"Problematic" cards

These two cards took forever to get to their receivers - because of the stupid unknown glitch of our post-office I described earlier.

Card for Tine from Vosselaar, Belgium. It was not easy to find a card for her - because we started Postcrossing not so long ago, our stock of cards to send is very limited, and I have to go shopping every time we pick a new address. It was Christmas time, when we got Tine's address, so only Christmas and New Year cards were available, along with basic touristy cards. Sadly, I couldn't find any animal card, so I had to settle with this one - Tine mentioned "cute old people" in her profile - and I hope this lady is cute enough.^^

This lady is selling flowers and oak leaves wreaths for a national Latvian holiday called Jāņi (or also Ligo). Celebrated in the night between 23 and 24 of June, it's a nice tradition from Pagan times, when people usually eat roasted meat, cheese, drink beer, jump over giant bonfire, sing, dance, swing on swings... It's a lot of fun, really! ^_^ I like to believe that magic stuff can happen that night. :3

And Ymare from Ter Apel, Netherlands received two of our postcards, because I was so worried she won't get it - and we sent the second one. I have only one scanned though - it's black and white, like Ymare likes - and it's a photo of the House of the Blackheads. It was built in the 14th century, completely destroyed in WW2 and renovated in 1999.

Even more sent cards

So, 14 cards sent so far, and 5 travelling. We received 11 cards, so I hope more will come to us soon, because I'm kind of addicted to finding a new card in the mail box. ^_^

Yana from Tolyatti, Russia has a dream of opening a New Year museum, where she can show her New Year postcard and stamp collection from all the world, and also tell about traditions of New Year celebrations around the world. Cool idea, don't you think? So we searched through our Box of Old Postcards again, and found this cute card with a drawing by Margarite Staraste, printed back in 1975. I hope this card will be a fine piece for Yana's future museum! :D

And this card was for Sherry from Riverside, USA. Our card was going to be the first Sherry's card from Latvia, so we chose a multiview card with famous sights and a big photo of the Old Town.

Nice day today :3

So yeah, today was a very nice Postcrossing day. Even though my mail box was sad and empty - three of our postcards arrived! Two of them - the "problematic" ones (I was really afraid they won't make it). Phew!

And I also went for postcard hunting today. It was a huge success - the shops finally got rid of massive amounts of Christmas and New Year cards. And updated their selection of beautiful sceneries and city views. Ooooh, joy! I finally found two cards with a sea view and Turaida castle I wanted. For myself and for Postcrossing - I'll make a post with these cards when they arrive. ^_^

My top-favourite places to get postcards -
Valters un Rapa - a book store in the center of the city, with a large selection of cards. I buy most of the cards we send here. City views (not only Riga), coat of arms, birthday cards, cards with cute drawings (most of them are double, not postcards, but some people like them). Love it)

Globuss - a textbook store. Selection is not as big as V un R, but there are some cards that were sold out in other shops.

Tiimari - a lot of postcards with animals, Valentine cards, Disney (the one and only shop, where you can find cartoony version of Jack Sparrow! XDD), flowers - anything, you name it. Where oh where these cards were, when I was looking for them?! T_T

Okay, on with the sent cards!
This card was for Adela from Bialystok in Poland. She likes surrealism and unusual art. I found this card in Valters un Rapa. It was a double card, but Adele wished for the card to be stamped and without envelope. I remembered the tip from the forum - just cut the card in two pieces, and voila! Adela loved it, I'm happy)
The picture on the card is called Pass-a-grille Pelican. It's a digital computer artwork by Aya Nagobads.

Card #11 received

This cool card comes from Carole in Hamilton, Canada. This "Did you know?" card series is a great idea. You can see a photo of an animal/object and read some interesting facts about it. Carole was so nice and chose a card with a big wild cat - a cougar. We love cats, we love big and wild cats - cougars are very beautiful.

