3rd march 1970

Branik

Praha

3/3/70

Dear Mum and Dad

Thank you for the 2 letters received this week, one from 15^th and 17^th of last month.

We have been finding out all the nice places to visit when you come here on holiday. I am enclosing a lot of the day trips available from Prague. Perhaps you could let me know which ones you and dad would like to go on. I have just looked at the day trip page only to find they don’t start until June 15^th. Still I will enclose them anyway and make some enquiries at Chedok and see if there are any trips in May. I think we shall probably go to Slovakia for the second week as the countryside is beautiful. There are caves, castles, museums to visit, fishing in the rivers, lovely walks (driftwood collecting) alpine flowers, lakes and mountains. You might like to write to the Czechoslovakian travel Bureau in Oxford St. This will be your holiday so you must tell us exactly what you want to do.

I am hoping I may be coming to England for a 3 week course before your holiday in which case we can discuss the matter then.

We are going to write to Mr. B. our solicitor, as I.C.L. suddenly said they won’t pay our legal (house selling) fees. They have taken 2 months to come to this conclusion - not telling us a word in the meantime. Poor Mr. B. must be wondering where his money is. Of course it’s that Mr. W. in ICL HQ again - we intend to have a fight over it and not give up without a struggle. Anyway perhaps you could phone Mr B and explain the situation. He will get his money soon. I think the company must pay if it is in one of their instructions that all moving expenses etc are paid by the company and other people who came to Czechoslovakia have had their legal fees paid. I feel like asking you to put a bill in from Loviett’s for estate agent fees.

I am in Prague at the moment as I am a bit unwell. Nothing serious just a cold has caused my glands to swell. It is probably all psychological because I don’t want to go back to Brno. Greg W. is supposed to be going to Brno this week to say how desperately I am needed in Prague. I hope I shall be here for good soon.

I will give you a list of things we need nearer the holiday time. Don’t worry about our old clothes though. Czechoslovakia is quite a surprising country and there aren’t many things you can’t buy here. There are things we might like from England, branded goods like Coldrex and Strepcils. I guess they are available here but I don’t know what they are called. I am OK for tights at present. The thing you will need is some English tea. Czech tea is very weak and served with lemon. I hope Dad can adapt to the diet- I think he will like the fried potatoes that are served with every meal.

Sometimes I feel I would like to transport the whole family here. I don’t miss England all that much but I do miss family and friends. I must have a look at our cine films soon to remind myself what you all look like. I do hope I can come to England soon and see you all. Most people working here manage to get home fairly regularly.

We have had quite a few short letters from Mrs F. this week and my birthday parcel from her arrived today having taken two months to get here. I also heard from C. C. and her family are well.

Like you I am dying for the spring. When it snows here there is often a good six inches in one go but they manage to keep the roads clear. Tony bought me a bunch of snowdrops this weekend but is has been snowing all weekend until today when the sun is making the reflection so bright it hurts you eyes to look at it.

Tony and I have not done much lately. I went out to T.N.’s flat with A.R. and we cooked ‘coq au vin’ which was delicious. Poor T.N. does not know how to cook at all always having been spoilt by a wife or mother. I am glad Tony can look after himself when I am away.

Last Friday we had our monthly I.C.L., meeting and afterwards an I.C.L. party at C. and M.’s new flat which is only a few minutes away from where we live. They are a nice couple with a two year old daughter.

On Saturday night we went to see ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ which was showing for one day only. We have seen it before but it is so good we enjoyed it a second time.

On Saturday we explored a bit of Prague we did not know, an old castle, whose grounds have been turned into a park. There are fabulous views from the castle walls of the rest of the city. We also went round the municipal gallery but I was beginning to feel a bit tired by this time as the bug I have took hold. I am feeling much better today and will probably go to Brno tomorrow. If not I shall go to the doctor and get some pills to cure me.

Lots of love

Gillian and Tony

It is amazing how quickly we adapted to the ex pat life. We thought nothing of driving across Europe or jumping on a plane or staying at the best hotels in town. However we avoided the ex-pat life centred on the British Embassy. We felt we had nothing in common with the people who worked there. They seem to live in a vaguely Edwardian early 1900’s world of their own. More concerned with cocktail parties and the correct hierarchical seating plans for formal dinners than what was happening in the real world.

We were extremely lucky to meet the Czech people by living in a Czech flat and working with everyday people and we struck up some good friendships in Brno and Prague. Besides letting us know when food shipments had arrived at particular shops in town, our immediate neighbours would invite us in to share a meal or take us to a bar-b-q. Because we had access to preserved & tinned food that locals did not, available to us in the hard currency Tuzek shops or by a swift trip to Nuremburg, our nearest Germany town, we felt guilty at the generosity of our hard pressed Czech neighbours. In the evenings we often glided silently as possible into our parking spot outside our flat and crept up the stairs to avoid the doors opening with a smiling invitation to dinner. The generosity and kindness of our Czech neighbours in this time of severe austerity and Russian occupation was humbling.

The I.C.L. staff were also very similar to us in outlook. Many came from Eastern European origins and had been drawn to work behind the iron curtain to better understand their roots. Others were escaping from difficult marriages whilst others like us just wanted adventure and new experiences. And there were people like us who just wanted to live in and understand a different culture & environment.

 We never felt threatened behind the Iron Curtain, our British passport was like a talisman which conferred invulnerability on us.  The engineers would smuggle computer parts across the borders by leaving copies of playboy on the passenger seat and then offering them to guards in exchange for them ignoring the tape drive in the boot. I guess the authorities tolerated us as they wanted our computers to keep up with western business.