Anchorage, Alaska

Today I got this AMAZING Northern Lights postcard from Anchorage, Alaska! I was so stunned when I saw this, it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. This was also my first Northern Lights card AND my first one from Alaska. :) Thanks so much Sarah!

Chocolate!

This is one of the cutest cards I've got... I mean 'cute' in its own way ;) Totally makes me want to bake some chocolate cake. Yummy! Thanks Asta!

Hollywood

Hollywood Bowl is a large amphitheater in Hollywood, CA, and has hosted many performances. Thanks again Abran!

Antalya, Turkey

A thank you card from Antalya, Turkey. What a beautiful view, so different compared to Finland! Thanks!

China

Today I got 2 postcards from China (and a letter from my penpal in Italy!), one official and one tag card. This first one shows Shanghai and all the skyscrapers. The tallest building (which you can see in front) is called Shanghai World Financial Center. It's 492 meters tall and also the 3rd tallest skyscraper in the world.

The building in the middle is a TV tower and called Oriental Pearl Tower. I really like it; the first word which came to my mind was "cute!" xD

The 2nd card is from Zhuhai, and this park is known as the "Bamboo Sea". I think it looks really cool, I've never seen bamboo forests in real life! The funniest thing about this card is that it traveled for many months. It was written on 25th of March, and the postmark says 29th of March, so I just wonder what happened to it. I guess it was just stuck somewhere, and luckily it arrived in good condition!

Chicago mania!

What a great day! Got 2 direct swaps from Chicago, both of these cards are just wonderful! The Route 66 card is from my penpal in Illinois. I love it too, I've been crazy about Route 66 since I watched the Disney movie Cars! ;)

Haha, these cards definitely won't alleviate my Chicago mania. I just gotta visit that city someday!

Got 5 cards today - 4 of them were official. First one is from Siberia, from a big city called Novosibirsk. And it traveled in only 13 days, that's fast when talking about Russia! And the best part, the sender told me he likes punk rock ;)

The rest of the official cards weren't so great, to be honest. I got a "card" from Ukraine, but it wasn't a real postcard, just a photo. Isn't Postcrossing about sending POSTCARDS?! The next one is from Australia, I was excited when I looked at the text, but then noticed it's just a sepia-colored art card, and I don't really appreciate art. My number-one wish is to receive all kinds of viewcards, but that's what I got. :(

The last card was from USA, it's always great to receive cards there. The card is about "The Ed Sullivan Show" (also known as "Toast of the Town"), which was a popular variety show and originally ran on CBS from 1948 to 1971. The card in itself is really great, but it was a little damaged, probably thanks to Finnish postal service.

It's always nice to receive cards which tell something about American culture and these kinds of things. I often watch American talk shows, but actually the only host I find funny is Conan O'Brien, he's been my favorite for many years. Every time I think about Conan I'm proud to be a Finn ;) But it's a shame what happened to him with The Tonight Show.

But, here's the direct swap card I got. Another beautiful card from my friend in Slovenia! Even better, it traveled in 4 days and in perfect condition :) Thanks Ivana!

New design!

So, uhm, I basically managed to destroy my old blog design, so I had to spend an hour making a new one. I think this is pretty cool! I wanted to get rid of that miserable mixture of red and gray, and wanted something more summery.

Please tell me what you think, and tell me, does this new one work slower? At least for me it does. I tried to reduce the number of posts on main page, it was 20 and now it's 5, but it still feels so slow... If you know how to solve this problem, please tell me :)

Happy Postcrossing everybody!

Cars (Autot)

Yay, these Cars drove to Finland pretty fast, guess they didn't run out of gas! I just can't describe how much this postcard means to me, Cars (in Finnish: Autot) is definitely my favorite movie. :) Thanks so much again, Ana!

Jasper National Park, Canada

Another cool Jasper National Park postcard from my friend, Linda! Many map cards are too complicated but this one is really clear and easy to read. It's just great! Thanks! :]

EDIT: Since I'm so addicted to Google Street View, I just had to check if Jasper National Park is visible there. And it is!!! I strongly recommend to check it out if you like beautiful landscapes and mountains. Especially this view is just stunning:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=53.034246,-119.228182&spn=0,0.038581&z=15&layer=c&cbll=53.034209,-119.228931&panoid=KtUj8FK12OAtqVh4ExSoKQ&cbp=12,23.41,,0,-7.41

Damaged cards

Today I got 4 cards: 3 from Finland and 1 from Taiwan. The one from Taiwan was in perfect condition, but these three Finnish cards were damaged. WTF?!?? Our postal service has done lots of these lately. There are all kinds of white scratches and other damages. You can't see them so clearly in first 2 cards (my scanner hides them pretty well), but just look at the third card.

