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-re-
al-life (IRL) comparative study
of art and global politics.
Our first and my favor-
ite part of the two week trip was
spent in the beautiful city of Co-
penhagen. 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 Co-
penhagen, each day consisted of
a different activity. Whether it be
finding important landmarks
with random groups or my fa-
vorite, 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 favor-
ite 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. Copen-
hagen was the perfect place to do
so as the people were incredibly
kind, making finding new friends
effortless. Exploring Copenhagen
offered me a wonderful oppor-
tunity 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 Contempo-
rary Museum, and Checkpoint
Charlie, which served as the main
border crossing between East and
West Berlin.
After a long day of sight-
seeing 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 Ham-
burger Bahnhof Museum, a
former train station turned con-
temporary art museum. We then
traveled to the Martin Gropi-
us-Bau Museum, which mainly
featured cultural history, contem-
porary 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 together
at 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.