China

CN-1390389

Hai Tian Tang Gou

This building, located at No. 42 Fujian Rad, iamen city was founded in 1921, according to the card.

Russia

RU-2911547

This card, showing a photo of three cats, is comes from Russia.  It also came with some interesting stamps along with a very interesting Par Avion/By Air Mail stamp with Arabic-looking script and no Cyrillic.

Belgium

BE-308782

Red Star Line - Passenger List: New York, Dover, Antwerp

This is a card of the Passenger list of the S.S. Kroonland for June 27th, 1908.

The ship at during World War I was requisitioned by the US and made the USS Kroonland as a troop carrier.  The ship traveled from 1902 through 1927 when it was scrapped.

Germany

DE-3440292

Rabbit, Run - John Updike

A postcard from Germany, part of a set of old Penguin Book bookcovers.  This one is from the 1964 copy of the book with the artwork by Milton Glaser.

China

CN-1258925

Xi'an, China

Mausolem Qianling.

Poland

This awesome card of a drawing of a traditional Polish woman and man milking a cow was a direct swap.  I love this style of card.  

Despite it being mailed in a letter, the sender attached two old Polish stamps with the card.  From left to right, King Jan III Sobieski and the top of the column of the Sigismund Column in Warsaw.

Lost Postcards: To Belarus

Lost Postcard: US-3172155

Card Mailed on or about: 9 January, 2015

Days Since Sent:  76 days

Sent to: Minsk, Belarus

Postcrossing User Sent to: SodaPost

Sunset Reflected on a Lake

Purchased at one of my favorite postcard stores, Von's Books located in West Lafayette, Indiana, this card of a sunset reflected on an Indiana lake was sent to Minsk, Belarus.  I sadly don't have another of this card to check if the card says which lake is featured in the photograph.  

Minsk, the city that the card was sent to, dates back to 1067 A.D. and is the capital city of the Republic of Belarus.  The country only became independent in the early 1990s with the fall of the Soviet Union and borders Poland, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, and Russia.  Belarus is one of the most prolific Postcrossing nations ranking 6th (March 11, 2015) behind only Germany, Russia, the US, the Netherlands, and Finland in the number of postcards sent.   

Belarus and Minsk in particular have been in the news lately due to peace talks taking place there in regards the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia. 

The Postcrossing user, Katerina, has been active recently.  Belarus sometimes is known to have one of the longer travel times for postcards of the top 10 countries (along with Russia and China), so it is possible that this card is just taking a bit longer to arrive than normal.

This postcard is missing.  Please check your mailbox.

Romania

Intercontinental Hotel, Bucharest, Romania

Valerie, one of my friends who first got me involved in Postcrossing had requested a card from the Intercontinental Hotel in Bucharest.  I found this card (probably dating from the 1970s or early 1980s, on ebay and sent it to her.  She seemed really excited to receive it. 

Poland

This beautiful Polish card features images of two men and a women in traditional dress on a wagon pulled by two horses.  I love these kinds of cards.  The card came with old Polish stamps.  One of them is of 1959 Soviet spacecraft and then of Polish communist leader Bolesław Bierut.  The one of Bierut was originally for 35 Zloty but overprinted to the amount of 45 Grosz.  Grosz is the subunit of the Zloty.

Finland

FI-2186905

"Sorry...I didn't want to hurt you!"

That is what the translation of the card is.  This is one of the stranger cards I've come across and both the sender and I are of the mind that we'd never actually send this card to someone as a form of an apology!

Canada

Carte Postale

This card was sent by a friend from Canada.  The image is apparently called Putto & Moon.  She sent it since she ordered it from Poland via postalllove.com.

USA - Illinois

Chicago Skyline

For those who may not know, Postcrossing allows users to list any card that they really like as a "favorite" card.  Any person on the site can mark a card as a favorite.  

This card is currently my card that I have sent that is the "most popular" card.  I have sent this card at least 4 times and between those sendings I have at least 19 likes on this card.  

US-2427853 to Russia  (11 likes)

US-2435856 to Belarus (4 likes) 

US-2781145 to Poland (2 likes) 

US-2899929 to Australia (2 likes) 

To see all of my "popular" postcards that I've mailed, you can check it out here.

Poland

A private swap from Poland of Polish Folklore.  This card shows various regions of traditional Polish costumes.  I got this card back in an envelope, but the sender included old Polish stamps on the card.  

China

CH-1258973

People in Water Regions.

Ireland

Aran Islands, Ireland

This card comes from my friend Kate on Livejournal.  The card shows The Aran Islands, County galway in the Republic of Ireland.  The islands are known for their tourism and for the Aran Sweater or "jumper".

Lost Postcards: To Germany

Lost Postcard: US-3166409

Card Mailed on or about: 6 January, 2015

Days Since Sent: 70 days  

Sent to: Uetze, Germany 

Postcrossing User Sent to: Vanetti 

Day Dress, 1862/1864

This card comes from one of my favorite art exhibits, the Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity exhibit in 2013 at the Art Institute of Chicago.  The exhibit featured not only Impressionism paintings, but also articles of clothing like those in the paintings and from that period.  

