I am grateful to each of you for your advice, support, wonderful messages and communication. Wish you good luck, to be healthy and wealthy. Let all your dreams come true. Be happy!!! Warm regards from Russia, Valery (Tula).

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4. Margarita            Russia  

 

"When I travel I make sure to send postcards from different places. And for this I am always looking for interesting postage stamps.

My last trip before the epidemic was to Romania. We arrived in the city of Yassy in the evening. We found out that there is a post office not far from the hotel. My friend and I went there immediately because there is little time left before closing. But we did not find interesting stamps there. However, the clerk told us that there is a good philatelic shop in this town. She tried to explain to us how to get there and mixed Romanian and English words. Suddenly, an elderly woman, a visitor, just like us, told us in Russian - I will quickly explain everything to you and if you run, you may be in time :-)

And of course we made it five minutes before closing and the kind staff of the philatelic shop stayed for us and gave us the opportunity to choose whatever we wanted. It was my lucky moment!"

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44. Mia        Indonesia        

 

    "We can't send mails to Europe & America since end of March 2020. we hope the restrictions will ended soon, but till November there was no good news. usually in November i already prepare & send Christmas card to my friends in the whole world.

so I decided to participated in Christmas card lotteries and i promise if i win i will send it to my friends, because i can't send it by myself (and actually i don't celebrate Christmas).

I won my first Christmas card in mid November, asked the lottery owner if he want to send it to another friend in another country, and he said yes. i was so happy with his help, and this happened for the next 21 Christmas cards i won.

yes, the universe support me, i won 22 Christmas cards in a month ! i don't even so grateful to win so many lotteries in a month before.

and I'm realized that I'm lucky enough to have good friends who are so kind to help me to send Christmas cards to my friends in Europe & America, also 3 cards which sent to Indonesia.

today is almost New Year, 12 friends already received their cards (first card didn't arrive yet, haha..) so we still wait for another 10 cards to arrive.

Merry Christmas, happy holidays & Happy New Year everyone..."

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43. Alena    Belarus

"I love to improve my English and writing postcards is not the only way I practice it. So I have found in 2020 one amazing international language exchange group and in one of the Zoom calls that we had I was telling people about my amazing hobby Postcrossing and that I am in this for 8 years already and that I collect owls. And what an amusement it was for me when I heard that one Russian girl from the group is in Postcrossing too and owls is her favorite topic! Surely we exchanged contacts and sent owls cards to each other :-) Now one more beautiful owl from Tula is in my +500 owls card collection!

Believe in miracles not only on New year but all year long!

Happy holidays to everyone! Lots of love from Belarus"

 

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42. Megan  USA

   My most interesting, let's see.    I've been collecting and swapping for the last year or so. I sent out a package to someone to swap and they sent me one around valentine's day of 2020.   I finally recieved the package in October of this year that was sent in Feb. Actully I recieved it on Halloween.  So I sent on one holiday recieved on another.   :)

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41. Truus     Netherlands      

Sorry no story at this moment

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40. Sophie France

"My most interesting story is about the friendliness of the postal staff.

You should know that I send a lot of mail, like a lot here I think. Before I moved, the women at the post office in my village were impatiently awaiting my arrival. They wanted to know where the postcards were going. In general, they gave me philatelic postage without my asking.

But now, in September 2019 I moved, I changed region. In France, you can track your address to make sure you receive mail sent to the old address. I had a follow-up for 6 months, the time to put everything in order.

This year, in September, one year after my move. I was surprised to receive a postcard with address tracking. A friend had sent me a card with the old address, and someone at the post office in my old village remembered me and my new address. I was really touched by this gesture, because they did not have to do it.

