Photo by Jana Rabenhauptova

I remember my first impressions when we passed a sign announcing that we have just entered Cork city from the Waterford side - the road leading into it along the river Lee looked a bit lonely and grey and buildings were small compare to Prague or Brno or London and many of them looked fairly run down with trees and plants growing out of windows and gutters! It was a Wednesday, the 20^th of July 1994. When we arrived at the bus station of the Republic of Ireland’s second largest city, I was amused at the size of it and that it had no clear bus stops dedicated to each destination. Buses were lined up in front of an ugly building. The station looks much nicer these days since it got a face lift for the 2005 European City of Culture year. 

I was waiting for a while as I did not see anyone who resembled ‘my family’. Luckily after about 20 minutes the host mother and one of the children arrived. The little girl (about 16 months old that time) was just so adorable; she was wearing a lovely summer dress. Something that you would only see on Czech kids for very special occasions and also only in about 25 degrees Celsius, not 17. After the usual ‘niceties’ upon arrival - like how was my journey, what’s the weather like where I came from we drove towards their home but first we had to stop at a shopping centre to get some groceries to make lunch with. They lived in a very nice neighbourhood but that time I did not really understand what difference this makes as where I grew up, there was no such a thing as good or bad neighbourhood or at least I did not feel there was. The family’s previous au pair was still there for a week or so. That was great as she was German and I spoke very good German and the transition was easier for me and the family too.

 I remember arriving in the house, meeting the rest of their 4 children and the au pair and then starting to cook ‘my’ lunch straight away. I was a vegetarian that time (hard to believe these days!) and I did not want to inconvenience the family by having to think about what I eat or not…so I cooked spaghetti with a creamy mushroom sauce…funny what memories stick in our minds! I remember marvelling at the house’s newly refurbished kitchen with a lovely big wooden dresser full of Portuguese pottery and other nick knacks (which seemed a bit kitschy at that time but I understand that it is part of the Irish and English décor and I actually kind of like it now). I remember admiring the lovely old house with its long very green garden full of old fruit trees and a small pond. I felt quite comfortable there right from the start, but I guess that’s the kind of person I am, maybe too comfortable a little too fast for more reserved and traditional conservative Irish custom. Nevertheless, it all seemed that it should work out and that we will all get on. The family had many au pairs before me and a few from the Czech Republic (including one of my best friends), so that made it easier too. A smile and a nod go a long way, something that I got to appreciate with au pairs in my own family many years later. 

That evening (despite the fact that I slept little in the previous 2 days), myself and the German au pair went to her favourite pub downtown. It was a proper Irish pub! What an introduction to Ireland, could not wish for much more. Packed with chatty and friendly people, no sitting at tables with a docket full of beer marks (one stroke per pint) like in the Czech Republic. Here you had to try to make your way by squeezing yourself through a crowd to get to the bar and then attempt to attract attention of whoever was serving behind the bar and then pay immediately. Yes, that was a culture shock but one gets used to this quite fast and with the price of a pint compare to what I was used to in the Czech Republic that time, one appreciates that nobody ‘pushes’ more pints in your direction than you actually want and also you don’t end up with a long docket of beers to pay for when all your friends conveniently disappear before settling the bill like it happened at home sometimes. I thought it was a great place, full of wonderful young and very friendly Irish people (not man foreigners around in those days). Looking back at it today, I would probably not be very happy if my own daughter frequented such establishment like I did then, but when you come to a new place and don’t have the feel for the country’s society and the culture, it is hard to judge. And of course when one is young everything seems more fun and cool. And it was fun. Only many years later I realised that one of the people I met who told me that they may be going on a foreign holiday soon probably meant they were going to jail for something or other.  Of course I wished them happy holidays in my ‘beginners’ English never to see them again. For anyone, who knew Cork that time, it was the Phoenix bar, next to Charlie’s bar on the quays. Charlie’s was another place where I liked it because you could just go there on your own, sit down, order a drink and read a newspaper by the fire and nobody would look at you twice. Try to do this in a continental Europe and I would imagine a few ‘labels’ would be immediately attached to you as a young lady with no company. There it was perfectly acceptable and it is till today and this is also one of the many wonderful things about this green island.

 One thing (or actually two things) that are not so wonderful about this island and which bugged me a lot at the start - are taps: one for cold and one for hot water. I still don’t get it, even after all these years! You either freeze or burn yourself. I understand that maybe the idea is to use a plug a plug, let water flow into the basin, where the hot and cold water mix and only then use it for washing hands or teeth but frankly, how many sinks have working plugs or if they have plugs, are the sinks clean?! Eek! Can someone tell me why in the UK and here people still install these taps, why using the mixers only in the kitchen?

Photo by Jana Rabenhauptova

My next au pairing experience was in Ireland. A great friend of mine, who has been an au pair in Cork for several summers was changing her summer destination for Canada and I had the opportunity to become a summer au pair with her ‘old family’. I welcomed this change of destination because I have spent a few previous summers near Dusseldorf and was anxious to discover new places. I found it quite hard to meet young people in Germany and I have heard that I will not have such a problem on the Emerald Isle. My only fear though was a lack of English because I have never really studied it. Russian and German were the two languages I learned through secondary school and at university. I had basic knowledge of some English words and expressions from songs, films and from a time of a short ‘love story’ with a handsome and kind English guy, who was that time an exchange student in my university town. (We are still friends and in touch but the difference now is that I can actually understand every word he says.)

I guess because the arrangement with the family was made via a friend, we had very little contact before me actually arriving in Cork. I remember writing them a letter letting them know the day and time I will be arriving and they sent me one back to confirm that they are looking forward to my arrival. Originally my friend became this family’s au pair via an au pair agency, to which she had to pay a ‘finding & placement’ fee and the family had to pay a substantial amount to the local agency too. My friend recalls that she was only interviewed over the phone by the ‘sending agency’ in the Czech Republic. There was no face-to-face meeting. So much for charging high fees by ‘traditional’ au pair agencies that claim going via them is the only safe way…but let’s talk about this some other time…

Going back about 15 years, the time I first travelled to Ireland, I must say it was a different world to what we know now. It has never crossed my mind then to even find out how much a flight ticket would cost because there was no such a thing as cheap flights with Ryanair or EasyJet. The cheapest ticket from Prague via London or Amsterdam to Cork even a couple of years later was around 400 GBP. So the only way to get from Prague to Cork was by coach for half that price. The bus would leave Prague in the morning and jolly 24 hours later, it would spit you out at Victoria bus station in London. The journey was made more exciting by crossing the channel by a ferry (certainly a novelty for a young person from a land-locked country) and then one would be wide awake and slightly shaking before an interview with famous emigration officers in Dover. The joys of the days prior to EU enlargement! Till today I have a fear of officials at airports, ports and border crossings. One never knows what paper is missing, is the passport in good enough order, is the right visa in it, OMG - where is the invitation letter?! Travelling to the US these days strongly reminds me of that time.

Then there would be about 12 hours of waiting to get on an overnight bus from London to Cork. It is a long long way to get from Prague to Cork…