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.

Gifts for Everyone
Budapest, Hungary
2011

A woman surveying the fare at the local gift shop on Váci utca, the pedestrianized main tourist street in Budapest. She was either over-dressed for the weather in her trench-length down coat (it was chilly, but not that chilly), or running around the streets in her housecoat, I couldn’t quite tell. I had no interest in shopping at the tourist traps but appreciated them nonetheless because they posted all their signage in English, so I actually felt literate for a change.

Just Not Into It
Szetendre, Hungary
2011

The world’s most bored accordion player performing at a restaurant where we were eating. He may not have been into playing that day, but was doing a pretty good job nonetheless.

Look at Yourself
Budapest, Hungary
2011

This guy had a more than passing resemblance to the guy in the advertisement he was looking at. I wonder if he noticed the resemblance as well (or maybe it is him).