Submitted by Christina Conte on the 2013 spring semester DIS (Denmark’s International Study Program) program in Copenhagen, Denmark…
This current week was my final week of travel during my DIS semester, which I can hardly believe! The time has gone by so incredibly quickly. Sunday afternoon, I flew into Berlin with a school friend and spent the afternoon getting a feel for the city. The next day, we had breakfast at a cute café, then we began the sightseeing! We began the day at the “Topographies of Terror” center, which is the site of the former headquarters of the Secret State Police, SS, and Reich Security Main Office during the Third Reich. After the war, the grounds were leveled and the site used for other purposes, but the documentation center of the forced Nazi labor serves as a remembrance of what occurred on that plot of land. We then went on a walking tour. I have come to find that a walking tour is my favorite way to get to know a city, especially if you are lucky enough to have a tour guide who is from the country, as I was in Berlin! We started the tour in Paris Square, just through Brandenburg Gate. Other stops on our tour included The Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, the former location of Hitler’s bunker, Checkpoint Charlie, the Opera House, and Museum Island! After our tour, we grabbed lunch, then headed to the East Side Gallery to see the largest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall. The next, and final, day in Berlin we headed to the Kreuzberg district of Berlin to experience a Turkish market! It was really cool to see such a different part of Berlin. Our final activity was visiting the German History Museum. There was unfortunately not enough time to see the whole museum, but I did check out the 2013 exhibit entitled “Diversity Destroyed”, which was so interesting! It was about Berlin from the year 1913 to 1918, right before the pogrom began.
The next day I had off before heading to Paris with DIS for my Impressionism in Paris study tour! We had an early rise Thursday morning to catch our flight to Paris, but once we landed we actually headed first to Giverny, France to Claude Monet’s former estate. There we got a tour of Monet’s gardens, which inspired many of his works, as well as his house! Next we headed back to Paris, checked into our hotel, and had a traditional French dinner as a class. The next day we started the morning with baguettes and jam, then headed onto the bus for our tour of the city! We stayed on the bus for most of the sightseeing, but did get off to walk around Luxembourg Gardens. Our last stop was Versailles, which our guide led us through, as well! I am not sure what was more beautiful, Versailles palace, or its gardens! That evening I went to The Louvre and got to “meet”, as my Impressionism instructor says, many famous works such as Venus and Mona Lisa. I also had a chance to walk around the Arc De Triomphe, which was beautiful at night! The next day we went to L’Orangerie to see Monet’s beautiful water lily paintings, then headed off to Musee d’Orsay, which was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip as we got to “meet” many of the paintings we had discussed in class. Later that day, I visited the Pompidou modern art museum and concluded the night with a dinner cruise with my class on the Seine River! The next morning we attended mass at Notre Dame, had free time to explore, then had some traditional French desserts before taking our bus back to the airport. It was an incredible week that reminded me again how fortunate I am to have the opportunity to learn culture and history by physically experiencing them!
