December 2011

Weights and Measures
Eger, Hungary
2011

A produce vendor weighing out a customer’s purchase at the market hall in Eger.

The Hall of the Mountain King #6
Budapest, Hungary
2011

The old stone structures I dubbed the Hall of the Mountain King ended with this fence railing, about 1/2 mile from where the first of this series of photos was taken. The crow with the ring in it’s beak is the symbol of King Matthias Corvinus, the crow king. So I guess he’s also the king of the mountain to whom I’ve been referring.

The lighting in this photo was from car headlights–I had to wait for cars to go by on the road to take the photo because otherwise it was too dark. The crow in the background (at the left end of the railing) looks like the shadow of the foreground crow cast on the rock wall.  But it is actually a second sculpted metal crow. Even though I took the photo and know better, every time I glance at it my mind says it’s a shadow.

The Hall of the Mountain King #5
Budapest, Hungary
2011

This photo shows perhaps the best view of how close the stone structures were to the cliffs on the Buda Hills. It also shows how dimly lit much of the structure is–which lends to it’s mysterious quality in spite of being bordered by a busy road. It was that mysterious quality that lead me to imagine a castle within the rock. In fact, while not containing an actual castle as far a I know, these hills are riddled with both man-made tunnels and  natural caverns. Besides the Church in the Rock I mentioned a few days ago, there is also a complete hospital that was used during World War II.

Of the several different songs about the Hall of the Mountain King out there, I thought the lyrics from the version by a group called Savatage were most closely matched to my imagination. I found their music grating however, so I’ll just post the lyrics below.

Hall of the Mountain King
(Jon Oliva, Paul, O’Neill)

Far away
In a land caught between
Time and space
Where the books of life lay
We fear
This castle of stone
The mountain king roams
All alone in here
But he’s not the only one
Lost inside
Forever hidden from the sun
Madness reigns
In the Hall of the Mountain King
Oh yeah

His deep
Dark eyes
Keep watch on his kingdom
And the mysteries that sleeps safe inside
His hall
His towers of stone
Shall not be overthrown
For eternity
It is guarded by the king
Insanity and the power that it brings

Madness reigns
In the Hall of the Mountain King
Oh yeah
In the Hall of the Mountain King
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Come with me
Stay close by my side
As the darkness of night closes in
Don’t fear
In the thunder, it roars
When the Mountain King calls all his children home
To where I hid him we must run
Refuge here but I was forever on the run

Madness reigns
(my friends)
In the Hall of the Mountain King
Oh yeah
In the Hall of the Mountain King
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

The Hall of the Mountain King #4
Budapest, Hungary
2011

I was surprised by the relative lack of gothic architecture in Budapest compared to other places I’ve been in Europe. But this particular small gateway kind of structure is a classic, something that would make Bela Lugosi (who just happened to be Hungarian) feel right at home.

The Hall of the Mountain King #3
Budapest, Hungary
2011

Forty plus years is a long time for a song lyric fragment to be bouncing around in my head. That’s plenty of time for it to morph into something else.  It turns out the song lyric I was remembering mentioned neither a hall or a mountain; it was actually In the Court of the Crimson King recorded by King Crimson in 1969. I recognized it immediately as the tune I was thinking of when I listened to it. No surprise that I got it twisted around. What is surprising is that my friend Orion took the sketchy information I provided and found the correct tune in a very short time. Something Google couldn’t do–I’m impressed!

In the Court of the Crimson King was never one of my favorite songs or I’d post a video of it, but you can see it here if you’d like.

The Hall of the Mountain King #2
Budapest, Hungary
2011

As I mentioned yesterday, I named this series of photos after a song lyric from the late 1960s or early 70s. All I remember of the song is the last half of one line: “…in the hall of the mountain king, ” and a vague notion of what the tune sounded like. I spent some time on the internet trying to identify the song based on that information but failed. I did come up with a couple of more recent rock songs with those words in it, and of course Edvard Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King from 1876, but that’s about a century earlier than what I was thinking of and it has no lyrics. (Even if you don’t think you know Grieg’s piece, you probably do. Listen to it here.) I usually rely on Google to fill in the gaps in my fragmented memory and it generally serves quite well at that task. But it has failed me here. So, anybody out there know of any such song from the 60s or 70s?

The Hall of the Mountain King #1
Budapest, Hungary
2011

Just across the Danube from where we were staying in Budapest is a busy road and along this busy road is a linear structure built along the cliff face of the hills running up the river. It appears to be nothing more than a set of entries with connecting fences, but the  entries don’t seem to lead to anything other than the cliffs themselves (although there are some fragments of paths and holes, perhaps tunnels, in the rocks). On one end, they may have some connection to the Rock Church, a Catholic Church built into the mountain. If so, it’s a part of the church that has been neglected for years, as opposed to the main part which is kept up and frequented by visitors. Other than that, I’m not sure what function these structures originally served and they seem quite neglected and ignored even though it is in such a busy location. The whole structure reminded me of a partial lyric from a song from the 60s or 70s about the hall of the mountain king, so I’ve named this short series of photos I’ll post this week after that lyric.

Distraction
Budapest, Hungary
2011

The two women who seemed so focused on their mission with the chair in yesterday’s photo sure got distracted from that effort when they passed this guy going the other way. He must have been carrying some good stuff.

The Winner
Budapest, Hungary
2011

I imagined this woman to be the winner in some sort of adult musical chairs game where the winner gets to take home the last chair. The woman with her? I suppose she’s the first runner up, hanging around to sit in the chair should the winner not be able to complete her reign as champion.

Real Men and Wicker Baskets
Szentendre, Hungary
2011

I’m not sure how they feel about quiche, but many men (and women) seem to favor a small wicker basket for carrying home a bit of fresh bread and produce from the market. The same plastic grocery bags that are ubiquitous in the U.S. are also available in Hungary, but no one except the American tourists seem to make much use of them. Least you think this scene is way too quaint, I should point out the guy was reading a text message on a cell phone in his other hand.