Always believe in its postal service, besides my letter carrier has become my friend ;)"

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39. Deo Nyiongeso Burundi

 

Hello people there, i am so glad to end this year 2020,i am also feeling so proud to be trusted by the world of collectors in sending them post cards and covers since 2012 year, to me pay is to me support in going where i have to go posting if here in Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and DR of Congo. In spite of hard year 2020 i was so happy to meet in person with Holger Kaufhold from Germany, one of collectors that i sent different cards, i ll be ready too in 2021 for everyone usual, all the best to u all in 2021

 

 

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38. Hollie, Canada

March 21, 2020 I received a postcard that travelled 261 days!!!! The funny thing is, it came from only 229 kms away!!!! We had just gone into a State of Emergency in my province of Ontario because of Covid-19. So even tho it took 261 days to get to me, it was the perfect timing!!! I love that postcards can still be sent and received - even during a pandemic.

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37. Arturo , Spain  

When after the lockdown I passed my exam and finished my first year b2 English level

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36. Fiona     The Netherlands    

November 18, 2020

I'm swapping many postcards since the first lockdown in my country, so I have a lot of incoming happy mail. This is new to my mailman (he said I'm the only one with so much happy mail) and it isn't new that he often rings the bell to deliver my mail in person, because he loves all happy mail so much and he loves to discuss it. On November 18, 2020 I was leaving my town by car, when he saw me. He made me stop, I opened the window and he told me he had so much amazing mail for me, he wanted to give me in person... so he took my mail from his bikebags and gave it to me.

One of the envelops I received that day was my order from Postcardsmarkets.

 

I didn't kept the picture, but I found it in my Instagram story archive

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35. Sophia  Slovakia          

hello there! when my postcrossing friend told me about this contest, I immediately knew, that Im going to participate! I love telling people my stories that I made through Postcrossing! most of the time in 2020 I spent at home being home-schooled and I felt really alone, but postcards were one of the things that made me so happy this year! I met many amazing people this year through postcards. one of my favorite memories from this year its actually from the beginning of the July. 14th July was the day, when Postcrossing was celebrating 15th anniversary. I really wanted to surprise Ana and Paulo (founders of Postcrossing) with postcard. they have PO BOX, where people can send them a postcard and of course 15th anniversary its so special for them, so I decided that I will send them also special postcard, because Im really happy and thankful for everything what they are doing for us! they made a perfect website where I can connect with people that have same hobby as me. I cant imagine my life without Postcrossing. :) after hours of wondering what postcard I should send, I decided that I will make them homemade confetti postcard (I will upload picture down below). our posts and postage system in Slovakia its little bit strict, so I was really wondering if its okay to send postcard like this. but.. after 3 weeks my special confetti postcard arrived to Portugal to Ana and Paulo and I could not be more happier! they shared my postcard on their instagram and facebook and also Ana wrote me a very beautiful message on Postcrossing, that they absolutely love my anniversary postcard that I made for them and also that they are very thankfull! I was so glad, that I made them happy! 2020 was really hard for all of us.. so why not to make someone happy with a postcard? :)

Here is a video with it: https://www.instagram.com/p/CDhDN7uFLZH/

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34. Sophie  Germany 

My postal related story happened to a friend of mine. She lives in Austria and during fall (autumn) time of 2020 she received a letter from China with birthday wishes and an invitation to the senders home for ‚when times are better‘. The letter came from a person/family she’s never heard of, it was not close to her birthday and she doesn’t know anybody that lives in China. The envelope was damaged and the postal service put a sticker with an detected address on it. She first thought it was a scam or a kind of joke and didn’t think anything of it ... but still kept the letter as she kept having to think about it and after doing some research on what was still readable on the damaged envelope, she figured out that the letter was supposed to reach someone in AUSTRALIA! 🤣 Unfortunately she was never able to figure out where the letter came from or whom in Australia it was supposed to reach ... I think by now she’s gotten rid of it but I had to think about that story immediately when I heard about your contest 😊

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33. Kanishk India  

    "The year of 2020 has been truly been a postcard revolution for me, I sent around 30 postcards this year to 6 countries although people send more cards to more countries in one go but for a newbie to postcards I feel that I did ok xD.

