Travelsmartplanet

If you study in Czech in the Czech Republic, there are no tuition fees at public higher education institutions. If you learn in another language, fees vary depending on the language of instruction or the courses.

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St Vitus Cathedral

In Prague we learned about Wenceslas I, or Svatý Václav in Czech, who was the duke of Bohemia from 921 until his assassination in 935, purportedly in a plot by his own brother, Boleslav the Cruel.

In the optional excursion of Medieval Prague, you get to see the Gothic St. Vitus Cathedral, the biggest and most important church in the Czech Republic. It’s located in Prague Castle and contains the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors as well as the St. Wenceslas Chapel.

Due to the popularity of some books which elevated Wenceslas I to a place of heroic goodness and resulted in his being elevated to sainthood, was posthumously declared king, and then became the patron saint of the Czech state. He is that one and only “Good King Wenceslas” of the popular song which is a Saint Stephen’s Day carol written in 1853. over 900 years after he lived.

His death in September 935 (or perhaps 929) was committed by a group of nobles allied with Wenceslas’ younger brother Boleslav. Boleslav invited Wenceslas to a feast, they quarreled, and 3 of his buddies murdered Wenceslas on his way to church. Boleslav thus succeeded him as the Duke of Bohemia.

Since 2000, the feast day of Saint Wenceslas (September 28) is a public holiday in the Czech Republic, celebrated as Czech Statehood Day.

On the Cosmos optional excursion, one is wowed by the grandeur of the St. Wenceslas Chapel in St. Vitus Cathedral where his relics are kept. The room, built between 1344 and 1364, has walls encrusted with over 1,300 semi-precious stones and paintings about the Passion of Christ. The upper part of the walls have paintings about the life of St Wenceslas, and in the middle is a Gothic statue of him.

The Crown of King Wenceslas

There is a small door with seven locks in the chapel, which leads to the Crown Chamber containing the Czech Crown Jewels, which are displayed to the public only once every (circa) eight years. Seven different people have seven keys.

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After WWI, in 1918, the victors carved up a new map of Europe. Creating something that they called Czechoslovakia, they sewed together parts of countries. The people who now spoke four different languages did not share a common background.

After WWII, it became part of the Soviet Bloc. In 1968, there was a brief period of liberalization called the “Prague Spring”. The underground movement against their government  was not successful and Soviet tanks rolled in.

However by 1989, the Velvet Revolution (during the fall of communism), it finally became free and democratic again. Finally in 1993, the country peacefully split apart to become the Czech Republic with about 5 million people and Prague as its capital. The other part, Slovak Republic, has about 10 million people, and its capital is Bratislava .

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Budweiser beer was developed  in the Czech Republic. It was originally called Budvar (and still goes by that name in some countries). Beer has been brewed in Budweis since 1245. It tastes different here than the one in the US.

The two cities most associated with Czech beer are Pilsen and Budweis which both had breweries in the 13th century. The 2 most famously exported Czech beer brands are Pilsner Urquell, which was the world’s first pilsner (pale lager) and Budweiser Budvar. Pilsners have a clear golden colour, a light flavor and lots of foam.

In 2012, for the 20th consecutive year, the Czech Republic had the highest beer consumption per capita in the world –  170 litres per person.

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