The AP European history class traveled to Europe over February break.

The trip consisted of a 10-day journey through Europe where students visited Berlin, Prague, Krakow, and Budapest. The groups stayed in each city for two nights, visiting historical sites and exploring Europe on their own.

“The places we went to were places that we have either talked about in class or we are going to talk about,” Cowherd said. “Now they have seen the place and now they have a better understanding of it.”

Fourteen students went on the trip, accompanied by two chaperones, counselor Ashley English and Cowherd.

“The trip wouldn’t have been possible without [English] going because she was great with the kids and organization and everything else,” Cowherd said.

The groups traveled with EF Educational Tours, a tour group dedicated to offering educational traveling tours at low prices, according to the ED Educational Tours website.

“I’ve been getting information and fliers from them for years,” Cowherd said. “I’ve talked to them before because I’ve tried to set up [this trip] in the past.”

Cowherd said that he has been trying to organize a trip for AP Euro for three years, this year being his first success in doing so. He said that brought up the trip on the first day of school and quickly received interest from students.

“They followed through and said they could go so I started having meetings and found out that I had enough people to make it happen,” Cowherd said.

The trip cost approximately $3,000 per student, including airfare, hotel costs, transportation, breakfast, dinner, guided tours in each city, and tipping. Students were required to bring money for lunch and personal spending.

“It is relatively cheap considering what we do and the fact that we are in Europe,” Cowherd said.

Cowherd said that he enjoyed the trip and appreciated the group’s maturity and dedication.

“The [students] were really great they had really good attitudes and were positive and mature but fun at the same time,” Cowherd said.

Senior Gabe Bolio said that he had a lot of fun on the trip as well.

“We got to visit a lot of beautiful and important places that pertain to what we learn about in class and we all got to know each other more,” Bolio said.

Senior Leslie Zhang said that a memorable part of the trip was visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp in Krakow, Poland.

“Being there felt unreal,” Zhang said. “It was hard to imagine that I was actually standing on ground where so many people had been killed. The camp gave you a feeling of entrapment. It was very uncomfortable but I think that everyone should pay a visit to a death camp at some point in their life.”

Cowherd said that he is satisfied with how the trip turned out and hopes the students enjoyed it.

“It’s a good experience for them and they probably won’t ever forget it,” Cowherd said.

Cowherd said that the trip was a good experience for his AP Euro students , but that the group spent too much traveling from place to place.

“We went to too many places over a short period of time and coming home was rough because we had three layovers,” Cowherd said.

Zhang said that the traveling aspect of the trip proved to be extremely stressful.

“From the trip, I took away an increased awareness of how much I hate going through airport security in a large group of teenagers,” Zhang said.

Cowherd said that he hopes to continue the AP Euro trip in the future, traveling to cities in closer proximity in order to minimize travel time. Zhang said that she thought the trip was a successful test run.

“Hopefully Cowherd will iron out some bumps and it’ll become a tradition for AP Euro students at PHS,” Zhang said.