Traveling in the USA

Today I got a notification about my Finnish postcard that it arrived. I was wondered because before Easter and Christmas my letters to Finland often get lost. But, this time it was the first one which arrived, and not my postcard to Germany :D Maybe the German girl will get it tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, who knows :) 

So! I asked for a new address, and I got one from the Netherlands! :) The women's preferences were really hard, firstly she's looking for cards which include her kids' or grandchildren's name. Well, the only name which I know in Hungary was Petra, but I haven't seen any postcards with "Petra" on it :D And unfortunately I haven't been to Jordan, where there is a city called Petra. One new thing for my bucket list :D So what did I choose? This:

TO the Netherlands

The woman was looking for other postcards as well, including about national parks. So I sent her a card about the Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, USA. Unfortunately I haven't been there before, but it's on my bucket list, as it can be really beautiful in reality! Well, if I cannot get here, I can say that I may get to other beautiful places in this summer. I'm going to Massachusetts to work in a summer camp as a kitchen staff. This will be my 4th summer. After the camp I went on traveling in every year, except for my 2nd summer, when I came home with my salary and saved it for Erasmus programme in Finland. In my first summer I was in Boston, Washington DC, Niagara Waterfalls, Watkins Glen, New York, in my 2nd summer I was in New York only, and last year I was in Miami, Key West, Orlando, Atlanta and New York again. Don't think that I love New York so much that I want to see it every year :D My plane goes there and comes from there, so I have to go there, and I usually spend there a few days before coming home. Aaand, this year I'm planning to go to Hawaii! There is a little group of some girls who are planning to go there as well, so we're making our plans together for it. I really hope that it will happen, so I can see a very beautiful state of the USA. My first goal is not to relax on the beach for 2 weeks, but going to national parks. Of course I'd like to visit some beaches too, but only in the evening... to have a bath? :D

Okay, I stop writing now, hopefully I can write an other post in the next few days :)

Wonderful Budapest

You remember when I asked for the first 5 addresses, where I can send my postcards? I got one for Norway... and it arrived to its place, yahooo! It could be mailed earlier, as my father tooked it to the post office, as it was in an envelope. The woman liked it, she wrote me a small message and said a thank you for choosing and sending a postcard which was on her wish list.

So, as one of my cards arrived, I could ask for a new address... and I got one from the Czech Republic!

TO the Czech Republic

The girl is looking for touristic postcards too, so why I shouldn't send her about Budapest? In the last days I went with Ceci in sight seeing and I bought some postcards too to be able to send some for my penpals or those who is doing postcrossing. It seems I got the first partner for this :D

I realized that I have more visitors from the USA than from Hungary, and I have a few visitors from other countries as well, so now I don't stop writing, but introduce Budapest :)

Budapest is the biggest city in Hungary, with 2 million people (out of 9.5 million). It has 2 parts: Buda, which has hills and higher prices, and beautiful sceneries; and Pest, which has older buildings, more shops, etc. Personally, as a Hungarian I prefer Buda, though it's more far from my school :D But I find it more natural than Pest, which has only a few trees in the downtown. However, as a tourist, I would prefer Pest of course, as most sights are there. There are many places to visit in Budapest, not only those 5 buildings which you can see on the postcard. Above St. Stephen's Basilica, the Parliament, Matthias Church, Opera House and Vajdahunyad Castle you can visit the Fishermen's Bastion (which is right next to the Matthias Church), Buda Castle, Gellért hill with the Liberty Statue, Heroes' Square, the Main Market Hall... and so on, it depends on your interests, but these are the most important sights in my opinion. /And I have the feeling of missing some of them, but anyway! :D/ 

According to the foreigners the city is really cheap, but according to us it's not. And I can just wonder about the prices nearby the touristic areas! A single ticket on any kind of transportation in Budapest costs 350 Forints, a little bit more than 1 EUR. You can eat out in a self service restaurant for about 5 EUR at least. I cannot say anything about the accommodations as I never needed to book a hotel/hostel room here, in Budapest, but I guess that cannot be so expensive either. 

Budapest is nice to be visited, as it's in the heart of Central Europe. Therefore the connections to other countries and cities are really good. You don't have to take plane everywhere, but you can be in Vienna, in Bratislava, Prague, etc, in a really short time. 

Easter is coming!

I am finally back to Budapest and had the chance to look for a postcard with Easter theme. Well, firstly I didn't realize that I can buy a postcard which has Easter on it, but, thanks to my surfer, Ceci, I could buy a card. 

Ohh, yes, in these days, from Sunday to Tuesday Cecilia is surfing at my place. She's from Taiwan, but studies in Barcelona as an exchange student. She was looking for a host on Couch Surfing in Budapest, and I invited her to my place. We went out together in the last 2 days, and today we went to visit the sights in Pest side: Parliament, St. Stephen's Basilica, the Main Market at Fővám tér, Heroes' Square and we had a walk from there to the Opera House on Andrássy út. Ohh, and we went to have a coffee in Café Frei! 

