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…