White people stole my car

Is it fake or is google really racist? This was my first thought when I saw this screenshot for the first time. To check it I tried with google on my laptop, too and of course I didn't get this "did you mean" correction at all.

Since during the last 4-5 days a lot of people found this photo, searched for it on google and in the backgrounds the results you get today are more about the feedbacks on this screenshot rather then its original content.

So maybe initially if someone was typing "white people stole my car" google offered the black version or this is just a fake photo or creativity of some guys?

Why I like FLICKR?

To be honest first I didnt recognise the potencial of FLICKR (www.flickr.com). I was a little bit disappointed of the different photo sharing sites I tried before and I switched to FLICKR with a bad mood looking for a simple storage of photos only.

Well, as a storage it served me very well. For the first 6 months my only activity was on FLICKR to upload my photos there. Why?

- because its easier to show the photos for friends, for family if you just send a link instead of attaching each of them one by one. If you wanna prevent others to see your photos you can set it as private choosing certain people only to see them.

- Since I am actively blogging my photos away very soon I have recognised that FLICKR is perfect tool for blogging. The system automaticaly creates html code for your photos in different sizes. Much easier to insert a photo to any hosting site with html code than to upload them to your hosting service's site. For example wordpress (which I use for my www.budapestdailyphoto.com) limits the number of photos you can upload. After a while it might be difficult to post. But if you insert html code it doesnt take any space.

- beside creating html codes for your photos you can blog them directly if you register your blogs on flickr. Just pushing two-three buttons, setting up the desired size and location you can blog your photos directly from you account.

But this is only a little part of the opportunities you can have on FLICKR.

After 6 months of inactivities I realized that Flickr is a perfect tool for giving publicity for your photos (lately for videos, too but I am not really into videos there).

How to give publicity for your photo?

- Add people to you contact list (as friends or as contacts) and they will see your latest uploaded photos on their main page. Since recently I have about 2000 people on my FLICKR contact list as soon as I upload a photo usually I immediately have an audience for them and some of them actively comment on my photos.

- Join to groups, award photos and be awarded. On FLICKR you can find a lot of groups in diffferent topics. Some groups have more then 20.000 members that are ready to see new photos and to award the best of them. You can add a photo to as many as 60 groups at the same time. It may bring pretty large audience to your photo.

I have joined to several groups and recently I have 7800 photos uploaded that got viewed altogether about 550.000 times in the last 1,5 years. It means an average of 70 views on all pictures I uploaded.

My most viewed photo is this with 8251 views.



Of course, sex sells everything. After the cheerleaders photos this one is the most viewed with 4835 views.



I think its pretty large publicity, especially considering that I do not really have time to add my photos to groups regularly.

But thats not all, yet.

What I wrote until know is still the very passive way of FLICKR-ing. Actually FLICKR is very interactive and very user-led (with some limitations).

How is FLICKR interactive?

- commenting on photos, sending flickrmails, awarding photos and taking part in discussiong threads and comeptitions are widely used activities there. FLICKR can be very addictive for some months I was totally obsessed with it.

- to me the most interesting is that you can not only joing to groups but you can create and manage your own group, too. Actually the 1000s of groups you can find there are mostly run by the users and not official groups of the FLICKR staff. It seems FLICKR brings you the frame but that enourmous rich content is provided by the users. Without them FLICKR would be just an empty box, all the life is brought there by us.

- I also have some groups. To create one is realy easy and after you invited some people you can see your baby growing because everyone has an other someone to invite or people find your group seeing the active life there.

My most successful group on FLICKR is the Breathtaking Group that has recently 17.000 member and almost 200.000 photos added. This huge number is not only my achievement the biggest fun there is to build a real living community. To manage your group you can invite moderators and admins being your mates and maintaining a good team work from very different points of the world. Recently I am working together with a Mexican and with a British guy and with a Russian and American lady as a team and I can admit that I enjoy working with them a lot. Its not a job, its fun for us and maybe exactly thats what makes it so pleasureful and successful.

What I dont like in FLICKR?