Since the text is too small to see, I'll quote it:
Cougar (Felis concolor)
Next to the bears, this is the largest, most powerful Canadian predator. Once numerous from Atlantic to the Pacific, habitat destruction has reduced much of its range. As a result, it is found chiefly in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia and Alberta. Large males can measure 2.5 m in total length and may weigh over 90 kg. The cougar can run as quickly as 70km/h (43.5 mph), jump 6 m (20 ft) from a standing position, and vertically leap 2.5 m (8 ft). They have been seen to junp horizontally 12 m (40 ft) and vertically nearly 5 m (16 ft). They prey upon deer, wapiti, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, beaver, snowshoe hares, and even mice. Their preference is for fresh meat, and they rarely scavenge from old kills. Despite their size, these animals, because of their extreme wariness, are infrequently seen by man in their natural habitat.

Now we have a card of a predator from Rocky mountains, and we also have a card of an American side of R.M. we received from Gloria! Cool)

Cards from Turkey

Ece from Turkey sent us TWO cards instead of one. ^^ One with a photo of Bosphorus Bridge - a bridge that connects Asian and European parts of Turkey. And second with an afternoon view of Istanbul. So beautiful and peaceful... We really like these cards :3

New card!

This card came from Moscow, Russia - Lena sent it to us. One of our requests in our profile is vintage - and this card is a fine example of Soviet vintage. The card was printed in 1957. That's much older than the cards from our old box! XD The painting is called "The beginning of spring", it was drawn by a Russian painter Ivan Yazev. He mostly painted nature and portraits. Some of his works can be found in the Modern Art Museum in Rostov-on-Don and in Yaroslavl's Art Museum.

Today we went to the post-office to ask about the postcard we got back. You won't believe this... They couldn't even explain what was wrong! "A perfectly normal card," they said. "The stamp is fine, we don't know, why you got it back." Great, we said. Can you take the card and sent it to Belgium already? "Oh no," the post-lady said. "You need to get a new card and stamp and send it one more time."

It's just... So idiotic. Why the hell should we pay for  THEIR mistakes? I'm so mad!!
We decided to put this card in the envelope and send, because getting a new one would be impossible - I bought the last card of this kind from a shop.
Stupid post-office.

Problems

Argh, I hate our post-office system. =_= There are always some stupid problems!
I checkes the official site for stamp prices, and it stated, that you need to pay 0.45Ls if you send a card to EU and 0.50Ls to other countries (letters are a bit more expensive). Okay, I went to the post-office in the city center, and asked to give me stamps to send three cards to EU. I received stamps for 0.45Ls each. Later that day I found another card I could send (the one for Jose), and went to the local post-office. This time I asked a stamp to Portugal. Since Portugal is in EU, it must be 0.45, right?
Wrong. They told me it's 0.50. I bought it, since I prefer not to argue about stuff like that - and I wanted our card to arrive safely. But it amused me.
Okay, since this card was received - I'm happy. But today I found a card in my mail box - the one we sent to Belgium. It had all stamps and seals and everything - it seemed that they sealed it in the post-office, and instead of sending it to Belgium, they sent it back to me. What the hell?! There was no sign like"rejected" or anything, so I can't tell what's wrong. I'm going to the post-office tomorrow - but I'm really mad about this service. I'm nervous about other cards - will they arrive? Were they sent properly? This card was damaged with water drops, and the text me and Lio wrote is somewhat fuzzy.. I'm so upset. If the cards arrive in such a bad shape to all users... It's so awful.
There are two more of our cards travelling - one to the Netherlands and one to Russia. I'm not worried about the Russian one - it was sent in an envelope with a proper stamp, but the card to the Netherlands... Now I'm not sure it will arrive.
Argh.

Card #8 received

Okay, this card does not have mountains, but almost - that's Seven Sisters, series of chalk cliffs in Sussex. Susan, who lives in Worthing, Sussex, UK, sent us this card. Each cliff has it's own name, you can read them on the card. Even though there are eight cliffs, the name is Seven sisters - because it is said there once were seven sisters, and each one had her own house on a separate cliff.

Seven Sisters Country Park is a beautiful place. Great for picnics, bird watching, cycling, canoeing and camping. You can also visit Sheep Centre and watch cute sheep! :D
And again, Postcrossing amazes me with new beautiful places on Earth.

