My Very First Postcard!

I;ve been going at this for two years now (as I’ve said several times before), and so I guess I’ll commemorate this by posting briefly about the very first postcard I received after signing on to Postcrossing.

Sent to me by alexina

It took this card about a week to get from Nuremburg to me, but it seems like it took forever. I knew Nuremburg from my history studies as the place where all of those Nazi trials took place after World War Two. Since that is what Nuremburg was most famous for, I was surprised that this postcard doesn’t make mention of the history. I guess because that chapter is so bleak that no one wants to receive a postcard about it. I don’t blame them. Isn’t even mentioning Nazis illegal and punishable by a weekend in jail or something?

Still, the card makes Nuremberg look like a pretty tranquil, lower-population city. A city more for the locals than tourists, I guess. And those are the best places to go if you’re like me and want to see everyday life in other places as opposed to just experiencing the tourist towns and landmarks. It does look like an adorable little sleepy town.

The lady’s costume is pretty cool, though I can;t place the era. I want to say she’s dressed as a Hessian because of the tricorn hat. I actually have Hessian ancestry. In the days of the American Revolution, when the Brits were hiring Hessians to aid their side, a lot of second sons took up the call, because back then in Germany, if you weren’t the first-born son, you got nothing from your parents. My ancestor, like many others, got to America and switched sides upon arrival. They figured that fighting for the Patriots would mean they’d be able to stake their claim in the new country and have more opportunity than they would have sweeping up shops as an apprentice in the Old Country. I remember seeing once that Rob Lowe had a similar story.

Question: Where Have I Actually Been?

Q: Have you actually been anywhere besides Scotland?

A: Yes I have! I have been to several places in Canada, including Ottawa, Toronto, Niagara Falls, and Quebec City. I’ve been to Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. The most memorable place I’ve been to aside from Scotland is Oahu, Hawaii.

My senior year of college, I was given the opportunity of visiting my close friend and her husband in Hawaii, where they were stationed with The Navy (yes, they were at Pearl Harbor) during spring break. It was breathtaking. I think my experiences was heightened by the fact that it was off-season for tourists, and the early-spring weather meant it was warm, but not frying-eggs-on-sidewalks hot. Plus having ‘locals’ to stay with meant I could see all of the spots on Oahu tourists tend to overlook, like the North Shore, where there were these pretty coves and smaller beaches that hardly had anyone around. It was beyond my wildest expectations. I didn’t expect the peacocks to be as wild and used to people as pigeons in New York!

Oh, and don’t get me started on the shaved ice! Ohhhh maaaaan…