Favourite season of all !

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Rustic

Those rustic fencing never failed to catch my attention whenever we passed this farm.
Photo taken not far from szentes' border

All smiles

photo taken 01/08/09

Hare Krishna followers passing while playing some music at the main square and the Bulgarian waterpolo players couldn't resist requesting a photo session. Me.... snapped+happy!

There're back!

recorded 03 May 09. Click on image for a closer look

Spring 2009

Yup, the much awaited cherry blossoms have sprung! There are lots more trees haven't blossomed yet. Hopefully I'll captured more shots to post here :)

Actually the weather feels more like summer... too warm too soon!

Turn back time

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Isn't it amazing that someone took an aerial view of the town scape back then?
When I first saw this in Szentes' coffee table book, it helped me to imagine how the main square looked like many many years ago ( sorry, I have no idea when was this photo taken) So, I thought it would be nice to share this image here. Oh, can you see how wonderful Petöfi Hotel used to be.

See how the following places look like now in close-up:-
60s concrete
Greek corner
Petöfi Hotel

A sneak peek

Spring has not really sprung!! and I am getting tired of the white christmas photo.

Searching my archive I found this single shot inside the Greek Orthodox Church . A single shot because I didn't want to disturb the woman tidying the church despite that we've asked her permission. Although the church is small in size, it is really beautifully decorated.

White Christmas

taken on Christmas day

Wishing all of you Good health and happiness!

When the train leaves

Dug from the archive, taken at the train station.
You must listen to this song by a famous hungarian singer, titled Mikor elindul a vonat (when the train leaves)

Szentes was the birthplace of Hungarian railcar operations; the two-axle
railcars built by GANZ were initially introduced here at the end of the 1920s
and passenger traffic on the surrounding lines has been served by railcars ever
since. Nowadays the local rolling stock mainly comprises 6341 railcars purchased
from Russia a few years ago. - source

Standing tall once again

Calvinist Great Church. See larger .

This structure is almost 200 years old (built from 1808 til 1825) ! In 2006 (or before?) restoration work started and this blog has been following the progress ever since. Despite the slow progress, I've enjoyed capturing scenes which were interesting to me and documenting them here.

The church is now back to it's purpose again. On sundays, you can see believers making their way to the church in their best suits giving it life again :)

March 2008

Courtesy of the circus

Captured this morning while the circus was in town.

Spring 2008

A shot of someone's garden

Photo of the day

Phototrade, one of the photo hostings sites I'm a member of selected the above as their photo of the day! Here's what they wrote ...

" It’s not every day you get to see intimate and beautiful photos of
a small town in Hungary... "

Thank you :)

ps. The owner of this house is of course a watch repairer!

Old creation given new life

You can't tell but the scene WAS taken one crazy morning in Szentes many moons ago . The apple(s) of course was added later by yours truly.

Story behind this post...
When Mandy requested from a bunch of us for a photo of apple, I remembered this and dug it out from my archive . Then she come up with this haiga which I simply love!

Mandy submited it to an interesting astropoetry project - Newton and the Striking Apple coordinated by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe . This morning, I got news that our work (mainly Mandy's) have been published . Do visit the site, it's an eye opener (for me)

Many thanks to Mandy and Andrei for this opportunity!

Oh, here's wishing all a blessed new year !

Time goes by...

Christmas has come and gone, but I'm still digesting the delicious fish soup, stuffed cabbage , bejgli (a type of pastry) and assorted meat!

I trust that whereever you are you've enjoyed your holiday rest and time spent with family and friends as well.

In memory of a captain

If you don't have a dream, how can you make a dream come true?

- Griff Tedd (1928-2007)

I have not been inspired with new dreams for a long time. Perhaps it is due to the fact that my plans and dreams for the past years have been realising at very slow pace. It is frustrating!
Then on Saturday Dec 8th, we attended a tree planting ceremony in memory of Griff , where Mrs. Griff (Debbie) quoted the above during the ceremony. Thank you Griff for reminding me to keep dreaming and I know slowly but surely my dreams would come true.

It was a lovely ceremony attended by many locals and expatriates of Szentes. The tree was planted within the compound of the town's leisure pools. I think Griff would enjoy being near the river very much. We know Griff was involved in many interesting adventures in his lifetime.. but the most surprising was that we learned that Griff was actually playing the captain (his real profession) on one of ships in the BBC tv series The Onedine Line !

#369 - Petőfi Hotel - Update

Good news to those who haven't been inside the defunct hotel. Pendola (company managing the restoration project) decided to open the premises to the public on 29 November between 09:00 and 15:00. So, don't loose the opportunity.

You may bring along any photos about the ex-hotel on the mentioned date. It may be chosen to be exhibited on the day!

A press conference will also be held at 17.00pm before moving forward with the project.


source : szentes on-line portal

#368 - Congratulations to ...

Oct 20, 2007
... László Csaba and Anna Mikes (bronze medal holders for the Dance world cup) dance couple from Szentes made it to 8th place (out of 28) in Tokyo Ten dance world championship. This will enable the dance couple to qualify for the coming European world dance championship. Good luck!

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...Also, not forgetting the Szentes' Szilver Dance School for taking 6th position in the recent European Standard dance competition.

#367 - Storks collage

Storks have been a yearly subject of this blog. This time I'm posting photos taken over a few weeks period.

A second nest found before the entrance to the town centre...amazing!

Mama, feed me!

Earlier I reported that only one stork was sighted, but later I saw 3 baby storks emerged :)

Time to go again. See you next year!
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#366 - Getting started...

I was delighted to read an update on the restoration of the former Petőfi Hotel from the on-line portal. While returning to Szentes for a visit last weekend, I took the opportunity to snap this banner. The banner is to signify a new beginning, a co-operation between Pendola (the project company) and Szentes town on the work of restoration!
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What can we expect by the end of the restoration ...
1) A 4-star hotel with the usual restaurant & pub.
2) Turkish bath
3) Squash court
4) Gym
5) Childcare centre
6) Casino (sorry, cant say i agree with having this...but i guess it'll create more employments)
..
Before the works begin in 2008, sadly we'll have to say good bye to the popular Petőfi café & confectionery, which is located at the same building. My partner's father will have to look for another café for his morning coffee and pool gatherings. Also, a furnishing shop will have to be relocated as well.
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Cheers, for a fresh beginning!

That's all for now..will keep updating here ;)
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