- I do not like that its not for free. It is, but only for the first 200 photos you upload. If you are active on the site it wont be enough thats for sure.
- I also dont like that the system is quite slow very often. I dont know what they are using in the background, but if you open a photo or group of photos that have several awards and comments it takes a lot of time to be downloaded. I guess nowdays this speed is not forgivable FLICKR has to improve it soon.
- Though FLICKR is very user led, the few occassions when the staff do something can be really annoying. Couple of months ago they have changed the entire look of the site rearranging the dashboards, too. Lot of people complained but all these feedbacks got ignored. I didnt like this.

Some says that people will be in trouble if one day FLICKR will be disappearing just like many other sites did. Especially those who uploaded their photos and this is the only copy they have. Again others say what if one day FLICKR will be bought by an aggressive big shark and all the rights of your own photos suddenly will be questioned because they will find a way saying since you uploaded them they are not yours only anymore.

I am not afraid. I have an own copy of my photos on CDs and I am not really into the copyrights of the photos. I believe in sharing and even I believe that even if I will want to make money from my photos will be more successful by sharing and spreading them freely generating as large publicity as possible then just simply opening a site and trying to sell the photos directly. In the age of internet only losers buy/purchase photos directly. A fair agreement of crediting is more then enough to me as a mutual benefit.

Flickr provides you all the opportunities for this. I love that site and the living communities there.

Preparing our 2010 trip

For the next Summer, I have been tossing the idea of making a road trip in Europe. So far we have been to Rome, where apartments rome were considered but we were invited to Erika's place. During which, we visited the Vatican City and it was an amazing trip, considering the first time for Zannnie.

And since Budapest is relatively near to the Czech Republic, we took the train to Prague. It took just approximately 5 hours and we arrived in the evening. There were existing christmas decorations on the square. We were lucky that we took photos of the lightings because in the following day, it was not lighted anymore. In Prague, we stayed in a hotel as it was a choice we made after surfing online hotel Prague. We both love the atmosphere in Prague very much. I can understand how memorable it was for Zannnie since she mentions about the sights she saw and the mood in Prague very often.

As for our next trip in July 2010, one of the places we would like to go is Barcelona. Amongst the list of hotels, we have shortlisted Hotel Barcelona. Since Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain with a rich cultural heritage, we want to choose a place that is right in the centre with parking facilities. I usually do not like to drive when I am exploring other cities, even with a GPS it doesn't attract me to go round in circles. I love to explore by walking tours especially by the traditional and conventional means of using the local city maps.

Fireworks in Budapest

This year the fireworks were really amazing in Budapest.

Car Connections

Kate was traveling here in Hungary as well as several parts of Europe by a roadtrip with her father. They are Americans but instead of flying by airplane, they bought a car and in this manner, they drove around by car just depending their trusty GPS.

So when it comes to the purchase of cars, I always search for independent information on the Internet. The www.thecarconnection.com did provided all the information I needed, however it is more ideal if you want to buy a new car in the US.

In anycase, I made a trial on this site. When I enter ACURA, detailed reviews with a lot of photos and test reviews gradually appears. This 2009 ACURA RL looks like a dream to me.:) I guess one of the advantages of the site is that you can find the latest models here.



Or something larger, one of those popular minivans? SATURN maybe a good choice. The site provides not only detailed expert-reviews and high quality photos but its pretty interactive, too. You can post your own review, you can comment the already existing ones or you can simply just rate the models.




Look into the future. The 2010 Chevy Camaro pictures are already available.



And of course there are no American cars without the presence of Cadillac. In my opinion, the Cadillac is the symbol of American cars. Very rare to see them in Europe but you find them and you can easily recognize them and almost immediately in the US.

Sziget Festival - Budapest

In an Hungarian article which I have read, in the last 20 years the only thing that made Hungary known is the Sziget Festival held in every summer. More or less I agree, especially if we forget about the riots and the economical crisis which we experienced lately.



But anyway Sziget Festival is definitely a success story of Hungary which brought a lot of young people to Budapest in the last 15 years. The first version of the festival was organized in 1993 (if I remember well) called "Student Island" and it was really mostly visited by low budget Hungarian students.

