Tanya Heaslip

Tanya Heaslip was sitting in a pub in London in 1989 when she saw the Berlin Wall come down on the telly.

Tanya was at the tail end of a solo backpacking trip, which didn't quite match the expectations of the Europe she'd dreamt up in her head as a kid growing up on a remote cattle station near Alice Springs.

So looking for some excitement, Tanya jumped on a plane to Berlin the very next day, which began an obsession and a fascination with finding out about life behind the old iron curtain as it was.

Several years later, Tanya returned to Europe, this time to the Czech Republic or Czechoslovakia as it was then.

And there in fairy tale Prague, not long after the Velvet Revolution, Tanya saw all these unexpected parallels between the magic and isolation of Prague and that of Central Australia, their people and their stories.

And Tanya entered into a relationship with an older man,

who had very different ideas about love and friendship.

Tanya Heaslip is the author of several memoirs, including Alice to Prague and Alice Girl and Beyond Alice.

Dobry den, Tanya.

Hello.

Dobry den, Richard.

Jaksa mas.

I feel well.

You grew up, as I said, on the family's cattle station, a remote part of the Northern Territory.

How big a part was beef in the daily diet of people out on the station?

Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

It was beef all day long in every way, every guise.

It could be cooked.

It was salted, roasted beef.

stewed and we had rib bones just as soon as we got our fresh meat and they were on the barbecue.