Sopron to Keleti

Michael Portillo begins his Hungarian adventure in the far north west of the country in the town of Sopron. He learns how a picnic for European unity on the Austrian border attracted East Germans fleeing for the west, just months before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In nearby Nagycenk, Michael drops in at the village fire station. He discovers how the country’s national fire service was started by the son of local nobleman and famous statesman Count István Széchenyi.

On arriving in the elegant capital city Budapest, on the mighty Danube River, Michael visits the exquisitely decorated Keleti station, opened in 1884. He finishes the evening with a drink at the New York Cafe, one of the most beautiful in the world.