Students have already started purchasing tickets, since new academic year starts in the beginning of September and a lot of them will have to travel from Prague Airport or railway station to their dormitory in Poděbrady. Naturally, there are options of transfer or a taxi service. But we are going to consider the least expensive (though as fast as the mentioned options). We are going to deal with public transport. There are plenty of options, but the most convenient one is, in my opinion, to take a bus from the airport to railway station (a ticket costs 60 CZK), and change to a train to Poděbrady later (86 CZK).

So, we are at Terminal 1 of Vaclav Havel airport in Prague now (all flights from the countries outside Schengen area get to this terminal). For a start, you should go and find an ATM of a Czech bank in the terminal’s arrival area. I would recommend KB bank for the foreign currency transactions, since you will need to withdraw approximately 10 thousand CZK from your card (Visa/MasterCard). If you’re from a country where euro is not an official currency, I do not recommend you to bring euro banknotes to the Czech Republic. It is much easier to pay a fee for carrying out a transaction once when you withdraw a large amount of money than to dawdle with a currency exchange office with their (most probably) rapacious rates. Read the rest of this entry »

As a result of my visits to Open Days in Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Faculty of Information Technology of Czech Technical University (CTU) in Prague and also in Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University I can provide a summary of information on the admission procedure to Bachelor and Master Degree or Doctoral (PhD) programmes.

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Poděbrady Castle, where the classes take place, is situated in the main square, which is called in honor of George of Poděbrady. You can look at it through a webcam.

This is the central part of the town, everything is here. All the shops are a five-minute walk from the square. Even in the square there are several cafes, restaurants, a chemist’s (where you can buy beauty products and toiletries), a bakery and many others. A big supermarket is situated a hundred meters to the north of the square. Read the rest of this entry »

Right after I was settled in a dormitory on Jana Opletalova st., 77, my very first cultural shock followed immediately – a lady at the reception could only speak Czech. And I did not speak Czech at all (I still avoid her in present, though).

It is noticeable that you can put in applications and buy some snacks (water, chips etc) at the place for somewhat fair prices. Evidently, it is convenient for all the new-coming students, as communication at the shops will most probably be awkward during their first days in the city.

Fortunately enough, a friend of mine met me at the airport and gave me a lift to Poděbrady; he also assisted me at the reception. The lady asked for my passport, then looked for my name in the list of students and gave me the documents to sign.I received a lot of information regarding the city (in English, Spanish, French, Czech and even in Russian), a map and a key for my room, together with a permit (I’ve yet to figure out the purpose of the latter).

The room is quite wide (approximately 10 m²) and has a small lobby.

There is a shower room and a toilet: Read the rest of this entry »