Because of this interest it was decided, in my mind, very early in my life that I would become a botanist. I liked nature in general, everything else, as I said, I liked about nature... all the other creatures. But flowers were still in the centre of my interest and so I wanted to be a botanist. That meant I had to go to a gymnasium. Gymnasium is not what it is in English countries, it has nothing to do with physical exercise it's just a higher level... a secondary level of schooling that you have to go through if you want to go to the university. So I went to the gymnasium in Opava which was the nearest town to Štemplovec, about 10 kilometres distance from my village. I had to go by bus or by train there every day and it was the same school that 100 years ago was the school where Gregor Mendel was educated. Now it's called Mendel's Gymnasium actually. At that time, my time, Mendel was a persona non grata, that means you could not mention his name but the fact was that that's where he went to school, just 100 years ago...

[Q] Years before.

Yes.