I quit the UK to live in a drab Communist-era block in Eastern Europe and I won’t go back: Hot water runs out for days and bureaucracy is soul-sapping – but it’s STILL better than Britain and everything is so cheap

Half-way through my job interview for a newspaper role in Bucharest, a sudden panic hit me.

Was it Bucharest… or Budapest? Perhaps I was getting confused exactly where I had applied for. I resolved to avoid mentioning the name for the rest of…