European Vacation Part 1

As many of you know, I just got back from a 5 week tour of Europe. I had been there before, traveling and working, but I never really had time to just do whatever I wanted....so this was my chance. My stimulus for going was actually to give a conference presentation at the IFToMM world congress about my research, but once that was over I was free to go and do what I wanted.

Before I forget, all my pics are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/peytah

The conference began on June 17, but I flew over on the 14th so that I could spend a few days with my friend Jochen Kinzel and his family in Weinheim, Germany. Jochen and I first met in 1999 when we were exchange partners and we've been friends ever since.




After a few days with the Kinzels, I headed to Besancon, France for the conference. The conference was really well done and head a very distinct French "taste" to it. Local wine with every meal, delicious food, lots of music during big dinners. The conference center where it was held looked kinda crappy from the outside, but inside was very nice. My presentation went really well and I got a huge response from others with tons of questions. I was the only person there even remotely dealing with proteins, so my work was quite the oddity.





On the second day of the conference, my allergies started to kick in REALLY bad. By the third day (when I had to present) it was the worst allergy attack of my life. I wasn't the only one either...lots of people walking around with red eyes and runny noses. The culprit: these trees, whatever they are.

Once my presentation was over, I could relax a bit and see the town of Besancon, which was really amazing. The town center is set in a bend in the river Doubs, with a fortress sitting on a hill in the neck of the river. The fortress was designed by Vauban (famous 17th century French engineer) and was pretty damn impressive...it was never taken by anyone.

On my last night in Besancon, there was a music festival with 5 main stages and a band in every bar...the entire town came out to party! It was a great end to the great week!