I may have mentioned it before, but since a number of years back we no longer have any separate post offices in Sweden. My nearest equivalent to one now is the customer service counter at the supermarket closest to where I live. Besides postal services they handle various other things as well.
As I use old (inherited) stamps for my postcrossing, I need to get separate “prioritaire” stickers. (New stamps for foreign postage nowadays usually come with them included in the stamp booklets.)
Today when I was at the supermarket I remembered I needed to stock up on those. As I recalled having had some trouble last time to get it across to the girl behind the counter what I meant by “quite a few” (she assuming half a dozen or so whilst I had in mind a figure around 30-40), this time I bluntly asked for 50. It was probably a different girl this time, but she too was apparently stunned by my request. So I hastened to modify it to “or whatever you can spare”… Having taken a deep breath, she disappeared for a while – and then came back smiling with relief, and handed me a whole roll (probably a hundred). “I don’t know how many there are in there,” she said. “But you can have it, it turned out we had two!”
So I guess I’m set for a while. And I am also beginning to suspect that I may be the only postcrosser in this city (or at least in this district of it)!
My latest harvest of Postcrossing cards coming in:
1. The Snow Maiden by Victor Vanetsov (Belarus)
2. ABC/Bojar (Russia)
3. Artist: Matti Kota (Finland)
4. Kreva Castle ruins (Belarus) + stamp
5. Historical street view from Geleen (Netherlands)
6. (Portugal)
7. Alpine hut against the background of the Watzmann in Berchtesgaden, Germany (with the stamp of Altstadt Regensburg below)
8. South Battery, Charleston, South Carolina
(mix of architecural styles from the mid 1800s)
(with the stamps above)
these are all amazing... you are getting some many different types... all are beautiful...i like the art of the pink scooter, but i think the alpine house is my favorite of these..
ReplyDeleteWhat lovely scenes.
ReplyDeleteThese are all so wonderful! I like the little Russian boy and the pink scooter best. Our post offices are almost bankrupt. They were going cancel mail deliveries on Saturday, but the courts won't let them, so I don't know...maybe in the future it will be like where you are!
ReplyDeleteWe haven't had any mail deliveries on Saturdays for decades, that probably stopped back in the 1960s! There is still a national mail service though. There just aren't any separate post offices.
DeleteI think we are going this way in England, too, as there are very few dedicated post offices. I usually buy a load of odd stamps when I am at a post office, because the counters in shops often don't have them.
ReplyDeleteI'm enjoying your cards a whole lot...from very interesting places around the world.
ReplyDeleteIn my town, we have a large central post office in the middle of town in a shopping mall, plus a few smaller ones in various parts of the town, and some that are just corners or counters in other shops, such as at a florist's, a supermarket, and others.
ReplyDeleteThe cards are great, I especially like the Snow Maiden!
I can see why people get involved in postcrossing just as I can see why we blog. You certainly have some interesting ones there.
ReplyDelete