2452 - Vienna, Austria

Anita is from Vienna (Wien) but sent a card from Hallstatt. She writes she visited there the weekend prior.

Hallstatt is a small town of just under 800 people located between the southwestern shore of Hallstätter See (Lake Hallstatt) and the steep slopes of the Dachstein. Salt production is what Hallstatt has been known for since pre-historic times. However, tourism has become the town's biggest source of income.

Tourism has been a blessing and a curse for Hallstatt. It was named a UNESCO Heritage Site in 1997 and tourist numbers exploded, especially amongst people from southeast Asia. By 2017, local churches were employing bouncers to prevent services from being interrupted by tourists. In 2020 it is estimated the town can see 10 000 to 30 000 tourists per day, mostly from bus tours, who bring tourists in for photo opportunities and then move on. Social media images captioned Hallstatt as the "most Instagrammable town in the world."

Because of over-tourism, day-visitors drive away tourists who would stay longer. It began looking at limiting the number of tourists visiting Hallstatt. Hallstatt began to focus on "quality" tourism. S
tarting last fall in 2020, tour busses were assigned time slots. Only 54 busses would be permitted to come to Hallstatt, which represents about half of what they would normally get. Busses with overnight bookings would receive preferential treatment.

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3584 - Blaine, Minnesota, United States of America

The sender was in Las Vegas recently and bought this card from The Mob Museum. The Mob Museum, officially known as the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, is located in downtown Las Vegas. It open in 2012. It features artifacts, stories, and the history of organized crime in the United States, but also the actions and initiatives by law enforcement to prevent such crimes. The museum is found at the former Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse, which was built in 1933. The quote on this card was from John Gotti. John Gotti (1940-2002) was the mafioso and boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. After ordering the killing of Gambino boss Paul Catellano in 1985, he took over the family and led what was the United States' most powerful crime syndicate. He was known as The Teflon Don after three high profile trials in the 1980s resulted in acquittals. Later it was revealed that the trials had been tainted by jury tampering, juror misconduct, and...

3564 - Kassel, Hesse, Germany

A wonderful message on this card that translates to to those wh o can wait, everything comes with time.

2346 - Iwate, Iwate, Japan

Keita is a junior high science teacher in Iwate 岩手町. He sent me a photo of the Tokyo Sky Tower during a fireworks display. The Tokyo Sky Tower is a broadcasting and observation tower in Simide, a special ward in the Tokyo Metropolis. It became the tallest structure in Japan in 2010. In 2011, when it was completed at a height of 634 meters, it became the tallest tower in the world, and the second tallest structure in the world, after Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE.

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