This is the first postcard I received from a foreign country. It feels nostalgic as such a long time has passed ever since... Although I already had a good collection of postcards back then, all of them were from my own land. This is why getting this postcard felt special that summer. At that time I didn't know anybody from another country who could send me mail... until I met my very first penpal from abroad. It was the summer of 1994 and I was at the beach when I met this girl from another European country. She was on holidays with her family as well, visiting the north of Spain and the north of Portugal. It was lovely to know her when I less expected it and it was sad to say goodbye at the same time. However, we exchanged our postal addresses (no Internet in 1994) and this is the first of many postal items both of us exchanged. In the postcard you can see an aerial view of Bragança, a city located in the north-east of Portugal (Trás-Os-Montes Region), close to the border with Spain.
The stamps she sent me belong to a series called "Arquitectura Popular Portuguesa" ("Traditional Portuguese Architecture") designed by José Luís Tinoco and issued on the 20th August, 1985. The one on the left "Casa Minhota" ("Typical House of the Minho Region") has a value of 20 Portuguese Escudos (currency of Portugal from 1911 to 2002) while the one of the right "Casas da Beira Litoral" ("Houses of Beira Litoral Region") has a value of 50 Portuguese Escudos. What a luck I got these stamps so many years after they were issued!
Its so amazing these old postcard/stamps and memories that go with them. I used to swap loads when in my teens and each one was individually handwritten on telling me more about that place. Now if I get a postcard it just says greetings from.... or nothing more which is quite sad :(.
ReplyDeleteWhats also interesting is often if those places still exist. In many of the postcards still sold in Bradford the place no longer does which is why I don't send any to friends anymore. I've been meaning to take my own photos and to create postcards that way... I just need to get a more on doing it :).