Postcards from Europe and beyond

It's been nearly two months since I did an update on my postcard experiment. Sadly there's still no news on a bunch of postcards that I sent out nearly three months ago. Not that I'm counting every day, but this is how long it's been since I sent out 8 postcards to the following 6 countries. One can only wait and hope they will arrive ..... one day

Philippines, Pakistan and South Africa - 89 days
Chile - 85 days
Cuba and Venezuela - 80 days

On a much brighter note, I received some postcards from some friends who agreed to take part in my little experiment. Let me show you the lovely selection

Dozza, Italy

This one was sent to me from Hive account@delilhavores in Italy. She's from Bologna and the postcard is a medieval village called Dozza near where she lives. The villages is famous for the murals painted around the buildings as seen from the postcard, and this is confirmed by the one and only post that was pinned on Pinmapple last year by miljo76. Now I fully understand why she said this is a breathtaking place.

The stamp on the postcard is of Ruggiero Leoncavallo. I have to confess, I have no idea who this person is. And that is the beauty of these interactions, because it gives me the opportunity to learn about random things from around the world. It turns out that Leoncavallo is a famous Italian composer and his most famous piece of work is Pagliacci. Naturally, I had to google that, and found a performance by Luciano Pavarotti which is less than 3 minutes long. So much emotion in his performance! This postcard was sent on 31st March and it arrived when I was away in April, so it took between 2 to 4 weeks to arrive from Italy to UK.

Sintra, Portugal

Here's another postcard I received when I was away in April. Hive account@pardinus sent this to me and is about a place called Sintra. It looks very pretty, and we hae a lot of pins on Pinmapple here. Seems like it is easily accessible from Lisbon as a day trip, I shall bear that in mind if I ever go to Lisbon again as it's nice to travel beyond the big cities sometimes.

Originally I thought the stamp was of a baguette, but that's French and this is Portugal so I can't be a baguette. I googled Travesseiro de Sintra and struck gold!!! Turns out travesseiro means cushion/pillow and this is a famous local delicacy made of puff pastry, egg yolks, almonds and sugar. Desserts are absolutely my favourite, another reason to go to Sintra on my next visit to Portugal!!!

Lisboa, Portugal

Another postcard from Portugal, this is from Hive account@xrayman whom I met briefly (along with pardinus) from Amsterdam HF last year. This was sent on 28th April and I received it on 19th May, so about 3 weeks.

I have nice memories of Lisbon even though I was only there for a day 10 years ago!!! My best memory is the tram ride and a shabby looking shop selling some mouth watering roast suckilng pig, it was so delicious. Sadly I think that shop doesn't exist anymore as I recommended it to a friend who was visiting Lisbon the other year and they said it wasn't there. So I guess it's time to go back again sometime, and maybe some of my new found local friends can help me find an equally yummy place 😄

It took me a while to find information on this stamp. It was released in 2022 and is part of a set called "The Romeiros of Sao Miguel - 500 Years Since the Earthquake in Vila Franca Do Campo". Sao Miguel is an island in Portugal and a big earthquake erupted in 1522 at the town Vila Franca Do Campo on the island. It's amazing the things you learn when you're on Hive. All you need is to be curiuos.

Durban, South Africa

I'm so upset that my postcard from Taiwan to South Africa still has not arrived after 89 days, yet it only took just over two months for Hive account@lizelle's postcard to get to me in UK. I know two months sounds like a long time, but it's still a lot quicker than non arrival!! And of course, we wouldn't expect anything less than a lion from South Africa!! I love the proverb "Do not flee from a roaring lion towards a crouching lion". You never now what danger lies ahead and you could be running from one to another.

The stamp is a white rhino, a near extinct creature with only around 20k in the world. I don't think I've ever seen a real one before as I'm not big on wildlife and animals, particularly those locked up in zoos. However it's great to know that work is being done by people to conserve these valuable creatures.

Drôme, France

And last but not the least, I received this from Hive account@anttn last week. He sent it on 20th May and it took two weeks for it to swim across the 33km English Channel from France to UK. By the way, did you know, the first time a person swam across the English Channel was in 1875 and it took him nearly 22 hours. Now, the fastest on record is an Australian who did it under 7 hours in 2012!!

Anyway, I digress. I caught a glimpse of this postcard when anttn posted about his visit to a peony farm a few weeks ago, and he got the postcard there. I can imagine how beautiful actually being there would be, with the array of colours from over 600 variety of peonies and that stunning view. Thank for sending a piece of that over to UK.

There was no stamp on this postcard as it came in an envelope with one of those electronic code stamps.

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It was very nice to learn a lot more about the world through these postcards I received from friends on Hive. So thank you guys and girls, and I have set a 5% beneficiary to each of you.