I started exchanging and sending postcards through Instagram and Postcrossing . the experience for me was very interesting as when I went looking for postcards to send in my city I returned with zero postcards and a ton of stares and weird looks from the people at the shops and the post office, half the people were looking at me like I was time traveler from the past and the other half thought that I was down right crazy! Almost no one sends postcards in India anymore so finding any was an herculean task not even the post office keeps them so I went ahead and printed a bunch myself!

Another unique experience in my postal hobby is that my father is like my mailman as the place where I live is quite far off from the city so all my mail gets delivered to his office and whenever he comes back the first thing I look for are my postcards xD. I am pretty sure that if someone just writes my name and the name of the city it will get delivered for sure! Also I am 99.99% sure that the people at post office must be both amused and annoyed by me and must thinking that here he comes again with his weird cards to addressed to random countries around the world and why in the world does he keep buying stamps!!

The online postcrossing community is also just so so wonderful the majority of the peeps are extremely friendly and fun, I found a lot of good people through this medium, one such gentleman with whom I swapped sent me I bunch of cards extra as a gift along with the swap and it just made my day a whole lot better!!

I am very happy to be a small part of this international community! Hoping that 2021 would be a better and safer year for all.

Greetings from India!!

Kanishk

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32. Pedro    Portugal    

           In this difficult year, the post office was very important for me and the people of my country. The postmen made payments for the elderly, preventing them from leaving home because of the covid-19. For me and other people they were instrumental in delivering orders and good news (happy postcards). This year I thought about creating a postcard that travels around the world and I have already started its idealization, nothing better than a great trip between several countries and several post offices.

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31. Maria Grazia       Italia   

I have carefully stored the postcards I have received since I was a child. On 4 October 2020 I was looking at old postcards in my albums, and I stopped on a card with a sunset that I received in 1979 when I was 14 years old. The unsigned message says: "Many greetings from those who always remember you". I do not know who sent it, there is no name. Reading this sweet message today, in this 2020 so difficult and far from human contacts, fills my heart. This is the beauty of the messages that we write on our postcards: they allow us to send someone a testimony of our affection, which will remain forever, as sweet as these words of love not signed. This postcard still makes me happy today.

 

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30. Polina    Russia  

"This year was definitely a crazy year and one of the most difficult things for me were queues at the post office. Sometimes they were even on the street! People standing with their mail, tired and angry... Of course I didn’t have time to wait very often, so I was also tired and angry of this :) I need stamps, don’t you understand? 😅

Once upon a time I couldn’t get to the post office for 3 days. It’s crazy, isn’t it? I was SO angry and decided that the next day I will visit the post office through thick and thin.

The post office opens at 8 am and I decided to be the first in the queue. I woke up early, didn’t have a breakfast, took all my mail, wrote what stamps I need on the paper and was ready to fight for my place in the post office.

At 7:40 I was near PO. Maybe I was running too fast, but the PO was closed, it was dark on the street, but I was SO happy! I Was. FIRST!!!

When the post office was opening, an employee looked at me surprisingly and nearly asked: “Have you been staying here all night long?” :)

At 8:00 people started coming to the PO. There were about 5 people there already, but the first was I! Hooray! 🥳"

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29. Rostislav              Czech republic  

I recieved one card without my surname in summer 2020. I lived in the flat house, there were fourty mailboxes. But our postwoman recognised it was for me, because I was single postcrosser in our house. So it had happy ending :)

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28. Alena    Czech Republic  

I start postcrossing this year. I have little daughter, It’s an ideal hobby for mother with no free time :). I work in a hospital, I like walk in the woods and sport in the nature. And the first postcard was from women from U.S.A., she also work in a hospital, she loves nature and bicycling in the seaside and she has little son. The world is small. (I know it’s not funny, but I think it’s really nice.)

