Each of us was assigned a different country, and from to the fall of Communism in late, I was responsible for covering Czechoslovakia. Traveling to the Eastern bloc in the s was a complicated affair, especially for journalists. Our support staff in the Vienna office worked the telex machines hard this was before faxes or email to obtain the necessary official permissions.
One of the trickiest parts of the job was to arrange accommodation. The Czechoslovak authorities took a dim view of Western journalists and seemed to regard our small bureau in Vienna with an extra dose of suspicion.
The fact that our bureau chief was an ex-U. Indeed, on my trips to Czechoslovakia, from the moment I entered the country to the minute I left, I was accompanied by a Czech fixer and translator named "Arnold.
I wrote about Arnold in a separate post here. Getting back to the issue of accommodation. There was only a handful of hotels in Prague where Western journalists were permitted to stay. The bugging room below the Jalta has been opened as a tourist attraction, so anyone can see the elaborate phone and room-tapping setup that existed. I was never offered these hotels as lodging options. I've posted photos of both the Esplanade and Ambassador here as well. Of the three, the Intercontinental was the most modern and arguably the best, but it was actually my least favorite.
This is not meant in any way to demean the Intercontinental as it exists now. Since , the hotel chain has pumped loads of money into the building. The lobby is light, airy and upscale in a way it never was back then.
