Karlovy Vary

Tuesday June 9 we had an excursion to Karlovy Vary. This is a very well known Spa Town here in the Czech Republic. There are 12 natural springs that people travel from all over just to drink the water. The story behind these natural springs is if you drink the water, then your body will be healed and you will have great health from then on.

Karlovy Vary also offers the Becherovka liqueur and Moser Crystal. Becherovka is one of the most famous Czech liqueurs and it is said to be the 13th spring you are supposed to drink from. Many people who believe in this have 40 milliliters of Becherovka a day. They usually have 20 ml in the morning and then 20 ml accompanying their dinner.

Moser Crystal is very famous for its crystal creations. You can find Moser Crystal all over the Czech Republic and the products they provide are wide ranges of hand-made glass.

From its beginnings, Moser Glass have developed a formula for manufacturing glass as hard as rock and as brilliant as lead crystal, without using lead.

The composition is highly suited to engravings and much more ecological than lead crystal.

Moser glass is potash-lime glass. The raw materials used for making it are silica, potash, other chemical substances and recycled glass. The manufacturing process then determines its hardness, brilliance, and colour.

In making Moser crystal, the glass is heated in the furnace to a temperature up to 1470°C. The melting lasts about 15 hours. The molten mixture becomes an incandescent substance, which it "cools" to around 1280°C, the glassmakers are able to start to use it to form objects.

Moser uses pot furnaces. Each furnace has six to eight pots (glory holes) from which the glassblower, using a long iron blow-pipe, lifts out the required quantity.(http://www.pragueexperience.com/places.asp?PlaceID=667)

On the way home we stopped at Lidice, Czech Republic. This town is very historic and its most famous event happened on June 10, 1942 in World War II. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/lidice_1942.htm

Excursion to South Bohemia

Tuesday May 26, we went on another excursion. This time we went to South Bohemia where we visited the original Budweiser Beer. The tour guide was very nice and very informative. From Budweiser brewery we went to Czesky Krumlov. There is a castle and a very historic town there. We got to tour the castle and tour the city. The castle is absolutely gorgeous and again the students were really enjoying everything about it.

As everyone stayed here last weekend and the Italy Student Managers and students came to Prague, all of the students were preparing their first weekend away on their own. Some students are planning on going to Barcelona, Amsterdam, and Budapest. They are all very excited to get outside of Prague now and go experience everything about Europe that they’ve only heard about. It will be a true test for them to see if they can be on their own for a weekend away in foreign places they’ve never been before.

Our First Weekend

For the first weekend in Czech Republic, the group decided to experience the culture of Prague and stay for the weekend. Some of the Italy group had never been to Prague either, so they made the journey and we all visited the culture together.

Touring the city with everyone was a great experience. Most of the Prague group felt so comfortable with the city already that they were able to lead the Italy visitors around and show them their favorite places in Prague. We visited Wenceslas Square, the Astronomical Clock, Old Town, Charles Bridge, and Prague Castle (Hradcany Castle).

Another big part of the Czech culture is their beer. Walk around and ask any Czech local what they're known for and you will get the same answer, "Pivo" (beer in the Czech language). There happened to be a beer festival happening north of the city, so the group made the journey to really experience some Czech culture. We experienced true Czech Cuisine, some great beer, and some very different but good music.

It was a very eventful weekend but every one seemed to really enjoy the culture and wished they could experience it longer.

Skoda Automobile and Czech Paradise

On Wednesday May 20, the group made their first excursion to the Skoda Car Factory and also to Prachovske skaly (Czech Paradise).

Skoda Automobile is a car manufacturer in the Czech Republic. Skoda dates back to around the 1890s where, like many well-established car manufactures, started manufacturing bicycles. Vaclav Klement, who was a bookseller by trade in Mlada Boleslav, in today's Czech Republic, which was then part of Austria-Hungary, was unable to obtain the right spare parts to repair his German bicycle. Klement returned his bicycle to the manufacturers, Seidel and Naumann, with a letter, in Czech, asking for them to carry out repairs, only to receive a reply, in German, stating: "If you would like an answer to your inquiry, you should try writing in a language we can understand". A disgusted Klement, despite not having any previous technical experience, then decided to start his own bicycle repair shop, which he and Vaclav Laurin opened in 1895 in Mlada Boleslav. Before going into business partnership with Klement, Laurin was an already established bicycle manufacturer from the nearby town of Turnov. (wikipedia.com) Skoda's history from here is very complex and a much more detailed history can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0koda_Auto Skoda became a subsidiary of the Volkswagen group in 1991 and car sales reached 674,530 in 2008.

The group was able to experience some typical Czech cuisine at Skoda that is actually prepared right there in Skoda's Museum.

From Skoda the group went to Prachovske skaly (Czech Paradise). Czech Paradise are sand rock formations. It is a great place to go hiking and see the outdoors. Some of the terrain can be very steep and rocky, but the views that are seen here are very pretty. Hiking up to the top of the rock formations and the tops of the large hills allowed the group to see for miles at the Czech landscape.

Prague Orientation

The group received their first tour of Prague yesterday. Vlasta, the Czech coordinator took the students to some magnificent places for their first exposure to this very historic city while making the group familiar with some European traits; using the public transit and walking almost everywhere.

At the first stop, Malostranska metro stop, Vlasta began his very detailed tour of the history of the city. The first piece of history was the Vrtboska garden. The Vrtbovska garden is situated on the slopes of the Petrin hill and is one of the most important boroque gardens of Prague.

The Italian style terrace garden was built by the Vrtbovsky palace in 1715-1720 for Jan Joseph, the earl of Vrtba, the highest chancellor of the Prague castle. The very intelligent solution proved by a convincible style interpretation was designed by Prague-born Frantisek Maxmilian Kanka. An important role was undoubtedly also played by his colleagues, sculptor Matyas Bernard Braun, who provided all the sculpture for the garden, and painter Vaclav Vavrinec Reiner, the author of the frescoes (any of several related painting types, done on plaster on walls or ceilings).

The tour continued on to several other smaller locations including the John Lennon wall, Charles Bridge, and one of the oldest working Astronomical Clocks in the world. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Astronomical_Clock )

The small tour given by Vlasta was a great orientation to get the students acquainted with Prague and get their confidence in themselves to now go out and take on the town and find out more on their own.

After the tour of the city, the students made their way back to campus where they enjoyed a Welcome Dinner hosted by our Czech friends. It was a very pleasant night as dinner was provided for us and we were able to meet and greet the Czech students.

Students stayed after the dinner and participated in a local fun game that the Czechs enjoy to play a lot, Foosball.