In the 80's, visited Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) with my parents on our European Vacation
which started in Ireland circled through Europe and ended in Paris.
At that time they were still under communist rule and at the border
station we had to exit our vehicle as they searched it. They
checked under the car with mirrors and they almost confiscated a Time
magazine they found in the trunk. We were required to purchase a
minimum amount of their currency. Upon exiting we had to return
any unused currency, but did not get any money back. They
would hold the value of our currency for up to one year in case we
returned, otherwise it was taken by the state.
We decided to spend the night in Prague, but like
on the entire trip we had no hotel reservations. So while we were
eating lunch at a local restaurant my dad found us a family that would
let us stay at their place for the night. I may have caught the
"travel bug" from my dad, but I give him lots of
kudos for willing to travel in a foreign country with no hotel
reservations!! Especially since he did not speak their language,
the best we had to help was a high school boy who was learning German
and I had a English-German translation book. Looking back, I may
have been upset with him for the lack of detail planning, but it was a
great trip and he got us to all the places he promised and more.
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