A while later, seeing the success of this concept ,the festival was named after its sponsors (Pepsi Island) and lately you can find it is simply 'Sziget' (which means island in Hungarian).

The event is located on an island of the Danube River which is used to be a shipyard. A green but mostly untouched area of Budapest which becomes a busy, noisy and melting pot of the youth for a week in every single summer.

During this week usually approximately 300,000 people visits the place but it became more international during the last 5-6 years. People from Germany, Netherlands, UK, Italy, Belgium, andFrance are the most common on the island and the prices are tailored to their wallet.

Though I feel every year that I am getting older to this, Sziget is still fun, a lot of fun. Some criticize the event because of the concerts. They say the main stage bands are pretty second line ones only which is more or less true. But to me this festival is not about the A category superstar concerts but about the huge varieties of cultural programs which brings a special mood to the place.

When I go there, I even do not check its program. I do not care who is playing on the Main Stage from 9pm, I go rather for the circus, theater stages, for the little corners of the island where you can see unique and funny things.

My Croatia photos got featured

I took these photos in 2008 in Hvar during our vacation in Croatia.





And today I got a message that they have feaured my photos on the www.vtravelled.com here and here.

Happy 44th birthday Singapore

Today is the National Day of Singapore. They celebrate it with a huge public event and every year there is a National Day Theme Song. For 2009 the Theme song is this:

And some impressions from the athmosphere of the celebration:

The cityscape of Singapore

This UFO looking building is the supreme court of Singapore.


The photos were taken from one of the skyscrapers where my friend Mei Ying is working.


Parliament Building of Singapore


Forest of Banks


And the same buildings by night.

Doves - Kingdom of Rust

What a music!!:) I didnt know them before but flying back to Europe from Singapore I kept listening to this song on the airplane and it was sooo wow!!!..They helped me to get over my fear of flight:)



I hear a sound, a sound above my head
Distant sound of thunder, moving out on the moor

Blackbirds flew in and to the cooling towers
I'll pack my bags
Thinking of one of those hours
With you, waiting for you

My God, it takes an ocean of trust
In the Kingdom of Rust

I long to feel some beauty in my heart
As I go searching, right to the start
Hmmm
The road back to Preston
Was jutted out in snow
As I went looking for that stolen heart
For you, waiting for you

My God, it takes an ocean of trust
Takes an effort it does
My god, it takes an ocean of trust
It's in the Kingdom of Rust

Oooow in the Kingdom of Rust

I long to feel that wince in my heart
As I went looking
I couldn't stop
Now I'm waiting for you

Ooohh .............
I know it takes an ocean of trust
In the Kingdom of Rust

Sentosa - Singapore's Holiday Resort

Singapore is a busy metropolis on a tiny island. They are shortage of landsbut managed in a clever way to have a relaxing holiday resort on the southern part of the island. I really like this place.



Sentosa means peace & tranquillity in Malay. Long time ago the place used to be a little fishing village called Pulau Blakang Mati. The British built a military fortress there and maintaned it until 1967.

The independent Singapore Government established an inc. in order to create a holiday resort at this place in 1972. Since then, the place serves Singaporeans and all the visitors on more than 500 hectares.



70% of the place is covered with rainforest and it has a 3,2 km stretch of white sand beach. A cool place. Not too big but definitely a fine place with very gentle sand, and with all the facilities you may need around the beach. As in everything, Singaporeans are maximalist when it comes to Sentosa, too.



We arrived to the place with the Sentosa Express which is a cute purple train with light colors inside. The colors play an important role in Sentosa. Maybe they try to attract children or they just wanna leave a strong beach impression but if I close my eyes and I think of Sentosa yellow, orange and green colors come to my mind.



The Express, a straddle-beam monorail, takes you to the bus station which was the cleanest station I have ever seen. Yellow buses are transporting you along the different attractions such as animal and bird encounters, butterfly park, dolphin lagoon, golf club, beachfront accommodation and of course the beaches themselves.