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27. Edita      Lithuania           

 A birth of my son at 12 of July

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26. Dhanalakshmi Coimbatore India,

Ok

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25. Claudio Lozza     Monza ITALIA   

I started the collection of the MOTW series with the postcard dedicated to Italy and in the short time of a few months I managed to have them all including those of the regions of some countries. I discovered Postcardcrossing. On November 18, 2020 I sent the postcard from Italy to a school teacher in the USA. It is nice to think that students can get to know my fantastic country through messages, news, customs and traditions that come directly from ITALY.

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24. Andrea Germany     

        Due to the current situation we couldn't celebrate Christmas as we (me and my husband) are usually used to - with our parents. For the first time in our lives we had to spend this time of the year alone and it was really sad. We didn't have any "Christmas mood", so we didn't even buy any gifts,. And then, on 26th December, I got a message from Mihnea that I won 10 postcards from Postcardmarket! It was awesome surprise and my only Christmas gift for this year! Thank you once again for that!

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23. Audrey France 

  I was blocked in Montenegro four months due COVID-19, no flights in that period. Fortunately I travelled almost everywhere in Montenegro, cause Montenegro was the first country that they had zero patient in Europe, so I travelled a lot, everywhere was so calm and no tourist, I benefit all:) I saw well this country, it's seems like my third home now:)

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22. Agapi     Greece

"2020 was the year I joined Postcrossing. I was an intern at a nursing home and one day during my break I decided to write some postcards to drop into the mailbox on my way home.

As I was absorbed in writing, Mr. George, an 86-year-old retired naval officer, approached me. He is known for his impoliteness and his apathy towards everyone, especially the staff. He never got involved in the creative activities we organized; he always sat quietly in a corner and stared out of the window. He only spoke to me if I had addressed him first and usually what came out of his mouth contained a dose of insult. I had given up trying to approach him, I just accepted that we would just have to tolerate each other in the same room. So I was very surprised to see that writing a postcard had caught his attention.

""What are you writing there?"" he asked me in his classic rude tone, but with curiosity burning in his eyes. ""I am writing a postcard, Mr. George,"" I told him. ""And where will you send it? Are there still people who write postcards? Now that you have these devils, what do you need the postcards for?"" (the devils are our smartphones). I explained to him that I have been collecting postcards for a few years now and I have decided to join Postcrosing, so I can send postcards to other people around the world. It took me a while to explain the process to him and I was afraid I might make him bored. ""I see"", he nodded his head in agreement and left.

The next day he approached me again. ""Did you send those postcards?"" ""Yes, Mr. George, they are traveling now."" ""Next time I'm going to help you write something good."" I could not believe my ears. ""Do you like writing postcards, Mr. George?"" He smirked and grabbed a very old postcard out of his jacket pocket. ""I have hundreds of them, but this is my favorite."" I could not hide my surprise. It was from Nafplio and it was so old that the colors had faded and the back side was yellow. Mr. George. discussed enthusiastically with me about the trips he had taken as a young man. He had travelled almost to every corner of Greece and to some European countries as well.

The same day I went to my favorite tourist shop and bought some postcards to bring to Mr. George the following day. I wrote several postcards with the assistance of Mr. George, until I left the nursing home. He had an interesting fact to share for almost every place of Greece. His only term was to never mention that an 86-year-old man is helping me write those postcards.

It has been 6 months since I finished my internship and left the nursing home. But we exchange postcards with Mr. George to this day. I gave him a pack of postcards before I left. I have received postcards from many countries, but when I see a postcard from Mr George, I get so happy. He's still sharing facts that I didn't know. I am aware that the staff helps him and that he continues giving them headaches with his stubborness and whining. But I also know that Mr. George smiles from ear to ear when the nurse announces ""Mr. George, mail time!""

And this is arguably the most precious thing I got out of joining Postcrossing."