This white day dress is an American design, made of white cotton pique embroidered with black soutache and is part of the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.    

The Postcrossing user, Vanessa, hasn't been online in about two months, so it is possible that the card arrived and she just left Postcrossing without bothering to register the remaining cards she has received.  Considering the US/Germany mail turnaround seems to be one of the quickest (often taking less than two weeks for cards to arrive), it is possible that this card arrived in mid-to-late January and just never was registered.  

This postcard is missing.  Please check your mailbox.

Moldova

A direct swap from Moldova.  From the card's back:

"Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the North, East, and South.

Czech Republic

CZ-498692

This official card is from Prague came with these awesome Czech stamps.

United Kingdom

Piccadilly Circus, London, England

From my friend Karolina on a visit to London, possibly before she finally moved there.

Special Post: First Blogiversary!

The Par Avion Postcard Blog

One Year Blogiversary

One year ago at this minute, the Par Avion Postcard blog went active publishing our, a simple postcard from Canada stating, quite simply one very apt word: Hello.  

Since that one card we've featured postcards sent from all over the world including at least one card sent from six of the seven continents (pesky Antarctica with their tiny population of postcard senders remains understandably elusive!)  

I hope everyone has been enjoying these daily posts.  Featuring one (or on rare occasion two) postcards lets each postcard send a bit of time in the spotlight with each card being, of course, a tiny conversation between two often random people.  In the next year, I'll try to include more of the unusual stamps that sometime are on the reverse of the cards.    

Should anyone have any comments, requests, questions, or suggestions on how to improve Par Avion, feel free to comment them.   

USA - New Jersey

Greetings from the Jersey Shore, from my friend Ange.  Interestingly, my first ever card posted on this blog was her card saying "Hello".

USA - Ohio

This structure is an aerial view of the National museum of the United States Air Force located in Dayton, Ohio.  The three long buildings are hangers housing exhibits and tons of aircraft throughout the history of aviation in the United States.  The small building at the end of the larger ones is a building housing missles and some space-related exhibits.  The museum is set to be enlarged in the near future. 

Czech Republic

CZ-379669

Pilsen, Czech Republic

Ukraine

Direct Swap from Ukraine

This was a direct swap card from Ukraine.  The card is of a butterfly balancing on a teaspoon which is in the top of six stacked coffee cups.  

The back of the card only tells me that it was mailed from Ukraine (via the stamps) and that it was mailed on or about April 27, 2014.  Notably, the card arrived months later in July.  The senders name is unreadable due to post-office printing, but the card is surrounded by a border of different colored stars (see below) and a small blue and yellow Ukrainian flag.  

Originally I wasn't sure if this was an official card from postcrossing or a direct swap card.  The card mentions my asking for the person to mention what the writing on her avatar's helmet said.  The Postcrossing user had a patriotic Ukranian icon with writing on the helmet.  The writing, in translation, she tells me said "For the honor of Ukraine" with a response of "for the honor of heroes!"

The Postcrossing user who sent this card was Miracle_, who was previously mentioned in this post as the person I sent the card of Marilyn Monroe to.  She lived in Donetsk, Ukraine, a city which was claimed by Russian "separatist".  It appears that Jeannine has either left postcrossing or changed her profile name as the profile last seen with that username is of a Russian near Perm, Russia.  

Russia

RU-2885671

This card, from Russia, is a reproduction of a Soviet-era poster from 1982.  The card, showing Soviet allied nations of the era, features a cosmonaut and the writing states:

We are creative and Friendly and clever.

We're making space to be peaceful forever!

Germany

DE-3433796

Insel Rugen

Rugen Island; Germany's largest (and according to the card most beautiful) island.

Spain

A direct swap from srta_petardita on postcrossing.  

The card is of Corrida de toros en Eibar, 1899 by Igacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta.

USA - Oregon

US-2938804

Wanted!

This card is from Oregon (and my first card, I think, from that state.  The card shows something from the other side of the US: a reproduction of a recruitment poster from the Civil War trying to get soldiers for the Tenth Vermont Regiment.  

The original broadsheet apparently is housed in the Library of Congress.

Netherlands

NL-2616241

"Good girls go to heaven.  Bad girls go everywhere."

Italy

A card from my friend Maite who lives in France.  The card is of Tuscany (ie: Toscana) showing Siena, Pisa, Lucca, and Florence. 

Hong Kong

HK-262052

Hong Kong

This card shows Hong Kong "then and now."  The card reads that the photo was "taken from the Waterfront apartments above Kowloon station this view contrasts strikingly with the oil painting of Hong Kong made in about 1865.

Poland

PL-928122

Polska Folklor

Polish Folklore.  Included are scenes of people in native costumes and items from Krakow, Podhale, Beskid, Lowice, Kieleckie, Kurpie, and Leszcztnskie.