Answering a question in another post today, I was reminded of something my wife initiated when we first started traveling 40 years ago. It started by having our daughter send postcards back home to herself. Later on, both my wife and I started to do the same. It was such a pleasant surprise returning home, receiving mail and reliving our trips. The memories and circumstances of writing those notes on the cards made remembering our travels more vivid and burned into our memories. We still have most of those cards and they are more meaningful than any souvenir we bought or photo we snapped. We even did it on short weekend trips here at home as well. So, instead of buying a Venice gondolier's miniature straw hat, send yourself a card.
Posted by
California 🦋
5258 posts
Philip,
What a great idea, thanks!
I enjoy receiving handwritten cards, so I try to keep that old fashioned custom alive by continuing to write cards to my friends and family ;-)
Posted by
Genesee, ID
1840 posts
Philip,
Here's something else to have fun with. postcardsfromtimbuktu.com . I sent some for Christmas cards last year. Its reputable.
Monte
Posted by
San Francisco
14580 posts
Hi,
Exactly for the same reasons I send postcards to myself from Europe. I started this on the last trip starting in May 2016. The written postcards serve as a trip log when all have arrived and organised in chronological order Interesting also is the how the stamp is cancelled.
Posted by
Boston
4132 posts
I do this but do not mail them. Which is a little easier! But a postcard a day is my travel journal.
Posted by
California 🦋
5258 posts
But a postcard a day is my travel journal.
Adam, I really like this idea too, thanks!
I'd probably need more than one postcard per day!
Posted by
Toledo, Ohio, US
11613 posts
My name is Zoe and I am a recovering postcard fanatic.
I love the idea of sending postcards to myself. For some reason, I am more likely to look at postcards in hard copy than to pull them up on my iPad or phone. Something about holding the image in my hands, I think.
I quit postcards cold turkey several years ago. But traveling on a budget and working at a college, I was spending $10 a day on cards! So now I email photographs to my friends, and make albums for myself. :-(
Posted by
Houston, TX, USA
77 posts
When my daughter was in college I used to send her (leftover) postcards from years of family vacations.
She loved getting mail, and used the cards to decorate a bulletin board. She probably would not have done that with 'regular' letters from home.
She still does decorate a door with cards many years later!
Posted by
Vacaville, Ca
1384 posts
I use the SnapShot Postcard App on my iPhone. Its nice, I can take pictures throughout the day, even include myself in them and then when I am back at the apartment or at a Cafe with free WiFi, I can send them out. They arrive in the mail just like any other postcard with the picture on one side and your comments on the other.