And living in Budapest for eight months was incredible.
I went from a very structured life in Oxford going to school every day to suddenly a week later I was living in Budapest for eight months. It's a big change so I feel I've changed so much from that experience as a person.
I studied at the Budapest Academy of Theatrical Arts for four years and emerged with a degree.
I recently had a few days off while shooting a movie in Budapest, so I took a cab from the set to the airport, looked at the departure board, and decided where I wanted to go right then and there. I spent four days in Rome and didn't tell anyone I was going.
I watched the night unfold from beginning to end on my own here in my flat in Budapest where I've been working for the last six months, and when it was announced that Barack Obama was indeed president-elect, I wept.
We started filming in 1993 which was only four years after the fall of communism. The difference in Budapest over the last five years has been remarkable.
Two years ago, I shot 'Pillars of the Earth' in Budapest - it was a big part, but I had a lot of time to sit around and visit cafes.
And, not only in Budapest. I worked very closely with a very powerful government organization, which shall remain unidentified, to develop the mass marketed version of the Cube.
In the mid-1970s, I was teaching design at the Academy of Applied Arts in Budapest.
As a boy I stood at the doorway of our hiding place in Budapest and watched Russian troops fight house by house to liberate the city and therefore rescue us from certain death.
