It appeared in our lives at the exact right moment. When the world was closing its doors, our mailbox was being flung wide open. Sitting alone in our Tbilisi apartment, it was as if the Universe was trying to point us in the right direction. A way to connect with others during one of the most isolating points in time. While surfing the internet, I stumbled upon a site dedicated to synchronicities. In particular, there was an article all about postcrossing. So that’s how it began. Our new obsession with postcards.
What is Postcrossing?
Quite simply, it’s the exchange of postcards from one person to another. The postcrossing project originated back in 2005 and has grown to a community of over 800,000 people hailing from over 200 countries. Anyone who enjoys sending and receiving mail is welcome to sign up. The concept is easy. Once you send a postcard, your name goes onto the list to receive one in return.
Why We Love it
You know that euphoric feeling you get when you find a surprise in your mailbox? Something unexpected. Not a bill or a coupon for a store you’ll never visit. And certainly not the face of some candidate vying for your vote. It’s the kind of mail that’s handwritten. The letters you can’t wait until you get inside to open up and reveal their contents. So you immediately dig your finger between the seams for a glimpse of where this mysterious letter arrived from.
Is it an invitation? A birthday card? At least grandmothers still send those, right? In our case, it’s a postcard from somewhere in the world. Maybe a new friend from a village in Germany, or Russia, or an Aussie down under. Maybe it’s from some obscure location we’ve never heard of – the type of place you’d expect to find Carmen Sandiego sneaking around.
We love postcrossing for the element of surprise that’s attached to it. Opening the mailbox is like unwrapping a gift. Sometimes it takes the shape of a beautiful photo or stamp. Other times it contains a small gift, like a new face mask (because that’s a thing now). But mostly, it’s the messages from the senders that bring us the most joy. Hearing about someone’s day, where they live, or the customs of their country. It’s a chance to feel connected to locals in a way we haven’t since our traveling came to a quick halt.
Our favorite things about travelling generally boil down to two main criteria. Sampling all of a region’s food and drinks and connecting with the people who live there. In our own kitchen, we’ve been able to recreate our favorite dishes from Vietnam, and pour a glass of Croatian wine. The element that we were missing though, was the connection to a community of people. Through Postcrossing, we’ve found that! It’s no replacement for getting on a plane and exploring a new place first hand, but it’s a great way to fill the void in the meantime.
Is Postcrossing Expensive?
It doesn’t have to be. For just the price of a postcard and a stamp, you can experience the joy of receiving mail from a stranger/new friend in another country. We began our postcrossing journey with just five cards, five stamps, and a whole lot of bewilderment as to what to write! However, it is possible to turn postcrossing into an expensive hobby. When it comes to postcrossing, you can be as active with sending postcards as your wallet and time allows.
If you’re really enjoying yourself, you can quickly spiral into having large rubber stamp, sticker, and postcard collections.
We noticed very quickly that some members of the postcrossing community have built up an impressive number of cards sent and received since joining the site. We’re talking in the thousands! That adds up to some serious dedication and probably a lot of money spent on stamps. We’re still aspiring to that level of commitment.
Postcard Writing Prompts
Bewilderment, remember? It can be daunting figuring out what to say to a complete stranger and in such a small space to say it. The more we write, the easier it becomes to compose our cards. The postcrossing site itself offers up a writing prompt each month to help you shake off the writer’s block. Also, each postcrosser has a unique profile cluing writers into what they might have in common or what they would be intrigued to hear about.
Here are some of the writing prompts we have on our own postcrossing profile :
- Tell us about your happiest memory from the past few weeks
- The best piece of advice you have ever recieved
- A current favorite, something you would recommend to a friend : a book, podcast, movie, or snack
- A random fun fact about where you live
But whatever our faraway friends choose to tell us about, we’re just happy to receive the message.
Recently, we’ve shared stories with our recipients about that time an Icelandic horse bit my finger on our wedding day, the time we booked a train from Budapest when we were actually trying to leave Bucharest, and how we screwed up by planting 27 tomato plants in our first year of gardening. In case you’re wondering, that’s too many tomatoes.
Final Thoughts
If you’re in need of a new hobby or just a way to connect with others, this one comes highly recommended. You never know who you might come into contact with. Maybe you’ll receive some timely advice summed up in three well-constructed sentences on the back of a postcard. Or maybe just a chuckle from the fruit bowl and Taiwanese-bear theme decorating the front.
Now if only we could stumble across a worldwide community exchange for bottles of wine. C’mon Universe!
Cheers friends and happy postcrossing,
Megan + Matt
