California Wedding Photographer, Photography Worldwide – Victor Sizemore’s Blog

What more can I say about Paris… The Louvre was by far one of the most spectacular things I have ever experienced. So much art, history, and style all in one place!

The Louvre

Arc de Triomphe de Carosel

Pont Alexandria III

The Eiffel Tower

Today we tried to squeeze in everything we possibly could: Notre Dame, Museum de Orsay, Napoleon’s Tomb, Armery Museum, Pont Alexandria, The Moulon Rouge, and the France vs Spain World Cup game. (That’s another story, it was madness after France won)

We are now in Paris and I have been practicing my basic French to make a good impression with the Parisian merchants. Anyway, we could not find our hotel tonight due to an incorrect map on Orbitz so we found sympathy from a hotel in the Latin Quarter, see the photo from the room. It’s a great little area just south of Notre Dame and the Louvre. The other photos are of the famous Eiffel Tower, “more Parisian than Paris itself,” and finally the Arc de Triomphe!

I have the greatest wife that anyone could ever imagine. I love her soooo much and I am really missing her right now. I want to say I could not do any of this with out my beautiful and understanding wife. Rach I promise to bring you to all of these places one day when timing is right. Hug and kiss the kids for me!

We are now back in Budapest and fly out to Paris tomorrow afternoon. Buda and Pest used to be two different cities. Below is a photo of Tim and I standing on the Chain Bridge (Széchenyi lánchíd) which first connect the two cities in 1836 and has now become a symbol of Hungarian liberty! The other photos are statues in Heroes Square (Hősök tere) which is absolutely striking!!!A 36 meter high column of the winged figure of the Archangel Gabriel (György Zala 1896) is encircled on its pedestal by statues of the seven conquering Magyar tribal chiefs on horseback. Behind, are two semi-circular colonnades housing the statues of the most famous rulers in Hungarian history. The stone tablet in front of the main column, which on ceremonial occasions is guarded by soldiers, commemorates those who died for national freedom and independence.It is one of my favorite places so far and I am planning on trying to get there around sunrise tomorrow to get some good shots.

After three grueling days of traveling by bus, horse drawn carriage and metro we finally completed our shoot! Below are a couple shots of the places we were working. The Hédervár and Sasvár Castles are located in pretty remote parts of Hungary. This country is so beautiful it’s sort of Kentuckyesque but with castles of course.

Last night we left Prague on a night train to Budapest around 11PM. We thought what a deal to pay an extra ten dollars and get a bed. Then when we boarded our coach and found our place Tim and I were on top bunk of a triple bunkroom. So there were two English girls on the bottom and two French girls in the middle and us guys from Kentucky on top in a 6×6 room that felt like an Alcatraz cell! We were awakened twice by passport control during the night and arrived in Budapest at 8:30AM local time.

We found our waz to the West End Hilton where Steve and Ilana were staying and they were impressed that we made it on time. From there we snuck in a quick trip to a Hungarian “hot bath.” (Syéchenyi Baths)On the way we passed Heroes Square, which was beautiful with statues of the most prominent heroes throughout Hungarian history. (Stay tuned for photos)

The “bath” was a truely amazing experience! We paid approximately $10 for a 2 hour ticket and a cubby. First, we started with a 34°C hot tub and then we went in the steam room. It was so hot it gave us sunburn! (55°C, ~135°F) Wow! After we caught our breath, literally, we made our waz outside to the real bath experience. The architecture and sculptures were so awesome, I wish I could have snapped a few photos but cameras were not permitted. There were three pools each one with a different function. One with cooler water and jets for water messaging, the second more like an Olympic pool to swim laps, and the third, which was like a huge hot tub with fountains. Tim and I got in a rushed game of chess while in the water, he won…

The train station…

The bath house…

Today is the longest day of the year, Summer Solstice. It got light at 4:07 this morning in Prague. I caught the tram(#17) down to the bridge and arrived about 4:45 AM. Surprisingly there were plenty of people out and about: photographers, people coming from the pubs, people going to work, and plain old sightseers. Two English girls asked me to take a photo of them, I don’t know why, so I got them to shot me as well — not bad!

Anyway, here are several shots from this morning of the Castle and St. Charles bridge, enjoy!

As most of you know the World Cup is this year and everyone is soccer crazy over here. There are people from all over the world in the Czech Republic to watch games. My buddy Dan told me to go to the town square of any European city to find a game and I did and there was! People, food, and beer everywhere… They had a hung jumbtron out showing all the games.

I hope you noticed when entering the blog today I switched up the header to a more appropriate travel theme. I took that shot of the Prazsky hrad (Prague Castle) at night from the Karluv most (St. Charles Bridge). I will get a better shot tomorrow evening at the magic hour. I am also going to shoot the bridge this morning at sunrise if I don’t fall asleep. It is about 3:45 AM local time…

One more interesting thing I learn… There is more pivo (beer) consummed in the Czech Republic per capita than anywhere else in the world! It’s the home of the origanl Pilsner Urquell. It all makes sense when we got into town this morning about 10:30 AM local time and there were people at the Hospodas (pubs) having a beer. Even moreover, I notice large groups of people having a draft and most of them were women. At this one place we walked by there was an old couple probably in there mid-to-late 60’s having a brew.

“Neni pivo jako pivo” (There’s no beer like beer) a local phrase.

Well after much traveling we finally made it to Praha (Prague) in the Czech Republic. I slept most of the trip, Air France is pretty comfortable… I watched part of a movie and played a couple games of Chess. That computer Chessmaster was toast! I also got a little inspiration from my buddy Joe Latter’s promo DVD. I watched it around 3:00AM (Paris time) as we were flying over Greenland. Anyway, here are a couple shots from earlier today. It’s about 10:00 PM here. I am going to try and shoot the St. Charles bridge this evening with hopefully less tourists.