Thursday, June 3, 2010

Postcrossing Meetups, an Airplane card and others

I want to take a minute here to publish my month end report on postcards. During May I received a total of 36 postcards, of which 19 were received through Postcrossing. I mailed out 42 cards in May and 10 of those went to Postcrossers. I added 1 new country or postal entity to my collection, bringing the total to 236.
Now on to the cards making up this update. The first 2 cards were sent from Postcrossing meetups. The first one is from Finland. The Postcrossing meeting was held in Helsinki on May 04th. The card shows a ski-jumpimg venue. The card is from Tarya but was signed by 6 other Postcrossers that attended the meeting. The postmark reads May 4th, the stamp's first day of issue, and is part of a souvenir sheet issued for Shanghai Expo, featuring modern architecture.

The second card is from Great Britain and was sent from an International Postcrossing Meeting , held in London , May 01st. The card reproduces a British stamp from 1980 issued for London 1980, an International Stamp Exhibition.
Next up is another card to be added to my Airlines on Postcards collection. It shows an aircraft of NLM CityHopper Airline. The card was sent from the Faroe Islands by Igor of Germany. His blog is www.covercity.de , give it a look. Igor used a 2007 stamp on top and a 1999 stamp from a set of 6 featuring Northern Isles , on the bottom.

The final 2 cards are both from Postcrossers. One is from Austria , while the other is from Latvia. I mostly wanted to show the Austrian card for the wonderful stamps on the back. The 2010 Otto Preminger stamp , the 2006 motorcycle stamp and the 2003 sailing stamp are all great and new to my collection. The Riga , Latvia card is a multiview of the city. It looks interesting, especially The Black Cat House. The story goes that the black cat house in the photo is one of the many interesting stories of Riga. The house has two black cats--one on each of its two cupolas. During the height of the Hanseatic League, the owner of the house was not invited to join the Great Guild for Riga's business leaders. The Great Guild headquarters was directly across the street from his home. He was so insulted by the Guild's snub that he turned the two cats so that their rear ends were pointed towards the Guild building. Eventually the owner was invited to join the Guild and the cats were returned to their original position. Now that's a great story. The stamp on the right is from 2006 and features a Karlis Huns painting. The definitives are from 2010.

That's all she wrote for today. Have a great read, and enjoy your postcards and stamps.
.

7 comments:

Tokyo Tintin said...

I just came across your site a few days ago. Very impressive!

Would you like a postcard from the UNESCO post office here in Paris?

Cheers!

Daniel

Gem from Airdrie said...

Hi Daniel,
Thanks for your offer of a postcard. I would love a card from the UNESCO post office in Paris. Just a question- would it have a UN stamp or a French stamp ? Either way, I still would love it. Thanks
Glenn

Tokyo Tintin said...

Hi Glenn,

It would have a UNESCO stamp of course ;-)

I have a similar postcard collection myself, with a similar "every country" goal ;-) I wanted to ask you how you've managed to get cards from such off-the-beaten-track places as Christmas Island or Chad? I had been contenting myself with friend, coworkers and my own travels, but you seem to have some magic strategy!

Thanks!

Daniel

Gem from Airdrie said...

Daniel,
When I first started I depended on family, friends and co-workers, like you. This only go so far , then you have to branch out on the internet. I find contacts for hotels, tour companies, government officials, tourism offices and send off a request. Every now and then you get lucky. I also have had good luck with bloggers and missionaries along with American Peace Corp workers around the world. The internet lets me contact many many people that want to help.There you have it.
Take care,
Glenn

Tokyo Tintin said...

Thanks for your help! I'll have to start some address hunting now.

When you contact these people, do you simply explain the situation? Do you offer a postcard in exchange? I'm intregued...

I supposed you wouldn't mind a a postcard from French Antarctica then as well, as a 'thank you' for your guidance :-D

Cheers!

Daniel

Gem from Airdrie said...

Most of them , I don't send a card to , but a few will appreciate getting one from you. I just tell them what I am attempting to do and that I really would like a card from the country where they are. It seems to work quite often. If you can arrange a French Antarctica card , I would love it. Thanks , Do you have ant contacts in Wallis and Futuna Islands as this has been one hard one to get ? Glenn

Tokyo Tintin said...

One French Antarctica postcard, coming up! (You'll have to be super patient though as it has to travel all the way to Antartica on a boat, get stamped, then come back on a boat as well).

The 'Terres australes et antarctiques française' has a representative office in Paris with a philatelic bureau that can sort you out with stamps and postcards. The Wallis & Futuna office is unhelpfully located in New Caledonia and doesn't seem to be online. Sorry.

Thanks again for your help!

Daniel