Sent card #9

And this card was for Jose from Portugal. He's a history teacher, and loves football and soccer, and everything about sport and Olympic games. Sadly, it's hard to get cards like these in Riga, so sport was not an option. Lucky for us, Jose also enjoys art - so once again I took a big box of old cards from my closet and searched.

This card shows a painting by Russian painter Ivan Nikitin. This is Tsesarevna (Princess) Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter I. Her son later became emperor Peter III. She died when she was only 20, so sad. :(
This portrait is a part of exibition in Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. I've been to Moscow, but never visited this famous gallery, I fail. x_x But Moscow is not very far, so I hope me and Lio will definitely pay a visit. ^^
The card itself was printed in 1977.

Sent cards

Two of our cards were received!
This one was for Sirpa in Finland. She asked for nice landscapes - so I bought a card with a photo of the Gulf of Riga (the Baltic Sea). Well, usually the beach is sandy, especially near Riga and Jurmala (Jurmalais a famous health-resort). But if you go further to the West side of the Gulf, the beach becomes rocky, and I find it very beautiful, though not really pleasant for a swim)) This area of Latvia is called Kurzeme, and the towns near the sea are famous for delicious smoked fish and amazing landscapes. Read more about Kurzeme's beauties here.
Sirpa loved this card, we're happy about it!

Card #7 received

We received three cards today, yay! I don't post them all in one post, because I want to give every card specail attention they deserve. :3
Okay, this one is from Inge-Lore from Germany. She lives in a small town Grevenbroich, which is situated between Cologne and Dusseldorf. The funny thing is that we have friends in Germany, and they live near Dusseldorf, in Hilden. And me and Lio visited Germany, we've also been to Cologne (I LOVE Cologne Cathedral, it is so great!). The world is so small, really)
Okay, so here's one more link to Grevenbroich's official site and the card. It's a cute black kitty! *___* We love cats - Lio has a cat named Dasha, I have a cat Freya, and when me and Lio were renting an apartment together, we took in a cute male cat Vincent. He now lives at my place. Thanks, Inge!)

New cool card!

This is the BEST card evaaar! XDDD It was sent by Auli from Finland - I guess she chose this card because we mentioned Gothic&Lolita fashion in our profile. It's not quite the same Gothic style the Europeans know - but who cares, the card is absolutely awesome! We love-love-love it)))

This image is called "Gothic siren" by Anne Stokes - she's a goddess of Gothic fantasy, go check her site out! And she has so much beautiful art featuring dragons... Lio is crazy about dragons, and I love them too) We're so lucky to receive this card, thank you so much, Auli!
Some stuff with Anne's art can be found here.

Card #5 received

This card comes from Grace in Taiwan. Wow, that's the other side of the world... No wonder it took two weeks to get here! XD It's the biggest distance for a received postcard so far - 8,293 km! And... It's a view of the mountains again. o_o I wonder if we will receive any other beautiful nature any time soon?)

This place is called Moon World, because the landscape is so deserted and looks like the surface of the Moon. It is situated in Tianliao district in Taiwan. The terrain is called "badlands" - rains and streams caused a great erosion of tne land. There is a pavillion called Lan-Yue-Loe nearby for tourists to rest and view the landscape (though I'm not sure if it's a hotel, or just a building). You can also visit two temples and a Fongyue mud spring nearby. Grace suggest we visit Taiwan some day. I hope we will someday)

More sent cards

The end of December and the beginning of January was quite a disaster, since I was very ill and couldn't hunt for postcards properly. Lio doesn't have a lot of interest in shopping, even for cards, so it's up to me to get them) We sign the cards together though.
Anyway, the cards needed to be send. Choosing a card for Adri in US was quite easy, since she doesn't have any special preferences. This card was bought by my mom, and I dare say this is one of the most adorable Christmas cards I've ever seen. I would be glad to receive such a card, even though neither me nor Lio are especially in love with cute things.

And this card was for Sine in Germany. Sadly I didn't find any very special card for her, and I also wanted the card to be Christmas-y, so I got this nice baby-blue card from Tiimari. Sine likes skiing and snow, so I thought maybe she'll like the design... But maybe I just fail in choosing. =_=

Received new card!