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21. Stefanie               Deutschland     

My birthname is S. Zeiger and I'm living in house number 6. Unfortunately there is a S. Ziegler living in a similar sounding street number 6. I'm getting his letters regulary. But this year has been the first year he got mine. Every single piece of birthday mail has been delivered to him. Because of this he brought some flowers and my mail and a few days later I found a letter of our postman telling me he is sorry about that. He added a beautiful postcard with that letter. :)

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20. Jorge     United States of America           

   In early 2020 the postman that delivered mail to my building for many years finally retired and instead of being replaced by another full-time postal worker, the local post office manager assigned temporary workers to the route: almost every day we had a different letter carrier, unexperienced and unfamiliar with our neighborhood. After a few weeks we started to notice a lot of misdelivered mail, finding letters and postcards intended for others in our mailboxes. One day in August I found four pieces of mail addressed to my neighbors, and nothing for me! It was very frustrating because at the time I was very active in Postcrossing and I also had about 30 postcard swaps ongoing. I was angry but I decided to do the right thing: I delivered that mail myself to their intended addressees. Three letters were for neighbors in my own building, so that was easy. The fourth envelope though, was addressed to a person living two blocks away from my home, so I walked there and delivered the letter in person. The lady who received it was very grateful to me. When I got back to the entrance of my building I found an older gentleman looking at the residents names by the intercom, and I asked him if he needed help. He told me that he lived nearby and was there to deliver mail erroneously left at his mailbox. Then he showed me two postcards and to my surprise they were addressed to me! I took the cards and thanked the man profusely and as I was entering the lobby another resident of my building, a young woman, was opening her mailbox. When she saw me she reached out with a letter in her hand, asking me if I knew the person that it was addressed to, and I was pleasantly surprised to see my own name. I took the envelope and went back to my apartment feeling better already, and to my amazement when I opened the door I found another postcard on the floor, that some other neighbor had slid under the door. So, I got my mail that day, not thru the postal service directly, but thanks to the kindness and efforts of my nice neighbors!

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19. Christina              Germany         

    On 8th December 2020, i received a postcard via postcrossing. I haven't send any cards since August, and wasn't expecting any cards from postcrossing, so i was very surprised. It was a busy day and i almost had not the time to register it that day. But shortly before midnight i got the time and registerd it. After that i found out, that the person got my address on 9th December 2019 and it expired, so he/she send a second card. The day i got the card was the last day I was able to register it, before it would be expired forever.

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18. Elisa       Italy  

     "I don’t have an actual story to tell about my postal system, but I can tell you about some little things that happened to me this year, related to my hobby of writing postcards. First of all, I started exchanging postcards at the very end of 2019, and over time I became always more passionate about it; now I’m thrilled whenever I get a postcard in my mailbox.

I might confess that postcrossing opened my mind and change my point of view regarding certain countries and cultures, that I initially had some prejudices about.

Postcards also allowed me to learn many new things about other cultures and to discover some countries I didn’t even know existed (that’s kinda embarrassing to admit, but it’s true. I haven’t a high school diploma yet, but so far my geography knowledge as always been weak). Additionally, I find writing and decoding cards therapeutic, because it makes me really relaxed and relieved.

I consider post-crossing much more then an hobby, no other hobby I have ever had allowed me to improve my knowledge, ameliorate my English, and, of course, get me to know new people and make friends all over the world.

When I first started, I found myself a little lost, for example I had no idea where I could buy stamps or postcards. I also remember accidentally putting my outgoing postcards in my own mailbox, instead of sending them, and it took me a few days to realize it, when I opened my postbox again and found out I “received” some postcards that looked pretty familiar. I also had some problems trying to understand what certain acronyms used to refer to postcards meant; for example I thought that GF meant girl friend postcards, and I wondered what they were and how I could recognize them from normal cards. Also one time I read on a postcrossing user profile the he liked maxicards, and thought it meant very big postcards, so I sent him a huge card, and realized what it actually meant too late. ;)

However I hope to be able to continue this hobby for a long time, since it fills me with joy."

