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Tense, following friend with parrots somewhere in C Europe (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

budapest

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'somewhere in c europe' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both locations as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?

'tense following friend with parrots' is the wordplay.
'tense' becomes 't' (abbreviation used in many dictionaries).
'following' says to put letters next to each other.
'friend' becomes 'bud' (shortly for buddy).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'parrots' becomes 'apes' (I've seen this before).
'bud'+'apes'='budapes'
't' after 'budapes' is 'BUDAPEST'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for budapest that I've seen before include "Put beads in the European city" , "European capital" , "Put beads in the city on the Danube" , "Hungary's capital" , "Ernest Laszlo's birthplace" .)

I've seen this clue in The Everyman puzzle in The Observer.
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