Europe/UK 6-17 October 2017

The first six months of my postdoctoral course was pretty typical here: work, weekends, work, weekends. My first out of US travel after May 2017 happen to again revolve around conferences and visits. This time the consortium was in Poland. While I was at it, I thought that I should also visit some old friends in Europe and UK.

English Gardens, Munich

As usual, this trip began with something going wrong. Feeling heavily reluctant to go on with this trip, I anyway checked in to the University Park airport in State college. Half an hour prior to our departure, we hear an announcement that there is a radio failure of the aircraft and the pilot is trying to reboot the plane to check if the signal can be received thereafter. I was amused to begin with. After all, have not all of us tried the method of rebooting when things stop being functional! Then it amused me even further. Is this rebooting a reliable way to test if something is wrong with the aircraft. Anyway, after a few minutes, we were asked to board the flight since the reboot had worked! Well, we did. Five minutes into the plane, we were again asked to deboard the flight since the pilot was not allowed to take off without a maintenance team having a thorough look at the aircraft which could take anywhere from five minutes to an hour. I had a connecting flight from Detroit but could still afford a couple of hours of delay. There were many others who could not! They started to get fidgity and calling the customer care services. I decide to wait another hour. As it happened, in less than an hour, the maintenance team gave off a green signal for take off.

I boarded the flight from Detroit to Munich. It was an eight hour long flight and by the time, it was 1 am in State college, I had reached Munich where the local time was 8 am. Thankfully, I had managed to get a short nap in flight. I had a friend who was coming over to receive me at the airport. We were probably meeting after two years and I was very much looking forward to it. When we did, it was like old times again. We had a lot of catching up to do and did not realize when we had already changed two trains and a tram to reach her apartment. Our conversation did not end there. Once at her apartment, it was way past an hour before I freshened up and gobbled up the delicious lunch that she had prepared. After an hours rest, we went out to explore the nearby areas of Munich. That evening was windy and dizzly, thanks to the storm last evening. We went for a walk to English Garden, Mariannenplatz went past Old Townhouse and grabbed dinner and some beer at Hofbräuhaus am Platzl. Next morning, we left early to her Institute where we spent the rest of the day. Towards evening, I had to leave for Warsaw, Poland. 

Once I landed in Warsaw and instructed the taxi driver where I wanted to go, I realized of a potential problem: language. Thankfully, another friend in Poland had texted me the address of the institute I was put up in. All I did was show the taxi driver the same address. He understood exactly where he had to go and was kind enough to help me with all the luggage till I entered the Institute premises.

Lazienki Park, Poland

Consortium dinner

The room in the institute was warm and cozy with a small kitchen inside it. Jet-lagged that I was, I managed to get very less sleep. The next day few days went by in the meeting very quickly (and emotional rollercoastering, but that is another long story altogether). There was a conference dinner on Wednesday and it is when I could visit a few places in Oldtown in company of a PhD student whom my friend had introduced me to. I was due to leave Warsaw on Friday morning and therefore had decided to stay over at my friend's place the last night on Thursday. After checking out of the institute guesthouse, we dumped the luggage at her place and went for dinner to a nice Polish restaurant. After that began the bar hopping and wandering the streets of Warsaw at night. By the time we were home, we were too exhausted to even talk. Both slept peacefully. The next day I left for Southampton – my first time to the United Kingdom. The co passenger next to me was a chivalrous British gentleman from Winchester. We chatted about each other's work and bid goodbye at the immigration desk. The Border police were very friendly as well. After a few verifications, I left the desk and as soon as I am out, I see my another friend (at Southampton). After we were done enough with crazy greetings, I was surprised to see her acknowledge the same gentleman next to me in flight. Apparently, he had figured out that my friend was probably waiting for me and had indulged in a few small talks with her.

South Sea, Portsmouth

That night, we dumped my luggage at her apartment and went out for dinner to a Greek place nearby (where I had the best white wine of my life – Ionos ). A lot of catching up had to be done (again) and we stayed at that restaurant till it literally closed down. The next day, we had decided to visit the beach, but first things first, we had to get our respective haircuts. On the streets of UK, we stumbled upon an excellent Vietnamese hairdresser where we spent our entire morning chatting and drinking coffee. Once done, we came back to the apartment, had the sumptous meal and dragged ourself to visit the South sea. Unlike any other beaches that I have visited, this was a rocky beach. We had reached just in time to

Meridian Line

enjoy the sunset at the deep horizon.

London's eye

The next day, we travelled to Greenwich via London waterloo station. My friend was down with fever the same day (thanks to the cold breeze last evening) but determined to show me around. We visited the Greenwich Royal observatory and the merdian line ending with a planetarium show. On our way back to Southampton, we also visited the London's eye and manged to get a panoramic view of London in the merry-go-round.

Next morning, it was cold and dark – an effect of the hurricane Ophelia. We went to her University in the morning and after the day was over, came home early to chat. Later at night, we both decided to visit a temple nearby– probably a Jain temple – but realized that it was closed by the time we reached. We still loafed around the premises and came home early to pack since I was to leave the next day. 

Early morning I boarded the flight back via the same route through Amsterdam, Detroit and State college, this time again reluctant but to be back.