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17. Rheina  Indonesia       

     A friend from Netherland has sent me a postcard, i was so excited to receive it. but, later on after he put it in the mail box, he gave a photo prove. I was so surprised, he forgot to write my city and zip code, he's also surprised he forgot to write the important part😱. After 3 month, we had no hope for it to arrive, he had almost send me another one. Suddenly, a nearby post office called me, the post man told me there's a postcard from Netherland with my name and no city name. I'm awed by this magical postal system😂. It's weird ,the one that had uncomplete address arrived safely, but others with complete address often gone with the wind😂. It happened in 27th October 2020 and arrived in 12th December 2020. Well, maybe it's another Christmas magic.✨

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16. Wang    China   

  From the begining,I dislike my country's Post and UPU,Is inefficient,But one thing happen in this year change it.You know,China out break the COVID-19 at first in 2020(since Jan),I was still playing Postcrossing at that time,but some countries starting reject sent/recieve any letter/postcard from China,I swap with people from Africa and Carribean.I thought OMG,All those cards which I am senting or recieving are gonna missing.It is will be a huge regret.But somehow,after 8 month,I received most of those letters/cards one after another.I start believe the most trustable Postal Service is still the National Post of each countries and the UPU!

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15. Lara        USA   

    "I was expecting a package of meet-up cards for meet-up and there was a error in shipping. It was due the the day of the meeting the problem was I don’t get my mail till 5-6 pm in the evening and I had to leave early. My mail lady was kind enough to give me her text number so we could meet and I could get the package

 

Feb 29 2020"

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14. Ann        United States  

   "First I must tell you I have no good sediments about the USPO mail system!. But I do feel bad for the workers who have contracted Covid and realize the service is slow.

Living on an island we absolutely need air and ship service.

When the Governor closed the state down those services, were lost or they were severely lowered. The USPO notified us. Then they refused claims on priority mail not delivered on THEIR set deliver time dates. Then they told us our mail would be delayed because of no air service. Then some overseas mail was returned to us because some of country shutdowns (these aren't covered for claims unless registered!!)they told us, because of lose of workers due to the Covid, it would be delayed further (see photo ) Then due to the elections, it would be delayed further. The next excuse was it would be delayed because of the Christmas rush. Now although these are valid reason

BUT I would like to know how come no prices went down?????

The two top people of the USPO make more than the President and Vice President of the USA TOGERTHER

Now I am for everyone making a profit But when 2 people get that much why aren't - in extreme circumstances - a drop or reduction in pay to KEEP UP THE EXPECTATIONS THEY TELL US WE HAVE isn't considered to keep the mail running!?!?!?"

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13. Ruinan Wang     China 

    At Oct 16 2020.I saw a thread post by Raducu that he want help kids from 7th grade Class that show postcards from all over the world.I think I should help him.So I choose a UNESCO card and write down my best wishes and share my story for the kids.Is a difficulty year because of the COVID19.But I hope my card can bring as much as the joy I can give to them.

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12. Vera      Indonesia      

      "Initially I was a stamp collection, I have started collecting stamps since elementary school until now but I am not a very serious one, I only do it for my hobby in my spare time. I have known postcards for a long time but am not very interested. When the pandemic came, I began to lose my job because my office was closed and my daughter started attending school from home, that's when I looked for activities for my daughter in between studies so I wouldn't get bored, I introduced her to a postage stamp but she seemed less interested because of her age who is still 9 years old I think, finally I introduced she to a postcard, I bought a postcard and I sent it to her and she really liked it because she thought it was more fun because of the many pictures. finally I made her an account on the official web for postcrossing about 3 months ago, I allowed her to use my Facebook to join the postcrossing group in Indonesia and the mixed postcrossing group too, and she started sending postcards, doing direct swaps, give away and When the lottery cards she won, she was really happy. her collection of postcards is currently quite large and from various countries. and waiting for Postman every day has become a routine schedule and happiness for her. At a time like this when many countries have closed access to sending postcards with stamps but my daughter is not discouraged, she remains focused on new hobby and starts looking for many card themes to send. Finally, I created an official postcrossing account to support my daughters activities and help her bring in many more cards for her to collect. It is not easy to teach a younger generation who are dependent and made easy by gadgets and technology to recognize post offices, postman, stamps, how to stick stamps, postcards, how postcards take the long journey, maybe because they consider it a hobby of the older generation and long as well as a waste of time. even though now there are so many kinds and types of postcards with various fun picture themes, there are also lots of online shops that sell postcards, I never insisted on just introducing and it turns out that she likes and enjoys doing it is a bonus for me. I just gave her the information that we can travel the world, find a new friend, learn any language, read any stories and see a lot of unique postcards and each postcard has its own story. we ended up doing both of our hobbies and it was really very fun, the same hobby, ""hunting"" postcards. That's my story this year, it's very sad to lose my job but it's fun to have more time with my children and do a lot of things together.