From this moment I will have to ask Finnish postcrossers to send their cards in envelopes, and I will also do that same myself. I don't want my sent cards to arrive in this condition. :(

Isn't it funny that cards from 8000 kilometers away arrive in perfect condition, but cards from your homeland are always damaged?

Monterrey, Mexico

My first card from Mexico! Got this amazing night view postcard from my penpal. Thanks so much Jhonatan! :)

Don't you just love these stamps? They're amazing too, so unusual!

Official cards

This one is from Netherlands. I've always adored these aerial views of islands, and finally got one! This island is called Aruba and it's located in the southern Caribbean Sea, near to Venezuela. It's 33 kilometers (21 miles) long. Even though this island is located far from Netherlands, it's one of the three countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It became autonomous from Netherlands Antilles in 1986.

The card was sent from the middle of Netherlands, not from Aruba, but it's still awesome! So unusual to me. :) Thanks Paul!

My first Kaj Stenvall card, and from Finland, of course! Before Postcrossing I really didn't like his art, but thanks to this hobby I've seen more paintings and started to like them. I even added it to my postcard wishlist :) Thanks Raisa-Hannele!

BY-58286: Minsk, Belarus

Just yesterday I almost wrote a new post and complained about how I hadn't got cards in many days and how frustated I feel. But then I decided to not to post it, since I felt so arrogant... Well, nevermind. Today I got this official card from Minsk, Belarus. I think the pictures are amazing, but even better was the message the sender wrote. And the card arrived just at the perfect time (after traveling for 49 days), and this probably sounds crazy, but just when I've had a hard time dealing with other people's opinions, so this card really gave me motivation.

During a year I've heard lot of crap about myself because I'm straight edge (I don't smoke, drink or use drugs) and people always tell me how boring person I must be, and some even tell me I should start acting like "a normal teenager": start drinking and act like a fool. I can tell I'm that kind of person who's easily hurt, and everytime people tell me stuff like that I take it very personally. This has happened many times during few days now, so I can say it's been really hard.

This person told me how much he respects people who are straight edges, and I must agree that those people are really rare, especially teenagers. It's hard to explain how much these words mean to me, but they do, A LOT. Next time when somebody tries to break me down, I will just read this card again and think I'm just the person I want to be. :)

Almost forgot these explanations:

• (smallest pictures) : The Museum of architecture and the way of life. Strochizy (vill.).
• (medium-sized) : Lake Volchino. Vitebsk region.
• (largest picture) : The ethnographic museum. Dudutki. Minsk region.

Russia

My dear friend from Russia sent me these. The first card shows The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity Male Order in city of Smolensk, and the 2nd is The House of nobiliary Assembly. I love those autumn colors! Thanks Vlada :]

Pori, Finland

I got these 2 cards a while ago, but forgot to upload them. I got them from my Kesäkorttikaveri, which means something like 'Postcard friend for summer'. It's a thing we Finns started on Postcrossing forum. The main idea was to choose somebody and swap cards with her/him during this summer :)

In the 2nd card the text "Hiukan liikaa on juuri sopivasti minulle" means "Slightly too much is just enough for me". xD Thanks Asta!

Ewan McGregor

A thank you card from Milla & Kati :) Thanks soooooo much, I love this. n_n

Random Act of Smileness

My 2nd RAS card: I told I really like Japanese landscapes but I hadn't got any postcards from Japan yet, so a fellow Finnish postcrosser send me this! I just don't know what happened to cause those major damages. It's funny that postcards from abroad arrive in better condition than cards sent from Finland! I really wouldn't like to ask to send cards in envelopes, but Finnish postal service isn't supporting me. :( But thanks Kati, this is a really beautiful landscape!

Venezia, Italy

Beautiful view from Venezia, Italy! Sometimes Italian postal service can be very slow, so I was kinda surprised that this card arrived in like 2 days. Thanks Susanna! :)