Do travellers still send postcards?

By Jonny Blair


One of my first travel memories was seeing a postcard come through our letterbox when I was a child in Bangor, Northern Ireland. As a kid, you ignore those boring brown or white envelopes and you are intrigued by colour so the postcard that arrived in the post caught my eye.

The first postcard I got came from London, or Holland and I kept it as a souvenir. The journey of a postcard is the classic travellers souvenir. Postcards have been on a journey, however an e-mail has not. Let's hope the art of postcard writing and sending continues as we have now entered a very digital age.

The last time I visited my family I sought out my travelling postcard collection that I had sent them - mostly to my youngest brother. The collection has now amassed postcards from over 50 countries - hundreds of postcards.

All the postcards were bought, then written and finally posted from various towns, cities and postboxes from all seven continents. Can you believe I even posted a postcard in Antarctica? They are all a unique one time live story of my travels on a piece of card, arrival at my family's home ends their remarkable journey.

From a very cold chilly hut in the British Antarctic Base of Port Lockroy I bought, wrote and posted postcards. From the world's coldest continent all the way to Northern Ireland in the northern hemisphere, this is a great journey for a bit of card, miles from the world of internet and mobile phones.

Young and new travellers might not remember the era before the internet and mobile phones and they may even wonder why people still bother to send postcards when an e-mail is a lot faster. However it's the real life journey of the postcard and the physical element to it.

Spot the difference:

1. E-mails: E-mails v postcards. On my travels I logged onto the internet and sent an e-mail.

2. A postcard: Postcard v e-mail? I bought, wrote and posted this one in Port Lockroy in Antarctica. Thankfully there was no internet around.

so postcards or e-mails - what would you rather have?

Don't forget on your next trip you should send a postcard! A physical present. Sending postcards to friends and family really puts a smile on their faces and means a lot more to people than an e-mail.

Don't let postcards become a lost art - keep writing them and posting them from all over the world!




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