I hope this story will inspire parents, other children or other people who are confused about what to do. Do all you do with herth.

Keep your spirit, keep your health, Happy Postcrossing and happy hunting postcard on store. And on the world. Thank you 🙏"

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11. Bryan    Canada

"For several years, I have made almost daily trips to my local post office to mail letters, cards, and other items. The staff have always been friendly and efficient, and it has been a pleasure to meet them every day.

Early in 2020, I was diagnosed with an auto-immune condition that limited my mobility; combined with the risks associated with COVID-19 this meant that I had to stop making my post office visits. My son and grandson picked up my mail and dropped it into the box, but apparently the postal staff began to worry about my absence, and managed to contact me and ask if there was anything I needed - they were even willing, on their own time, to come and pick up anything I wanted to mail, every day. I explained that my mail was being dropped off, and now my son and grandson get a special greeting whenever they appear at the post office.

At a time when pubic services are under stress and when postal workers have extra precautions to take, it is reassuring to know that each of us still matters. Thank you Canada Post!"

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10. PRADEEP KUMAR D         India    

  Pandemic (oh my Gosh we shouldn't face this situation anymore in our lifetime) has created an opportunity to cultivate my hobby to the next generation. Schools are closed & my kids and the kids in our building have shown interest in writing letters to unknown friends around the world. They are super excited in deed. Our new journey started in July 2020.

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9. Zdenko Slovakia        

        I live in a town Bytča. I was waiting for my postcard from Germany. It usually takes around 2-4 days to receive, but this one was on way much longer. I was worried about the postcard. In the end, one and half week later it finally reached me. I looked on the side with stamps and I realised my postcard was sent to Bytčica (town 30-40km away), not Bytča. Postman was so sorry about this experience, but at least I have an interesting story. What a mess in postal services during these times!

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8. Valeria  Russia  

"Wow, I had too many interesting post-related things going on in 2020!

First of all, when I learned that it is going to be World Postcard Day on October 1st, I decided that we obviously need to celebrate it. :) And ordered a professional artist to paint a special postcard for me. Which then I printed in 900 copies (!) and sent all over the world to support the newly-founded holiday! And I’ve never ever printed a card before! It all was very new and exciting for me. And I even got a “thank-you” from Paulo and Ana, the “parents” of Postcrossing :) All this WPD project started in August 2020 and continued around the first decade of October.

Secondly, I joined the local group of postcrossers, made a lot of new friends and started to draw and print cards for their meet-ups myself (I only painted 1 by now, but I have a lot on my mind for the future meet-ups). You can check by the link below the card I made for the Day of the Letter Ё (late November - early December)

And the last - but not the least - in December I’ve made a connection between South Korean and Russian postcrossers for the international exchange between our groups. It was dedicated to the Bears of our countries - a special stamps joint edition in our 2 countries. We printed 3 types of cards to make Maxicards with them. I asked everyone from our side to provide the info and then with the help from a Korean girl proceeded to connect everyone with Korean postcrossers according to their Maxicard wishes. Unfortunately, people form Korea cannot send us their bear Maxicards right now due to the COVID restrictions, but Russian post sends to Korea now and we were able to send them our cards already :) And Koreans will post their cards when their Post allows them to. And I hope I will continue to chat with the Korean girl I met through this project of mine and we will become friends!

