I absolutely love traveling. I love seeing how people live, hearing different languages, walking through unknown streets and getting lost, eating strange foods, hearing lovely music, waking up and knowing you're half way across the world from your bed... Traveling teaches me so much about the world and about myself. For instance, I do NOT like thousands of little birds flying above me. Which happened this past May in Corfu, Greece. Apparently Corfu is the place to be if you are VERY loud bat like birds. I DO however love German pastries. I could eat them everyday...two everyday...probably more. They are delicious!
I am lucky to have visited many different places but still wish that I could wander more unknown roads all over the world. Don't get me wrong, I love love love Winnipeg. Of course I complain about the Winter and our cruddy lack of democracy within our Government, but hey what Winnipeger doesn't? After a trip I am always happy to come home.
As much as I adore Winnipeg my urge to travel and explore pumps through my veins. This is why I was so excited when I stumbled upon postcrossing.com. If you are into traveling and postcards this website is a must! The gist of it is you get to send and receive postcards from all over the world! Neat hey?! I have been using this site for about two months and now have a handful of postcards. I am going to use this blog to showoff and display my received gifts from around the world. Super!
Let's get started!
Since it was Christmas time when I started postcrossing the first two cards I received were Christmas postcards. I was a bit disappointed. The first one was from New Hampshire USA...blah. Uber disappointed with that one. Not as worldly as I had hoped. However although the second postcard was also a Christmas one it did come from Hyvinika, Finland. Okay getting better... The third postcard I received was this one:
So cute right?! Look at the little bears! Aw! This card traveled all the way from Martin who lives in Bern, Switzerland. Since I am fluent in French he wrote on the postcard in his native language. He explained to me that these bears are kept in what is called Barengraben (Bear Den) and they are the mascots of Bern. After reading upon the Barengraben I started to feel sad.
This is some of the information I found on Barengraben:
Bears have enjoyed-or suffered a long and rather one-sided relationship with Switzerland's capital of Bern. According to one legend, Berthold V of Zähringen named the Bern after the first animal killed during a hunt when the city was founded in 1191. (If the story is true, the Duke must have decided to honor the victim's entire species, since "Bären" is the German plural form of "bear.")
The 1923 edition of Muirhead's Switzerland explains:
"Whatever be the real connection of the words 'bear' and 'Bern,' the figure of a bear occurs in the oldest known city seal (1224), and living bears have been kept in Bern at the town's expense since 1513 (except for a brief interval when the French removed them to Paris in 1798)."
A picture of Barengraben circa 1800:
Poor bears! I was so excited about this card because it wasn't Christmas related AND it was worldly but after doing the research I was left sadden. But! There is a somewhat happy ending! After reading some more I gladly stumbled upon the information that the Barengraben was closed in 2009 and instead it is now Baerenpark. It is a lovely park that is 6000m2 and is along the banks of the River Aare. The bears can now be seen enjoying the outdoors. The bears still have access to the bearpit which is now a historical monument. The idea of someone making money off captivated animals being viewed by the public makes me cringe but this is much better then having them live in a concrete pit!
So these were my first experiences with postcrossing and receiving postcards from around the world. Although not ideal nor what I was expecting it I learned a lot about a place I knew nothing about. My experiences have since gotten delightfully better, keep checking back for more postcards!
HP
xo
