With a conference being held in Banff, Canada, I had the opportunity to cross the pond for the first time, and financially subsidised by the universities to boot. Even more conveniently, it turned out to be cheaper to fly in a few days earlier, so I was able to tack a holiday onto either end of the academic events.<br/>
Five days wandering the Norwegian capital.
I promise that I applied for the Utrecht summer school in mathematics due to its relevance to my studies, but two weeks in the Netherlands with free accommodation and flights couldn't hurt either! <br/><br/>I realised it would just be a short hop over the border to visit a Maltese friend then living in Essen who I'd met in Dublin (keeping up?), so I arranged to extend my trip to include Germany. With Loveparade scheduled for that weekend, we made plans to decamp to Köln where we collected an entire nodermeet's worth of E2 users at, of course, a pub.
After the original organiser pulled out, I found myself arranging an everything2.com nodermeet in Dublin- despite having never been there! Still, with some local help all went well on that front, and in addition to enjoying the company of noders old and new I had some time to myself for further exploration of the city.
A long weekend in Holland for an everything2.com nodermeet: "Living it up in the Lowlands".
I was able to return to Utrecht, home of last year's summer school, for ECC08- the 12th workshop on Elliptic Curve Cryptography. <br/><br/>It seems my travel destinations are drawn from a small list: last year's ECC was in Dublin (a city I'd first seen less than 6 months previously); whilst next year's is in Calgary, a stone's throw from recently-visited Banff!
Although I've never lived in London, I grew up less than an hour away by train, and still pass through often. Here's a few places I've snapped recently!
Although my Dad is Scottish, he'd never been able to convince my mum to visit until I moved up to Edinburgh. Although there's plenty of decent scenery in Edinburgh, and some lochs within easy driving distance, he maintained that for the true Scotland one has to head to the highlands. So for a few days towards the end of an unseasonably sunny September, we did just that!
Home, and places within day-trip distance.
A conference in Manchester, then a catch-up with an old uni friend in Wales.
A holiday in Norway; a nodermeet in Denmark; lunch in Sweden; and a conference in England.
A change of scenery (and climate!) to celebrate handing in my PhD thesis.<br/>
Four years ago, I set off on my first foreign holiday - to Oslo - a week or so before Christmas. Lured by 'free' flights I once again braved the Scandinavian winter- this time, in Sweden. As in Oslo, I was travelling with Pete, a former flatmate of mine.<br/><br/>
There's more to Scotland than Edinburgh, so with a friend visiting me for a fortnight we decided to take a short trip into the highlands for a taste of traditional Scottish scenery. Despite equally traditional Scottish summer rain and the limitations of public transport, it was great to trade the chaos of festival season for the peace of the mountains!
Once again, a conference provided the opportunity (and some of the funding!) to visit Canada, and with the once-a-week flights from Edinburgh arriving a day too late or six too early, I was able to grab some time for sightseeing too.
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