All in all, this year took a lot of work and effort from me postcards-wise, but instead gave a lot of positive emotions and new interesting people to meet (both online and offline)!"

 

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7. Marie    France 

"On my last evening in Warsaw, Poland (January 2, 2020), before returning to France, I was looking for a post office to buy some stamps to send my postcards to my family and friends.

 

I was looking on google map for the closest post office near of the central place. Google map showed me that I was in front of it but I couldn't see it. So I walked around the central place during 20 minutes before looking out a window and seeing that behind a door without any indication, it was the post office I had been looking for 😂😂"

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6. Joseph  India 

     Due to COVID and restrictions, participation in postcrossing wasn't great this year. I was able to swap only few cards. Anyhow, my great experience was when I sent a postcard to a friend who hasn't received a postcard never before in his life! I bought a stock image and printed my own Christmas postcards using it. He liked it a lot and I hope he'll join postcrossing.

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5. Pam       USA   

    I mailed a card on August 11th, 2020, to Person A in Georgia, USA. About a week later, I received a message from Person B (who I also know and exchange cards with) in Texas, USA telling me that the card had been delivered to her even though it was addressed to Person A (who she also knows). I had not sent anything to Person B recently, so the mystery is how my mail came to be directed to her (1,000 miles out of its way) when in the normal course of events there is nothing to connect our names and addresses in any way. The end of the story is that Person B put the card back in the mail and it was duly delivered to the rightful recipient, Person A, a few days later. I was glad to hear the card was received by Person A, and we all had a good laugh at the experience.

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4. Tariqul  Bangladesh         

On December 2019 I decided to write letter to Queen 2nd Elizabeth to receive a letter from there,on January 16th 2020 i finally i received a letter from Buckingham palace!!! Which is a an awesome piece for me in my collection,even though the mistakenly wrote my name Taniqul instead of Tariqul!(photo added)

Then the lockedown started in March in Bangladesh,all mails stoped .. i was sad about it,but still wrote one card in a week! To post them later.i was always waiting when the lockedown will be ober when will I receive some postcards and when will i send some! Some mail took more then 6months to arrive.

On December 20th 2020 i met with a great postcrosser from Bangladesh.A daily newspaper published an interview of him about postcrossing! And i got to take his autograph on That newspaper which is another beautiful thing in my collection. (photo added)"

3. RAMANATHAN S, INDIA 

Story about COVID19 lock down in India

2. Tariqul, Bangladesh  

Story 1: more then a story its a memorable day for me..It was in beginning of may! After staying home in lockedown for almost 1month me and my cousin decided to go out for some fresh air,it was still lockedown and Bangladeshi army was guarding al over the city,So we decided to to rome around local street with our motorcycle!...But suddenly not one not two,three trucks full of army saw us,they started to chasing us with those big trucks for almost half kilometres,But thank fully we didn't got caught! We managed to escape...Its was scary but really memorable for me..after that we never went out in lockdown.

Story 2:In the lockedown me and my cousin did stuff that we would have never do.Like flying kites,watching birds,watching movies whole night and sleep all day and many more! I really enjoyed the lockedown tbh.

Story 3: after waiting for several months of corona situation in December me and my cousin finally decided to go in our home town after 7years,to meet with everyone! We took the motorcycle,for the first time i made a motorcycle trip! Which was really fun!! Our home town is around 70km away from us,but we lost our path and gone over 40km of wrong way! But somehow we reached to our destination.(photo added)

 

1. Adriana, Romania

Story : I found no Christmas stamps at local post. I was very surprised, astonished. I will buy via online shop. I wanted to decorate my mail for Christmas.