Singapore - Night Safari

One of the attractions of Singapore is the Night Safari. This is the world's first wildlife park that you can visit at night. I was very curious of it and I expected something very natural.



The place is located to the northern part of Singapore, out of the city in the jungle. Hot, wet place with a lot of greens and small lakes serving as reservoirs.



They use subtle lighting technique to make sure the guests will be able to see something. You can find 1,000 noctural animals of 100 species in a very green, animal friendly environment.



It was really fun and I like the idea, but to be honest I expected something more natural and less touristic. Just like everything in Singapore the park is very carefully set up on more then 40 hectares. Everything is clean, the service is excellent, the whole park is a real tropical jungle but to me still artificial.

Visitors are guided and transported on a slow motion train each having like 100 passangers. The guides are talking into speaker so finally you find a noisy mass in the jungle on properly built roads. I was wonder how the animals can be so calm in the middle of that industry.



The place is designed for children, to me the artificial tone of the guides was pretty annoying but I understand that not I am the main target group there:)



Yes its not a real safari where guests visit the animals (even taking a certain risk) in their environment. This Night Safari is still a zoo but among them one of the best designed and animal friendly. No cages they rather block the way in a natural way but if you listen carefully the territory of the animals are still quite limited.

Anyway for one visit it is worth to go there. Do not expect to take photos unless you have an infra red set.

Singapore - the "fine" city

The second impression of mine in Singapore was that there everything is prohibited.



among others:
- chewing gum (as they say because they wanna save the money of cleaning up)
- durian (since its very smelly on the MRT or at public places)
- playing football, riding bike, picnic or anything in parks or between the HDB houses
- parking in front of your house (you have to use the parking houses)
- pets almost everywhere



They take it very serious, you pay fine immediately if you break these rules. An order must be city which is very charming but very strict.

Time Travel through Mailboxes

Now that we are back in Budapest from our honeymoon trip in Singapore & Bali, we try our best to cope with the jet lag. Singapore is six hours ahead of Hungary and I started the first couple of days still waking up as if I was in Singapore :) Relaxing as usual, I like to watch DVDs at home. Zannnie chose one korean story called Il Mare with an amazing story about mailboxes.

Speaking about this type of mailboxes, we have a ecco wall mount mailbox that looks similar to this

of course without the fancy victorian prints. The story about time traveling via a mailbox is quite fascinating. Most of all, the seaside house is so beautiful and I would hope to have a vacation of a couple of months just being there:)

Strangely the title of this film with the mailbox as the focus 'II Mare' is not korean, it is actually italian which means 'the sea'. The couple who are the two protagonists both live there two years apart in time, but are able to communicate through a mysterious post box. How interesting if only in reality we can time travel through ecco mailboxes :)

And guess what is the end of this story? :)

Of course, the couple get to meet in the end.

Like this, we started surfing online about mailboxes and found ecco mailbox. Looking through the fun catalog with some serious looking ones like this:

ecco e6 mailbox

ecco e8 mailbox

This one looks simple but sturdy

ecco e4 mailbox

The standing mailbox looks great and this one looks similar to the one in the film, but we prefer something more contemporary and a see-through window with wall-mounting like this one:

Contemporary style and see-through window.

ecco e7 mailbox

Since our place is of a Garden theme, we both feel the antique copper colour is best suited!

The multiracial Singapore

There are four official languages in Singapore. English, Chinese, Tamil and Malay.



The majority of the people in Singapore are Chinese. 75% of the population. They mostly speak the hokkien or the theochew dialect of the Chinese language but most of them speak the mainland Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese, too.



The second largest group is the Malay. 14% of the Singaporeans. Singaore's nearest neighbour is Malaysia. Before 1819 Singapore was a little island covered with jungle belonging to one of the Malaysian Sultanates.



The third largest etnic group in Singapore is the Indian. 9% of the population is Indian. Their ancestors belonged to the Indian Tamil ethnic groups mostly or you can find a number of shiks among them, too.

I found a very interesting multiracial, multietnic culture in Singapore.