Day 13 of 32 – PSA – Postcards from Istanbul Turkey to America

My all-time, highest-viewed post on this blog is this one. The reason it occupies the number one spot is because the information contained therein has remained valuable (and current) for three years now. Every other day I get a couple of hits from someone using the search terms “daily show standby tickets”

So I wanted to provide a public service announcement for people who want to send postcards from Istanbul to North America (Canada or the USA). I did a bit of running around trying to get everything sorted and I figured I would write it up to save other travellers the time and aggravation.

• A stamp to send a postcard outside of Turkey 2.5 TL (as of November 2014)
• One can purchase them at the Post Office – look for the yellow signs that say PTT (some smaller shops do sell them but I think they’re not supposed to – also, they might charge you a premium)
• The mailboxes look very strange. It’s the hexagonal-shaped thing in the photo that looks like a giant, yellow, upside down dreidel.
• Inside the post office there is a machine to take a number to organize the queue. It is not necessary to use it. There is a separate line exclusively for stamps. Just make eye contact with any employee and say “stamps”. They’ll point you to the correct desk. Resist the Canadian urge to wait patiently in line. It moves incredibly slow and no one will care if you interrupt them for 3 seconds.
• At the time of writing it is unclear how long it takes for a postcard to get to Alymer Quebec. The guy at the post office said four to six weeks but I read on the interwebs it should be around seven to ten days.
• If you want to send a postcard by airmail it will cost 2.75 TL. I have not found any AIR MAIL stickers yet. Or any stamps for any denomination other than 2.50 TL.

That is all.

The post office outside business hours.

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Tags: america, canada, istanbul, north america, postcard, Turkey, united states