This card came from Iceland, and since Iceland has onle 137 postcrossers, I consider us lucky. XD Siggi sent us this card of Myvatn lake - the best place for birdwatching in Europe, as the card states. I ended up reading Wiki about Iceland, and found a lot of interesting stuff - I'm so ashamed I never knew that before... Oh well, Postcrossing makes me more intelligent, good for me)

Did you know that Icelanders don't have a surname? The second part of the name is a mix of their fathers first name (or sometimes mothers) and a word "son" (or "daughter"). So Jon Ericsson will be a man, who's name is Jon and who is the son of Eric. Or a woman - Yohanna Ericsdottir. Their son would be named, for example, Amar Jonsson. That is so unusual and interesting! Read here if you're interested.

And one more thing - since I'm a geek for mythology and folklore, I read about Fjallkonan - Lady of the Mountain, who is a female incarnation of Iceland. Sheesh, why did Himaruya made Iceland a guy in his comic strips? He should've got inspiration from this lady))

Aaaand one more thing - I knew that Icelanders have a very unusual national quisine, like fermented shark meat, but never knew it was because this particular shark is quite poisonous, so you just have to let it ferment if you want to eat. I bet ancient Icelanders didn't have much choice. Read about this food in English or Russian.

Received postcard!

This is the third postcard we got, and it came from Gloria, who lives in Boise, Idaho, U.S. It was the first card which showed a place it came from, so it made me and Lio very happy! We LOVE beautiful nature, and mountains are present in our card-wishlist, so double yay for Gloria)
US nature is so beautiful, it takes my breath away. This card shows a part of Rocky mountains, the Sawtooth Range. This particular one is McGown Peak.
The thing I love about Postcrossing is that you can learn about new places you never knew existed. So now I know Boise is the capital of Idaho state, and Idaho is famous for its outdoor activities (with these mountains - no wonder!) and is called "a potato state", because it produces one of the biggest yearly crops of potatoes. Thanks for the info, Gloria! ^^

Christmas card

Our second received card comes from Olga in Brest (Belarus). Even though Christmas already ended, it's nice to receive a sweet card like that.

First card received!

The first card me and Lio received through Postcrossing was a rather unusual one... It was a letter from Lithuania - and the card inside glanced at us with its own eyes! XDDD

It's a handmade card, and this is a friendly robot Jonas from Kaunas! His eyes can move. We find him rather cute)

Unusual cards

When Christmas times comes, it is sometimes very complicated to find a special card for someone, who doesn't enjoy receiving tourist view cards and also Christmas cards. At first I panicked, because I couldn't find anything suitable, but then I stumbled upon some more Christmas cards in Tiimari. One of then literally took my breath away - it was a reprint of a vintage photo with two kids dressed up as angels. I immedeately bought two - one for Lamberto in Italy (since he enjoys angels and vintage), and one for my own private collection)

Next cards

I was feeling ill, but the urge of sending postcards was too great, so I asked Lio and my mom to buy some cards. Signing them kept me busy while I slowly recovered. So these pretty cards show some of the best places in Old Riga (the Old Town belongs to the Unesco WHS, by the way).

For Marjatta in Turku (Finland):

For Seda (Turkey):

And this one I found myself - Marita from Finland had this card in her Favourites, so I decided it could be nice for her)

I know many people don't like cards with many tiny photos, but these users didn't state anything about it in their profiles, so I gave it a try. Personally I think receiving cards like these is fine when you start Postcrossing - it's a chance to see many plases at once.

Getting started!

I got hooked on Postcrossing after seeing a news report on TV. Getting postcards from all over the world sounded like a great idea, so I joined!
Me and my best friend have a joint account, so we sign the cards together. I will boast with ours oh-so-pretty received and sent cards here. ^_^

The very first card was sent to the Netherlands for Djamilah. She asked for something cute - so I remembered about a big box of old postcards, which mom and grandparents bought, when they were young. There I found a card with sweet little bunnies and a squirrel. Very Christmas-like, don't you think? ^.^ Anyway, this one was printed in 1980, even before I was born. The card reached the Netherlands in only 3 days and Djamilah loved it!  A very nice start)