In front of the Main Market we found some cheap postcards. I bought some touristic postcards for my future swaps, and then I went to Ceci to help her to choose. She was looking at some different kind of postcards, where Hungarian traditions could be seen on pictures. She asked about them, and eventually she made me buy this postcard too:

TO Germany

So I can finally send my postcard to the German address I got! :) Let me talk about the old tradition in Hungary, while the new generation didn't ruin it. So on Easter Mondays boys went to the girls' house and they sprinkled them with a bucket of water. Cecilia told me it sounds funny, and I agreed, but having this kind of experience on ourselves is not the funniest to be honest, though it hasn't happened to me before. By the way, boys did this with girls, because beliefs said from water girls became bigger and more prettier. In return, girls gave an Easter egg for the boys, which was mostly red. In these days boys don't really sprinkle with water anymore, although one of my friend came with a bottle of mineralwater and wanted to use that... :D So instead of water, they use scent. Just imagine that so many kind of good smell on girls when they have at least 5 boy visitors :D The Easter eggs in these years are not only red, and they have more colors as well with different patterns. The sad part of this is that nowadays many boys want to get money, and they don't care about the Easter egg anymore, which can be really yummy in my opinion :D Personally I love eating fried eggs with salt. 

This is all for now :) I really hope that my postcard will arrive to Norway soon, so I'll be able to send a new postcard for a new person during this week :) I didn't have the chance to send my other postcards yet, but tomorrow I'll go to the post office with Ceci, as she also have some cards to send :)

First steps

After joining the site and giving my details, preferences and so on, I needed to ask for addresses where I can send postcards. We can send 5 postcards in the same time, and once the receiver get it and registrate my postcard, I can send a new one and someone in the world will send me a postcard in return. It's always a surprise from where and from whom I'm going to get the postcard.

So this time I got 5 addresses. I checked their preferences, and... here we go! :) These are the postcards I'm going to send:

TO Finland

,,The sea, once it cast its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever." - Jacques Yves Cousteau

The women really likes birds, therefore I decided to send a postcard like this. I spend half a year in Finland, where I met a lot of seabirds... mainly in Helsinki and Suomenlinna... they were pretty horrifying and they were always looking at our food :D

TO Russia

The girl likes beaches and seashores... so I sent a postcard for her about the Lake Balaton, which is the biggest lake in Central Europe. I live 3 kms far from the lake. I really like living next to it, and I'm really proud to be so near, though I rarely swim in the lake. In summers I'm in the USA, so I don't really have the chance to go to swim in the Lake Balaton. By the way, there are many foreigners there, mainly people from Germany, the Netherlands and France... and who knows from where else :)

TO the USA

The woman is looking for literature related postcards - so why shouldn't I send a book for her? :) After searching for a postcard in my collection I found this. She is a teacher and she's planning to show the postcards she get to her students. Ohh, nice!

TO Norway

The girl is a tea lower - and I have an advertisement postcard! Unfortunately I have already drunk the sample tea - but instead of that I put there a different one, but still a forest fruit tea :D I hope she will like it, probably I would!

Yes, there are only 4 postcards... I couldn't find ny relevant postcard for my 5th person - I would like to send her a postcard related Easter. I'm planning to send the postcard for her when I return back to Budapest and have the chance to buy some postcards for Easter. I guess I should send some Easter cards for my penpals too... I totally forgot about Easter >.<

Let the adventure begin

I always loved writing letters, sending and getting letters. I started exchanging snail mails when I was around 9 or 10 years old. So... almost 13-14 years ago. Of course in Hungarian, as my English knowledge wasn't good enough. Then, I got my first penpal at the age of 14 or 15 - a girl from England, who is not between us anymore :(

A few years after I started writing in German as well, with Sarah, and in Italian, which is not going so fast, but I'm trying to do my best.

Then I started doing swappings on Swap-bot.com. I just adore that site. I spent a lot of money on that and I realized that I don't have money enough for my everyday foodings :D So, unfortunately I needed to stop doing it. Now I'm attending only 1 swap, in the "Adventures of the Traveling Postcards". I would like to join more swaps if I don't have to reply to any of my penpals' letter. You know, for me, my penpals are more important than swapping, so I'd rather write letters instead of joining more and more swaps. I had some penpals who stopped writing to me because they had no money, but continued swapping. It was quite disappointing for me, because in my opinion swapping is more costly. Anyway.

Aaand, now! Many of my penpals told me they are doing Postcrossing... and I also heard about if from many people. Today I decided to join it and begin my adventure there. I also want to write a blog about it, I would like to share with you my postcards I am sending, and the postcards I'm getting from abroad. I hope you will enjoy too :)