Simon Calder - Iron Curtain
Video Playing Now: Simon Calder: Iron Curtain
Simon Calder is in Hungary, and explains how Eastern Europe has changed since Communism ended 20 years ago.
By Simon Calder
Incredible: it's 20 years since the Iron Curtain rusted away almost overnight. During those two decades the changes for life as a traveller have been dramatic - everywhere from Poland to Petropavlovsk.
But beach holidays are not quite the same in Bulgaria as they are in Benidorm, and a city break in Budapest will be a different experience to one in Brussels.
Indeed, Budapest was the location I chose for this film - because it has a spectacular collection of statues from the Communist era that disintegrated so spectacularly.
I wanted to explain that some of the hotels in Slovakia, Romania and other former Communist countries are still in a fairly ropy state, and that officialdom is still enamoured of bureaucracy - but the rewards are immense, exploring a region that has been miraculously preserved.
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