The Spartak Moscow star is enjoying the cut and thrust of the build-up to Euro 2012, writes KEITH DUGGANin Budapest

EASTWARDS, THEN, to the stubborn grandeur of Budapest; to fisherman on the blue Danube in 30-degree heat and the Opera House and gulyás soup and, of course to the evocative Ferenc Puskas Stadium, where the Irish team had a light training session at tea-time yesterday.

Giovanni Trapattoni’s preliminary schedule has worked out perfectly in terms of football practice and rest but it has also given his players plenty of cultural and photo opportunities. Their European ramble sure beats the routine of the M1, the section of motorway on which all of the English-based footballers spend more hours than they would care to remember.

This short trip to the Hungarian capital extended a tour into the unknown for the Irish squad, with the striking exception of Aiden McGeady. For the Spartak Moscow winger, this fabulous city must hold in its scale and aura some reflection of his adopted city in Russia.

It is easy to forget just how different McGeady’s football life has become. When some of the Irish players booked some time on the golf course in Montecatini during the week, McGeady eagerly joined them. But he wasn’t expecting to win. The Glaswegian grinned broadly that his game hasn’t had much fine-tuning since he moved to Spartak.

“Don’t take the golf that seriously. You don’t get much of it in Russia,” he observed wryly as he stood flushed and cheerful after a satisfactory training session. The remark was throwaway but it was a reminder that McGeady’s decision to swap the familiar delights – and limitations – of life with Celtic was the most exotic and independent-minded transfer involving any Irish player since a young Robbie Keane arrived in Inter Milan all of 12 years ago. Or at least it was until Keane joined David Beckham in Los Angeles last year.

It is probably a compliment to McGeady that most people weren’t entirely surprised when he agreed terms with Moscow: he plays the game with an individual streak that can be mesmerising when he is at his best, and he always gave the impression of someone not afraid to go his own way.

Since McGeady dropped out of sight on the Scottish circuit, the international set-up has become the stage on which Irish fans are accustomed to seeing him shine. McGeady’s impish, sleight-of-foot wing play immediately draws the eye. When it works, he is subject to lavish praise and when he gets tangled up in the double-team attention his creativity can merit, he receives more than his fair share of criticism. But there is the sense that if any Irish player can go supernova and turn heads during the European Championships, it is McGeady.

The signs were there when he made his entrance in front of an appreciative home crowd in the send-off game against Bosnia in Dublin just over a week ago.

“Yeah, I was delighted,” he says simply of his contribution to that match. “To come on after 45 minutes and, you know, having a good impact in the game and creating chances: it’s always what you want to do. I couldn’t be more pleased.”

The slow build-up to the tournament has allowed McGeady to catch up with the other Irish players. The culture of football and life in general in Moscow is so far removed from the Premier League that the Irish set-up enables him to keep in the loop.

But like everyone, he has felt the hours ticking away slowly since the squad assembled before the Bosnia game and, apart from the few social activities the squad have engaged in, he has been concentrating his mind since the first training sessions.

“I’ve sort of felt that way since we’ve been in Portmarnock. The training has had a really good tempo and a high intensity, as you’ve probably seen this week. It was a long week in Italy, and it was a long few days in Portmarnock as well, because you’ve still got an extra month to go, pretty much. But we’re getting closer and closer, and the excitement is building.”

The short trip to Budapest is a bit of a rush – the players will leave the city after tonight’s game – but it also offers a distinct stepping stone between the leisurely approach in Trapattoni’s beloved Italy and the gradual increase in emotion and anticipation once they arrive in the host country of Poland.

Managing the tedium and the hours of doing nothing other than rest is almost as important as the football, so packing their bags and moving into a completely fresh environment was a welcome change.

“Yeah, it does help,” McGeady agrees. “If we were staying the whole time in Dublin, it would be a little more difficult. But the fact we’re changing every day, where the manager has given us the odd day off, it’s not been as bad as I thought it would be, or as boring. That’s what you hear about when you’re away at major finals.”

For the players, international duty is like returning to the apprentice days, in many respects, with curfews and early evenings, and rooming with another player for a long period of time.

“Darren O’Dea,” McGeady grinned when asked who he fights with for the remote control. “Ah, I’ve always roomed with Darren. He was one of my best mates at Celtic, and we always roomed together there. There’s nothing worse than getting put in a room with someone you don’t really know that well . . . There are awkward silences with Darren sometimes if we have a little row, but nothing too bad. We’ve a very comfortable relationship. But today at training, we were moaning at each other – that’s how it goes when you know each other a long time.”

The floodlights in Puskas Stadion tonight, with its ghosts of the Mighty Magyars, the warm evening and the joy of playing football in the heart of Europe should further sharpen the minds of the Irish players. Soon, Croatia will be looming.

“No, no, just taking each game as it comes,” McGeady says quickly. “We’ve got Hungary . . . as it gets closer to the time, after Hungary, I think preparations will start in terms of watching more games and more videos and more analysis. Just now, it’s training, training, training, and one day at a time, because there’s a long way to go.”

But when you live in Moscow, distance is relative.