"Budapest" Budapest by vichatherly

Budapest is a very interesting European city, ideal for a short weekend break, with it's beautiful river and fabulous bridges. The city is divided in to two by the Danube, into Buda and Pest.

It also has a great night life, plenty of very decent and reasonable restaurants.

The historical sites are divided between the two places but in the main the night entertainment and decent hotels are situated on the Pest side.

We flew into Budapest from Heathrow via Copenhagenan and stayed Hotel Hungaria.

The people were very friendly and the language barrier was not as bad as you may think, although my Hungarian was really awfull!

My first visit to Budapest was for the European Cup 1st Round 1st Leg.

Manchester United played Kispest-Honved in the Jozsef Bozsik Stadium on 15 September 1993.

United won 3-2, which put us in a good position to win the tie back at Old Trafford.

My second trip to Budapest was August 2005 for the UEFA Champions League Third Qualifying Round, 1st leg.

Manchester United played Debreceni VSI in the Puskas Ferenc Stadion on 9 August 2005. We won 3-0, which put us in a good position to win the tie back at Old Trafford and qualify for the group stages.

A day around town and then it was off to the match, sneak in by the VIP seats and watch an entertaining 3-0 victory. we evn scored from two set pieces. The game was somewhat marred by the two injuries to Gabriel Heinze (out for the rest of the season) and Gary Neville.

Then it was a case of trying to get a debreceni VSI scarf...not too sucessfull.

• Pros:A very decent European city
• Cons:Must learn more Hungarian next time
• In a nutshell:Buda+Pest =Budapest!