Trips

Most Fettesians studying History will have an opportunity to go on a trip at some stage in their time at the College. In recent years successful trips have been taken to the following destinations:

• Third Form-Battlefields of World War One
• Fourth and Fifth Form-Berlin and Krakow
• Sixth Form-Russia (pictured above)

Here is what one student thought of the Berlin Trip in 2005.

History Department Trip to Berlin October 2005

Uniforms, bratwurst, and Mr Armstrong. The Berlin trip in a nutshell. For those select history students lucky enough to accompany Mr Armstrong along with Mr Du Vivier, Miss Mair and Miss Brown, the Berlin trip will be remembered as the best trip of 2005.

The smartly dressed girls and predominantly blazer clad boys arrived at Edinburgh airport without any idea of just what awaited them. Two flights and a short bus ride later, we arrived at our ho(s)tel, literally only to drop our bags and be dragged away by an eager crew of staff. The first stop was the impressive Brandenburg Gate, but the real sight would be the Reichstag. A long wait was required to enter, but the view from the vertigo inducing glass dome on top of the Reichstag was well worth it.

The next few days would hold a ground tour of East and West Berlin (including all the lads purchasing a plethora of ex-Soviet uniforms and Paul Healy scaring bystanders with his gas mask). Our newly purchased communist hats caused much confusion amongst the regular Berliners, but the tour carried on. The contrast between the rich (capitalist) West Berlin and more run down (gloriously equal) East Berlin was one that could only have been fully understood in the city itself. The next major event was Checkpoint Charlie, where a small museum was taken by storm when our entire group searched for pieces of the Berlin Wall. Later, we visited the Stasi (secret police) Prison and most were intrigued by the events that had happened there (the teachers taking notes on how to control rowdy pupils). Here our guide told us of how her father had been arrested by the Stasi for listening to foreign radio stations. Post war relations between east and west were brought to life at Potsdam where the key conference of July 1945 had taken place. Unfortunately, Mr Armstrong did not attempt to jump the barrier to touch the table this time, but we did have a rather interesting dance from Mr Du Vivier that was aimed at explaining certain aspects of post WWII Europe (or so we were told). But the trip would really culminate with the visit to the harrowing Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. The headsets provided and the knowledge of our teachers allowed us to truly understand what had happened in that place. Hearing the steel screech as the door with “Arbeit mach frei” inscribed upon it, and entering the windy courtyard, was definitely an experience in itself. Everyone was sad after the visit, as not only was it a moving visit, but it was also to be our last stop in our trip.

All in all, an excellent trip. Apart from a bird nearly taking down our flight back to London, I think it is safe to say that the trip probably couldn’t have gone any better.

Urosh Teodorovich V