A surreal sight today.
Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 8:04 pm
I am in Budapest today, a truly beautiful city. I was sitting in one of the many open air bars on the Danube sipping a cold beer in the sun. The bars were packed with normal, pleasant people, families with kids etc all enjoying a pleasant afternoon in the sun.
However not 50 yards away, in a street that runs behind the bars stood around 100 heavily armed riot police, with helmets, pistols, clubs etc on both sides of the road, all in lines, as a bunch of drunken, Austrian, football supporters, staggered down the road, shouting and bellowing.
I thought what a wonderful place this is, that a bunch of football supporting drunken wankers, were not going to be permitted to run riot through all the bars making everyones life a misery, as would be the case in the UK.
I continued sipping my beer and to my delight and everyone elses, saw one "Fan" throw a beer can, whereupon he was set on by half a dozen cops, dragged out of the crowd and hurled into the back of a police wagon.
I looked around to see a smiling German applauding profusely and gave him a "Hi Five"
At which point we both sat down and continued guzzling our cold beers.
Oh what bliss!
However not 50 yards away, in a street that runs behind the bars stood around 100 heavily armed riot police, with helmets, pistols, clubs etc on both sides of the road, all in lines, as a bunch of drunken, Austrian, football supporters, staggered down the road, shouting and bellowing.
I thought what a wonderful place this is, that a bunch of football supporting drunken wankers, were not going to be permitted to run riot through all the bars making everyones life a misery, as would be the case in the UK.
I continued sipping my beer and to my delight and everyone elses, saw one "Fan" throw a beer can, whereupon he was set on by half a dozen cops, dragged out of the crowd and hurled into the back of a police wagon.
I looked around to see a smiling German applauding profusely and gave him a "Hi Five"
At which point we both sat down and continued guzzling our cold beers.
Oh what bliss!