At the beginning of August this summer, 19 Convent and Stuart Hall seniors embarked on a journey to Copenhagen and Berlin. This school-facilitated trip sought to educate and inspire these students through an in-real-life (IRL) comparative study of art and global politics.
Our first and my favorite part of the two week trip was spent in the beautiful city of Copenhagen. When we first landed and went to the train station, I could tell I was going to love the city. Walking through the streets to our hostel was so amazing, with the street bustling with people. During our days in Copenhagen, each day consisted of a different activity. Whether it be finding important landmarks with random groups or my favorite, cold plunges, our days were busy. Every morning, a select few of those that were willing, would leave the hostel at 7 am to take the subway to the water and jump into the freezing ocean. This was one of my favorite activities in Copenhagen as it got me ready for the day and there’s nothing like the feeling of drying off right after the plunge.
While all of these things were so amazing, the highlight for me was getting to know my classmates so much better, as well as meeting new people. Copenhagen was the perfect place to do so as the people were incredibly kind, making finding new friends effortless. Exploring Copenhagen offered me a wonderful opportunity to connect with people I wouldn’t hang out with in my daily life. This experience was one that I certainly will not forget, and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to go on this trip.
After a 6-hour train ride heading west through Denmark and then south into Germany, we finally arrived in Berlin. As we exited the train station and began the walk to our hotel, a slim brick pathway propagated our walk, moving in a zig-zag line. We were then told it was the outline of where the Berlin Wall used to stand, and we were walking right above it.
As we began our first day in Berlin, we were split into groups and instructed to find eight important sites around the city. Notably, we visited the German Parliament building, where we observed a large chunk of the Berlin Wall fully intact. We then visited the most famous monument in Berlin, the Bran denburg Gate. Other significant sites we visited were The Holocaust Memorial, a memorial consisting of 2,711 rectangular concrete blocks, The Jewish Contemporary Museum, and Checkpoint Charlie, which served as the main border crossing between East and West Berlin.
After a long day of sightseeing and walking ten or more miles, many of us chose to unwind with a nice meal or a stop at the expansive Mall of Berlin. The next day in Berlin, we started off our day at the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum, a former train station turned contemporary art museum. We then traveled to the Martin Gropius-Bau Museum, which mainly featured cultural history, contemporary art, and photography. The museum was also directly next to one of the largest standing chunks of the Berlin Wall, stretching one block long.
Later that day, we met across the city for our final night and ate our last dinner togetherat Crazy Bastard, a popular restaurant in Berlin that cycles its menu weekly with different international options. Ironically, we arrived during American fried chicken week.
The next day, we woke up and hurriedly left to catch our connecting flight from Berlin to Copenhagen, then back to San Francisco.