Postcards from paradise

I was reading my friend B’s blogpost on her love for snail mail and it made me think of my own not-so-secret adulation for postcards, of which there seems to be an actual definition.

Apparently, deltiology - the study and collection of postcards –is one of the world’s most popular hobbies…and here I was thinking I was the only one!

Now, I wouldn’t say I’m a super hardcore deltiologist (?!) but I have quite the collection of postcards hoarded away in my room. They adorne my walls, act as bookmarks or decorations and I often flick through stacks of them at a time to remind myself of my travels, the people I met and the things I experienced. Honestly, whetehr a postcard is tacky and tasteless, a beautiful artwork or illustration, a photograph, or text, I. Just. Can’t. Help. Myself.

Why? Because well – who doesn’t love getting a postcard?!

The delight you feel when you open your mail box and there’s a postcard scrawled with your name on it…how can you not feel a bit spesh?! Someone is thinking of you while they are gallivanting around the world and having loads of fun and they’re sharing a little piece of their experiences with you.

As a chronic sender of postcards (I estimate I sent close to 200 postcards in 15 months during my most recent travels and time away) , my motivation to buy, write and post them is purely for the surprise I know it will give my friend or family member.

Sending a postcard is my way of letting someone know that I’m thinking of them while we’re apart. I might be watching the sunset on a beach on Barcelona or lying in a Berlin hostel bed recovering from a revolting hungover, but by writing to them, I feel like I am sending a part of me back to them.

Anyway, here are some of my favourite postcards. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do (again sorry for the dodgy photography!).