Peace of Mind

And if all you've got to do today is find peace of mind
Come here, you can take a piece of mine.
You could be taking it easy on yourself
You should be making it easy on yourself

- Catatonia, Road Rage

Tottenham have sacked Juande Ramos, and replaced him with Harry Redknapp. They also sacked first team coaches Gus Poyet and Marcelo Alvarez, and director of football Damien Comolli. They don't do things by half-measures, do they? And this is Daniel Levy's explanation for all his machinations. 

Redknapp is a very good manager, but one who's better known for saving relegation-bound sides than for creating championship-winning sides. I suppose it's recognition that Tottenham should shelve those "Top 4" plans, at least for a year, and concentrate on staying in the Premiership. And I can just imagine Redknapp rubbing his hands with glee at the amount of horse flesh he gets to trade in January. 

Sorry, got a bit side-tracked there. 

I've been in Budapest for a couple of days now. It looks surprisingly old for a city that only boomed in the late 19th century. It takes a while to appreciate it, especially after you've been in well-scrubbed places like Vienna and Prague, but it's interesting. There's a "lived-in" kind of feeling to it, from the faded neon signs and the graffiti on the buildings, to the way the grime and soot covers everything from elaborate fin de siecle facades to Stalinist Lego block buildings.

There are a lot of things to do in Budapest. There are caves under the hills of Buda, limestone caves that are the most extensive in Europe. The Turks extended the ones under the palace to turned them into a labyrinth of cellars and dungeons. There's a room in the castle with a fountain than gushes wine. There's this thermal bath near Heroes Square. There're bars and cafes and bakeries that are cheap, and a pub crawl that offers unlimited shots for around $12AUS. 

But I'm exhausted. It's quite worrying how tired I'm been since Berlin. I think I'm going to have to take a leaf out of Cerys Matthews's book and step down, sit back and try and find my peace of mind. We're playing West Ham in a few hours. In a little while, I'm going to step out and find a pub to watch it. And a train ticket to Brasov for tomorrow.